The Human Remains of the Late Bronze Age Cemetery of Glyka Nera

2020 ◽  
pp. 503-512
Author(s):  
Anastasia Papathanasiou ◽  
Anthi Tiliakou ◽  
Cynthia S. Kwok ◽  
Ioanna Moutafi ◽  
Olga Kakavogianni
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Late Bronze Age

Land of the Cremated Dead: On Cremation Practices in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Scandinavia

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lise Harvig
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Cultural Landscapes ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Gradual Change ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
The Dead

As contract archaeology has emerged and larger connected areas have been excavated since the 1990s, focus has naturally changed from single finds of graves right below plough soil or in connection to mounds, towards the study of the surrounding cultural landscapes. In the Late Bronze Age and the Pre- Roman Iron Age settlements seldom overlap grave sites. This implies that the ‘land of the dead’ was considered separate from the ‘land of the living’. Although regionally differentiated, we further gain a better understanding of many of these accumulated grave sites and their gradual change during the transition period. In many cases we see a change from a personalized commemoration of the cremated dead in the Late Bronze Age, towards a focus on the act of cremation (rather than the post-cremation human body) around the beginning of the Iron Age. The increasing commemoration of pyre remains instead of human remains and deliberate ‘cremation’ of personal belongings in the Early Iron Age indicates a shift in funeral tempi from the post-cremation deliberate burial in the Bronze Age towards the actual cremation process as the primary locus of transformation in the earliest Iron Age. Throughout time, societies have grasped death, the dead, and the duration of death in very different manners. The process of death and relating to different stages of death may be more or less ritualized, that is, subject to specific repeated rules or laws within a society. Whether used to speed up or slow down the process of transformation—for example, keeping, embalming, dismembering, or exhuming the body in various stages—these rituals help the living create death through their acts. In interpretive archaeology we analyse these meaningful acts in the past and their continuation or discontinuation. Decoding single sequences within these acts therefore helps us designate non-negotiable repetitive actions in the archaeological record, as the material evidence of shared ‘embodied knowledge’ in a given prehistoric society (Nilsson Stutz 2003, 2010). Decoding and separating past actions and post depositional disturbances—the degree of intentionality—are crucial for plausible reconstructions of post-cremation treatment of cremated human remains.

A place for the dead: the role of human remains in Late Bronze Age Britain

1995 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 245-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Brück
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Identity Continuity ◽  
Refuse Disposal ◽  
First Time ◽  
Burial Rite

The disappearance of an archaeologically visible burial rite at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age has puzzled archaeologists for some years yet has never formed a specific focus of research. This paper aims to look at the problem in detail for the first time. A corpus has been compiled listing sites from which human remains dating to this period have been recovered. The contexts in which these remains are found are documented and discussed; these include, for example, finds from settlements, hoards, and wet places. It is argued that many of the sites do not represent the residues of ‘normal’ mortuary rituals but may instead result from other ritual practices or from refuse disposal activities. It is concluded from contextual patterning in the data that human remains were used in situations where concepts of liminality, identity, continuity, and renewal needed to be highlighted. The potential of human remains for symbolising these themes was drawn upon in activities during which concerns central to Late Bronze Age communities were confronted. The nature of these concerns is discussed in relation to wider developments that occur over the Late Bronze Age. It is argued that the ways in which human remains were deposited were intimately related to the development of new discourses within society as the basis of socio-political power changed from practices surrounding the consumption and exchange of bronze to the control of agricultural production and human and agricultural fertility. The symbolic themes dealt with during the deposition of human remains in specific locations relate to these changing concerns and allowed individuals to situate themselves within a changing society and to negotiate their relationships with others.

Delivering Bodies unto Waters: A Late Bronze Age Mid-Stream Midden Settlement and Iron Age Ritual Complex in the Fens

2013 ◽  
Vol 93 ◽  
pp. 55-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Evans
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Sand Ridge ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Major Site ◽  
River Thames ◽  
Prehistoric Settlements

This paper describes a Late Bronze Age midden settlement and a later Iron Age ritual complex on Godwin Ridge, a sand ridge that formerly lay mid-stream within the lower reaches of the River Great Ouse, in the Cambridgeshire fens. Numerous ritual deposits and significant quantities of human remains were recovered; some of the latter show signs of having been modified or dismembered. The ritual focus of the ridge was a riverside platform; associated with this was an important assemblage of wetland bird bone. The paper explores the implications of these practices and compares the finds to those from neighbouring and regional later prehistoric settlements, including those with major bird bone assemblages. The ridge-end's findings clearly resonate with human remains retrieved from other watery contexts, such as those associated with the River Thames. The evidence suggests that Godwin Ridge was, during the later Iron Age, a major site for mortuary rites involving riverine interment.

