Symbolism of the human body in medieval tombstones

Abstract

Tombstones are considered not primarily in the context of studying society, certain ethnic groups, etc., which is extremely unfair, because tombstones are a source of information about society. This is stated by scientists working in the field of necropolis – an auxiliary historical discipline, the object of study of which are funeral monuments from today to the present. Actually, tombstones of the period of the high Middle Ages are visually interesting: they have images of the human body that are atypical for other periods and in the general context of the history of medieval Europe, namely: the dominance of Christianity as the main worldview, high mortality due to the plague and the attitude of people to their body and death.