From fire-induced alterations on human bones to the original circumstances of the fire: An integrated approach of human cremains drawn from a Neolithic collective burial

Becdelièvre, Camille de; Thiol, Sandrine; Santos, Frédéric; Rottier, Stéphane

doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.08.030

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Given the impairments described above, biological profiles, which include the assessment of age at death, stature, sex, and ancestry in both settings are exclusively obtained from bones and teeth and the same occurs with pathologies and traumas (9,10). Regarding burned skeletons, however, many bioanthropological methods are compromised since they are based on bone morphology and metrics (11)(12)(13)(14)(15) and heat is known to cause color and size changes, warping and fragmentation (2,14,(16)(17)(18). Hence, the study of burned human bones allows to better understand heat-induced changes and their impact on bioanthropological methods and is of the utmost relevance for the analysis of both forensic and archaeological contexts.…”

Section: Burned Bones: What Is the Problem?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Burned bones tell their own stories: A review of methodological approaches to assess heat-induced diagenesis

Mamede

Gonçalves

Marques

et al. 2017

Applied Spectroscopy Reviews

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One of the biggest struggles of biological anthropology is to estimate the biological profile from burned human skeletal remains. Bioanthropological methods are seriously compromised due to bone heat-induced alterations in shape and size. Therefore, it is urgent to improve our ability to estimate sex, age at death, stature and ancestrality, to recognize peri mortem traumas and differentiate them from fractures due to fire, and to determine what was the intensity of burning, namely maximum temperature and heat exposure length. This review focuses on different methodologies to assess heat prompted changes in bone submicrostructure. Some of these are extensively used in burned bones research, namely infrared and Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, while others such as neutron spectroscopy and diffraction are rarely applied to bone samples although their contribution may be crucial for establishing new bioanthropological methods for a reliable examination of burned victims.

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Section: Burned Bones: What Is the Problem?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Burned bones tell their own stories: A review of methodological approaches to assess heat-induced diagenesis

Mamede

Gonçalves

Marques

et al. 2017

Applied Spectroscopy Reviews

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“…Funerary practices in the Chalcolithic vary markedly in Southern Portugal and include both primary and secondary deposition of human remains in dolmens, tholoi, pits, ditches, and hypogea (Valera et al, ). Although cremation has also been reported (Cataroche & Gowland, ; de Becdelievre, Thiol, Saligny, Granjon, & Rottier, ; de Becdelievre, Thiol, Santos, & Rottier, ; Gatto, ; Geber, Hensey, Meehan, Moore, & Kador, ; Silva, Leandro, Pereira, Costa, & Valera, ; Silva, Cunha, & Gonçalves, ), it appears to have been restricted to a relatively low number of individuals per structure/site and thus be a marginal funerary practice in recent prehistory (for a review, see Weiss‐Krejci, ). Such diversity in funerary practices has been related to interpopulation differences (Fernández‐Crespo & de‐la‐Rúa, ; Fernández‐Crespo & Schulting, ; López‐Onaindia, Coca, Gibaja, & Subirà, ), intrapopulation social‐cultural differences (Fernández‐Crespo & de‐la‐Rúa, ; Fernández‐Crespo & Schulting, ; Fontanals‐Coll, Subirà, Bonilla, Duboscq, & Gibaja, ; Valera, ), or complex multistage sequences of funerary rites (Hutchinson & Aragon, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

The preburning condition of Chalcolithic cremated human remains from the Perdigões enclosures (Portugal)

Godinho

Gonçalves

Valera

2019

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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The Iberian Chalcolithic displayed a remarkable variety of funerary practices, which has been related to interpopulation differences, intrapopulation social‐cultural differences, and complex multistage funerary rituals. Perdigões, a Chalcolithic set of ditched enclosures, reflects such diversity including a wide array of funerary practices. Among those practices is cremation, which, despite relatively rare, is represented in different structures in Perdigões. One of these structures (Pit 40) presents an unparalleled high minimum number of individuals (n = 240), contrasting with nearby and coeval structures. In this study, we analyse heat‐induced bone changes and other archaeothanatological variables to tentatively assess the preburning condition of the human remains. The results of Pit 40 are also compared with other comparable contexts to assess if this unique context presents further funerary differences relative to those other contexts in, for example, body processing. Our results suggest preferential cremation of fleshed human remains, but burning of at least a minority of skeletonised remains and deposition of possibly unburned remains also likely occurred. Body processing appears to be comparable with that of the cremation contexts of Perdigões but contrasts with that of another nearby context (Dolmen of Olival da Pega 2b) in which burned bones were also found.

