Deposition of modified human remains as evidence for complex mortuary treatment in East Africa during the first millenniumAD

Abstract

In 2019 partial, disarticulated human remains with evidence of perimortem fractures and tool marks were excavated from the site of Kabusanza in southern Rwanda (first millennium AD). The nature and location of these modifications demonstrate that some elements were subject to intentional dismemberment and defleshing, whereas the arrangement of the remains in the burial feature indicates that natural skeletonization had also occurred before final deposition. Human remains with similar patterns of modification and deposition have previously been recovered from the same site, and here we consider the potential behaviours that may have produced this suite of evidence. By comparing the remains with assemblages that have been produced through violence and through ritual activity, we demonstrate that the evidence from Kabusanza is more consistent with complex, multistage mortuary practices than other forms of processing. This may have involved some initial reduction of the body, followed by the retention or circulation of the disarticulated remains before their eventual deposition.

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)

“…The possible motives that the researchers found for processing the bodies included a prophylactic intention of purification and cleanliness, possibly with a symbolic significance, but which, ultimately, aimed to accelerate and control the decomposition process (Crozier, 2016, p. 732). Again, bone manipulation would be associated with controlling the skeletonization process through practices that implied severe skeletal processing, even by extracting the marrow (Pickering, 1989; Watts et al, 2020).…”

“…Other ethnographic and archaeological documentation describes more recent cases of dismemberment, as cited by Watts et al (2020) in an analysis of marks of defleshing and manipulation of remains at Kabusanza (Rwanda). The possible motives that the researchers found for processing the bodies included a prophylactic intention of purification and cleanliness, possibly with a symbolic significance, but which, ultimately, aimed to accelerate and control the decomposition process (Crozier, 2016, p. 732).…”