THE EARTHLY LOCI OF DEATH: THE COFFIN, 
THE GRAVE, THE CEMETERY 

Anna Plotnikova 

IZVLEEEK 

Zemeljski prostori smrti: krsta, grob, pokopali.ee 

V prieujoeem elanku avtorica preueuje razliena ljudska verovanja in obrede, povezane s krsto, grobom in 
pokopali.eem. Tipieno arhaieno slovansko dojemanje .ivljenja po smrti je delitev na dva svetova. Ljudje 
verjamejo, da gre umrli .stran. na .drugi svet., kjer najde svoj prostor: .dom., .vas umrlega.. Utele.enje 
tak.nih podob so prostori, povezani z umrlim: krsta, grob, pokopali.ee, ki jih oznaeujejo poteze posameznika in kolektivnega doma umrlega. Pogrebne .ege, ljudska verovanja in uporaba besed, povezanih s smrtjo, potrjujejo tezo, da so krsta, grob in pokopali.ee slovanski simboli sveta na drugem svetu. Ujemajo se z 
bivanjem v .ivljenju. 
Krsta (v ruskem dialektu . dom, domovina, domovi.ee, horomina) je veasih urejena kot hi.a: ima luknje 
ali okna ter sliko z izvezeno brisaeo, ki je v njenem kotu. Grob je pogosto urejen kot hi.a (rusko hatka), vrt 
ali dvori.ee. Vedenje, predpisano na pokopali.eu, je pogojeno s tveganjem ostajanja na obmoeju umrlega, 
kjer vse pripada umrlemu: tla, ro.e, drevesa, sadje in drugo. Ljudje verjamejo, da umrli v doloeenem easu 
hodijo in obiskujejo drug drugega na ozemlju pokopali.ea. Tako je pokopali.ee kot obmoeje umrlih v nasprotju z vasjo . naseljem .ivih. V elanku avtorica opisuje tudi kompleksne odnose med prostori .ivljenja in 
smrti, pa tudi naein njihove medsebojne povezave. 

Kljuene besede: pokopi, krste, grobovi, pokopali.ea, domovi, etnolingvistika 
Key words: funerals, coffins, graves, cemetries, homes, ethnolinguistics 

In Slavic folk perceptions man.s departure from life has been understood as a passage to .another. world (going to the .other world.), where he is supposed to acquire his 
place, his home and his socium (see eastern Slavic phraseology connected with the metaphor of death as the .way home., .preparations to go home.: in the Polesye dialect e��I
�� ��i�, n��e.aa��a �� ��i�, i�a�y�aa �� ��i�. he is going home, he is preparing to 
go home, he is looking homewards) in the sense .he is dying.. Loci of the .other world. 
are materialized in concrete .earthly. forms connected with burial places. According to 
the folk view of the world, the coffin is understood as a symbol of the house, the grave as 
a symbol of the dwelling, whereas the house, the courtyard or even the garden, as well as 


Anna Plotnikova 

the churchyard, are supposed to be the settlements of the dead. Such symbolism runs 
through the most diverse contexts of folk culture: it is reflected in burial vocabulary and 
phraseology, in folkloric genres (fairy-tales, lyrical songs, burial lamentations, riddles, 
proverbs), in folk beliefs and omens, burial customs and rituals. 

For the Slavs the coffin, the grave and the graveyard are the symbols of home in the 
.other world.; by a series of signs they correspond to the characteristics of the dwelling, 
the person.s home when he was still alive. Complex relations between the loci of man.s 
abiding in .this. and in the .other. world as well as different possible connections between them (ancient burials inside the house, keeping one.s own coffin in one.s house, 
the living visiting the graveyard and the .walking. dead .coming back., protection of the 

206 house or of the village from a vampire and so forth) deserve special attention. 
As is known, the most essential elements in defining the symbolism and semantics 
of the Slavic burial and funeral rite are the themes of .fate., .path. and .home., expressed in their functional, objective, actional and terminological systems (see [Sedakova 
1990: 54]). Rich in their content and mythological contexts, these themes have time and 
again drawn the attention of scholars. We might mention just some of the works on these 
issues written by Russian scholars in recent years. O. A. Sedakova [Sedakova 1990] dedicated one of her works to the theme of .fate., moreover, each of the enumerated semantic blocks was described by her in her dissertation on rite terminology and structure of 
rite text from the materials of the Slavic burial rite [Sedakova 1983a]. Conceptions of the 
path to the next world in burial rites and in Russian funeral keening were explored by L. 

