Illuminating Complex Mortuary Rituals in a Cemetery from Bronze Age Eastern Hungary

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Bronze Age Körös Off-Tell Archaeology Project (BAKOTA) has excavated 84 burials from a Bronze Age cemetery (Békés 103) located in the Lower Körös Basin in Eastern Hungary. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the cemetery was used for several hundred years, with the most active phase between 1600 and 1280 cal BC, a time that has been associated with the abandonment of tells in the region at the end of the Middle Bronze Age. Most of the burials were cremated and placed in ceramic urns. A systematic examination of MNI (minimum number of individuals), burned bone weight, and bone volume shows both consistency and variability across the cemetery. Urns contain evidence of one, two, or three individuals. Burials with multiple individuals typically consist of an adult and infant; however, some vessels contain only a single bone that is identifiable to another individual, or contain more than one individual, but significantly less total bone weight and volume than would be expected if all the bone had been included in the vessel. Altogether, this possibly points to a dynamic mortuary space where mourners and descendants actively engaged with the dead through practices such as repeated entry into the urns.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39693.0