by Chris Fowler
j)occasionally, red or yellow ochre was found, frequently near the skull (e.g. Beșenova Veche; Comșa 1974, 114);
k) certain burials, especially of children, might have been wrapped prior to burial (e.g. Kovačevo; Lichardus-Itten et al. 2002, 116, Pl. 9/2, Lepenski Vir; Borić and Stefanović 2004).
l)fragmented human bones are frequent ‘stray’ finds in settlement deposits.
FIG. 49.2. (a) Crouched burial with aurochs skull, pit-dwelling 7, Golokut, Serbia (after Borić 1999, fig. 28); (b) burials from Topole-Bač (after Trajković 1988); (c) burials 8 and 9 (phase III) placed above the floor of building 24 (phase I–II), Lepenski Vir (after Stefanović and Borić in press).
Differences between early and middle Neolithic burial practices across the study area are most clearly visible in the coterminous existence of mortuary practices firmly grounded in Mesolithic forager traditions in the Danube Gorges in the period 6300–5900 BC (e.g. Bonsall et al. 2008; Borić 1999, 2011; Borić and Dimitrijević 2007, 2009). Lepenski Vir, the key site of this regional group, boasted trapezoidal buildings, sculpted boulder artworks, and a number of burials (e.g. Borić 2005; Radovanović 1996). In spite of contacts with established Neolithic communities, at Lepenski Vir, Vlasac, Padina, and Hajdučka Vodenica, burial practices follow the late Mesolithic tradition of supine burial parallel to the River Danube, the head pointing downstream (e.g. Borić 2005; Borić et al. 2009; Radovanović 1997). Yet, despite this conservatism, some new features were introduced during the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition phase at Lepenski Vir. Most strikingly, 40 neonate burials were placed into small pits in the back of 17 of the trapezoidal buildings, under the floor level. The connection of child burials with buildings recalls the rites of early Neolithic communities in the Balkans and Anatolia, and might have been introduced to the Danube Gorges through contacts with them (Borić and Stefanović 2004; Stefanović and Borić 2008). After 5900 BC, with the start of a ‘consolidated’ (middle) Neolithic, most trapezoidal buildings were abandoned and domestic animals introduced to Lepenski Vir. Crouched burials now dominate, several of which were of first-generation migrants (Borić and Price 2013). The ultimate origin of this tradition was probably the Near East (cf. Borić and Miracle forthcoming).
Although the lack of clear rules regarding burial position and orientation could suggest small and fragmented social groupings (cf. Chapman 1983, 2000a, 37), certain sites exhibit a shared practice of structured deposition. For instance, burials 8 and 9 at Lepenski Vir were placed 2.5m apart on their right sides, but with diametrically opposed orientations and facing each other (Fig. 49.2c; Srejović 1972), a pattern replicated on a larger scale at Ajmana (Stalio 1992). At Topole-Bač in the Carpathian Basin, two burials were placed next to each other on their right sides with diametrically opposite orientations and their backs turned on each other (Fig. 49.2b; Trajković 1988, 99). These examples indicate the importance of symmetry and polar opposites, perhaps connected with prescribed ritual and/or religious observances and relationality between two individuals.
Whilst certain sites see repeated interments over time, many others, especially in the northern Balkans, yielded only one or two individual burials. Coupled with the rather ephemeral settlement traces and the destruction of above-ground buildings, this could indicate that site abandonment might have related to taboos surrounding death (cf. Borić 2008; Chapman 1994). The general scarcity of grave goods may indicate that the mortuary domain did not play an important part in signalling wealth, gender or age differences, in contrast to both earlier and later periods. Yet the occasional beads and pendants from clay, bone, marble, Spondylus shell, or nephrite in settlement deposits suggest that such ornaments primarily pertained to the living and not the dead. Personhood and identity might also have been expressed through variations in hairstyles, frequently shown on contemporary figurines (e.g. Tomaž, forthcoming). These are most often found as broken objects in settlement pits, alongside sherds, human and animal bones, and daub. One dominant type, the so-called rod-like figurines, consist of elongated necks continuing into a head with carefully depicted hair and frequently coffee-bean eyes. The legs and buttocks are exaggerated, with the female pubic triangle explicitly depicted, yet these figures could simultaneously resemble the male sex if turned in a particular way (Bailey 2005; Hansen 2007). The existence of such sexually explicit and ambiguous imagery, coupled with the emphasis on child burials, suggests that reproduction was of paramount importance.
