Steuri, Noah; Milella, Marco; Lösch, Sandra; Szidat, Sönke; Hafner, Albert (9 September 2021). Emergence of necropolises and change of burial rites in the western Alps: Anthropological and chronological investigations of Neolithic cist graves. (Unpublished). In: 27th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA Kiel 2021). Kiel. 06. - 11.09.21. 10.13140/RG.2.2.13312.35846
Only few Mesolithic burial sites, mostly as isolated graves under rock shelters, are known in the Western alpine region of today Switzerland, France and Italy. Similar to other contexts, the transition to a sedentary lifestyle brought about a substantial change in funerary practices. With our ongoing Swiss National Science Foundation supported research project we want to understand how the burial customs of the first Neolithic populations in the western Alpine region became established and changed over time. Here we present a synthesis of available radiocarbon dating of human remains. This allows us to test hypotheses about the chronological development of the cist graves ritual in the western alpine region. Anthropological data about sex and age-at-death of the buried individuals provide preliminary insights about the possible influence of gender and life course stages in the funerary practice. The first necropolises date to ca. 4800 BC and include uniform cist burials made of wood-or stone slabs. In the following millennium, a wide range of funerary practices, including single inhumations, collective graves, primary-and secondary inhumations can be detected. These burial complexes were placed in distinct areas, outside of settlements and often used over centuries. This hints at the public character of the funerary rituals, and to a central social relevance of necropolises. After around 3800 BC, the cist grave burials disappear followed by gradual transformation of the funerary rituals and grave architecture. This period culminates, around 3300 BC, with the emergence of collective burials in large megalithic dolmen structures.
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit item |