Abstract
The paper introduces the funeral culture of the early modern period focusing mainly on two of its material parts: the graves and the epitaphs. Since the funeral culture experienced a great development during the early modern period, the objects of commemorative culture such as graves (tomb stones, tumbas, sarcophagi,...) and epitaphs became a source of historical knowledge more than ever before.
The paper should show the ways and possibilities, but also a limitation of their interpretation from a transdisciplinary point of view. That is to say to view them not only as artistic artefacts, but also as an evidence of everyday life in terms of mentality, self-identification, religion, and piety or gender and family.
Particular examples will be given from Czech milieu of the early modern era before the battle of White Mountain 1620.