Since only a fraction of the living population was being buried in settlements, there are doubts about what could be considered a mortuary norm and exception (cf. Boyadžiev 2009; Perlès 2001, 274). Nevertheless, the known rites provide information on religious, ritual, and social aspects. Mesolithic burial practices in the region were largely discontinued, but although early Neolithic mortuary rules created a pool of selected norms that then shaped late Neolithic practices, this period also met a resurgence of surprisingly old ways of dealing with the dead.
LATE NEOLITHIC (C. 5400–4500 BC)
In the southern and eastern Balkans, some of the old tell sites were continuously occupied and new settlements established (cf. Link 2006). Many new tell sites emerged, especially along the big rivers of the Carpathian Basin. There is significant change in pottery (and clay figurines), and copper metallurgy enabled the more prolific production of ornaments and tools in certain areas of the central and eastern Balkans (cf. Chapman 2006; Borić 2009). The diversity of mortuary elements now being introduced, along with the appearance of much more rule-bound behaviour, matches these dynamic developments. It is possible to divide the region into the eastern Balkans, with their large extramural cemeteries; the cultures of the Carpathian Basin and western Balkans, dominated by settlement burials; and Greece, where cremations and disarticulated human bones in caves and settlements are known.
The eastern Balkans
Large extramural cemeteries occur within the Dudești-Boian culture of Muntenia (e.g. Cernica with 370 burials, Valea Orbului with 102 burials) and the Hamangia culture of Dobrudža (e.g. Durankulak with 520 burials, Cernavodă with 556 burials). The cemeteries of the north-east Bulgarian Poljanica culture are smaller, with only twenty-five graves from Poljanica itself (Todorova 1982). Burials across the region are mostly flexed, oriented east–west, and accompanied by various ornaments, tools, and vessels, generally placed around the upper body.5 The Boian culture site of Cernica stands out, since about 90 per cent of burials were supine inhumations, mostly oriented west–east. Some contained perforated red deer canines alongside more usual grave good categories (Cantacuzino 1969; Comșa and Cantacuzino 2001).
The most famous cemetery is probably Durankulak (Todorova 2002). Durankulak covers the period from (at least) the late Neolithic Hamangia culture (phases I–IV, c. 5000–4500 BC) through the early–middle Copper Age Varna culture, but its dating relies mostly on pottery typology, with only three radiocarbon dates available. Durankulak is characterized by simple individual burial pits. In later phases, some are covered with stone slabs, and cenotaphs (symbolic burials with grave offerings but without human remains) also appear. Ochre was occasionally strewn on bodies and some showed staining suggestive of a textile covering. Grave goods were diverse, comprising up to seven vessels per burial, mostly around the head or over the body, as well as stone and antler axes and adzes. Spondylus and copper were used to create arm-rings and beads, but the latter were also fashioned in malachite or gold. Wild and domestic animal skulls (wild ass, red deer, sheep) and perforated red deer canines were found with supine inhumations at Durankulak, whilst some Cernavodă burials contained pig skulls.
Hence, in Muntenia, north-east Bulgaria, and Dobrudža, two different burial traditions exist, which do not necessarily coincide with culture groups as defined by pottery styles. The first is characterized by flexed inhumations, mostly on their left sides and oriented east–west (e.g. most of the Boian culture and Poljanica culture cemeteries). The second tradition sees some flexed burials, especially o
f women, but most are supine inhumations in a dominant orientation (west–east Cernica, north–south in Hamangia phases at Durankulak). These elements, and the presence of grave goods such as red deer canines, antler axes, or (wild) animal skulls at Durankulak and Cernica (see also Todorova 2002, 46–47), may suggest that regardless of the adoption of Neolithic materialities and practices (e.g. pottery, domesticates), communities might have adhered to much older Mesolithic rites. Moreover, some of the new culture groups in the Dobrudža, Muntenia, and Black Sea coastal regions have no early–middle Neolithic antecedents. The distribution of supine late Neolithic burials may even avoid areas with known early Neolithic sites (Fig. 49.5; cf. Lichter 2001, 151–153). These instances suggest a degree of hybridization in the middle–late Neolithic, but also strong differences in the belief systems and possibly origin myths of particular communities: one aligning itself with Neolithic descent from the east, the other with Mesolithic descent from the north and west. The use of a particular pottery style was hence not an exclusive medium for underlining identity or belonging. This pattern is also applicable in the Carpathian Basin. These large-scale regional trends underline the endurance of past cultural elements, as well as the flexibility of mythological, ritual, religious, and ideological constructs. The communities of this emerging late Neolithic world, regardless of their origins, were assembling elements from diverse cultural repertoires.
