Dolní Věstonice I female grave (DV3). Red colourants and other components of the burial fill up and grave floor

Red powdery and crusty concentrations from the fill-up and bottom of a female burial DV3 from the Dolní Věstonice I site, representing Pavlovian culture, as well as some red raw material from the site were examined. Burial floor and fill-up is composed of marly substrate mixed with bone powder, charcoal ash and red, rounded, relatively hard particles, composed of burnt iron bearing aluminosilicates. Red crusts, present on it (maybe also within it), applied probably as suspension, are composed of unburnt iron bearing aluminosilicates. The raw material for powders is assumed to come from the site hearths red ash. Red iron artifacts, macroscopically almost identical, occur on the site also as an assemblage of loose red lumps. They are petrographically inhomogeneous and their sources are localized up to 150 km from the site. Raw material similar to the one of some of red lumps may have been used for burial ceremony.