Opportunities and Features of the Palynological Analysis Application on Various Types of Archaeological Sites

A wide variety of archaeological sites associated with various human activity has led to the emergence of a wide range of problems solved by archaeological palynology. On the example of the palynological materials accumulated in the Laboratory of Nature Sciences of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the opportunities and features of the palynological analysis application are considered both on classical objects for Russian archaeopalynology (cultural layer, buried soils, defensive ramparts, burial mounds, etc.) and on non-traditional ones (latrines, vessels, funerary objects, ceramics, etc.). It is shown that the reconstruction of the natural environment, generally accepted for palynology, is mainly possible for the materials from long timed sites of shepherds in caves and rock shelters and cultural layers of sites, settlements, hillforts. Materials obtained from other objects (ancient and medieval arable lands, storage pits, latrines, the contents of ritual objects, vessels, and the gastrointestinal tract of the buried) give an idea of very local and short-term environmental conditions or events usually associated with economic and/or daily activities of a person, with his food, funerary rites and traditions. In this regard, the possibilities of the palynological method and the purposes will be different for each specific research. Recommendations for the sampling for palynological analysis are given for each specific case.

The Main Results of Studies of the Archaeological Complex Kastyki in the Upper Reaches of the Viliya (Minsk Region of the Republic of Belarus)

Целью публикации является анализ основных результатов раскопок комплекса археологических памятников Костыки Вилейского района Минской области, проводившихся в 1973, 2016 и 2018 гг. Комплекс археологических памятников Костыки состоит из курганного могильника древнерусского времени Костыки и многокультурного открытого поселения Костыки II. Некрополь в Костыках функционировал на протяжении середины XI - XII в. Он принадлежал группе жителей Полоцкой земли, которые имели определенное представление о христианской погребальной обрядности. Многокультурное поселение Костыки II функционировало от эпохи позднего неолита и начала эпохи бронзы до третьей четверти I тысячелетия н. э. The publication's purpose is the analysis of the main results of archaeological sites' excavations in Kastyki, Viliejka district, Minsk region, carried out in 1973, 2016 and 2018. The complex of archaeological monuments of Kastyki consists of the Kastyki barrow cemetery of Old Rus' period and the multicultural open settlement of Kastyki II. The necropolis in Kastyki functioned throughout the middle of the 11 - 12 centuries. It belonged to a group of Polotsk land residents who had some perspective of Christian funerary rites. The multicultural settlement Kastyki II functioned from the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age to the third quarter of the 1st millennium AD.

Human Skeletons, Grave Goods and Textual Sources: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Southwestern Switzerland’s Late Iron Age Communities through the Study of their Funerary Rites

This paper’s primary focus is the investigation of Late Iron Age funeral practices. This is carried out by means of a multidisciplinary study of two necropolises, Randogne – Bluche and Sion – Parking des Remparts, which are located in southwestern Switzerland. The overall purpose of this paper is to enhance the socio-cultural understanding of this period through an integrated approach that combines the fields of bioanthropology, archaeology and ancient cultural history. Consequently, sex, age, pathologies and biological proximity first were assessed for the individuals found in the two studied necropolises. Next, data from these necropolises was contrasted with the archaeological and cultural environment from the surrounding regions. Finally, a combined perspective was developed in order to consider and combine the data collected through these different approaches. The obtained results appear to point to a regional particularism present in southwestern Switzerland’s funerary practices during the Late Iron Age. However, cultural influences from both northern and southern neighbouring regions can be identified in southwestern Switzerland’s funerary rites and material productions, which sheds light on the innerworkings of the Celtic communities populating this region.

Re-imagining Funerary Rites in the Context of Covid-19

Covid-19 has brought about unsuspected possibilities and death on a large global scale since its advent on the shores of the global community in early March of 2020. The novel pandemic has undoubtedly challenged and changed the normative operations of the social, political and economic activities all across the globe. Religious fraternities and activities have experienced challenging dynamics in how fellowship and worship are practised. Businesses and the entertainment industry have their share of suffering and enduring the suspending effect that has since been forcefully occasioned by the strategic global lockdown. The labour market metrics have realised a drastic decline due to companies closing down owing to the challenges that Covid-19 has rendered against their financial fragility and profit share. Academic institutions have also seen drastic challenges and a need for change in how they perform their curricula duties in the unpredictable context of Covid-19. Evidently, the advent of the Coronavirus has pointedly offered the nations of the world an opportunity to re-imagine a number of issues and social conducts. With millions of people dying across the globe, funerals have taken a new, strange turn in how the rites of passage for the deceased are practised. In light of this, the current essay presents the argument around re-imagining funerary rites in the Covid-19 context. The paper adopts Victor Tuner’s theoretical assumptions of ritual purported in his text entitled The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, so as to theoretically problematise the idea of re-imagining funerary rites in the undesirable ‘new normal’? situation of Covid-19.

