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The persistent presence of the dead: recent excavations at the hunter-gatherer cemetery at Zvejnieki (Latvia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2013

Liv Nilsson Stutz ,
Lars Larsson  and
Ilga Zagorska
Liv Nilsson Stutz
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Lars Larsson
Affiliation:
2Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lunds Universitet, Box 117, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden
Ilga Zagorska
Affiliation:
3Institute of the History of Latvia, Akadēmijas laukums 1, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia
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Abstract

The well-known Mesolithic cemeteries of Northern Europe have long been viewed as evidence of developing social complexity in those regions in the centuries immediately before the Neolithic transition. These sites also had important symbolic connotations. This study uses new and more detailed analysis of the burial practices in one of these cemeteries to argue that much more is involved than social differentiation. Repeated burial in the densely packed site of Zvejnieki entailed large-scale disturbance of earlier graves, and would have involved recurrent encounters with the remains of the ancestral dead. The intentional use of older settlement material in the grave fills may also have signified a symbolic link with the past. The specific identity of the dead is highlighted by the evidence for clay face masks and tight body wrappings in some cases.

Keywords

LatviaZvejniekiMesolithicburial practicesarchaeothanatologycemeteryhunter-gatherers
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 338 , December 2013 , pp. 1016 - 1029
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

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