The Materiality of Death - mikroarkeologi.se

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Fig. 1. The East Baltic region (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia), showing sites where traces of ochre have been found: 1. Zvejnieki archaeological complex; 2. Kreii settlement site and cemetery; 3. ipka settlement site; 4. Valma settlement site and graves; 5. Spiginas settlement site and cemetery; 6. Duonkalnis settlement site and cemetery. found in the course of geological coring or identified in archaeological survey work. It is significant that such sources are to be found close to Stone Age settlement sites. Thus, for example, ochre has been found at several places near the outflow of the River Salaca from Lake Burtnieks, where there are at least three Neolithic settlement sites: Riukalns, Kaulnkalns and Ldacias (Fig. 2). The closest known natural sources to the Zvejnieki archaeological complex, on the north-western shore of Lake Burtnieks, were about 2 km away, at the mouth of the River Seda, east of the site, and at two locations on the opposite shore of the lake – downhill from the manors of Baui and Mli (Fig. 2). providing new research possibilities and opening up new avenues of study with regard to burial practices, including the use of ochre in graves. Coloured earth, or ochre, was very widely used in the graves, and these practices changed over the course of time, resulting in diverse examples of Stone Age burial rites and beliefs. Zvejnieki Archaeological Complex Lake Burtnieks is located in northern Latvia in a depression within an extensive drumlin field, formed by melting ice between 15000–14000 BP. The Zvejnieki archaeological complex developed on a long, gentlysloping former island in the lake. This island is an approximately 1600-m-long drumlinoid, stretching northwest to south-east (Eberhards et al 2003:30). Two Stone Age settlement sites and a corresponding burial ground were located in the south-eastern part of this island. Archaeological excavation of this monument was conducted by Francis Zagorskis (1929–1986) in the 1960s and 70s, in the process unearthing more than 300 graves (Zagorskis 1987, 2004). During the past decade, material from the cemetery has been radiocarbon-dated, and specialists from Latvia and other countries in northern Europe have investigated the natural situation of the burial ground, the course of its development and the material recovered from it, including the anthropological evidence (Larsson & Zagorska 2006). Importantly, the duration of use of the cemetery has been confirmed – it was in use for four millennia, from the 9th to the 5th millennium BP (Zagorska 2006:91–14). However, the cemetery material is so rich and diverse that it is still Fig. 2. The Lake Burtnieks Basin : 1. former shoreline; 2. present-day shoreline; 3. finds of flint nodules; 4. Stone Age settlement sites; 5. possible cemeteries; 6. Zvejnieki archaeological complex; 7. natural ochre deposits. 116
Ochre was used so intensively that in many cases the preserved parts of the skeleton were red or reddish, as were the flint, bone and even amber artefacts provided as grave goods. Many of these even had pieces of ochre stuck to them. Individual pieces of ochre were also found in the graves, possibly provided as grave goods. It should be made clear from the outset that the ochre used at Zvejnieki burial ground was not in its natural state. Chemical analysis of ochre samples has shown that specially burned ochre, with a crystalline structure corresponding to haematite, was used in the graves (hema- blood from a Greek). The natural ochre had been burned at a temperature of 300 o –500 o C. In these samples, iron makes up only 20%–50%, with considerable quantities of other constituents, including quartz, clay minerals (illite and kaolinite) and dolomite (Upte 1987:118–120). This analysis indicates that a special substance was being prepared for burials, which could be used to line the base of the grave, be strewn over the body and sometimes even used to fill the grave. This substance could also be moulded over the face or body, in some measure embalming the corpse. This is confirmed by observations at the cemetery where in some cases the ochre was in the form of a powder, sometimes with a considerable amount of other constituents, and in other cases had been mixed into a mass predominantly consisting of blue or red clay. The Ochre Graves Ochre was used in the preparation of the grave and strewn on the burial itself. Slightly over half of the burials – 164 – involved the use of ochre. Among the ochre graves, there were 130 graves entirely strewn with ochre, with greater or lesser intensity, as well as partially ochre-strewn graves, where the red pigment had only been applied to particular parts of the grave – either on or next to the burial (34 cases, Fig.3). The former island of Zvejnieki, nowadays a ridge, consisted of light, sand-coloured brown gravel and coarser gravel, in which the contour of the grave was easily distinguishable, particularly in cases where ochre had been used intensively, in which case the grave fill was dark red, or sometimes even shades of violet. The ochre graves were very diverse. Generally, the depth of the grave, as measured from the present-day ground surface, was 20–50 cm, and only in particular cases did they reach a depth of one metre or more (Burial 57). Generally, the base of the grave was covered in an intensively red 5–10 cm layer of ochre, and the body itself was covered in ochre. The grave fill consisted of light grey gravel, sometimes with a minor admixture of ochre. Graves where ochre was used in this way sometimes also had a layer of intensively black, even charcoal-rich earth. The black earth had been strewn in the base of the grave, with a layer of red ochre above it (Burials 5, 170, 206–208 and 263–264). In other cases, the grave, with an ochre-strewn individual lying in it, was filled with black, charcoal-rich earth, which sometimes contained flint flakes, fragments of animal bone and small fragments of bone implements. In other words, it had been taken from the occupation layer of the Stone Age settlements (Burials 86, 110, 119 and 170). In some cases, distinctly ochre-rich oval areas resembling the remains of fires had been created next to the body (Burials 207, 211, etc.). In many cases, the grave structure had been augmented with individual stones or stone settings. The intensively ochre-strewn burials more frequently contained grave goods – bone and flint spearheads, harpoons, arrowheads, daggers, awls, strings of tooth pendants and amber ornaments (Zagorskis 1987:51–72). 