The late medieval necropolis Momisici - Podgorica

Archeological and anthropological research at the late-medieval necropolis Momisici-Podgorica shows that this necropolis has devastated one particular burial site from late antiquity; that it is adjacent to an early-Christian locality, and that it remained in function all through the late medieval period, until the modern times. The Momisici cemetery was only recently dislocated from this site, but the Momisici church remained, and a church (Saborni hram, which means, a congregational or Episcopal temple) is now being built there. Sepulchral constructions are mainly of stone slabs vertically stuck into the earth and covered by other, irregularly shaped slabs. The deceased were laid in their graves with their hands crossed on the chest or on the stomach, oriented W-E, in Christian manner. The graves contain very little inventory, a very small number of inside-the-grave items. Anthropological material is very poorly preserved, but anthropometric and anthroposcopic research was performed on it, and indexes calculated. Skeletal population is brachycranial and hyperbrachycranial with an average skull index 87,6. The smallest width of the forehead is quite large; orbits (eye-sockets) are very small, and orbital index is medium. Post-cranial skeleton is gracile. Male skeletons are predominantly euromeric, with weak and medium pilastry, and curiknemic. The calculated bodily height of men varied from 156 to 180 cm, average 170; with women, from 158 to 166, average 162. This late-medieval skeletal population was tall, both sexes. Of the epigenetic features on the skulls, characteristic was frequent presence of Os Inca incompletum and Os Wormi lambdoidea; one complete metopic suture was also found. On the skeletons, pathological changes were studied too, but these do not differ much from the population of those times. One trepanation on a cranium was found.