Buried, Burned, Bundled and Broken: Approaches to Co-Occurrence of Multiple Methods, Treatments and Styles of Burials Within Past Societies

Bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology have historically relied on complete inhumations as the source of data based on human remains. However, not all cemeteries have only inhumed burials- cremation, secondary burial and other methods can co-occur at these sites. Despite this, the cremated or commingled remains have often deteriorated in museums, been relegated to appendices or ignored due to their interpretive difficulty. Over the past two decades, the value of cremated, commingled and fragmentary remains has been recognized, and recent publications have shown that cremated, disarticulated and commingled remains can provide important information on past people and their behavior that isn’t always apparent with complete inhumations. These conversations often address a specific type of body treatment, and there is little discussion occurring between them. Increased conversation is needed about the presence of multiple burial treatments within single sites, and how different forms of body treatment compare. While each treatment is unique and requires specific contextual analysis, when multiple forms of body treatment co-occur at the same site- complete discussion is required. This session brings together archaeologists studying co-occurrence of multiple forms of burial in order to generate discussion, and promote the study of alternative types of treatments alongside complete inhumations.