The Carpathian Basin and the western Balkans
In the second half of the sixth millennium BC, Neolithic farming groups in the upper Tisza region are known as Alföld Linear Pottery culture (Hungarian AVK, with its substyles Tiszadob, Bükk, Szakálhát, and Esztár) and Szatmár groups. They expanded into territories with known Mesolithic occupations (cf. Kertész 1996). The Tisza-Herpály-Csőszhalom regional culture complex overlaps with the Linear Pottery (AVK) sites between c. 5350–4950 BC, and continues on until c. 4500 BC (Yerkes et al. 2009, 1077; Raczky 2009). Sites of the Lengyel culture concentrate west of the Danube in Transdanubia (Hungary), but some are found as far north as Slovakia. The contemporaneous Vinča culture dominates the south-eastern Carpathian Basin and the central Balkans. Finally, two sites—Iclod A and B, with 40 and 50 burials respectively—are known from the Iclod culture group of Transylvania in the eastern Carpathians (Lazarovici 1976, 1991).
Burial practices throughout the region show certain parallels, although these are played out differently in detail. All are found on settlements. The flat sites of the AVK generally yield few burials close to houses or in settlement pits (e.g. Mezőkövesd-Mocsolyás (Raczky et al. 1997, 28–33); Füzesabony-Gubakút (Kalicz and Koós 1997)) whilst small groups occur on Tisza culture tells and flat sites.6 At the Polgár-Csőszhalom tell burials were mainly of children and adult men. The surrounding flat settlement yielded mostly adult females (Raczky and Anders 2006, 2008; Anders and Nagy 2007). At the Berettyóújfalu-Herpály tell, three-quarters of the excavated burials were children underneath buildings, but a small group of graves was discovered 200m away from the tell (Kalicz and Raczky 1984). On Lengyel sites, aggregations tend to be larger (in one instance up to 80). In contrast, Vinča sites rarely have more than two burials, but a cemetery is known from Botoš (Grbić 1934), showing that more burial grounds may be revealed once more off-tell research is carried out.
Although most burials are single inhumations, there is great variation in practices. Double burials often involve children. The AVK child from Konyár-Ziegelei was accompanied by a separate child skull (Kalicz and Makkay 1977, 138), whilst several Tisza culture sites have yielded double burials of two children, a child with an adult and, more rarely, two adults (e.g. Hódmezővásárhely-Gorzsa II; Hódmezővásárhely-Kökénydomb (Horváth 1992)). Variation can even occur within a single site. Thus, at the Lengyel site of Zengővárkony, the double burial of an adult and a child, children buried in vessels, and even cenotaphs were all uncovered. Several cremated burials have also been noted from the north of the Lengyel culture (e.g. Aszód-Papi földek; Zalai-Gaál 1984). At Bicske-Galagonyás in the northern Carpathian Basin, two different modes of burial co-existed: four inhumations were left flexed, and two extended (Makkay et al. 1996).
The secondary manipulation of the deceased is a common theme. One of the burials at Bicske-Galagonyás had their leg redeposited behind their head whilst the former was still connected (Makkay et al. 1996). The north Bükk site of Istállóskő Cave contained the disarticulated burned bones of around 25 mainly juvenile individuals (Korek and Patay 1958, 41). However, most instances involve the head. At Lengyel culture Zengővárkony, the skulls and/or mandibles were retrieved from the burials of certain individuals, mainly men and older women, whilst wild boar mandibles and more rarely dog remains were sometimes put in the place of or next to the human skulls (Zalai-Gaál 1994, 2009). The presence of boar tusk plates and boar mandibles, also mirrored in the contemporaneous Tisza culture (e.g. at Polgár-Csőszhalom), may indicate some special connection between males and wild boar, perhaps recalling the spirit of a strong wild animal as a desirable category for males. Skull removal and the frequent association of such partly exhumed male burials with wild boar mandibles and tusks may also express beliefs related to human–animal metamorphosis and/or special social exchanges. Similarly, red deer canines, or imitations in bone, were found at Polgár-Csőszhalom (cf. Siklósi 2010).
Grave goods in general comprise a common repertoire across the western Balkans, although different culture areas have particular preferences. Pottery is very frequent, with 19 vessels in one burial at the Lengyel culture site of Zengővárkony. In contrast, only five out of 102 graves at Polgár-Csőszhalom received vessels. Polished stone tools are usually a male grave good (e.g. Korek 1958), but at Zengővárkony several women were also buried with them. Much emphasis is placed on personal ornaments. Although these show regional peculiarities in their composition and relative frequency, there is a general tendency to employ diverse materials for beads, arm-rings, and girdles: Spondylus and Dentalium shells, copper, malachite, marble, bone, clay, limestone, or even alabaster (e.g. Anders and Nagy 2007, 84–86; Chapman 1981). Ochre is also relatively frequent (e.g. Korek 1989, 23–43; Bakay 1969). In most regions, grave goods are preferentially deposited around the upper body.
