by Chris Fowler
Many studies essentially focus on discussing such idealized or stereotypical identities and how they are signalled through grave goods. Traditional lines of interpretation correlate the presence/absence of goods, or certain body orientations, with statically defined identities, especially socio-economic status and, more recently, ‘local’ or ‘incomer’ (e.g. Jeunesse 1997; Nieszery 1995; Bentley et al. 2008). The presentation of the body in death is used to argue for neatly bounded social categories. Indeed, architectural evidence (see Last, Coudart this volume) could be cited in support. LBK houses, with their profusion of posts, create an almost over-structured context in which bodies could be controlled and classified rigorously according to who was allowed to stand, sit, or move where and in what manner, thus grouping persons into a set of ‘ideal’ identities.
The situation is, however, more complex. To begin with, even the identities displayed in cemeteries were constructed over a lifetime. For instance, comparing the diameters of Spondylus armrings for children and adults suggests that smaller rings were put on in early childhood and could not be removed. Probably during initiation rites, they were broken and replaced with adult-sized ones, again an essentially permanent ornament (Nieszery 1995, 185f). Here, the growth of the body, a biologically continuous process, is culturally segmented through bestowing exotic rings as gifts, creating ties and obligations within and beyond communities. These rings were fixed, integral markers of an identity partly embodied through the felt tightening of the rings as muscles grew, but also defined by links with others. Identities and bodies are hence fluid throughout a lifetime and multiply authored, depending for instance on gifts and ceremonies sponsored by others, and on more routine interactions such as labour or food sharing, partly choreographed through architecture. These connections were stressed at the graveside through breaking and removing parts of objects, or through prolonged ritual interaction after burial (see Hofmann 2009).
Throughout the Neolithic, whole bodies are also interred in settlements. Often, women and children, sometimes under-represented in cemeteries, are treated in this way (Orschiedt 1998; Veit 1996). Since in the LBK, many settlement burials are unfurnished, they are often interpreted as low-status individuals. However, it would be an unusual choice to keep unwanted dead close by, and the regular body positions parallel those observed on cemeteries. In addition, in some LBK phases and regions, all known burials come from settlements. It is hence equally possible that continued proximity to the living was desired. In such an interpretation, the final presentation of the body took place in a less formal context than a cemetery burial. The deceased being well-known to the mourners meant less need for signalling stereotypical identities through grave goods. Yet ultimately, the precise motives for choosing cemetery or settlement burial remain unclear.
Dissolution and fragmentation
Alongside the deposition of whole bodies, alternative practices in cemeteries and elsewhere focus on the dissolution of the body, its mixing with other bodies and objects, and the constant engagement of the living with the remains of the dead. It is sometimes suggested that cremations in cemeteries comprise more than one individual (e.g. Nieszery 1995, 297–304; but see Trautmann 2007, 160); in any case, burnt human bone is intermingled with the burnt remains of objects (Trautmann 2007). But even inhumed individuals have occasionally been manipulated after burial. This can range from moving skeletal elements, such as the skull or an entire arm, to the secondary deposition of isolated bones on several levels within the grave fill (e.g. Sondershausen 13, Thuringia; Ensisheim 2, Alsace; Vaihingen 63, Baden-Württemberg; cf. Jeunesse 1997, 67–70). At the late LBK Jungfernhöhle cave in northern Bavaria, the fragmented remains of at least 41 individuals, mostly women and children, were tossed into the cave shaft with fragmented objects and animal bone (Orschiedt 1999, 164–178). Unfortunately, the quality of excavation makes it hard to estimate the duration of this episode, and interpretations of both cannibalism and secondary burial rites here have been challenged (Orschiedt 1999; Seregély 2012). Secondary burial is, however, attested on some settlements, such as Wiesbaden-Erbenheim (Hesse), where the fragmented remains of nine adults and children were placed in a loam pit alongside a house associated with an admixture of pottery from the earliest to the late LBK. Signs of manipulation are lacking (Orschiedt 1999, 158–163).
The exceptional finds from the latest LBK pit enclosure at Herxheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, offer another insight into this kind of practice (Orschiedt and Haidle 2007, 2009, 2012; Zeeb-Lanz 2009, 2013; Zeeb-Lanz et al. 2009). Repeatedly recut enclosure segments contained human remains in conjunction with animal bone, stone and flint tools, and ceramics. The skeletal material was often extremely fragmented. Skulls especially seem to have been worked in a regular fashion: the sides, face, and back of the head are removed to leave the flat skull cap (Fig. 51.2). Probably depending on the state of decomposition, soft tissue, especially the scalp, was occasionally removed. Interpretations so far suggest a complex, multi-phase mortuary ritual at the very end of the LBK, a time when funerary practices more frequently focus on dissolution and on combining fragmented human and animal bodies and other objects (see most recently Boulestin et al. 2009; Orschiedt and Haidle 2012).
