Heiligtum und Statusgrab. Ein Komplex aus Grabengeviert und Totenhütte des Schnurkeramik-Einzelgrab-Komplexes (original) (raw)
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Merovingian cemeteries with high numbers of individual burials and evident patterns of differing grave goods are very suitable for addressing different biocultural research questions. The sex- and status-specific equipment of many burials of this time allows a comparison of various archaeological characteristics with the osteological features of the deceased themselves, including possible correlations between social status and skeletal signs of interpersonal violence. This question was specifically addressed as part of an extended palaeopathological and palaeoepidemiological study of the large Early Medieval cemetery from Mannheim-Seckenheim, Germany (the “Hermsheimer Bösfeld”). Considering the weaponry, mainly consisting of bladed weapons, sharp force injuries appear as the most suitable indicators of interpersonal violence in the osteoarchaeological record of this time. By using systematically compiled data from the cemetery it becomes quite apparent that the visible traces of sharp force injuries are not distributed randomly in the population but follow a very specific pattern. This pattern is clearly connected to the expression of social status via the grave goods, which may include bladed weapons like swords and spears. In the cemetery, women show no skeletal trauma caused by these instruments, men of low status are rarely affected. The highest prevalence of serious injury caused by interpersonal violence is found in the high status men, whose graves include the same types of weapons that caused their own, often lethal, cranial injuries. This very much suggests that these men were mainly fighting other men of roughly equal social standing, and mostly in small-scale skirmishes or even in duel situations. The presence of weapons in a grave therefore is mirrored in the presence of skeletal trauma in the same group of people, who apparently kept these weapons not only for display in life or the funerary context, but also for lethal use against each other.
Mensch - Körper - Tod. Der Umgang mit menschlichen Überresten im Neolithikum Mitteleuropas, 2023
Abstract The Late Linear Pottery Culture (late LBK) central site of Schletz in Lower Austria (ca. 5300–4900 BCE), which was excavated between 1983 and 2005, is enclosed by an oval fortification consisting of two largely parallel trenches (inner trench I, outer trench II), and a trapezoidal enclosure attached to the northeast side (trench III). The site has become the focus of much attention, primarily because the human skeletal remains recovered from the bottom of trench II exhibit atypical postures and perimortem injuries. It was thus concluded that the individuals died during an attack on the settlement dated to circa 5000 BCE, i. e., the final phase of the LBK. Those killed appear not to have undergone any mortuary ritual but were instead left unburied and were thus exposed to circumstances that resulted in a variety of taphonomic alterations (e. g., carnivore activity in the form of biting). Based on these findings, and the fact that artefacts diagnostic of subsequent cultural developments seems to be absent, it was assumed that the site was abandoned. In addition to the victims of the violent conflict, further clusters of human remains were discovered. Of these, seventeen burials appear to represent ‘typical’ inhumations and are located either in abandoned dwelling pits or in grave pits, some of which were deposited in a sector of trench II, which had already been filled at the time of the massacre. What is more, isolated human skeletal elements, often intermingled with those of animals, were found throughout the site, including in settlement pits, trenches I and II, and in the LBK well. The aim of the present study is to highlight previously neglected findings and discuss our initial results. While male individuals dominate the group of massacre victims located in trench II, females and children predominate in the ‘typical’ burials, several of which were recently selected for radiocarbon dating. Preliminary results indicate that some of the ‘typical’ interments in the settlement are chronologically older than the massacre victims recovered from trench II. However, a few dates overlap to such an extent that it is not possible to establish a clearer dating sequence. Moreover, one individual also yielded a slightly younger 14C date, which may indicate at least occasional use of the site after the violent assault. The variety of mortuary practices is not, however, that which makes the site of Schletz unique; it is the sheer number of individuals obviously left unburied, a number that has never been encountered in an LBK context that requires further examination. The archaeological data, currently under assessment, leave open many important questions pertaining to the precise chronological sequence of the trenches and the settlement history, which will be explored. Additionally, the article provides detailed analysis of the taphonomic processes affecting the remains of the massacre victims and the fragmented skeletal remains recovered from settlement pits, as well as of burial practices, including the treatment of the dead outside the usual funerary cycle. Keywords: Schletz, Late Bandkeramik, fortifications, massacre, burials, mortuary record
Grabstein und Steingrab. Stein im Totenkult
In: Ulrich Veit/Matthias Wöhrl (Hrsg.), STEINWELTEN. Ein interdisziplinärer Rundgang – dargestellt anhand von Objekten aus den Sammlungen der Universität Leipzig (Leipzig 2020) 115–118.