Current Approaches to Collective Burials in the Late European Prehistory

The present volume originated in session A25b (‘Current Approaches to Collective Burials in the Late European Prehistory’) of the XVII World Congress of the International Union of the Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences (UISPP), held in Burgos in September 2014. Collective burials are quite a common feature in Prehistoric Europe, with the gathering of multiple individuals in a shared burial place occurring in different types of burial structures (natural caves, megalithic structures, artificial caves, corbelled-roof tombs, pits, etc.). Such features are generally associated with communities along the agropastoralist transition and fully agricultural societies of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic. For a long time, human skeletal remains exhumed from collective burials were dismissed as valuable sources of information, their studies being limited mostly to morphological assessments and subsequent classification in predefined ‘races’. They currently represent a starting point for diversified, often interdisciplinary, research projects, allowing for a more accurate reconstruction of funerary practices, as well as of palaeobiological and environmental aspects, which are fundamental for the understanding of populations in the Late Prehistory of Europe and of the processes leading to the emergence of agricultural societies in this part of the world. The articles in this volume provide examples of different approaches currently being developed on Prehistoric collective burials of southern Europe, mostly focusing on case studies, but also including contributions of a more methodological scope.

Table of Contents

In Memoriam Rui Boaventura (February 10th 1971 – May 28th 2016) – Ana Catarina Sousa, Tiago Tomé, Ana Maria Silva Foreword to the XVII UISPP Congress Proceedings Series Edition – Luiz Oosterbeek Introduction – Tiago Tomé, Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, Ana Maria Silva and Claudia Cunha Tomb 3 at La Pijotilla (Solana de los Barros, Badajoz, Spain): A Bioarchaeological Study of a Copper Age Collective Burial – Marta Díaz-Zorita Bonilla, Charlotte A. Roberts, Leonardo García Sanjuán and Victor Hurtado Pérez On the applicability of the assessment of dental tooth wear for the study of collective prehistoric burials – Luís Miguel Marado, Claudia Cunha, G. Richard Scott, Tiago Tomé, Hugo Machado and Ana Maria Silva Cova de Can Sadurní (Begues, Barcelona). Towards the definition of a multiple funerary model inside caves during the middle Neolithic I in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula – Manuel Edo, Ferran Antolín, Pablo Martínez, Concepció Castellana, Remei Bardera, María Saña, M. Mercè Bergadà, Josep Maria Fullola, Chus Barrio, Elicínia Fierro, Trinidad Castillo and Eva Fornell Mora Cavorso Cave: a collective underground burial in Neolithic central Italy – Mario F. Rolfo, Katia F. Achino and Letizia Silvestri Bioarchaeological approach to the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic population of Cameros megalithic group (La Rioja, Spain) – Teresa Fernández-Crespo Anthropological and taphonomical study of human remains from the burial cave of El Espinoso (Ribadedeva, Asturias, Spain) – Borja González Rabanal, Manuel Ramón González Morales and Ana Belén Marín Arroyo Diet and ritual in the western Mediterranean Copper Age: human and animal stable isotopes from the collective burial at S. Caterina di Pittinuri (Sardinia, Italy) – Luca Lai, Ornella Fonzo, Elena Usai, Luca Medda, Robert Tykot, Ethan Goddard, David Hollander and Giuseppa Tanda The artificial caves of Valencina de la Concepción (Seville) – Pedro M. López Aldana and Ana Pajuelo Pando Multiple burials in pit graves from Recent Prehistory at Southwest of Iberia: The cases of Monte do Vale do Ouro 2 (Ferreira do Alentejo), Ribeira de S. Domingos 1 and Alto de Brinches 3 (Serpa) – Tânia Pereira, Ana Maria Silva, António Valera, Eduardo Porfírio