G. Nevskaya and A. K. Chistyakov, [Nevskaya 1980, Chistyakov 1982]. The semantics of 
the home in burial folklore and burial rites was addressed by L. G. Nevskaya [Nevskaya 
1982] and A. K. Bayburin [Bayburin 1983: 133-176]. The theme of .home. and the .way. 
or the .way home. connected to it, as we can see, is not new in literature, yet nevertheless 
it is so all-embracing that it deserves to be referred to whenever the folk conceptions of 
the loci of death are being researched. In our case the subject is the material forms of .the 
next world. - the coffin, the grave and the graveyard. 
When researching the theme of .home. it should be mentioned that the functions of the home in man.s life are determinants for a number of family, calendar and 
occasional rites. A very special role has been acquired by the symbolism of home in 
burial rites, because in this case the greatest significance is held by the main features of 
the division of man.s world into two parts, the transition from one world to the other, 
from one .home. to the other .home.. Besides, the death of a member of the household, his .departure. from the home, according to Slavic beliefs devastates the home, 
because the dead can take from the home a part of his property, wealth, the fecundity 
of cattle and fertility of fields. 

The complex of omens and auguries about a person.s death are, above all, connected with the person.s house, in particular with unusual events inside the house (the 
walls of the house crack, crockery breaks etc.) or with any special animals, reptiles, 
birds or insects appearing in the house (or near the house, on the roof, in the cellar, in 
the courtyard, by the window). For eastern Slavs death is foretold by a swallow or a bat 
flying into the house. According to various omens, death is predicted by the following: 


The Earthly Loci of Death: the Coffin, the Grave, the Cemetery 

a bird.s knock on the window, the scream of an eagle-owl or an owl near the house, a 
crow on the roof, a cuckoo appearing on the house or uttering three cries above the 
house. The omen of the woodpecker pecking a wall or an angle of the house, and thus 
predicting a death in the house, is widespread among all the eastern Slavs. With eastern 
and western Slavs it is usual to think that a mole living in the house or burrowing in 
the soil under the house, in the cellar, under the threshold, under the window or beside 
the house signifies the death of one of the inhabitants [Gura 1997: 63, 271-272, 714]. 
According to the beliefs of the southern Slavs, a snake found in the house predicts that 
of one of the family will die. 

In the interpretation of dreams the symbolism of death is characterized by the 
theme of building a house [Listova 1993: 50]. In the entire territory of Polesye a new 207 
house in dreams, sometimes a house without windows and doors, foretells someone.s 
death [Svitelskaya 1995: 190]. In the Mogilevskaya oblast (province), Byelorussia, to see 
a new house in one.s dreams means death. In south-east Bulgaria, if a man in his 
dreams cuts a tree, builds a house, plants flowers or starts a fire, it means he will die 
soon [Strandzha 1996: 293]. 

The mythological similarity between the notions of .the coffin. and .the house. is 
confirmed terminologically: Russian ��i��e�a, ��i��eua meaning .house., .coffin., 
.a structure in the form of a coffin, built on a grave.; Russian, in Pskov, Kostroma, Tver, 
Smolensk ��i, ��i���e�a, o�.oie�a meaning .coffin., north Russian ��i����I
meaning .coffin., particularly a coffin hacked from a tree trunk; in Polesye ��i (�aI
ai� e ��i i.e�a��e - they already brought him to his house), ��io�ea, ��i��e�a,I
�aia�, oaoa; ��a� � n��� ��i - (he crawled into his house) meaning .died., Bulgarian 
e�ua, Macedonian e�ea meaning .coffin. etc. Moreover, the term ��i (house) and its 
derivatives are often expanded to the notion .the next world., .the other world.. 

The coffin, the grave and the graveyard as the symbols of the home of the dead on 
Earth are contrasted with the home of the living (the coffin and the grave are contrasted with the person.s house and the graveyard with the village). This is also expressed in 
funeral terminology, folklore, rituals and folk beliefs. In Russian proverbs based on the 
play on words ��i - ��i��eua, ��i��e�a, the house is contrasted with the coffin: 
��ia �ao, a ��i��eua ���ao. (There is no house, but there will be a coffin). ��iI
no.��, a ��i��e�� �a��, which means remember your .home. in the other world, in 
the future [Dal 1: 466]. 