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“…Leur traitement par des outils d'analyse tels que les systèmes d'information géographique (SIG) aboutit, en général, à une cartographie en plan ou en coupe de densité ou de dispersion des critères sélectionnés, qui s'avère particulière-ment efficace [19,22,23]. En permettant de gérer une quantité conséquente de données, de les croiser et de mener des analyses spatiales, ces logiciels lèvent l'un des obstacles que constituait jusqu'alors la masse de données à traiter.…”

Section: Les Limites Actuelles De L'analyse Des Assemblages Osseux Deunclassified

“…Les données xyz des os ont été traitées avec un SIG. Cet outil, dont l'utilisation pour l'analyse de sépultures collectives se multiplie, [22,23] permet, par tris successifs des pièces osseuses, une confrontation des positions et des altitudes des éléments en position secondaire avec ceux en connexion, ce qui est susceptible de révéler d'éventuelles concentrations et niveaux de circulation. Cette approche spatiale a été complétée par la mise au net de chaque relevé de terrain.…”

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Retour d'expériences sur l'étude de trois assemblages osseux issus de sépultures collectives néolithiques

Schmitt

Bizot²

2016

BMSAP

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Reçu le 4 septembre 2015 ; accepté le 7 mars 2016 © Société d'Anthropologie de Paris et Lavoisier SAS 2016Résumé La plupart des sépultures collectives du Néolithique final ayant bénéficié de fouilles et d'un enregistrement optimaux ont livré une grande quantité d'ossements. Le croisement des données archéologiques et anthropologiques acquises sur le terrain et en laboratoire permet, en théorie, de restituer les pratiques mortuaires. L'investissement en temps et les compétences requises pour l'étude des assemblages osseux issus des sépultures collectives, notamment en contexte préventif, impose d'aborder la question du bilan des travaux. Cette réflexion se base essentiellement sur trois sépul-tures collectives. La reconstitution des modes de dépôts initiaux des individus et de manipulation des ossements s'est avérée relativement limitée. Faute de pouvoir quantifier les impacts des facteurs taphonomiques ou de conservation diffé-rentielle, variables d'un site à l'autre, il reste difficile de choisir parmi les différents scenarii envisagés. Alors que les métho-des précises mises en oeuvre garantissent une acquisition optimale des données lors de la phase terrain, l'analyse des assemblages osseux demeure une tâche longue et complexe, produisant des résultats de faible portée interprétative. Ainsi, s'il est légitime de nous interroger sur l'adéquation entre les moyens et les résultats obtenus, en l'état actuel de nos ressources méthodologiques, un tel déploiement de moyens constitue encore la principale voie d'approche. Cependant, de meilleurs référentiels ostéologiques et taphonomiques sont nécessaires.Mots clés Sépulture collective · Néolithique final · Dénombrement · Analyse spatiale · Traitement du cadavre · Anthropologie de terrain Abstract Most collective burials from the late Neolithic period that have been rigorously excavated and recorded have yielded relatively large quantities of bones. By applying the "archaeo-anthropological" approach it is possible, in theory, to reconstruct mortuary practices from data acquired in the field and during subsequent laboratory work. The time and skills required for studies of collective burials, especially in survey archaeology, imply the need to review previous studies. We discuss these issues through the example of three cases of collective burials. Reconstructions of initial corpse deposits and manipulations of the bones appear to have a number of limitations. Because the impacts of taphonomic factors or different states of preservation vary from one site to another and cannot be quantified, it is always difficult to identify one particular scenario for each case. Although the precision of the methods applied ensure optimum data acquisition in the field, analyzing bone assemblages is a long and complex task, and the results are often difficult to interpret. Given the methods currently available, even though it is legitimate to ask whether the ends are consistent with the means, deploying these means is still the most satisfactory strategy. However, it remains essential t...

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From fire-induced alterations on human bones to the original circumstances of the fire: An integrated approach of human cremains drawn from a Neolithic collective burial

Cited by 15 publications

References 25 publications

Burned bones tell their own stories: A review of methodological approaches to assess heat-induced diagenesis

Burned bones tell their own stories: A review of methodological approaches to assess heat-induced diagenesis

The preburning condition of Chalcolithic cremated human remains from the Perdigões enclosures (Portugal)

Retour d'expériences sur l'étude de trois assemblages osseux issus de sépultures collectives néolithiques

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