Substantial debate surrounds the relative lack of formal burials in Britain during the fifth century AD, which was a key period of social and economic transition following the withdrawal of the Roman army. Here, the authors argue that the ‘missing fifth century’ may be explained, in part, by the continuation of archaeologically invisible mortuary treatments practised in the preceding Iron Age and Roman period. Compilation of published radiocarbon dates from human remains found in cave and riverine contexts demonstrates that a variety of methods for the disposal of the dead—outside of formal cemeteries—existed in the first millennium AD.

While recent genomic and isotopic information show that migration has been pervasive along human history, southern Andean archaeology has largely overlooked its importance in shaping human trajectories of sociocultural change. Building on previous isotopic research that identified the presence of migrant farmers in the Uspallata Valley (Mendoza, Argentina), we present chronological and bioarchaeological results that help to characterize the timing and mode of human migrations in the southern Andes. The burials with migrants show the representation of the different age classes, including a high abundance of children, as well as both men and women, suggesting that family groups were likely involved. The Bayesian modeling of 16 direct dates for migrants indicates that these migrations started between 1210–1275 CE (median 1255 CE) and finished at 1320–1425 CE (median 1360 CE), indicating that there is nearly no overlap between the commencement of this migration phase and the southwards expansion of the Inka Empire. The model defines a diachronic process that lasted between 55 and 195 years, implying that migration to Uspallata was a multi-generational process that involved between two and eight generations (median of four generations). Our contextual, bioarchaeological and chronological evidence indicates that the conditions fostering migration to Uspallata were sustained through time, inviting to explore persisting push-pull dynamics acting during this period. 87Sr/86Sr results show that migration occurred across the daily territories of these groups and may have involved movement across social or ethnic frontiers.

Clusters of Neolithic cursus monuments are attested in several parts of Britain but have so far not been recorded in Ireland, where only isolated or pairs of monuments are known. A recent lidar survey of the Baltinglass landscape of County Wicklow, Ireland, has now identified a cluster of up to five cursus monuments. Here, the author explores this group of monuments and their significance within the wider setting of Neolithic Ireland and Britain. Their unique morphology, location and orientation offer insights into the ritual and ceremonial aspects of the farming communities that inhabited the Baltinglass landscape and hint at the variability in the form and possible functions of these monuments for early farming communities.

The settlement of Ban Non Wat charts the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in north-eastern Thailand. Examination of grave inclusions and mortuary treatment at this important site allows insights into social change during this key period. Increasing complexity and the inclusion of exotic items in the mortuary treatment of some individuals early in the Bronze Age is suggested to show the rise of a lineage of aggrandisers who controlled access to these symbolic articles. But, the author argues, their elevated status was ephemeral, forfeited as local bronze casting became established.

The megalithic pillar sites found around Lake Turkana, Kenya, are monumental cemeteries built approximately 5000 years ago. Their construction coincides with the spread of pastoralism into the region during a period of profound climate change. Early work at the Jarigole pillar site suggested that these places were secondary burial grounds. Subsequent excavations at other pillar sites, however, have revealed planned mortuary cavities for predominantly primary burials, challenging the idea that all pillar sites belonged to a single ‘Jarigole mortuary tradition’. Here, the authors report new findings from the Jarigole site that resolve long-standing questions about eastern Africa's earliest monuments and provide insight into the social lives, and deaths, of the region's first pastoralists.

In this article, the authors examine radiocarbon, histo-taphonomic, and contextual evidence for the deliberate curation, manipulation, and redeposition of human bone in British Bronze Age mortuary contexts. New radiocarbon dates and histological analyses are combined with existing data to explore the processes and practices that resulted in the incorporation of ‘relic’ fragments of bone in later graves, including evidence for the deliberate re-opening of previous burials and for funerary treatments such as excarnation and mummification. In some cases, fragments of human bone were curated outside the mortuary context. The authors consider what the treatment of human remains reveals about mortuary complexity in the Bronze Age, about relations between the living and the dead, and about attitudes to the body and concepts of the self.

The past four decades have been a time of great activity for researchers examining the Iron Age in north-west Europe. Since the 1980s, the scale of archaeological fieldwork has expanded massively and, with it, the quantity of data available to study. Iron Age mortuary data have been one of the main beneficiaries of this. Britain is no exception to this trend, with a number of important discoveries made over the years, thereby improving our understanding of mortuary practices during this period. The situation is comparable for the regions which immediately border Britain: Ireland, northern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. This paper reviews the current state of research for this part of Europe, contextualising the Iron Age British data within the broader north-west European frame of these neighbouring regions. In so doing, a better understanding of how chronological developments in the British mortuary data relate to those elsewhere is possible. Additionally, these data may inform us of other aspects of past societies, such as population mobility, social structure, and the persistence of ritual practices over time.