A number of names for the grave express the perception of the grave as the .eternal. refuge of man, which he finds after death, in contrast to the .temporary. (earthly) 
one, for instance Serbian �a��a e�.a, Macedonian �a��a e�ea (coffin), see also Polesyan �a��u� ��i (the eternal home) meaning .the other world.. In Russian burial lamentations the coffin is called �ae���a ��i��eua�e� (the centuries-long home), 
�ae��a��� o�.�i��a no.�a��e�a (the everlasting mansion). The Ukrainians call the 
coffin ���a oaoa (the new house), which has analogies in the burial lamentations 
where the motif of a new home is present. Unlike the earthly human dwelling, the 
house-coffin is characterized as .cold., .dark.: Serbian �a��a e�.a .coffin.; in Russian lamentations the coffin is a .cold mansion, not covered with moss., where .there 


Anna Plotnikova 

is no glazed stove. [Afanasyeva, Plotnikova 1995: 553-554], see [Nevskaya 1982: 108]. 
The most characteristic feature of Slavic keening over the dead is the darkness of the 
new .home.. In Polesye funeral keening the coffin is called oaoe���ea oai�a�eaI
(the dark house) [Svitelskaya 1995: 190], in Russian keening oai�ay o�.�ie�ea, 
where .the windows look as if they have been drilled through, as if the light has been 
brought in by a sieve.; .the triangular apertures have not been cut through, the little 
glass windows have not been made. [Chistyakov 1982: 115]. In Macedonian lamentations the grave and the coffin are a.�a e�ea(the ugly house), oai�a e�ea (the dark 
house) with .no windows and no doors. [Risteski 1998: 255]. In Russian riddles the 
coffin is .a house without windows and without doors.. A number of negative mean

208 
ings associated with the coffin continues with the characteristics of a .strange., a .different. house, according to the Russian proverb �a ��a�e�ea, n����� � ��i��e�eaI
(In a strange land it is like in a coffin.) [Dal 1: 466]. 

Making a coffin is often interpreted as building a new house: the Guzuls call it 
i�noa���a oaou (building a house). In the north Russian, Carpathian and Polish regions openings resembling little windows were made in the sides of the coffin at the 
level of the deceased.s shoulders and a window pane was put in them. In a child.s coffin 
the Guzuls cut out one window, and for an adult two. A small window, sometimes an 
opening covered with a piece of wood was also made in the Russian log coffins. According to different explanations, the windows were made for the dead to see the living; for 
the soul to see its body from time to time; for the dead person to see the other deceased; 
for the dead person to .look out. from his .house. [Afanasyeva, Plotnikova 1995: 554]. 

The inner furnishings of the coffin and the grave often repeat the decoration and 
furnishings of the earthly human dwelling. In eastern Polesye an icon decorated with 
an embroidered towel was placed in the corner of the coffin, thus imitating the corner 
with icons in the house (e.an�u� �a��) [Svitelskaya 1995: 190, 203]. Before laying the 
deceased (the coffin with the deceased) in the grave, the Bulgarians sweep it like a 
dwelling [Vakarelsky 1990: 125]. The elements of the interior of the deceased.s previous dwelling and items he needed when he was alive are put in his coffin: food, a beverage, linen, a change of underwear, clothes, towels, shoes, a switch of green birch trees, 
so that he will be able to take a steam bath in the other world, etc. The articles laid in 
the coffin were either connected with the deceased.s habits and liking, or they were 
indispensable when he was still alive. For instance a lame man was given his stick or his 
crutch, a smoker his pipe etc. Furthermore, the articles correspond to the deceased.s 
profession (a shoemaker gets an awl, a tailor is given a needle), and to his age and sex (a 
woman gets a shawl and a needle, a child gets a toy etc.). 