FIG. 51.2. (a) Complex 9 from the pit enclosure at Herxheim, Rhineland-Palatinate. Reproduced with kind permission of Andrea Zeeb-Lanz, Generaldirektion Kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz, Direktion Archäologie Speyer.
(Photograph: J. Orschiedt).
Similar concerns are mirrored in the making and treatment of anthropomorphic figurines, a relatively rare but consistently recovered find in the western LBK. Originally interpreted as ‘mother-goddesses’ (but see Hansen 2001; Becker 2011), these figures often show a mixture of human and animal traits. Some are tempered with flour or treated with birch tar or ochre—this treatment interestingly again often focusing on the head—and all seem intentionally fragmented, stressing the theme of bodies as unstable mixtures of various substances (Hansen 2005; Höckmann 2001; Hofmann 2005, 2007; Hofmann and Whittle 2008).
In the LBK, then, at least two aspects of the body exist in tension. On the one hand, the body could be presented whole, although this was also the outcome of a process in which a person was constituted through relationships such as exchange and food sharing. Yet the wearing of shell rings, or burial within a spatial or orientation grouping in a cemetery, stressed selected aspects of that identity, often corresponding to regional or culture-wide expectations in choice of goods or adornment of specific body parts. Relationality was differently expressed in the deliberate dissolution of the body. This idea of the body as malleable and unstable is expressed in the moulding and breaking of figurines, or in cremation and secondary burial. Here, fixing a body or an identity permanently is eschewed, stressing the social process of their creation and transformation, which could continue for a varying length of time after death.
Some, however, were excluded from any funerary rite. The 34 individuals from a late LBK mass grave at Talheim, south-west Germany, are the best-known example. They were killed by adze blows to the head and dumped haphazardly into a large pit (Wahl and König 1987). At Asparn, Austria, the remains of over 100 people, many showing injuries, were scattered in the settlement’s surrounding ditch and lay unburied for some time (Teschler-Nicola et al. 1996). At Wiederstedt, Saxony-Anhalt, the remains of ten mostly 7- to 15-year-olds were tightly squeezed into a pit. As they lack traumatic injuries, they are interpreted as the victims of disease (Meyer et al. 2004). These practices are best seen in the light of a ‘bad death’, the exclusion of some individuals from established funerary rites due to the manner of their demise. All other identities the deceased may have held are suppressed, whilst the irregular body positions and lack of engagement with the remains are perhaps an expression of horror in the face of catastrophic circumstances, or indeed disregard by the perpetrators of violence. Here, the conventional strategies of mourning and burial were insufficient; these bodies were simply abandoned.
&
nbsp; After the LBK
The tension between the presentation of a whole body and its dissolution runs through many successor cultures of the LBK (often grouped as ‘middle Neolithic’), which in central Europe continue for roughly another half-millennium. In spite of changes in material culture, such as houses and pottery, there is no clear hiatus in mortuary ritual. Cemeteries with inhumations and cremations still exist, but are now rather rare, and there is a trend to bury the deceased in smaller groups. Nevertheless, some more extensive sites have been excavated; the most well-known are the Hinkelstein/Großgartach cemeteries at Trebur, Hesse (Spatz 1999), Lingolsheim and Erstein, Alsace (Lichardus-Itten 1980), Rheingewann and Rheindürkheim near Worms (Koehl 1903), the Rössen culture cemeteries at Rössen in Saxony-Anhalt (Niquet 1938), and Jechtingen in Baden-Württemberg (Dehn 1975; Dornheim 2011).
Trebur is one of the few completely dug Neolithic cemeteries, totalling 137 inhumations. Two ceramic culture groupings, Hinkelstein and Großgartach, used it concurrently for several generations, but buried their dead in distinct areas (Spatz 1999; Müller 2002). The most lavish graves lie close to the border between these two groups, which has been read as competition between communities (Müller 2002). In such a model, the single body is used to reflect the concerns of the wider body politic. Indeed, there is also a new willingness to make full use of the body’s opportunities for display. Individuals are buried supine, with limestone and animal tooth ornaments all over the body, not just around its upper half (Spatz 1999; Hofmann and Whittle 2008). In addition to ornaments and goods, such as various tools and pottery, animal parts were frequently deposited as food offerings, most strikingly whole sides of beef in some male graves (Fig. 51.3). This may well have included feasting at the grave side, perhaps to consume the remainder of the animal, but direct evidence is lacking. Although these changes still need to be fully contextualized, it is tempting to draw a connection between new ornament conventions and new arenas for display, such as large roundel enclosures, where mass gatherings likely took place (see Petrasch, this volume). Compared to the LBK, domestic architecture also opens up, creating greater opportunities for displaying ornamented bodies.