Este trabajo propone conocer la relación, existente en los entierros de infantes en urna de la región de Fiambalá (Tinogasta, Catamarca, Argentina), entre los lenguajes visuales desplegados en las piezas cerámicas que los contienen o acompañan, los estados de salud de los individuos y las ofrendas alimentarias asociadas. El rango temporal de los ocho casos estudiados abarca los siglos doce al quince de la era moderna. Consideramos que las formas del ritual, la disposición de los restos y las distintas clases de elementos depositados (ajuar) son resultado de elecciones concretas de la comunidad en las que entran en juego las concepciones y creencias respecto de la muerte y la continuidad de la vida. La articulación de estas líneas de evidencia sugiere que no existen diferencias en las imágenes desplegadas en las piezas, independientemente del estado de salud de los difuntos y del tipo de ofrenda alimentaria. Discutimos el ocultamiento de ciertas imágenes como forma de acentuar las identidades de las poblaciones dominadas por el incario.

The well-known Zvejnieki cemetery, with 330 burials, is one of the largest hunter-gatherer cemeteries in northern Europe, overshadowing the more than 115 other Stone Age burials from over ten sites in Latvia. This article is a first overview of these other burials, summarizing their research history, characteristics, and assemblages. The authors discuss the problematic chronology of Latvian Stone Age burials and place them in a wider regional context. Most of the burials are hunter-gatherer burials, and a few are Corded Ware graves. This overview broadens our understanding of Latvian Stone Age burials and brings to light the diversity of hunter-fisher-gatherer mortuary practices in the eastern Baltic region.

Recent analysis of Early Bronze Age human remains from Staarvey Farm on the Isle of Man has revealed a rare bone knife pommel and 20 other bone objects, offering insight into the importance of bone ornaments and artefact fittings at this time. This article adopts a relational typological approach to analyse the Staarvey burial and comparable assemblages, identifying patterns in the deposition of knife pommels in central and southern Britain. In exploring regional interaction in Early Bronze Age Britain and Ireland, the authors refine and move beyond traditional typologies to trace types of both objects and practice. This approach allows them to consider multiple, overlapping spheres of funerary practice and their relation to identities at different regional scales.

During the Early Neolithic in the Near East, particularly from the mid ninth millennium cal BC onwards, human iconography became more widespread. Explanations for this development, however, remain elusive. This article presents a unique assemblage of flint artefacts from the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (eighth millennium BC) site of Kharaysin in Jordan. Contextual, morphological, statistical and use-wear analyses of these artefacts suggest that they are not tools but rather human figurines. Their close association with burial contexts suggests that they were manufactured and discarded during mortuary rituals and remembrance ceremonies that included the extraction, manipulation and redeposition of human remains.

We examine the changes in funerary rituals from the Early Agricultural period (2100 BC–AD 50) to the Early Preclassic period (AD 475–750) and how these changes concurrently reflect changes in social relationships between the dead, their families, and the community. The predominant mortuary ritual in the Early Agricultural period was inhumation, possibly emphasizing a variety of identity intersections of the dead and the mourners in the treatment of the body while creating collective memories and remembrances through shared ways of commemorating the dead. An innovation in funerary practices in the form of secondary cremation appeared in the Early Agricultural period and was slowly but broadly adopted, representing new social dynamics within the society. Thereafter, secondary cremation became the main funeral custom. During the Early Preclassic period, the variation in body position and the type and quantity of objects found with individuals decreased. It is possible that the vehicle for displaying different identity intersections changed and was not placed in the body, per se, as much as in previous periods. However, the transformation characteristics of these funeral rituals and the increase in community investment could have fostered the building or reinforcing of stronger social ties that highlighted a “collective identity.”

Analysis of human remains and a copper band found in the center of a Late Archaic (ca. 5000–3000 cal BP) shell ring demonstrate an exchange network between the Great Lakes and the coastal southeast United States. Similarities in mortuary practices suggest that the movement of objects between these two regions was more direct and unmediated than archaeologists previously assumed based on “down-the-line” models of exchange. These findings challenge prevalent notions that view preagricultural Native American communities as relatively isolated from one another and suggest instead that wide social networks spanned much of North America thousands of years before the advent of domestication.