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 A - graves with ochre Zvejnieki burial ground A B C B - partly used ochre C - graves without ochre Fig. 3. Zvejnieki burial ground. Numbers of burials with the ochre (A), burials, partly strewn with the ochre (B) and burials without ochre (C). In the partially ochre-strewn graves, the red-coloured earth was present in certain places near the skeleton, most commonly around the head. Sometimes the red ochre strewn around the head did not contain any other finds (Burials 39, 96 and 162), but in the majority of cases ochre was present if the head was adorned with strings of tooth pendants, which could even form very complicated headdresses, as in the case of Burials 146, 153, 160, 164 and 300 (Zagorska & Lõugas 2000:232––239). Apart from the head region, red ochre had also been strewn by the elbows, knees or feet (Burials 146, 164, 187 and 290). In some cases, the burial of a young child was discovered, in an ochre-strewn oval area up to 30–40 cm long, alongside an adult with no ochre (Burials 132 and 132a). In a double grave, containing an older woman and a younger man (Burials 254 and 255), the woman had been completely strewn with ochre, while the man was partly ochre-strewn (the head and the lower legs). 117
Page 1 and 2:
The Materiality of Death Bodies, bu
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Contents Chapter 1. The Materiality
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Fig. 1. Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph
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ather one has to emphasise the mate
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dead are often regarded as unfriend
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Fig 3. The old man Tei Tetuna by hi
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The Materiality of Social Change: H
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The Materiality of Eternity - The A
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FAHLANDER, F. & OESTIGAARD, T. 2004
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Susanne Kuechler-Fogden, Webb Keane
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Chapter 2 More than Metaphor: Appro
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discuss death and the treatment of
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had to deal with. This is not to sa
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hide that could be removed to expos
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pp111-123. Philadelphia: University
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Chapter 3 A Piece of the Mesolithic
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The main point is that the division
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A Piece of the Mesolithic: Skatehol
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question we need to construct some
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Fig. 4. Skateholm I (above) and Ska
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visible many years after the origin
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Phase Area Properties Interpretatio
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phase of one site with a contempora
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MILNER, N. & WOODMAN, P. 2005. Meso
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with dead people belonging to other
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Fig. 2. Due to the extraordinaire c
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As with all cremations in Hinduism,
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Based on the amount of scattered bo
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To have an ethical approach involve
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Chapter 5 From Corpse to Ancestor:
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Figure 2. Isola Sacra, Tomb 100. Ph
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Figure 4. Isola Sacra, Tomb 87. Pho
Page 69 and 70: Figure 5. Isola Sacra, Tomb 56. Pho
Page 71 and 72: Figure 6. Isola Sacra, Tomb 15. Pho
Page 73: 69 Burials
Page 76 and 77: through careful recording of the or
Page 78 and 79: Figure 4: Pencraig Hill: Distributi
Page 80 and 81: focussed on use of partial sets of
Page 83 and 84: Chapter 7 Ritual and Remembrance at
Page 85 and 86: urial (tomba a doppio loculo tipo M
Page 87 and 88: ‘original’ walls of the tomb. L
Page 89 and 90: chambers cut into two earlier trenc
Page 91: Madison: Prehistory Press, Monograp
Page 94 and 95: Well-organized cemeteries or messy
Page 96 and 97: influenced who was buried inside th
Page 98 and 99: it was quite short, which could ind
Page 100 and 101: References ARTELIUS, TORE 2004. Min
Page 103 and 104: Chapter 9 Life and Death in the Bro
Page 105 and 106: Fig. 5.1. Cremation necropolis at P
Page 107 and 108: place. These burials were very simp
Page 109 and 110: Chapter 10 Norwegian Face-Urns: Loc
Page 111 and 112: The recurring themes in the debate
Page 113 and 114: The local context of the Norwegian
Page 115 and 116: Death is the inevitable conclusion
Page 117 and 118: OESTIGAARD, T. 1999. Cremations as
Page 119: Chapter 11 The Use of Ochre in Ston
Page 123 and 124: Fig. 5. Zvejnieki burial ground. Th
Page 125 and 126: grave has been dated to 5690±45 BP
Page 127 and 128: Khanty of northern Siberia, the col
Page 129 and 130: 125 Beliefs
Page 131 and 132: Chapter 12 ”Death Myths”: Perfo
Page 133 and 134: Variation within the same cist Bø,
Page 135 and 136: Variation within the same mound Lyd
Page 137 and 138: Figures 6 and 7. Modvo, Luster muni
Page 139 and 140: To what extent there have been corr
Page 141 and 142: when they die, a probable explanati
Page 143 and 144: fragmented spindles, iron weaving s
Page 145 and 146: Chapter 13 Reproduction and Relocat
Page 147 and 148: may be questioned, and analysed mor
Page 149 and 150: References Andersson, G. 1997: A st
Page 151 and 152: Chapter 14 A Road for the Viking’
Page 153 and 154: Figure 2. The Jarlabanke Bridge tha
Page 155 and 156: Chapter 15 A Road to the Other Side
Page 157 and 158: Fig. 4. Clearing the bridge on an e
Page 159 and 160: Chapter 16 Stones and Bones: The My
Page 161 and 162: Fig. 4. An Iron Age scene at Sylta
Page 163 and 164: Fig. 7. The resemblance between cru
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