In accordance with the universal Slavic conception of death as a sleep, a bed was 
made in the coffin. The eastern Slavs covered the bottom of the coffin with straw, hay, 
chips, shavings, dry switches of birch trees or leaves. The Bulgarians make in the coffin 
a specially prepared new bed or a homespun blanket, two beds or linen. The ancient 
Slavs also used to cover the bottom of the graves with bedding (fabric) or they made a 
kind of .floor. instead - from sand or colored clay and they strewed the bottom with 
ashes from the home hearth [Vakarelsky 1990: 127]. 


The Earthly Loci of Death: the Coffin, the Grave, the Cemetery 

The outside of the grave was also shaped like a house. The Byelorussians placed 
rectangular wooden constructions on the graves - i.ue�a�u, i.ue�a��i�u. As a rule, 
these were wooden buildings in the shape of a house, covering the whole mound: such 
an erection resembled the cover of a coffin, it often had small windows and a roof, it 
was called oaoea (a little house) [Pahavanni 1986: 30]. The constructions on the graves 
in the shape of a house, or logs resembling a house in form, were known in western 
Polesye. The names of such constructions in the Byelorussian part of western Polesye 
are characterized by lexemes formed from the root o�.�i-(i.eo�.�i etc.) [Svitelskaya 
1995: 204-205]. Among the Russians, a cross with an icon on the grave covered with 
double-pitch roofing is sometimes called a .little chapel.. In some cases, the small 
house on the grave with a double-pitch roof was crowned with a carved finial [Chistyak-209 
ov 1982: 115]. In the Russian North it is possible to see, beside the ordinary cross, an 
oblong quadrangular construction (a .goloubets. or stuffed cabbage roll), open at the 
top or with a flat roof, on which a cross is placed [Zelenin 1991: 351]. 

The eastern Slavic constructions on the graves correspond to the southern Slavic 
burial rites. In north-west Bulgaria there is a custom of building on the grave a house-
like structure from bricks and mortar or placing on it a miniature model of a house 
[Benovska-S.bkova 1995: 217]. As the researchers have noted, in eastern Bulgaria a .little house. (e�ue�ea) can be either wooden, ceramic or even specially made of tin-
plates, which is a product of local handicrafts. [EB: 198]. Building of similar .houses. 
and miniature models of houses on the graves is also known in southern Bulgaria and 
Macedonia. In Strandzha over a period of 40 days the relatives of the deceased every 
day bring to the graveyard 40 stones or tile plates, from which they build on the grave a 
construction called e�ua, i�.o��neaoa e�ua, the house of the dead. The grave is 
often fenced with four big stones or stone plates, while in the area of Malkotyrnovo a 
.small house. (e�ue�ea) is built from four thick boards [Strandzha 1996: 300]. In the 
Rhodope villages a house-like structure is build for the deceased twice. First, after lowering the coffin into the grave, it is covered with twigs, logs and stone plates. Afterwards 
a wooden house (e�e�a, e�o�e�ea) is placed on the grave with candles inside which 
are supposed to .light the dead person.s way to the other world. [Rhodope: 202-203]. 

On the grave a peculiar garden is arranged: flowers and fruit-trees are planted 
and the place is fenced with a paling, stones or sticks. Russians used to put turf round 
the grave mound [Kremlyova 1993: 20]. In Polesye, in the region of Gomel, on the feast 
of St. Radunits a tree had to be planted on the grave and birch sticks were driven into 
the ground around it [PA]. In the region of Sofia, on the fortieth day the grave is fenced 
with stones and sowed with wheat [Sofia region: 228]. 

The system of the Slavs. mythological conceptions connected with the grave as 
the deceased.s house can acquire specific forms in dreams and nocturnal visions. According to the records from Polesye, when the relatives take some sand from the grave 
on the twelfth day after the funeral and consecrate it in the church in order to take it 
back to the grave, in case of their forgetfulness, according to stories, the dead person 
.comes. to them in their dreams and demands that they return him .the corner of his 
house.. ���aa ye �a ���anao o�� ian�e, ����� i�e���ee ���a n�e��a, �a o�aI


Anna Plotnikova 

neaa�: .��a� ou i�a� oaou ��a�� ���.�a�a?. [PA, the Gomelskaya province, village of Stodolichi, recorded by L.N. Vinogradova]. 

