Abstract
The Late Bronze Age settlement in Březnice by Bechyně. Authors: Ondřej Chvojka, Martin Kuna, Petr Menšík et al.
The impetus for the creation of the book was the discovery of unusual archaeological features from the Late Bronze Age in Březnice near Bechyně - mysterious trenches ("long pits") full of pottery fragments burnt through secondary heat, loom weights, plaster from the walls of dwellings and other finds. The authors of the book searched for an explanation for this phenomenon as part of a research project, the results of which are summarized here. During their work, they had to fit the findings into the framework of the region's settlement history, carry out an extensive geophysical survey as well as a number of special analyses, and deal with rituals that could have accompanied the lives of former residents of the given site. The book presents not only a systematic description of finds from the largest settlement from the end of the Bronze Age in southern Bohemia, but also new hypotheses regarding the behavior of people and their relationships with the things that surrounded them. As the central element of the settlement, the authors see the houses (although not found on the site itself), which could have been understood as living beings and ritually buried similarly to people.