Patterns of Irregular Burials in Western Europe (1st-5th Century A.D.)

Abstract

BackgroundIrregular burials (IB—burials showing features that contrast with the majority of others in their geographic and chronological context) have been the focus of archaeological study because of their relative rarity and enigmatic appearance. Interpretations of IB often refer to supposed fear of the dead or to social processes taking place in time-specific contexts. However, a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of IB for various geographical contexts is still lacking, a fact that hampers any discussion of these burials on a larger scale.MethodsHere, we collected a bibliographic dataset of 375 IB from both Britain and Continental Europe, altogether spanning a time period from the 1st to the 5th century AD. Each burial has been coded according to ten dichotomous variables, further analyzed by means of chi-squared tests on absolute frequencies, non-metric multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis.ResultsEven acknowledging the limits of this study, and in particular the bias represented by the available literature, our results point to interesting patterns. Geographically, IB show a contrast between Britain and Continental Europe, possibly related to historical processes specific to these regions. Different types of IB (especially prone depositions and depositions with the cephalic extremity displaced) present a series of characteristics and associations between features that permit a more detailed conceptualization of these occurrences from a socio-cultural perspective that aids to elucidate their funerary meaning.Conclusions and SignificanceAltogether, the present work stresses the variability of IB, and the need to contextualize them in a proper archaeological and historical context. It contributes to the discussion of IB by providing a specific geographic and chronological frame of reference that supports a series of hypotheses about the cultural processes possibly underlying their occurrence.

Between belief and fear - Reinterpreting prone burials during the Middle Ages and early modern period in German-speaking Europe

“…Numerous studies have dealt specifically with prehistoric [27], Roman [28,29], medieval [30][31][32][33][34][35], Anglo-Saxon [4] and Viking age [36,37] deviant burials in various geographical contexts. Most research in Britain, particularly England, was focused on the Roman or Anglo-Saxon period [4,7,28,50], whilst late medieval funerary variability received less attention and has only recently been tackled [38,39]. In Christian burial grounds, prone burials obviously stand out as different regarding the manner of burial but were apparently still deemed suitable for the inclusion in a Christian community's cemetery [39].…”

“…Prone position, on the other hand, has ever existed in Western and Central Europe [28,35] while other apotropaic practices did not. It is a reasonable inference that the belief in the undead did not exist in the west until the end of the Middle Ages.…”

Different in death: Different in life? Diet and mobility correlates of irregular burials in a Roman necropolis from Bologna (Northern Italy, 1st–4th century CE)

“…The existence of interments characterized by unusual burial treatments of the individual that do not conform to what is known as normative burial practices within the respective cultures is a well-known phenomenon known to occur in the first centuries AD (but not only -see Murphy 2008;Reynolds 2009;Rittershofer 1997). For Roman times, burials described as deviant or irregular generally feature prone depositions, traces of mutilation of the corpse or skeleton, and burial artefacts such as amulets or other types of objects of possible ritual meaning (Alfayé Villa 2009a, 2009bArcini 2009;Crerar 2016;Milella et al 2009Milella et al , 2010Milella et al , 2015Pauli 1975;Philpott 1991;Taylor 2008;Watts 1998). Interpretations of these findings are still largely influenced by the link between uncustomary funerary treatments and perceived social deviancies established by Saxe (1970).…”

“…More importantly, no clear information is available about the real meaning of prone burials or transfixion of corpses during antiquity, most of their current interpretation being based on either later sources or ethnological parallels (Milella et al 2015). It is therefore possible that these (admittedly quite different) practices were motivated by a heterogeneous suite of reasons and cultural traditions.…”

Muertes ritualizadas en la Edad del Bronce de la Península Ibérica: un enterramiento inusual en Los Rompizales (Quintanadueñas, Burgos)

“…Como se expondrá a continuación, se trata de un ejemplo que, dentro del panorama conocido hasta el momento para Cogotas I, merece sin duda el calificativo de inusual, equivalente de otros, como 'irregular burial' (MILELLA et al 2015) o 'sepulture bizarre' (BA-RAY Y BOULESTIN, 2010), que aluden a su carácter chocante con respecto a las habituales, o el de 'unusual burial' que TSALIKI (2008) justifica por rasgos insólitos en cuanto al lugar o a la disposición funeraria normativa, especialmente el decúbito prono. En cambio, deben evitarse -al menos en este momento del trabajo-tér-minos como el ya clásico de 'sépulture de relegation', que su propio autor, VILLES (1986), utiliza ahora con mucha prudencia, ya que debe demostrarse que hubo efectivamente relegación social.…”