In central Europe cremation of the deceased appeared in different periods and in different times. Several Early Iron Age cultures practice cremation of the deceased, but they regularly buried them under smaller or larger burial mounds. Again, this habit spread across Europe in the Late Iron Age when the Celtic La Tène culture again unified a was a territory. Once more, this habit spread across Europe with the Roman occupation and ceased in Late Antiquity.
The grave of the sword-bearer from Srednica near Ptuj in Slovenia is perhaps the oldest Celtic cremation grave in the region – in it was buried one of the first colonists coming from the central part of the Carpathian Basin. His cremated bones and charcoal from the pyre were deposited in the middle of a rectangular grave pit. Grave goods consisted of a standardized drinking set and his personal equipment. His gender was assumed based on an enclosed decorated iron sword, spearhead, knife and iron fibula as well as the ceramic bottle and drinking bowl.
