Burial rites and grave constructions

In the lack of written sources, archaeologists have to rely on the information fragments preserved in graves and burial places when reconstructing the mortuary practice of Avars. Several momentums related to the death of a person and the time from that until their internment remain hidden from us.
We can observe and learn about the relationship between the settlements, the burial places, and the landscape, as well as the structure of the cemeteries and the work invested in creating the sometimes complex graves. To some extent, we can reconstruct the personal utensils, mortuary clothing, accessories, and jewellery of the deceased, as well as all other objects given to them for the afterlife journey. Graves may also reflect social roles, as the find assemblages reflect the lives of their one-time owners or, especially in the cases of children and adolescents, the life they were destined for but could not live.
Recent excavations have clarified that during the 7th century AD, the custom of burying the dead in lonely graves or small grave groups was replaced by establishing large cemeteries next to settlements and farmsteads. While the cemeteries in Transdanubia might comprise graves in the thousands, the ones in the Danube–Tisza Interfluve, appearing in strings along watercourses, consist only of some hundreds at best. Cemeteries were organised according to strict norms based on kinship. In the second half of the Avar Period, the graves were oriented predominantly NW–SE and arranged into irregular rows and clusters. These burials did not contain horse remains at all and weapons rarely, while meat, porridge in mugs or small pots, some drink in jars, and eggs were frequent additions. The quantity and quality of the items given to the deceased for the afterlife varied by community. Some objects (ornate belts in the case of men, jewellery and spindle whorls in the case of women) reflect their owners' social and economic roles.
Besides digging the grave pit and wrapping the deceased in a shroud, Avar communities invested considerable energy into creating funerary constructions from wood, as attested by some discolouration appearing on the bottoms and side walls of the grave pits. The postholes in the corners or depressions at the short ends of the grave pit and the grooves and small niches in the side walls are traces of funerary beds, plank covers, and posts. A few graves with large burial chambers and coffins are also known from the era.
No information has persisted on surface grave marks, but the facts that the graves in the Avar cemeteries rarely intersect and that the plunder shafts dug by contemporary looters target specific zones within the grave pit quite precisely indicate that the burials, marked by grave mounds and/or wooden grave marks – which could include a reference to the age at death, gender, and social position of the interred – remained visible on the surface for quite a long time.