Post-Mortem Manipulation, Movement, and Memory in Copper Age Iberia

Summary

Post-mortem manipulation of human remains played a critical role in mortuary practices in Copper Age Iberia (c. 3250-2200 BC). During this period in Spain and Portugal, individuals were buried communally in tholos-type tombs, as well as natural or artificial caves and rock shelters. Evidence from across Iberia suggests that mortuary practices included the manipulation and movement of previously interred bodies, either in order to clear space for new individuals, or to facilitate secondary reburial in new locations. I focus on evidence from the site of Marroquíes Bajos (Jaén, Spain), which at 113 ha is one of the largest villages known for the Iberian Copper Age. Marroquíes contained at least seven different mortuary areas, and shows evidence of multiple funerary processes, including secondary burials and communal burial in mortuary structures or artificial caves. The latter two treatments suggest that at specific points in time, members of the community came into repeated and deliberate contact with human remains. By contextualizing Marroquíes Bajos mortuary practices within a broader regional pattern of post-mortem manipulation across the Iberian Peninsula, it is possible to explore the ways in which these mortuary practices influence the construction of communal and individual identities in Copper Age societies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Manipulated Bodies: Investigating Postmortem Interactions with Human Remains

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14858