Similar rituals and beliefs are connected with the graveyard as a whole, being the 
place where the dead or their souls abide. It is considered that the souls live in the 
graveyard and keep the habits from the times when they were still alive. According to 
the beliefs of the Bulgarians and Macedonians, at midnight the dead come out of their 
graves to take a walk around the graveyard and visit each other. In Bosnia it was believed that a man who was forced to sleep in a graveyard should not lie between two 
graves because the dead in the two graves would quarrel about .which of them he came 
to visit. and they could strangle the man for that [ZN.O 27/1: 175]. The first deceased 

210 
person buried in a new graveyard is believed to be the forefather of the whole graveyard 
community of .ancestors.. It is supposed that the whole .community. has a malevolent attitude towards those who had not died a natural death (those hanged or 
drowned), and they are not accepted into the community. This can be one of the many 
explanations of the typical burials of such dead outside the space of those deceased 
who died a natural death (see [Zelenin 1995: 92]). 

The names of graveyards often express semantics defining them as .a dwelling, a 
settlement of the dead.. M. Fasmer connects Russian dialectal names ���, �����with 
that adopted from the Old Swedish b� .dwelling. and Old Slavic b� .dwelling. [Fasmer 

1: 234]. The Russian word i�a�no (the original meaning of which was .a coaching 
inn, where the prince and ecclesiastics stayed temporarily.) is used in dialects in the 
meanings .church community., .parish., .the center of the village area., and also .graveyard. [Fasmer 3: 295]. 
The plants and the trees within the boundaries of the graveyard are supposed to 
belong to the dead, and it is therefore forbidden in the graveyard to break twigs, to pick 
flowers or even inhale their fragrance lest one should loose one.s sense of smell. Such 
prohibitions are particularly common among the western Slavs. In Silesia it is believed 
that a man who smelled or picked a flower in a graveyard, will be visited at night by a 
dead person who will remind him that this is his property [Fischer 1921: 353]. In the 
Polish Beskidi it is thought that a person who picks flowers from graves will get sores 
and boils on his body as a revenge from the dead [Wierhy 1981/41: 226]. Among the 
Serbs it is forbidden to cut trees in a graveyard, otherwise the souls of the dead will not 
be able to rest in the shadow of the trees and eat their fruit [SMR: 136]. According to 
Bosnian beliefs, a man who has eaten fruit in a graveyard will fall ill with dropsy [GZM 
1995/10: 133] etc. 

Breaches of etiquette during any time spent in a graveyard (in other words, in a 
settlement of the dead) entail a punishment, often in the form of the unexpected appearance of the dead in the settlement of the living. According to the beliefs in Polesye, 
if a housewife breaks a stick in the graveyard and sweeps the ashes from the stove with 
it, the dead will roam inside the house and under the window for the whole night [Sedakova 1983b: 253]. 

At the same time, the graveyard as a sacred locus indicating the earthly location 
of .the other world. becomes a legitimized place of meeting between the living and the 


The Earthly Loci of Death: the Coffin, the Grave, the Cemetery 

dead: people come to the graveyard on the days of remembrance of the dead in prayer, 
they leave food for the souls; they bring them presents of clothes; they greet them as if 
they were alive; they clean and decorate the graves, they bake a special sort of bread 
and so on. It is characteristic to invite the dead to a meal which takes place on the 
graves, as, for example, among the Byelorussians, on Tuesday of St. Thomas.s week dedicated to the remembrance of the dead in prayer: .N�youa .a��e�a�e! O���e�a eI
�ai o�a�a-n��e �oe�oa��. (Holy parents! Come to us and have some bread with 
salt.) [Tereschenko 1848/3: 122]. In a west Byelorussian ritual called ���eo�I
i�e���eea (to wake a dead man), a dead relative was .hailed. and .entertained. to ritual 
food in the graveyard on the second or third day after the funeral [PA]. In Ryazan province, the ritual food which was brought to the graveyard on the feast called Radunitsa 211 
(Tuesday of St. Thomas.s week), seemed to be divided between the living and the dead, 
who came .from the dark. and invisibly attended the feast together with the living until sunset [Tereschenko 1848/5: 28-29]. 

