Secondary burial cemeteries, visibility and land tenure: A view from the southern Levant Chalcolithic period

Winter-Livneh, Rona; Svoray, Tal; Gilead, Isaac

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2012.03.002

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…Evidence we present here of periodic utilization of the cave is consistent with this hypothesis, and the deposits in the cave could represent a mortuary practice involving one larger event during which multiple individuals that had died and were placed elsewhere were collected and reinterred within the cave. Similar burial practices appear in the Chalcolithic in southeastern Europe and in the Levant (Le Mort and Rabinovich 2002; Nativ and Gopher 2011; Winter-Livneh et al 2012).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 71%

New AMS Dates for Verteba Cave and Stable Isotope Evidence of Human Diet in The Holocene Forest-Steppe, Ukraine

Ledogar¹,

Karsten

Madden

et al. 2018

Radiocarbon

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Excavations at several locations in Verteba Cave have uncovered a large amount of human skeletal remains in association with faunal bones and Tripolye material culture. We aim to establish radiocarbon (14C) dates for eight sites and to evaluate whether these deposits are singular events, or slow accumulations over time.14C measurements, along with stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data from human and faunal remains, were collected from 18 specimens. Stable isotope values were used to evaluate human and animal diet, and whether freshwater reservoir effects offset measured dates. We found diets of the sampled species had limited to no influence from freshwater resources. Human diet appears to be dominated by terrestrial plants and herbivores. Four new sites were identified as Eneolithic. Comparisons of dates from top and bottom strata for two sites (7 and 20) reveal coeval dates, and we suggest that these deposits represent discrete events rather than slow continuous use. Lastly, we identified dates from the Mesolithic (8490±45 BP, 8765±30 BP), Iron Age (2505±20 BP), Slavic state era (1315±25 BP), and Medieval Period (585±15 BP), demonstrating periodic use of the cave by humans prior to and after the Eneolithic.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 71%

New AMS Dates for Verteba Cave and Stable Isotope Evidence of Human Diet in The Holocene Forest-Steppe, Ukraine

Ledogar¹,

Karsten

Madden

et al. 2018

Radiocarbon

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show abstract

“…However, this argument is not easy to defend in the absence of markers of social stratification that could potentially collapse (Bourke 2002; Gilead 1988). Also, the collective dimension of the ossuaries, their distance from habitations and the necessary anonymity of the dead confront the idea of elite and chiefdom organization in Ghassulian society (Winter-Livneh et al 2012, 426).…”

Section: The Local Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most robust argument supporting social ranking among the Ghassulians emanates from interpreting the complex metallic items as prestige artefacts (Klimscha 2011, 130; Levy 1995, 241; Roux 2019, 23). However, their absence from specific graves challenges both the idea of social stratification and even their interpretation as prestige artefacts (Gosić 2013, 268–71; Philip 2003, 122–3; Winter-Livneh et al 2012, 426). Instead, prestige artefacts being by definition items produced for a demanding elite, arguing the stratification of the Ghassulian society based on their interpretation as prestige artefacts is somewhat tautological.…”

Section: The Local Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Metallurgy—A Key Factor in the Transition from the Chalcolithic to Bronze Age in the Southern Levant

Amzallag¹

2021

CAJ

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The causes of the disappearance of Late Chalcolithic society (Ghassulian) in the early fourth millennium bc remain obscure. This study identifies the collapse as the consequence of a change in the approach to metallurgy from cosmological fundament (Late Chalcolithic) to a practical craft (EB1). This endogenous transition accounts for the cultural recession characterizing the transitional period (EB1A) and the discontinuity in ritual practices. The new practical approach in metallurgy is firstly observed in the southern margin of the Ghassulian culture, which produced copper for distribution in the Nile valley rather than the southern Levant. Nevertheless, the Ghassulian cultural markers visible in the newly emerging areas of copper working (southern coastal plain, Nile valley) denote the survival of the old cosmological traditions among metalworkers of the EB1 culture. Their religious expression unveils the extension of the Ghassulian beliefs attached to metallurgy and their metamorphosis into the esoteric fundaments of the Bronze Age religions.

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“…Their works have been influential in the anthropology and later the archaeology of death (see e.g. Danforth 1982;Metcalf & Huntington 1991;Hutchinson & Aragon 2002;Robb 2007;Winter-Livneh et al 2012;Kan 2016), especially following their translation from French into English in 1960 (Hertz 1960;Van Gennep 1960).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Too many secondary burials in Minoan Crete?

Schmitt

Déderix

2021

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

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This article addresses the assumption that the mortuary record of Prepalatial and Protopalatial Crete (3000-1800 BC) is dominated by secondary burials and its corollary that the Minoans practiced double funerals. First, ethnographic and historical data are employed to examine the diverse types of funerary, post-funerary and non-funerary manipulations that produce secondary bone deposits. Then, the Sissi cemetery, located in northern Crete and used from Early Minoan IIA (2650-2450 BC) until Middle Minoan IIB (1850-1800 BC), is analyzed following the epistemological process of archaeothanatology, which makes it possible to test a whole range of potential scenarios rather than only one predetermined hypothesis. We argue that, at Sissi, secondary bone deposits are mostly the product of pragmatic gestures linked to the management of the sepulchral space. Such gestures are conducted with due respect for the community's forbears while contributing to their memorialization, but they must not be confused with double funerals and their associated set of funerary, social and economic correlates. Highlights This is the first application of archaeothanatology to the study of a Minoan cemetery. Secondary bone deposits may be the product of a broad range of funerary, postfunerary and non-funerary manipulations of the dead. Alternative hypotheses to secondary burials and double funerals must be considered. Mortuary practices related to secondary manipulations of the dead are reconstructed in the Sissi cemetery. At Sissi, secondary treatments of the dead are mostly related to the management of the sepulchral space.

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Secondary burial cemeteries, visibility and land tenure: A view from the southern Levant Chalcolithic period

Cited by 16 publications

References 84 publications

New AMS Dates for Verteba Cave and Stable Isotope Evidence of Human Diet in The Holocene Forest-Steppe, Ukraine

New AMS Dates for Verteba Cave and Stable Isotope Evidence of Human Diet in The Holocene Forest-Steppe, Ukraine

Cultural Metallurgy—A Key Factor in the Transition from the Chalcolithic to Bronze Age in the Southern Levant

Too many secondary burials in Minoan Crete?

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