The burials of children in the Funnel Beaker and Globular Amphora cultures in the Lublin Region

The paper presents the characteristics of burials of children in the Funnel Beaker (FBC) and Globular Amphora cultures (GAC) in the Lublin region. Only in two cases the remains of children were discovered in FBC settlements. In both cultures, in addition to the graves grouped on cemeteries, there were also single burials. Graves frequently had various constructions (usually stone), but also those of earth and graves without any at all were discovered. In FBC burials, the age groups of the same relative abundances, and thereby the largest, are a group of children – Infans I (1-7 years) and a group of adults – Adultus (20-30 years), while in GAC it is a group of adults – Adultus. A significant deficiency of the burials of children in both cultures was found by comparing their empirical proportion with expected attendance. The differences between FBC and GAC in cumulative distributions of relative abundances of different age groups, assessed by use of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, proved to be statistically insignificant at this stage of the research. In both cultures more children were buried in multiple graves. In the case of FBC the children were buried in a supine position, with the head facing west, while in the GAC they were found on their side, with the head facing west or south-east. Only a few, single burials of FBC children, in contrast to multiple burials, contained grave goods. In GAC most single and multiple burials contained grave goods.