The house is contrasted with the world (.home.) of the dead and therefore it cannot be the place of a new meeting between the living and the dead, with the exception 
of the special feasts dedicated to the remembrance of the dead in prayer. These feasts 
are not celebrated on the graveyard but in the house to which the .ancestors. and .parents. are invited. The same status of a sacred time, when a meeting with the dead takes 
place inside the house, is connected with certain calendar feasts, above all the .svyatki. 
(Christmas-time) and some other days. For instance, in Byelorussian Polesye the 
.grandfathers. were invited to supper on the last day of .Maslenitsa. (Shrovetide - the 
week before Lent): in the evening everyone sat at the festive table. The housewife 
opened the window and called three times: .��y�u, ��y�u, o�����a �y��.a��!. 
(Grandfathers, grandfathers, come to supper!) [Pahavanni: 163]. 

In everyday life the appearance of the dead in the house, not to mention demons 
such as vampires, was extremely undesirable. Therefore the protection of the house by 
means of various ritual and magical acts began immediately after a deceased person 
appeared in the house. While the dead person was lying in the house, it was forbidden 
to do any work in the house or in the garden. At the moment when the deceased.s coffin - his .new house. was brought into the house, everyone went out, especially pregnant women. The carrying out of the deceased was done extremely carefully: they 
knocked with the coffin on the threshold, so that the deceased bade farewell to his 
.old. home and would not come back anymore; they turned over all the furniture in 
the house, they poured out water, they gave the remains of bread and other food to 
dogs, from the house they threw after the dead person a stone or smoldering pieces of 
wood from the hearth, they swept or washed the floor, they opened all the windows and 
doors, they took the deceased.s effects out of the house and burnt them. In the Russian 
North, after the coffin has been taken out, rubbish from the street is swept towards the 
house so that all its inhabitants will stay in the house [Zelenin 1991: 349]. The Bulgarians do not spend the first night in the house where the deceased is lying. In various 
Slavic regions the fellow-villagers do not take anything from such a house, especially 
food (see, for example, [Romanov 1912: 309]). In the vicinity of Gevgelia (Macedonia) 


Anna Plotnikova 

after the deceased has been buried, every villager pours out all the drinking water he 
has (calling this water i.o��nea .belonging to the dead.) and brings new water. The 
housewives also change the leaven for bread every time somebody has died in the village [Tanovich 1927: 258]. 

The path connecting two contrasted loci, the house and the grave (coffin), the village and the graveyard, becomes the concrete incarnation of the path to .the other 
world.. A number of ritual and magical acts are carried out on the way to the graveyard 
and from the graveyard towards home. To avoid negative consequences connected with 
the returning of the dead to the house of the living, in various Slavic regions people 
take another route home from the graveyard, and they do not turn back on the way to 

212 
the graveyard and from the graveyard home. On the way from the graveyard the Serbs 
tried not to go to other people.s houses in order not to bring misfortune to the house. 
When they entered their own house they thoroughly shook off any soil from the graveyard. Graveyards are often situated on the other side of a river, a brook or another water barrier which the souls of the dead cannot overcome [Zechevich 1982: 61]. Among 
the Balkan Slavs, before going from the graveyard after the burial of the deceased it is 
customary to wash ones hands in the nearest water source. In the south-west of Bulgaria (the community of Petrich, village of Gega, record of E. S. Uzeneva [MDABIA]), after 
washing their hands each participant at the burial took a handful of water and threw it 
behind his back over the left and the right shoulders, .so that the deceased would forget his way home.. For the same purpose in that area a fire was lit in front of the house 
entrance and everyone stepping over the threshold after the funeral took a piece of 
charcoal and threw it behind his back. In Strandzha after the burial every participant 
leaving the graveyard throws a stone behind his back, .so that the dead will not come 
back. [Strandzha: 298]. In Rhodope, after the burial people do not take home any 
items from the grave that had been brought to the graveyard [Rhodope: 202]. 

Special measures for protecting the house against visits from the walking dead, 
vampires, can also be connected with the route. Thus in eastern Serbia (in the region of 
Knja.evac, village of Donja Kamenica, record of the author [MDABIA]) people strew 
the way from the home to the graveyard with millet. Then they bestrew the grave and go 
on strewing millet on the way from the graveyard to the river in order to get rid of the 
vampire who has been coming to the house; in this way .drowning. him in the river. 
Here a quite typical system of protective acts is used: a demonic character from the other world, having visited the house of the living and going back to his dwelling-place, 
counts the strewed grains, yet his path suggested by people continues goes from his 
grave to the water. 

