Session: #1127

Content:

In the archaeology of Central Asia, careful attention has traditionally been paid to the research of important settlements and, more recently, to their interrelation and settlement dynamics. The sites of the living are thus very well known. To a large extent, this is also true for the places of the dead, at least in some historical periods. What is lacking for the moment is the linking of these two worlds, the understanding of the reciprocal spatial and ideological relationship between burial sites and settlements. All this is further complicated by the different patterns of behaviour and customs of sedentary and (semi-)nomadic societies, which met and changed regularly throughout prehistory and history in Central Asia.
In this session, then, we would like to ask how the living dealt with their dead, how significantly they sought to separate their space from their own, and also how and why these customs have changed throughout history. The key here is the meeting of steppe and sedentary, local and newcomer, near and far cultures in a mix that has no parallel in other regions.
We would therefore like to stimulate reflection and provoke discussion on the following questions:
How were the burial grounds organized in relation to the settlements?
In what cases, on the contrary, and why, is there no separation between the two spaces?
What is the spatial relationship of burial or funerary sites to the surrounding landscape?
What are the methodological possibilities and limits of understanding the spatial organization of burial sites?
How is this type of archaeological record affected by human interventions in the cultural landscape?
We also welcome partial reflection and problematization of phenomena such as the so-called kurgans and Zoroastrian dachmas in archaeology of Central Asia.

Session: #1127

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