The Cemetery and Ossuary at Sedlec near Kutná Hora: Reflections on the Agency of the Dead

This chapter exposes multiple contextual layers in the historical background of the famous Ossuary at Sedlec in the Czech Republic. The Cistercian monastery of Sedlec was founded in the twelfth century and its importance soon increased together with the expansion of silver mining in the nearby town of Kutná Hora. According to a later legendary narrative, soil brought from the Holy Land was scattered across the monastic cemetery, which made this place an attractive destination for the burial of countless corpses in the course of the following centuries. The enormous amount of human remains in individual as well as mass graves led to the establishment of the Ossuary, which was rearranged several times, most recently in the second half of the nineteenth century. A variety of folk tales tell of the miraculous deeds of the bones and their special powers. Being conveniently located in the buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Kutná Hora, today crowds of tourists appreciate the macabre use of human skeletal elements in its decoration. A large-scale rescue excavation conducted recently around the Ossuary revealed an important archaeological archive that complements historical records.