Identity is a concept that shifts over the lifespan in association with relational interactions. This study documents and interprets the cultural systems influencing shifts in identity during maturation in hunter-gatherers from Point Hope, Alaska through archaeological mortuary practices. Grave goods, body position, body orientation, and burial depth (underground versus surface) were recorded for Ipiutak (1500–1100 BP) and Tigara (800–400 BP) cultures. Age was estimated using tooth formation. No age differences in burial depth were found, likely reflecting environmental constraints. Changes in body orientation, body position, and grave-good allocation were found between three and four years with another increase in grave-good allocation after age six. A larger age range of individuals without grave goods was found at Tigara. Changes in bodily orientation and position likely reflect beliefs surrounding the soul. The initial presence of animal implements may represent gifting of amulets, while increases in these items at later ages indicate continued maturation. Differences in the age ranges of individuals without animal implements between the two sites may reflect stronger delineations of social prestige at Ipiutak. These findings hint at the complex relational pathways associated with the formation of identity in prehistoric hunter-gatherer communities.

One hundred and sixty hypogea have been discovered in the Paris Basin, concentrated in the south-west part of the Marne department. Radiocarbon dates and archaeological artefacts indicate their construction and use were a phenomenon limited to the Late Neolithic 2, currently estimated as 3350–3000 cal BC. Re-examination of the human skeletal remains, notably those from Les Mournouards II, enables us to improve our understanding of the practices involved in these collective burials, particularly aspects of individual selection and distribution. Age, sex, and social status determined the burial location between and within the artificial caves. Burial positions characterized two groups of hypogea. However, in both groups, most female individuals were buried along the left wall of the monuments, on the same side as the collective grave goods and carved female figures sometimes discovered in the anterooms. The nature and distribution of personal material reflect the existence of particular statuses for some individuals. The burial principles reveal a relative conservatism guaranteeing distinction between individuals of different lifetime statuses. Several competing strategies sought to preserve, in death, this social order. The mortuary practices, then, reflect a codified social organization for a Paris Basin group of the later fourth millennium BC and a burial practice that was less ‘collective’ than might have been imagined.

This paper offers a critical evaluation of the debate on agency and personhood in archaeology. Despite some very interesting and sharp discussions, the debate has suffered from the projection of anachronistic definitions of the person and an overreliance on specific ethnographic readings. In addition, little attempt is made to integrate abstract theoretical discussions with close analyses of empirical data. I would like to suggest that this should be our priority. In the second part of the paper, I will apply these ideas by examining notions of personhood and agency held by the inhabitants of the southern Greek mainland between ca 1800 and 1600 B.C. The analysis will be based on the mortuary practices and imagery of the period.

The article focuses on problems in making generalizations about the character of Stone Age sites and the difficulties of separating sacred and secular remains. Like many other Pitted Ware sites, the middle Neolithic site of Jettböle on the Åland Islands has been characterized as a settlement site despite finds of a ritual character. This study investigates the spatial relationships and depositional patterns of different find categories, with a special focus on human remains, including DNA analysis and the ornamentation of pottery from one of the larger excavation units from the site. The character and meaning of the site seem to be more complex than previously considered. The results of the study stress the need for careful investigation of the contextual circumstances of finds before making general interpretations.

Houses and burials recorded in the settlements of Lepenski Vir I and II and burials previously ascribed to Lepenski Vir III are here discussed in view of the recent analyses of archaeological material and re-analyses of the field burial record from this site. Evidence of pottery in situ in houses of Lepenski Vir I, together with the evidence for important dietary change in the Lepenski Vir community in the course of the second half of the seventh millennium cal BC, reinforces the assumption, made by a number of scholars over several previous decades, of intensive contacts between early Neolithic groups and local hunter-gatherers. Burial practice throughout the seventh and sixth millennia cal BC at Lepenski Vir is thus reanalyzed in this new light. Apart from burials unrelated to architectural remains, five ‘types’ of burial deposition are noted in relation to houses of Lepenski Vir I–II, all but one having a distinct chronological and spatial patterning. The inhabitants' choice of mode of deposition of the deceased is always associated with a certain location in the settlement, sometimes used over several centuries. In the course of their history, these locations were often used for building a particular house or group of houses. The content of such houses is also discussed wherever it was possible. Duality in settlement organization could also be recognized in the burial practices related to settlement architecture. The attribution of the majority of burial remains to early Neolithic Lepenski Vir III is here also questioned in the light of new data and reinterpreted settlement sequences.