The Mesolithic burial site Groß Fredenwalde, NE-Germany, discovered in 1962, had remained a poorly understood part of the Mesolithic burial record for decades. Since 2012, the site has been under ...re-investigation. New discoveries confirm the presence of several single and multiple inhumation graves. Groß Fredenwalde stands out as the largest and one of the oldest Mesolithic cemeteries in North-central Europe. Its use period can be separated into two phases: a main phase in the late seventh millennium cal BC to the early sixth millennium cal BC and a later single burial c. 4900 cal BC. Here the state of research on the site is presented and selected characteristics are discussed in the context of early cemeteries of Northern and North-eastern Europe.
We identify and analyse practices and management regimes around burial and handling of ashes across eight case study towns within six Northern European countries. We analyse management of cemeteries ...and crematoria gardens, majority practices and provision for minority communities, including various burial types, cremated remains, the re-use of graves, and costs for interments. Comparative data is drawn from analysis of national and local regulations, interviews with stakeholders, and observations at cemeteries and crematoria gardens. The findings show significant variation in national and local regulations and practices for burial and cremation particularly around the re-use of graves, handling of ashes and costs for grave space and cremation. We identify the opportunities and constraints of these variations in terms of accessibility, diversity and equality; and argue for national directions to avoid unequal treatment within nations. Furthermore, we stress the importance of a liberal and inclusive management of European cemeteries and crematoria gardens.
Anthrax remains relevant in the world and in the Russian Federation. In Siberia and the Far East, epizootological, epidemiological, environmental and microbiological monitoring of anthrax is ...constantly carried out. To analyze the epizootological and epidemiological situation of anthrax, we used the information from veterinary institutions and Rospotrebnadzor for 24 regions, as well as reference and archive materials. On the territory of Siberia and the Far East for the period from 1985 to 2023, pronounced epizootological and epidemiological problems of anthrax are observed in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the Republic of Buryatia, Omsk Region and the Altai Territory. Over the last five-year observation period, high epizootic activity has been observed in the west of the Republic of Tyva. A total of 3,375 livestock animals and 128 people fell ill. The anthrax database contains information on 7,491 stationary anthrax-infected points in 22 subjects and 562 anthrax burials and cattle burials in 17 subjects of Siberia and the Far East. B. anthracis strains have slight variability in biological properties and belong to two global genetic lines – A and B. In order to prevent anthrax, it is necessary to ensure surveillance of soil foci of anthrax (anthrax burials and cattle burials, “plague fields”), a high level of livestock animals registration and their specific vaccination coverage; to control the implementation of veterinary and sanitary requirements for pre-mortem inspection and emergency slaughter of livestock, the sale of meat and meat products, and biological waste disposal; to carry out explanatory work among the population.
ABSTRACT
Archaeologists of colonial encounters utilize the concept of entanglement to explore shifting cultural relationships between European and Native populations during colonial encounters. In ...the chaotic decades after Spanish conquest of Peru (1532), Andeans of the south‐central highlands practiced a revitalization cult known as Taki Onqoy (Quechua: “dancing/singing sickness”). Taki Onqoy preachers advocated for a rejection of Spanish food, culture, and religion in favor of a return to veneration of the local deities practiced prior to Spanish invasion. Based on results from excavation of the Catholic church at the site of Iglesiachayoq (Chicha‐Soras Valley, Ayacucho, Peru), this article explores the burial practices of individuals interred beneath the church floor. Contrary to primary documents, which portray Andeans as idolatrous rebels or pious converts, interments displayed an array of entangled practices. Within the milieu of contrasting religious mandates (Catholic and Taki Onqoy), individuals interred their deceased kin in ways that intertwined both traditions.
RESUMEN
Arqueólogos de encuentros coloniales utilizan el concepto de entrelazamiento para explorar relaciones culturales cambiantes entre poblaciones europeas y nativas durante encuentros coloniales. En las décadas caóticas después de la conquista española del Perú (1532), los andinos de las tierras altas sudcentrales practicaron un culto de revitalización conocido como Taki Onqoy (quechua: “enfermedad del baile/canto”). Los predicadores de Taki Onqoy propugnaron por un rechazo a la comida, la cultura y la religión españolas en favor de un retorno a la veneración de deidades locales practicado con anterioridad a la invasión española. Basado en los resultados de la excavación de la iglesia católica en el sitio de Iglesiachayoq (Valle de Chicha‐Soras, Ayacucho, Perú), este artículo explora las prácticas de sepultura de individuos enterrados bajo el piso de la iglesia. Contrario a documentos primarios, los cuales retratan los andinos como rebeldes idólatras o conversos piadosos, las inhumaciones exhiben una variedad de prácticas entrelazadas. Dentro del ámbito de mandatos religiosos contrastantes (católico y Taki Onqoy), individuos sepultaron a sus parientes fallecidos en formas que entrelazan las dos tradiciones. revitalización, sepultura, Taki Onqoy, colonialismo español, Andes
Objectives
Isotope ratio analyses of dentine collagen were used to characterize short‐term changes in physiological status (both dietary status and biological stress) across the life course of ...children afforded special funerary treatment.
