Žirovice

Bronze Age burial site

One of the most important archaeological sites in Western Bohemia, where several dozen cremation graves of the people of the Ash-Box Fields were discovered in 1957-58. The found objects are in museum collections, and only inconspicuous traces of the graves and burial mounds remain in the terrain.

Vessels from the Bronze Age. Exhibition of the Municipal Museum of Františkovy Lázně on the Soos River

The Bronze Age burial ground is located near the village of Žírovice nad Mlýnským rybník. The first unpreserved finds date from 1880, later the burial ground was damaged by sand mining. The actual research here began only in 1930, when a spa guest from Prague found the first ceramic vessel in the sand pit at a depth of 50 cm. The remains of two main circular burial mounds and almost 50 smaller urn graves were discovered on a relatively small area. There is also a settlement with the remains of wooden buildings and sunken hearths in close proximity. The cremation graves belong to the so-called Cheb group of urn fields from the Late Bronze Age, dated to 1300 - 1000 BC. Today, only the foundations of the burial mounds are visible at the burial ground.