Prehistoric Coastal Mass Burials: Did Death Come in Waves?

Abstract

Recent large tsunamis in the twenty-first century have provided graphic reminders of the catastrophic impacts such natural hazards can have upon coastal communities. Death tolls in the thousands give rise to the rapid adoption of coastal mass burials for the interment of the dead. While recognised as a necessary practice in the aftermath of such contemporary tragedies, the paucity of coastal mass burial sites related to earlier tsunamis reported in the archaeological record is unusual. We establish a suite of criteria for identifying the geological and archaeological evidence of inundation by past tsunamis and review case studies from two well-documented prehistoric coastal mass burial sites in the Southern Hemisphere (Solomon Islands and Vanuatu). To varying degrees, both sites possess numerous characteristics that suggest direct correlation with previously reported catastrophic palaeotsunamis. In the Northern Hemisphere, we investigate palaeotsunami inundation as an alternative hypothesis for mass burial sites in Orkney and Shetland, a relatively tectonically inactive region where such an association is unlikely to have ever been considered. The nature, chronology and location of these mass burial sites fit well with the proposed archaeological evidence for palaeotsunami inundation, and they also appear to be contemporaneous with the as-yet poorly documented Garth tsunami (~5500 years BP). We suggest that a potentially key diagnostic criterion for determining a palaeotsunami linkage is the use of diatom testing on skeletal remains to establish whether death was caused by drowning in saltwater, a test which has never been applied in this context. J Archaeol Method Theory

A great wave: the Storegga tsunami and the end of Doggerland?

“…Although such events have fuelled interest in how people in the past responded to natural disasters (e.g. Burroughs 2005;Cain et al 2018), archaeology has-with few exceptions (e.g. McFadgen 2007)-been slow to engage in the debate beyond historically attested examples, leaving the sciences to take the lead in palaeotsunami research (Goff et al 2012;Engel et al 2020).…”

“…Burroughs 2005; Cain et al . 2018), archaeology has—with few exceptions (e.g. McFadgen 2007)—been slow to engage in the debate beyond historically attested examples, leaving the sciences to take the lead in palaeotsunami research (Goff et al .…”

Did a 3800-year-old M w ~9.5 earthquake trigger major social disruption in the Atacama Desert?

“…Population decline could be an effect of high death rates as a result of the tsunami, coastal abandonment by HGF communities after the event, or a combination of both. Although it is difficult to demonstrate either hypothesis with the data currently available for coastal Atacama, high death rates due to tsunamis have been documented both historically and archaeologically ( 53 ). It is estimated that the 1896 AD Sanriku tsunami killed up to 83% of the population of some villages ( 54 ).…”

The origins of marine and non-marine boulder deposits: a brief review

“…Tsunami deposits (McFadgen and Goff 2007;Goff et al 2012: Table 1;Cain et al 2019: Deposits associated with major tsunamis extend much further inland and cover higher topography; however, the extent of the deposit cannot be used to distinguish less-extreme events from storm deposits. Biological debris can include continuous shell layers, perhaps nearer the top of the sequence in tsunami deposits.…”