No abstract

Two settlements recently excavated in the middle Rhône valley provide new datas on the treatment of the human remains in the late Bronze Age (stage 3a). We found here burials occurred in round pits which seem to take place close to the domestic space. The burial customs signal an elaborate and special ritual : the pits reveal a preparation of the ground and a controlled organization of the internal area, the deposits of the dead are simultaneous or successive, some bones are removed after the decay of the bodies and buried again in the upper layers of the grave (interpreted as « secondary burial »). The unusual burial customs recognized differ fundamentaly from these known for the RSFO culture.