Landscapes of the Dead: Using GIS to Model Social Relationships in a Large Bronze Age Cemetery

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Geographic Information System (GIS) technology is an important tool for examining social relationships in large horizontally stratified cemeteries. This study applies GIS-based cluster analysis to identify multiscalar patterning at the Middle Bronze Age Maros cemetery at Ostojićevo, Serbia. Three successive scalar clusters were identified: (i) primary clusters; (ii) secondary clusters within primary clusters; and (iii) peripheral burials. Graves to the south exhibited a linear distribution along a south-north axis whereas graves to the north followed a circular clustering pattern. The potential social significance of these statistically derived clusters was assessed using demographic (e.g., age-at-death, sex) and mortuary (e.g., treatment, offerings) data. While there is limited evidence of spatial patterning among mortuary variables, near analysis of mean grave distance shows differences among age-at-death and sex cohorts. Notably, subadults (<15 years-at-death) were buried significantly closer to both subadults and adult females. These observations tentatively support a pattern of close-kin clustering, specifically sibling groups or mother-child pairs. At the level of the cemetery, primary clusters likely reflect extended kin networks or lineages crosscut by social factors (e.g., gender, status).

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37674.0