Pages: 123-137 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp235123137 

The article deals with the questions of the spread of Christianity on the territory of the Old Russian Polack Land (Principality of Polotsk) based on materials from the funerary sites. The “focus group” of the study included those children, whose burials were discovered during excavations on the 11 th—13 th centuries necropolises. Separately, an important problem is considered: how the number of children’s burials uncovered on the Old Russian period necropolises correlates with the calculations of the normal level of infant mortality in a traditional agrarian society.
An analysis of the available data suggests that the children were often involved in the processes of Christianization from an early age, which was reflected materially, including their grave goods. As a result, the children of the 11 th—13 th centuries in Polotsk entered the world of the dead with Christian paraphernalia much more often than adults.

Keywords: funerary archeology, archeology of childhood, Christian archeology, Principality of Polotsk

Information about authors:

Viktoryia Makouskaya (Warsaw, Poland). Master of Historical Sciences. Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, Warsaw, 00-927, Poland
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-2408-0637
Mikalai Plavinski (Warsaw, Poland). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, Warsaw, 00-927, Poland
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
ORCID: 0000-0002-0660-7298