Prehistoric funerary practices

With financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) Bonn and the Association for the Advancement of the State Museum of Prehistory Halle e.V.  archaeologists, physical anthropologists and archaeozoologists met for the first time for an international and interdisciplinary conference from 18th to 21st September 2013 to discuss all aspects of "Mesolithic burials - Rites, symbols and social organisation of early postglacial communities".  This introductory paper of the congress proceedings is trying to summarise the large variety of Mesolithic burial rites in Europe.

The hypothesis that assumes our new starting point, which we are going to raise to the thesis level with this work, is that Valencina is a settlement with ditches of the III millennium BCE that is configured as a stable habitat, where the social inequality existing among its inhabitants shows a type of social class formation, expressed fundamentally through the differentiated, stratified, planned and even segregated treatment that occurs around death; and that this "Pristine State", defined by that social formation and its political, social and ultimately economic expressions, "does not triumph", does not transcend beyond the III millennium BCE and is rejected and / or resisted by the same society that was provoking it.

La hipótesis que supone nuestro nuevo punto de partida, la cual vamos a elevar al nivel de tesis con este trabajo, es que Valencina es un asentamiento con fosos del III milenio A.N.E. que se configura como un hábitat estable, en donde la desigualdad social existente entre sus habitantes muestra un tipo de formación social clasista, expresada fundamentalmente a través del tratamiento diferenciado, estratificado, planificado e incluso segregado que se da alrededor de la muerte; y que ese “Estado Prístino”, definido por dicha formación social y sus expresiones políticas, sociales y en última instancia económicas, “no triunfa”, no trasciende más allá del III milenio A.N.E. y es rechazado y/o resistido por la misma sociedad que lo estaba provocando.

Em 1915, durante a construção do Hospital da Santa Casa da Misericórdia (Santo Tirso), e num pinhal per-tença da Quinta do Gião, foram recuperados seis vasos cerâmicos e um bracelete em bronze. Ainda que os seus micro-contextos de deposição não sejam claros, a quantidade de vasos recolhidos e as suas tipologias têm permitido equacionar a hipótese da existência, naquele local, de uma necrópole da Idade do Bronze. Visando o seu enquadramento cronológico mais preciso, foi efetuada a recolha de fuligem do interior de um dos vasos para posterior datação por AMS. O resultado obtido, ainda que não podendo ser extrapolado aos restantes materiais, confirma, ainda assim, o uso do local para práticas funerárias já durante a Idade do Bronze Médio. Palavras ‑chave: Noroeste de Portugal, Bronze Médio, Contexto funerário, Datação por AMS. AbstRAct In 1915, during the construction of Hospital da Santa Casa da Misericórdia (Santo Tirso), in a pinewood at Quinta do Gião, six ceramic containers and one bronze bracelet were recovered. Although their micro context of deposition are not clear, the quantity of containers and their typologies allow to hypothesize the existence, in that same area, of a Bronze Age necropolis. In order to chronologically accurate this context, soot residues from the interior of one ceramic container was dated by AMS. The result, although it cannot be extrapolated to all the recovered materials, confirms the funerary use of this place during the Middle Bronze Age.

For the Jirst time in the inner peninsular land, the presence of different types of tomb of the first population that introduced prod¡¡ctive
economy. has been established with documentary evidences in the same place. The absolut dating that we ha ve obtained betrays a diachronic
succesíon between individual grave burials (located atthe end ofthe VI millennium Cal. BC) and collective monumental tombs (p/aced
from the begining of the IV millenníum Cal. BC).
This diversity of fimeralmanifestations and the parlicularity of some concrete aspect~· of its rite are explained in the context of endogenous
changes sujfered by the populations that introduced the productíon economy in the Va/ley of Ambrona. In the same way, the above mentioned
diachrony allows us to make the first sequence wíthin the so-called lnland Neolithíc, observing al leas/ from the fun eral poínt of view,
two clearly differenciated stages: an Ancient Neolithíc one, characterízed by individual grave buría ls, and an Advanced Neolíhíc one, in
whích monumental collectíve bu ría! is introduced.
Key words: Individual grave burial. Monumentaltomb. Díachrony. lnland neolithíc.