The title is both general and specific. On a general level, it documents the discovery and investigation of long barrows in an area in which they had previously been unknown. The discovery of these monuments in Bohemia, and other regions, has come about in recent years through carefully targeted aerial reconnaissance and geophysical survey. The pioneering discoveries of Martin Gojda have been followed by a new campaign of fieldwork. Others have been found during development-led excavations. The title of the book stresses its regional focus and alludes to the significant role of a legendary early medieval leader ‘Forefather Czech’ whose tomb was supposedly located in the authors’ study area.
The regional focus is supplemented by a wider discussion of the origins and significance of these prehistoric earthworks and draws on themes about European prehistory that stem from the work of Gordon Childe (Reference Childe1949). It reconsiders the puzzling relationship between the enormous longhouses inhabited by the living and the forms of long mounds or enclosures in which some of those people were buried; it also draws inspiration from the work of Evžen Neustupný. The book investigates the chronologies of these monuments and those of monumental cemeteries, and the striking contrasts between regions where they were associated with single graves and others in which more than one body were deposited. The discussion is wide ranging and persuasive and extends across Central and Western Europe. The new discoveries in Bohemia close a puzzling gap in the overall distribution of these mounds, just as an earlier study by the same authors documented newly discovered causewayed enclosures (Krištuf & Turek Reference Krištuf and Turek2019). Not only does their work remove an awkward geographical anomaly, it allows them to situate their findings in a wider context. Their discussion is indebted to recent research in Poland, France and Britain. It is very wide ranging and extends from mortuary ritual and the forms of funerary architecture to cosmology and the identification of sacred landscapes.
The volume provides a detailed review of all the potential long barrows in Bohemia, including some features that had been misinterpreted. The discussion is admirably critical. It identifies several previously overlooked examples and compares them with better known monuments in other areas. Among them is the famous ditched enclosure at Libenice, which was originally identified as an important La Tène sanctuary. For many years, it was a key site in prehistoric archaeology and Iron Age scholars compared it with earthworks in Western Europe. The mistake arose because, like other prehistoric structures, it had been reused during a later phase.
Jan Turek and Petr Krištuf identify similar practices at several other long barrows in Bohemia. Their account makes perceptive use of such subtle details. This influences their discussion of the relationship between longhouses and long barrows as well as the structural information provided by their own excavations. The authors join a wider debate about the relationship between these specialised earthworks and the positions of abandoned buildings. Older sites might have been used for burials or offerings, and mounds were occasionally built over or beside the traces of older dwellings. Again, this practice was not restricted to the study area considered here. The same ideas apply to mounds and enclosures in northern France, and this interpretation is supported in an important article by Joanna Pyzel (Reference Pyzel2019) who compares the afterlives of Neolithic longhouses in Poland with those in the Rhineland. Developing a point first made by Evžen Neustupný, Turek and Krištuf question the conventional identification of borrow pits flanking the sides of Neolithic dwellings. Some of them were dug into sand or gravel—materials that would have been entirely unsuitable for lining the walls—and occasionally cut across the foundations of these buildings. The book suggests that the traces of older dwellings might have been buried after the structures had gone out of use. Over a substantial period of time, this might have inspired the practice of erecting long barrows. It would explain why both kinds of structures shared similar ground plans, but it did not happen very often.
The same attention to detail extends to the site reports included in this volume. The integration of remote sensing, soil science and excavation is impeccable, and so is the reporting of the burials. The quality of the results of these investigations shows clearly how plough-levelled earthworks can be investigated in detail if sufficient attention is paid to surface deposits before they are removed mechanically. In this case, preliminary analysis was vital to distinguish between the remains of open enclosures and mounds and to elucidate the chronological relationship between them. There are lessons to be learnt here by other excavation projects.
The last element of this study is the ‘ritual landscape’ around a prominent hill in Bohemia. Mount Říp was referred to as a sacred mountain in medieval literature and overlooks several of the excavated long barrows. New research presented here, established that they were set apart from the wider pattern of settlement but were erected in positions that commanded dramatic views of the sun as it rose or set at the solstices behind prominent landmarks on the horizon. One of those places was Mount Říp itself. Among the diagnostic monuments in this region is Račiněves long barrow, which contained an unusually richly furnished burial. It included a set of 13 fine quartzite arrowheads and was interpreted as a warrior grave. Its discovery was entirely unexpected, and it will take new research to account for its wider significance.
Meanwhile, The tombs of forefathers is an original, well-written and nicely illustrated study that deserves to have a considerable influence outside the authors’ study area.
