Welcome to the Path to the Otherworld Project
Nearly 2000 years ago, Baltic tribal communities began regularly sacrificing and burying horses in cemeteries. We are a team of archaeologists using cutting-edge techniques to understand this rite.
Our research is funded by a National Geographic Explorer Grant.
Photo Credit: Maciej Karczewski
Horse burials in cremation cemeteries are simultaneously the most well-known and enigmatic characteristic of the Baltic tribes from about the second to thirteenth centuries CE. But many details of the actual rites are poorly understood.
Our team will….
1
Excavate.
Our core research team will excavate a single horse burial and associated features at the site of Paprotki Kolonia, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland.
August 2022.
2
Analyse.
Excavated material from the site will be sent to our research partners to analyse separately.
September-December 2022.
3
Reintegrate.
The core team will reintegrate multiple types of data in collaboration with our research partners.
January-March 2023.
International research team.
Our team is comprised of top specialists based in Poland and the United Kingdom collaborating across 7 institutions and 10 laboratories. The core research team is based at Cardiff, Reading, and Białystok Universities and the Centre for Central and Eastern European Studies in Białytstok.