Throughout the region, orientation and body position are powerful signals for identity. Left crouched inhumations in easterly orientations dominate throughout the AVK (e.g. Kalicz and Makkay 1977) and in the earliest LBK of the western Carpathian Basin (see Hofmann and Orschiedt, this volume). In the Tisza culture, there is a sex-related pattern, with more females crouched on their left and more males crouched on their right. However, the most important distinction is perhaps between crouched and extended supine burials. The latter dominate at Bodrogkeresztúr-Kutyasor and Kisköre-Gát in the Upper Tisza region, at the northern Lengyel culture site of Svodín (Němejcová-Pavúková 1986, 1995), and in the Iclod culture (Lazarovici 1976, 1991). This pattern may confirm that older, Mesolithic burial traditions re-emerged during this period beyond the core area of the Neolithic distribution, as in the eastern Balkans. This is also supported by the importance of wild animals in many of these traditions. However, this is not necessarily an even process. For instance, in the Lengyel culture supine inhumations are more common in the north, whilst the south sees both left crouched burials oriented toward the east and north-east, and right crouched, west-oriented burials (e.g. Zalai-Gaál 1986, 1992). At the eponymous site of Lengyel (Wosinsky 1891) there is an eastern group with burials mostly placed on their left sides and a western group with burials generally on their right sides. This pattern of ‘polar opposites’, or conscious correspondence between a particular side and the orientation of the burial, recalls the contrasting spatial positioning of two or more burials in early and middle Neolithic contexts. Since these polarizations can exist between sites within a sub-region and even within a single site, they may be seen as ‘fractal’; that is, each smaller part of a larger unit repeats the divisions observed at the
macro-regional level (cf. Strathern 2004). This might have had implications for how personhood and identity were conceptualized at this time.
Differences between regions are also evident in who is represented in the burial record. For example, in the AVK, all ages and both sexes appear equally represented, whilst between 25 and 30 individuals at the Protolengyel site of Esztergályhorváti were mostly juvenile males (Barna 1996). One individual had a head trauma, perhaps indicating that this burial contains victims of violence. Whilst this may be a special case, more systematic selection is evident elsewhere. The 31 burials at the Vinča culture site of Gomolava (Fig. 49.3) now directly dated to c. 4650–4550 BC, close to the end of the Vinča occupation at the site (Borić 1996, 2009; Brukner 1980), were probably all males (cf. Stefanović 2008). It is unclear how and where the bodies of women were disposed of. In the Iclod culture group, most burials are male, and the small number of children may indicate selective decisions regarding the right for burial.
FIG. 49.3. Male Burial 2/1975, late Neolithic phase Ib, Gomolava, Serbia (adapted after Brukner 1980, Tab. VII-VIII).
LATE NEOLITHIC (C. 5300–4500 BC) AND FINAL NEOLITHIC (C. 4500–3200 BC) IN THE SOUTHERN BALKANS
In late Neolithic Greece, there are few primary burials from sites such as the Dimini tell in northern Greece and the Lerna and Skoteni Caves in southern Greece (Fowler 2004; Heurtly 1932). Cremation burials were found at Soufli, Plateia Magoula Zarkou (Gallis 1983, 1996), and Avgi (Stratouli et al. 2010), a tradition linking back to early Neolithic. At Zarkou, cremation burials formed a separate cemetery away from settlement. Existing differences between southern and northern Greece were further accentuated in the final Neolithic. At this time, cemeteries outside the settlements at Kephala and Tharrounia contain clusters of stone-built graves, possibly reflecting kinship affiliations (Fowler 2004, 100). During this period burials were also found in front of Franchthi Cave. Disarticulated human bones occur as stray finds in many contexts, such as caves (e.g. Alepotrypa in the southern Peloponnese and Kalythies on Rhodos) and open-air sites (e.g. Makryalos in Macedonia) (see Triantaphyllou 2008). There is evidence for the secondary treatment of human remains and preferential reburial/deposition of particular body parts, with people frequently observing age and gender differences. It is unclear if these mortuary practices reflect particular types of social organization, or whether there is disjuncture between burial customs and other aspects of social life.
