Urns, Mounds, Pyres, and Pits: The Many Pathways of Middle Bronze Age Bodies in Transylvania

Summary

Communities of the Wietenberg Culture in Middle Bronze Age Transylvania (2000-1500 BC) participated in diverse and dynamic social, economic, political, and ideological institutions. Traditional approaches to the mortuary practices of this period, however, have obscured diversity in the archaeological record in favor of a more homogeneous characterization of burial practices as cremation and burial in urn cemeteries. This paper traces the many different pathways that Middle Bronze Age Transylvanian bodies traveled from death to burial. In particular, the co-occurrence of multiple techniques of processing cremated bodies, inhumation in pits in settlements, reuse of Early Bronze Age tombs, and bodies missing from the archaeological record are explored. Co-occurrence is approached as both an archaeological issue, incorporating spatial and temporal dimensions, and as a social phenomenon, where alternate pathways of the body represent different choices made by the living. Examining the co-occurrence of multiple body treatments is critical for understanding complex mortuary politics, identity, social segmentation, and the development of institutionalized inequality in the Transylvanian Bronze Age.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Buried, Burned, Bundled and Broken: Approaches to Co-Occurrence of Multiple Methods, Treatments and Styles of Burials Within Past Societies

Keywords

Spatial Coverage