A Radiocarbon Dating Approach to the Deposition and Removal of Human Bone Remains in Megalithic Monuments

Abstract

The formation of commingled human bone assemblages is a key aspect for better understanding funerary rituals. The megalithic cemetery of Panoría (Spain) provides an excellent opportunity to explore bone assemblage formation thanks to the recent excavation of an undisturbed burial. For this purpose, we have approached the differential skeletal representation found between bone and teeth at the site through radiocarbon (14C) dating and Bayesian modeling. The comparison between the series of 14C dates on bone (n=12) and teeth (n=14) stress three main aspects: (1) the dates of teeth show a long period of funerary use before the deposition of the human bone remains; (2) both kinds of samples appear to be chronologically sequenced; the end of the teeth 14C series matches with the beginning of human bone deposition; and (3) bone remains span a short period, not more than a few decades, which probably represents the last episode of intense mortuary activity. These differences suggest that teeth could be the evidence of skeletal depositions subsequently removed from the tomb. The deposition and removal of bone remains emerge as key aspects in the formation of the bone assemblage.

La cronología radiocarbónica de las sepulturas tipo tholos en la península ibérica: explorando diversas trayectorias sociales

“…The radiocarbon dates could have been affected by the reservoir effect, although this seems very unlikely given the distant location of La Sima II from any significant aquatic resources. An alternative explanation is that the construction of the tholos could be more recent if the dated human bones belong to secondary depositions of skeletal remains brought from other places, a ritual practice suggested for other Iberian and European funerary contexts (Teather 2018;Valera 2019Valera , 2020Aranda Jiménez et al 2020b;Booth and Brück 2020). In any case, if the radiocarbon dates are terminus ante quem for the construction of the tomb, La Sima II would belong to a pre-tholos phase with no connection to the classical development of this phenomenon.…”

Two examples of anthropic manipulation and postmortem processing of human remains at megalithic sites in inland Iberia: La Cabaña and Los Zumacales (Spanish northern sub‐plateau)

“…One paradigmatic case is the necropolis of Panoría in Granada. The systematic dating of the most representative bones on the one hand and teeth on the other showed that the latter belonged to individuals who died long before the better-represented bodies and whose skeletons must have been removed some years later (Aranda Jiménez et al, 2020).…”

La cronología de la necrópolis de La Orden-Seminario (Huelva). Temporalidades de la actividad funeraria en las sepulturas del III milenio cal BC

“…Sin embargo, son poco los sitios con un alto número de dataciones y modelos bayesianos que exploren la larga y compleja secuencia diacrónica del megalitismo funerario. En el sureste se han realizado extensas series de dataciones sobre restos antropológicos de varias necrópolis, con resultados novedosos de las secuencias de El Barranquete (Aranda Jiménez y Lozano Medina 2014;Aranda Jiménez et al 2017a), Panoría (Aranda Jiménez et al 2017b, 2020a, Las Churuletas, La Atalaya y Llano del Jautón (Aranda Jiménez et al 2017c), y la necrópolis de Los Millares (Aranda Jiménez et al 2020b;Molina et al 2020). En el suroeste, por el contrario, los estudios son más reducidos.…”