Human mobility in a Bronze Age Vatya ‘urnfield’ and the life history of a high-status woman

Abstract

In this study, we present osteological and strontium isotope data of 29 individuals (26 cremations and 3 inhumations) from Szigetszentmiklós-Ürgehegy, one of the largest Middle Bronze Age cemeteries in Hungary. The site is located in the northern part of the Csepel Island (a few kilometres south of Budapest) and was in use between c. 2150 and 1500 BC, a period that saw the rise, the apogee, and, ultimately, the collapse of the Vatya culture in the plains of Central Hungary. The main aim of our study was to identify variation in mobility patterns among individuals of different sex/age/social status and among individuals treated with different burial rites using strontium isotope analysis. Changes in funerary rituals in Hungary have traditionally been associated with the crises of the tell cultures and the introgression of newcomers from the area of the Tumulus Culture in Central Europe around 1500 BC. Our results show only slight discrepancies between inhumations and cremations, as well as differences between adult males and females. The case of the richly furnished grave n. 241 is of particular interest. The urn contains the cremated bones of an adult woman and two 7 to 8-month-old foetuses, as well as remarkably prestigious goods. Using 87Sr/86Sr analysis of different dental and skeletal remains, which form in different life stages, we were able to reconstruct the potential movements of this high-status woman over almost her entire lifetime, from birth to her final days. Our study confirms the informative potential of strontium isotopes analyses performed on different cremated tissues. From a more general, historical perspective, our results reinforce the idea that exogamic practices were common in Bronze Age Central Europe and that kinship ties among high-rank individuals were probably functional in establishing or strengthening interconnections, alliances, and economic partnerships.

Salorno—Dos de la Forca (Adige Valley, Northern Italy): A unique cremation site of the Late Bronze Age

“…Cranial bones represent on average about 15% of the total weight of a human skeleton–calculated as a mean value across different developmental stages [ 64 – 67 ]. Furthermore, published studies on the ratio between weights of cranial and post-cranial fragments in protohistoric funerary contexts show a relative selective representation of the cranial skeleton [ 22 , 37 ], suggesting an intentional and preferential selection of the head/face remains of the deceased for the burial. Both the identification of a preferential spot and orientation of the body on the pyre, along with expected representations of the cranial and post-cranial skeletons in the cremation site of Salorno would both support hypothesis A.…”

“…Each of these operations must have entailed a symbolic/religious value, confirmed by the continuity of this ritual over many centuries across the late 2 nd and 1 st millennium BCE in Northern Italy. In fact, the transition from inhumation to the widespread cremation ritual in various European regions during the central and later phases of the Bronze Age has been interpreted as a moment of shift in the phenomenology or the aesthetics of death, of the memory of the ancestors, and of the relationship with the world and matter [ 15 , 16 , 19 – 21 ]–possibly sided by ecological, social, political, as well as sanitary reasons [ 22 ].…”

The First ‘Urnfields’ in the Plains of the Danube and the Po

“…Radiocarbon dates are available for Hungary (Dani et al, 2016;Kiss et al, 2019;Major et al, 2019;Cavazzuti et al, 2021); northeastern Serbia (Gavranović & Kapuran, 2021;Kapuran et al, 2020;Mehofer et al, 2021); and the Terramare area (Cardarelli, 2014). There are, however, three main issues that affect attempts to build an absolute chronological framework when dealing with this kind of context.…”

“…Women, and especially high-status women, seem to have had an especially important role in the selective diffusion of ideas and beliefs, as their high degree of mobility in this phase has been demonstrated by several isotope studies (Cavazzuti et al, 2019a(Cavazzuti et al, , 2021Frei et al, 2015Frei et al, , 2017Knipper et al, 2017). Female mobility is normally associated with exogamy and patrilocality, but other options, in which women exercise agency rather than being subjected to it, should not be dismissed.…”

Isotopic reconstruction of the subsistence strategy for a Central Italian Bronze Age community (Pastena cave, 2nd millennium BCE)

“…A complex territorial organization also characterizes BA through the development of hierarchical residential systems, which again suggest a complex social organization: nucleated settlements, fortified villages, pile-dwellings, and terramare hosted a growing number of inhabitants (Bettelli 2006; Fokkens, Harding 2013). Despite the increasing establishment of settlements, the discovery of exotic items and recent stable isotope analysis on human bones suggest a rise in both individual and artifact mobility in the BA (e.g., Knipper et al 2017; Cavazzuti et al 2019; Cavazzuti et al 2021). Goods and people were involved in complex exchange networks (Blake 2014; Cavazzuti et al 2019), whose effects could be identified in heterogeneous lifestyles and bio-cultural characteristics (Fokkens, Harding 2013; Bietti Sestieri 2015).…”