An Insight to the Composition of Pre-Hispanic Mayan Funerary Pigments by 1H-NMR Analysis

The funerary rites of particular members of the pre-Hispanic Mayan society included the pigmentation of the corpse with a red color. In order to understand this ritual, it is first necessary to identify the constituents of the pigment mixture and then, based on its properties, analyze the possible form and moment of application. In the present approach, 1H-NMR analysis was carried to detect organic components in the funerary pigments of Xcambó, a small Maya settlement in the Yucatan Peninsula. The comparison of the spectra belonging to the pigment found in the bone remains of seven individuals, and those from natural materials, led to the identification of beeswax and an abietane resin as constituents of the pigment, thus conferring it agglutinant and aromatic properties, respectively. The 1H-NMR analysis also allowed to rule out the presence of copal, a resin found in the pigment cover from paramount chiefs from the Mayan society. Additionally, a protocol for the extraction of the organic fraction from the bone segment without visible signs of analysis was developed, thus broadening the techniques available to investigate these valuable samples.

The Artists’ Cemetery

The development of a public commemorative culture in East Germany extended into the development of new funerary rites for cultural figureheads and everyday citizens. Chapter 5 charts the ruling party’s efforts to restructure the spaces and sounds of national sepulchral culture by examining the funerals for six artists buried at a plot reserved for members of the Academy of the Arts in East Berlin. Each artist was honored with a state funeral, aimed not to console the bereaved, but to canonize the deceased as socialist heroes. At these events, the deceased’s friends and family made deliberate efforts to reclaim their legacy within the space of the cemetery itself, and continued these personal reflections through musical homage. In doing so, these mourners were continually renegotiating their relationship to the deceased. This chapter thus shows how the relationship between private mourning and public commemoration was in a state of negotiation throughout East Germany’s forty-year existence.

On a Distinctive Featureof the Andronovo (Fedorovka) Funerary Rites in the Baraba Forest-Steppe

This article summarizes the findings relating to a spatially localized group of graves at the Andronovo (Fedorovka) cemetery Tartas-1 in the Baraba forest-steppe. Several rows of graves combine with ash pits suggestive of ritual activity. In the infill of graves, there were ash lenses with mammal and fish bones, and potsherds with traces showing the signs of applied heat. Ash had been taken from nearby ash pits with similar infill and artifacts. Faunal remains from graves and ash pits (limb bones of cattle, sheep/goat, and horse) indicate sacrificial offerings. In the ash layer of grave No. 282, there was an incomplete human burial, also believed to be a sacrifice. Features such as the orientation of the graves, their alignment, the position of human remains, and the grave goods in that area are similar to the Andronovo (Fedorovka) burial practice and do not differ from those in other parts of the cemetery. No complete parallels to this rite have been revealed. Some similarities, such as the use of ash, and the presence of animal bones, sacrificial pits, etc. at other sites are listed. A reconstruction of the funerary sequence and possible interpretations are considered. It is concluded that those graves were left by a group of Andronovo migrants who maintained close ties with the native population. Unusual features of the burial rite, therefore, can reflect an attempt to consolidate the immigrant groups on the basis of traditional ritual practices, where the major role was played by fire and its symbols.

From Texts and Iconography to Use-Wear Analysis of Ceramic Vessels

While handwashing is attested in the Bronze Age cultures of the eastern Mediterranean and appears in both Linear B records and Homeric epics, the custom has not been discussed with regard to the material culture of Mycenaean Greece. On analogy with Egyptian handwashing equipment, we explore the possibility that a conical bowl made of bronze and copied in clay was introduced in Greece early in the Late Bronze Age for this specific use. We integrate epigraphic, iconographic and formal analyses to support this claim, but in order to interrogate the quotidian function of ceramic lekanes, we present the results of use-wear analysis performed on 130 examples. As use-wear develops from repeated use over a long time, it is a good indicator of normative behaviour, particularly when large datasets are amassed and contrasted with other shapes. While not conclusive, our results allow us to rule out a function as tableware for food consumption, and in combination with all other analyses support the interpretation of lekanes as handwashing basins. We then trace the development of this custom from its initial adoption by elite groups to its spread among new social classes and venues after the collapse of the palace system: at home, as part of communal feasting and sacrifice or as an element of funerary rites. The widespread distribution of handwashing equipment after 1200 bc closely mirrors the situation in our earliest surviving Greek Iron Age texts and joins a growing body of evidence pointing to strong continuity in social practices between the Postpalatial period and the early Iron Age in Greece.

The Saknivka Plate

This paper proposes the reconstruction of the Scythian eschatological concepts on the basis of semantics of the Sakhnivka plate composition (4th century BC, Museum of Historical Treasures of Ukraine, branch of the National Museum of History of Ukraine). Taking into account the ritual detour of the sacral center from left to right in the Indo-Iranian tradition, the plate plots show a consecutive visual statement of the episodes of the myth of Kolaxais’ destiny. The culmination scene of the plate includes three figures. The half-turned and full-face iconography of the Goddess shows her belonging to two figures, on her both sides: to a meeting of the bearded Scythian king on the right and a scene with a young Scythian on the left (an image of the young, “regenerated” king / Kolaxais). Only the last figure has a in caftan wrapped from right to left, i.e. the clasp of the “living person” (as opposed to other figures) that confirms his special status of ‘reborn’. Accordingly, scenes show the important episodes of the Scythian eschatological representations connected with posthumous fate, basis for the ideology of funerary rites.