From corpse to skeleton: dealing with the dead in prehistory

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 4-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Parker-Pearson
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Histological Analysis ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Bone Microstructure ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Funerary Practices ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Outer Hebrides

The shortcomings of the archaeological record raise many challenges for the interpretation of prehistoric funerary practices, particularly because the remains of most people in prehistory have left no trace at all. Throughout prehistory, most human remains were treated in ways that are archaeologically invisible. A brief review of the sequence of funerary practices in British prehistory reveals major gaps and deficiencies in the burial record. It may well be that the normative rites for much of British prehistory were those that left little or no archaeological trace, such as excarnation through exposure of corpses or scattering of cremated ashes.One form of mortuary practice only recently demonstrated for British prehistory is that of mummification. Scientific analysis of Late Bronze Age skeletons from Cladh Hallan, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, has revealed that they were not only composites of multiple individuals but were also mummified prior to burial. In particular, histological analysis of bioerosion in the bone microstructure reveals that putrefaction was arrested soon after death. This method of histological analysis has been applied to a large sample of prehistoric and historical human remains, and reveals that patterns of arrested decay are particularly a feature of the British Bronze Age from the Bell Beaker period onwards.

Death, Decapitation and Display? The Bronze and Iron Age Human Remains from the Sculptor's Cave, Covesea, North-east Scotland

2011 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 251-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Armit ◽  
Rick Schulting ◽  
Christopher J. Knüsel ◽  
Ian A.G. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Age Group ◽  
North East ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Ams Dating ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Apparent Evidence

Excavations at the Sculptor's Cave (north-east Scotland) during the 1930s and 1970s yielded evidence for activity in the Late Bronze Age, Late Iron Age, and early medieval periods, including a substantial human skeletal assemblage with apparent evidence for the removal, curation, and display of human heads. The present project, combining osteological analysis and a programme of AMS dating, aimed to place the surviving human remains from the site into their appropriate chronological context and to relate them to the broader sequence of human activity in the cave. A series of AMS determinations has demonstrated that the human remains fall into two distinct chronological groups separated by a millennium or more: one from the Mid-Late Bronze Age and one from the Late Iron Age. Osteological analysis suggests that while the Bronze Age group may, as previously suggested, include the remains of the heads of juveniles formerly displayed at the cave entrance, this was not the sole mechanism by which human remains arrived in the cave at this time. The Late Iron Age group provides evidence for decapitation and other violent treatments within the cave itself.

scholarly journals Towards a new osteometric method for sexing ancient cremated human remains. Analysis of Late Bronze Age and Iron Age samples from Italy with gendered grave goods

PLoS ONE ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. e0209423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Cavazzuti ◽  
Benedetta Bresadola ◽  
Chiara d’Innocenzo ◽  
Stella Interlando ◽  
Alessandra Sperduti
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Grave Goods

Broken Bones and Broken Stones: Exploring Fragmentation in Middle and Late Bronze Age Settlement Contexts in Ireland

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerri Cleary
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Broken Bones ◽  
Fragmentation Patterns ◽  
Skeletal Representation

This article examines the evidence for fragmentation practices on Middle–Late Bronze Age (c. 1600–700bc) settlement sites in Ireland by looking at two kinds of material: human remains, both burnt and non-burnt, and quern stones. It highlights evidence for the manipulation of non-burnt skulls through ‘de-facing’ and the potential retention of cranial and other fragments for ‘burial’ in settlements. It also explores the more difficult task of determining whether incomplete skeletal representation in cremated remains can be interpreted as deliberate fragmentation, and how the context of deposition must be considered. Human agency in relation to the fragmentation patterns of querns is also examined to understand whether the act of breaking these objects was intentional or unintended and if depositing them was symbolic or simply fortuitous. By discussing this evidence, I hope to contribute to the argument that the funerary and settlement spheres in later prehistoric Ireland were becoming increasingly intertwined.

The Concept of Palestine: The Conception Of Palestine from the Late Bronze Age to the Modern Period

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Masalha
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Political Geography ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
Master Narratives ◽  
The Bible ◽  
School History

The Concept of Palestine is deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the indigenous people of Palestine and the multicultural ancient past. The name Palestine is the most commonly used from the Late Bronze Age (from 1300 BCE) onwards. The name Palestine is evident in countless histories, inscriptions, maps and coins from antiquity, medieval and modern Palestine. From the Late Bronze Age onwards the names used for the region, such as Djahi, Retenu and Cana'an, all gave way to the name Palestine. Throughout Classical Antiquity the name Palestine remained the most common and during the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods the concept and political geography of Palestine acquired official administrative status. This article sets out to explain the historical origins of the concept of Palestine and the evolving political geography of the country. It will seek to demonstrate how the name ‘Palestine’ (rather than the term ‘Cana'an’) was most commonly and formally used in ancient history. It argues that the legend of the ‘Israelites’ conquest of Cana'an’ and other master narratives of the Bible evolved across many centuries; they are myth-narratives, not evidence-based accurate history. It further argues that academic and school history curricula should be based on historical facts/empirical evidence/archaeological discoveries – not on master narratives or Old Testament sacred-history and religio-ideological constructs.

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