Toward a Social Geoarchaeology of Aegean Burial and Ritual at Eleon, Greece

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Geoarchaeology and Environmental Archaeology Perspectives on Earthen-Built Constructions" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In recent years, geoarchaeological and soil micromorphological analyses have aided in reconstructing the complex histories of funerary burial and ritual in the Mediterranean. For the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project in Greece, geoarchaeological work has investigated a burial complex at the site of Eleon dating to the late Middle Helladic to Late Helladic I period (ca. 1600–1450 BCE). Investigations targeted areas within a large chamber tomb and a low tumulus that monumentalized an extensive burial complex. Soil micromorphology made known building materials and techniques and episodes in the construction and multi-generational use of the tombs and tumulus and the taphonomic and pedogenic processes that altered their preservation. Further analyses comparing the burial monument with constructions of the surrounding settlement reveal a long tradition of building skills and knowledge of material properties and their variable applications to create new types of monuments. Only a few studies in geoarchaeology have been conducted on tumuli and related mound-type structures, and most have concerned contexts in the Americas. Therefore, this work at Eleon provides methodological advancements in applications of geoarchaeology and soil micromorphology in a new context and comparative material for understanding sociocultural processes of monumental and multigenerational burial and ritual across time and space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Advances in Geoarchaeology and Environmental Archaeology Perspectives on Earthen-Built Constructions   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39331.0