Burial practices of the population from the Konda River Basin in the Mesolithic and Neolithic Periods

The paper is dedicated to burial practices of the Stone Age population that inhabited the territory of the North-West Siberia. The source base is represented by 14 complexes. The burial grounds and solitary graves are located on high slopes in the terrace conifer forest areas along the tributaries of the Konda River. The Mesolithic burials date back to the period starting from the 9th-8th millennium BC through the end of the 7th millennium BC, while the Neolithic can be traced starting from the 7th-6th millennium BC to the middle of the 4th millennium BC. The taiga hunters traditionally buried their deceased relatives in the ground. The burials tend to be clustered into linear groupings within the cemetery area. Solitary graves are found on the territory of apparently abandoned settlements near the foundation pits of houses or inside them. Two forms of burial were practiced: inhumation and cremation followed by the burial of burnt remains. Generally, the dead were buried in the extended position, i.e., lying flat with arms and legs straight. The bodies were covered with red ocher, wrapped or swaddled, and put into graves. A special type of Mesolithic burials was vertical burials, i.e., the dead were placed into a vertical shaft like pits. The cremated remains were buried in ocher graves. The burned bones were placed in the center of each pit. Solitary burials prevailed. Less common were paired and multi-tire graves. Children were buried in the same way as adults, the age range of the dead varied from 5-7 to 60 years. The deceased were buried together with stone tools, jewelry, fragments of dishes, funeral and memorial food. The burial things were prepared following a special ritual - the blades of stone adzes were sharpened, the pottery was broken. There are signs of special respect to the skulls of the dead. The traditional burial practices of the taiga population from the Konda River Basin remained the same throughout the Stone Age.

The Late Upper Palaeolithic and earliest Mesolithic evidence of burials in Europe

Burials of the Late Palaeolithic (14 000–11 600 cal years before present, henceforth BP) are a rare phenomenon in Europe. Several sites possess burials of single and double individuals. As with the preceding Magdalenian, the burial of more than two individuals in the same grave cutting seems to be unusual, but does occur occasionally. The deposition of isolated and disarticulated human remains with or without cut marks seems additionally to belong to the Magdalenian context. In the final Palaeolithic phase (13 000–11 600 cal years BP) there is evidence for cemetery-like clusters of burials, which contrast to the Magdalenian evidence, instead showing some similarities with the succeeding Mesolithic. The earliest Mesolithic burials 11 600–10 500 cal BP) are a very rare phenomenon, covering a short time span between the beginning of the Preboreal and the beginning of the Boreal phase of the early Holocene. Here the evidence includes single inhumations, cemetery-like structures and a number of isolated human remains. Caves and rock shelters were the most common places for inhumations in both the final Palaeolithic and the early Mesolithic. Although the number of sites with a chronological continuity from the LUP to the Early Mesolithic burial is low, several aspects indicate a general continuity in burial patterns over this period. Apart from this continuity, the Mesolithic burials in general seem to represent a new level of diversity in burial practices. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals’.

Mesolithic mortuary ritual at Franchthi Cave, Greece

Mesolithic sites are rare in the Aegean, and Mesolithic burials are uncommon throughout Europe. The Mesolithic human remains from Franchthi Cave, that remarkable, deeply stratified site in southern Greece, offer a rare glimpse into the burial practices of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Mediterranean.