This article draws in part on my previous work based on the data from Holešov cemetery (Šmejda 2003a; 2003b; 2004). Most analyses were, however, made anew and put together in a different context. The idea of switching between spatial and formal frameworks in GIS tools was developed during my Doctoral Fellowship at the Department of Archaeology, University of York, in 2007-2008 (funded by the Marie Curie ITN project CHIRON: Cultural Heritage Informatics Research Oriented Network). The article was completed as part of my Postdoctoral project No. P405/10/P145, 'The prehistoric cemetery of Holešov, Czech Republic: analysis and interpretation' supported by the Czech Science Foundation). The manuscript was finalized and Open Access to this publication made possible thanks to the project 'Archaeological Strategies' (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0036) co-funded by the European Social Fund and the state budget of the Czech Republic. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewer for valuable comments and suggestions.