Materials and methods
Temporal sequences of δ15N and δ13C isotope profiles for incrementally forming dentine collagen were obtained from deciduous teeth of 86 children from four early‐medieval English cemeteries. Thirty‐one were interred in child‐specific burial clusters, and the remainder alongside adults in other areas of the cemetery. Isotope profiles were categorized into four distinct patterns of dietary and health status between the final prenatal months and death.
Results
Isotope profiles from individuals from the burial clusters were significantly less likely to reflect weaning curves, suggesting distinctive breastfeeding and weaning experiences. This relationship was not simply a factor of differential age at death between cohorts. There was no association of burial location neither with stage of weaning at death, nor with isotopic evidence of physiological stress at the end of life.
Discussion
This study is the first to identify a relationship between the extent of breastfeeding and the provision of child‐specific funerary rites. Limited breastfeeding may indicate the mother had died during or soon after birth, or that either mother or child was unable to feed due to illness. Children who were not breastfed will have experienced a significantly higher risk of malnutrition, undernutrition and infection. These sickly and perhaps motherless children received care to nourish them during early life, and were similarly provided with special treatment in death.
The necropolis of Paroikia in Paros has been in use from the 8th century BC. to the 3rd century AD. The exceptional gathering of deceased, who constitute that funerary space, allows the expression of ...values such as collectivity mostly. Thanks to the material data that provides an overview of the relationships between the living and the dead, this grouping sheds light as one of the earliest forms of political consciousness in the Greek world. Later tombs, on the other hand, show the evolution of this consciousness while reflecting private manifestations who belong to their times. The funerary material thus appears as a way of accessing the construction and the persistence of a speech that contributes to grasping the Parian identity.
Conducted as part of a Collective Research Project (PCR, Projet Collectif de Recherche) titled “Funerary spaces and practices in Alsace during Merovingian and Carolingian times”, the study of ...residential graves, discovered in early medieval rural dwelling contexts, aims to develop an archaeological and anthropological methodology that can be adapted to a heterogeneous corpus and limited research time, to analyse and compare the corpus from Alsace to other regional funerary groups as well as residential burial groups in other French regions and neighbouring German region of Bade-Württemberg. With a corpus of 171 burials and 192 individuals from 19 sites, 46 of which have been radiocarbon dated and 30 dated by typochronology of the artefacts, the project led to the development of a methodology allowing a chronological, topographical, proxemical, biological and social approach of the practice. Three chronological phases have been identified during the three centuries of the practice, as well as three topographical layouts of the burials: isolated, scattered, and grouped. Funerary gestures and architecture are similar to what is known for contemporary large burial groups. The demographic and biological study of the buried population gave similar results to data in cemeteries. Considering the characteristics and their limits, the family groups and beliefs, the interpretations proposed by this study are compared to what is known in France and North-Western Europe. These first results are modest, but this new methodology should help process other heterogeneous regional bodies of data and allow more precise comparisons.
Personal ornaments are widely viewed as indicators of social identity and personhood. Ornaments are ubiquitous from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene, but they are most often found as isolated ...objects within archaeological assemblages without direct evidence on how they were displayed. This article presents a detailed record of the ornaments found in direct association with an Early Mesolithic buried female infant discovered in 2017 at the site of Arma Veirana (Liguria, Italy). It uses microscopic, 3D, and positional analyses of the ornaments as well as a preliminary perforation experiment to document how they were perforated, used, and what led to their deposit as part of the infant’s grave goods. This study provides important information on the use of beads in the Early Mesolithic, in general, as well as the relationship between beads and young subadults, in particular. The results of the study suggest that the beads were worn by members of the infant’s community for a considerable period before they were sewn onto a sling, possibly used to keep the infant close to the parents while allowing their mobility, as seen in some modern forager groups. The baby was then likely buried in this sling to avoid reusing the beads that had failed to protect her or simply to create a lasting connection between the deceased infant and her community.
Excavated over two centuries ago, the Upton Lovell G2a ‘Wessex Culture’ burial has held a prominent place in research on Bronze Age Britain. In particular, was it the grave of a ‘shaman’ or a ...metalworker? We take a new approach to the grave goods, employing microwear analysis and scanning electron microscopy to map a history of interactions between people and materials, identifying evidence for the presence of Bronze Age gold on five artefacts, four for the first time. Advancing a new materialist approach, we identify a goldworking toolkit, linking gold, stone and copper objects within a chaîne opératoire, concluding that modern categorisations of these materials miss much of their complexity.
The article represents a contribution to the funerary archeology of the province of Scythia, outlining the picture related to the funerary practices addressed to children. It is emphasized that the ...burial rituals, most of the time, were different from those applied to adults in terms of the space within the necropolises, the position, the orientation, or the burial inventory.
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