Of course, the earthly loci of death understood as places connected with various 
kinds of conceptions of death are not limited by concrete and real places of burial. For 
instance, in Russian keening the localization of the other world envelopes the subterranean sphere, unknown and inaccessible places, water, .the sky. (the latter is less often 
expressed in lamentations) [Chistyakov 1982: 121-122]. In beliefs and rituals concerning human dwelling, the places connected with .ancestors. are the threshold of the 
house and the stove (see, for example, [Bayburin 1983: 138, 167]). 


The Earthly Loci of Death: the Coffin, the Grave, the Cemetery 

In this way, a complex of Slavic conceptions about the concrete (materialized, 
earthly) loci of death is realized in completely different forms: from the ways of naming 
the coffin, the tombstones and the graveyard to the beliefs and ritual or magical acts 
connected with the places of burial. These conceptions are also reflected in the motifs 
of oral folklore (mostly in lamentations and keening) where they acquire a special my-
tho-poetical appearance. An archaic system of beliefs about death can be brought to 
light through an analysis of the extensive body of Slavic ethnographical, linguistic, folkloric and general cultural contexts which are connected with the subjects themselves 
(in our case: the coffin, the grave and the graveyard) as well as with that object of research, whose concept constitutes the basic semantic dominant of the familiar beliefs 
and rituals; i.e. the actual human dwelling. Complex correlations between the two 213 
worlds (of the living and of the dead) are reflected in concrete rituals and beliefs concerning their materialized substances, therefore the complex of ritual and magical acts 
connected with the house on one hand, and with the coffin (the place of burial) on the 
other hand, become significant. The real connecting link between them is the path, the 
path from the village to the graveyard and back. Here an important role is played by 
.the landmarks on the way., its main points: the threshold of the house, the gate of the 
courtyard, the boundary of the village, crossroads, passages over water, the graveyard 
gate; however this theme deserves separate research. 

LITERATURE 

AFANASYEVA, PLOTNIKOVA 1995 - N. E. Aphanasyeva, A. A. Plotnikova. The coffin // Slavic antiquities. Ethnolinguistic dictionary. (A.�� // N�a�y�neea �.a���noe. �o���e�a�enoe�anee� n���a.�.) Vol. 1. Moscow, 
1995, pp. 553-558. 

BAYBURIN 1983 - A. K. Bayburin. The dwelling in the rites and conceptions of the eastern Slavs. (Ae�eua �I
��.y�ao e i.a�noa��a�eyo ��no���uo n�a�y�.) Leningrad, 1983.I

BENOVSKA-S.BKOVA 1995 - M. Benovska-S.bkova. Contemporary burial rites in north-west Bulgaria // Ethno-cultural collection. (N��.aia��e i�a.a�a��e ��.a�e � Na�a.��aia��a ���aa.ey // �o��-e��o�.���oeeI
���.�ee.) 1. Svrlig, 1995, pp. 215-220.I

CHISTYAKOV 1982 - V. A. Chistyakov. Conceptions of the way to the other world in Russian burial keening of theI
XIX - XX centuries // Rites and ritual folklore. (I.a�noa��a�ey � ��.�aa � �aa.���u� ie. � .�nneeoI
i�o�.���uo i.e�eoa�eyo XIX - XX ��. // ��.y�u e ��.y���u� ����e��..) Moscow, 1982, pp. 114-127. 

DAL - V. I. Dal. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language. (O��e��u� n���a.� ae��a�I
�a�ee�.�nne�a� y�uea.) Vol. 1-4. Moscow, 1978-1980.I
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y�uea.) Vol. 1-4. Moscow, 1964-1973. 
FISCHER 1921 - A. Fischer. Funeral customs of the Polish people. (Zwyczaje pogrzebowe ludu polskiego.) Lvov, 1921. 
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�a.����� o.a�e�ee.) Moscow, 1997. 
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n��.aia���no�// I�o�.����-i�ie�a���ua ��u�ae e ��.y�u.) Moscow, 1993, pp. 8-47. 


