Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Regular session
Title:
Building under and above Ground during European Neolithic
Content:
Starting around the fifth millennium BC, the Neolithic period is marked over time by the emergence of monumental funerary structures across Europe. These burials either take place in natural environments (caves, shelters, etc.) or are artificially constructed (dolmens, hypogea, etc.). The funerary practices in use are gradually evolving from single deposits to collective burial sites, the latter becomes the main practice at the end of the Neolithic. All these structures have in common a strong impact on the landscape, whether underground or aboveground. The choice of architecture and materials may reflect specific environmental and geological contexts. Nevertheless, various geographical areas display a high density and variability of this type of tombs demonstrating that environment is only one of several explanatory factors.
At a regional scale, several questions arise on the anthropological, socio-cultural, and structural levels from the presence of this wide diversity of places to bury the dead. Do these different funerary expressions reflect an individual’s different social and/or symbolic status within the same community? Alternatively, do these different types of structures illustrate distinct human communities? Other scenarios can also be formulated concerning the diversity of funerary architectures within a territory, such as the impact of architectural traditions and their evolution, or the incorporation into funerary practices of new behaviours linked to contacts with other human groups. In order to assess the evolution of these practices over time, a high-resolution chronology must be established.
This session aims to gather Neolithic case studies from across Europe and its surroundings to discuss the archaeological evidence for the world of the dead (anthropological, architectural, typo-chronological, etc.) to identify and define the determining factors, whether socio-cultural, environmental and/or technical, that had an impact on the architectural choices of human groups to establish aboveground or underground burials.
Keywords:
Collective burial sites, Neolithic, Europe, funerary architectures, funerary practices
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:
Main organiser:
Marie-Elise Porqueddu (Spain) 1
Co-organisers:
Mélie Le Roy (United Kingdom) 2
Vincent Ard (France) 3
Affiliations:
1. École des hautes études hispaniques et ibériques, Casa de Velázquez
2. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bournemouth University
3. CNRS - UMR 5608 TRACES, Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès
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