Anna Plotnikova 

LISTOVA 1993 - T. A. Listova. Burial and funeral customs and rites of the Russians in Smolenskaya, Pskovskaya and 
Kostromskaya provinces (the end of the XIX - XX centuries) // Burial and funeral customs and rites.I
(I�o�.����-i�ie�a���ua ��u�ae e ��.y�u .�nneeo Ni��a�ne��, Ine��ne�� e E�no.�ine��I
���anoa� (e��a� XIX - XX �.) // I�o�.����-i�ie�a���ua ��u�ae e ��.y�u.) Moscow, 1993, pp. 48-83. 

MDABIA - A small dialectological atlas of the Balkan languages. The Institute of Linguistic Researches RAN, TheI
Institute of Slavonic philology RAN. Archive materials. (Ma�u� �ea�aeo���ae�anee� ao�an �a�ea�neeoI
y�ue��. E�noeo�o �e�a�enoe�anee� enn�a���a�e� .A�, E�noeo�o n�a�y���a�a�ey .A�. A.oe��uaI
iaoa.ea�u.)I

NEVSKAYA 1980 - L. G. Nevskaya. The semantics of the path and adjacent conceptions in the burial rite // The structure of the text. (Naia�oeea ��.�ae e niaa�uo i.a�noa��a�e� � i�a.a�a����i ��.y�a // No.�eo�.aI
oaenoa.) M., 1980, pp. 230-238. 

NEVSKAYA 1982 - L. G. Nevskaya. The semantics of the house and adjacent conceptions in burial folklore // Balto-
Slavic research 1981. (Naia�oeea ��ia e niaa�uo i.a�noa��a�e� � i�a.a�a����i ����e��.a // �a�o�-I
214 n�a�y�neea enn�a���a�ey 1981.) Moscow, 1982, pp. 106-121. 
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n�a�y���a�a�ey .A�.)I
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RHODOPE - Rhodope. Sofia, 1994. 
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(Meoneeoa i.aonoa�e �a n�ao�o �a i.o�eoa �� o.a�e�e��a��aoa e��o�.a �a Maea����eoa.) // StudiaI
mythologica Slavica. 1. Ljubljana - Pisa, 1998, pp. 243-257.I

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(Oaia .���e. � i�a.a�a����i ��.y�a (��no����- e .a��n�a�y�nee� iaoa.ea�).) // pp. 54-63.I
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Ao��a.a�nee e a�ee��e i.����a�ey.) Sofia, 1993. 
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��e�ae. N.a��eoa��� e���a�a�a.) Sofia, 1990. 
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and water nymphs. (E��.a��ua o.��u. ��a.ee .�nne�� ie����aee: �ia.oea �aanoano�a���.I
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WIERHY - Wierhy, Lvov, Krakow, 1923. 


The Earthly Loci of Death: the Coffin, the Grave, the Cemetery 

BESEDA O AVTORICI 

Anna Plotnikova, dr., na Filozofski fakulteti 
Univerze v Moskvi je diplomirala iz ru.eine in ruske knji.evnosti, na Filozofski fakulteti Univerze v 
Beogradu pa iz srbohrva.kega jezika in jugoslovanske knji.evnosti. Doktorirala je leta 1990. Je 
vi.ja znanstvena sodelavka na Oddelku za slovansko etnolingvistiko in folkloro na In.titutu za slovanske .tudije Ruske akademije znanosti v Moskvi. 
Ukvarja se z ljudsko kulturo, dialektologijo ju.noslovanskih jezikov, lingogeografijo in etnolingvistiko. Objavila je okoli 100 znanstvenih elankov. 
Njeno najpomembnej.e delo je Gradivo za etnolingvistieno raziskovanje balkanoslovanskih arealov (1996). 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 
Anna Plotnikova, Ph.D., graduated from the 
Russian language and literature at the Faculty of 
Arts, University of Moscow and from the Serbocroat 
language and Yugoslav literature at the Faculty of 
Arts, University of Belgrade. She got her Ph.D. in 
1990. She is a senior research fellow at the Department of Slavic ethnolinguistics and folklore of Institute of Slavic Studies, Russian Academy of Science, 
Moscow. She deals with the folk culture and dialectology of the languages of the south Slavs, lingogeography and ethnolinguistics. She has published 215about 100 scientific articles. Her most important 
work is The Material for the Ethnolinguistic Research on Balkan-Slavic Areas (1996). 


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