FIG. 51.3. Burial 70 (adult male) at Trebur, Hesse. Cow ribs, shown in black, cover the upper body.
(After Spatz and von den Driesch 2001, fig. 1; drawing by I. Dennis).
Again, cemetery burial may be the most researched practice, but it is not the only one. Given the period of Trebur’s use (c. 4900–4500 BC), the number of interments is actually rather low, and alternatives to cemetery burial existed. As for the LBK, these comprise settlement burials and secondary treatment of fragmented remains (Veit 1996). Views on the constitution and dissolution of bodies and persons were hence again contradictory and complex.
THE LATE NEOLITHIC: PARTS OF BODIES, MIXED BODIES, AND NO BODIES AT ALL
In succeeding phases, emphasis shifts towards practices stressing dissolution. Evidence for mortuary rites is rare, making it difficult to comment on the funerary practices of many regions and cultures. Apart from a tight cluster of cist cemeteries in western Switzerland, there are very few burials from the northern Alpine lake village horizon (e.g. Moinat and Chambon 2007; Nickel 1997, 127f). Mostly, human remains occur as isolated bones on settlements. It is tempting to see this as part of a set of values in which largely homogeneous architecture and material culture emphasized village-wide identity at the expense of displays of individual status, but there is likely to be variation (see Menotti, this volume).
Funerary evidence is most numerous for the widespread Michelsberg culture (c. 4200–3500 BC) of central and western Germany and eastern France. There are no cemeteries, but isolated human remains from enclosures and settlement pits, often found with artefacts and occasionally showing cut marks, perimortal breakage patterns, and some signs of burning (Fig. 51.4). The few complete single and multiple burials, some neatly crouched, others seemingly dumped, tend to come from the base of pits or ditch segments (Nickel 1997). There are generally no grave goods, but the 60-year-old woman buried crouched in a pit below the base of a ditch segment at Bruchsal Aue (grave 3), for instance, received aurochs horn cores (Nickel 1997, 100). The recently excavated site at Beaurieux in the Aisne valley (Manolakakis et al. 2007), with its furnished burials under monumental mounds, is an interesting exception.
FIG. 51.4. An assemblage with human remains from the Hetzenberg, Baden-Württemberg. Reproduced with kind permission of Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege.
Skulls, sometimes found in concentrations, dominate among the isolated human bones from enclosures. They were deposited after soft tissue had decayed, as the mandible is generally absent (Nickel 1997). The skull from the Ilsfeld enclosure, Baden-Württemberg, is an exception. This individual was killed by two blows to the right side of the head, but there is also a hole in the centre of the cranial vault, caused by a pointed object piercing the skull from the interior. These defects, the damage on the cranial base, and weathering patterns are consistent with display on a pole or post, perhaps as a trophy head near the gate (Wahl 2007, 169–171). There are other examples for skull trauma due to violence, generally on complete skeletons, such as the adult woman from a settlement pit at Rosheim ‘Saint Odile’, Alsace (Nickel 1997, 161). In a pit at Heidelberg-Handschuhsheim, three adults (two men and a woman), a juvenile, a newborn, and an older child were buried in a crouched position. All three adults and the juvenile were killed by blows to the head (Wahl and Höhn 1988). Apart from the juvenile’s animal tooth necklace, there were again no grave goods—the ceramics in the pit were wasters from firing (Behrends 1998).
In total, there are c. 350 Michelsberg culture individuals over 800 years and a considerable geographical extent. These are hence not representative and often interpreted as special burials (Nickel 1997, 131f). The picture is similar for other, partly contemporary culture groups. Thus, the south-east German Münchshöfen culture yields multiple and partial burials in settlement pits, often without grave goods, alongside single furnished inhumations in own graves (Veit 1996; Meixner 2009). In some instances, the burials of animals parallel the treatment of the human dead, and both could have been used to symbolically demarcate the limits of the community (Hofmann 2007). From the succeeding Altheim culture, all known skeletal remains come from the eponymous earthwork and may have been victims of a violent conflict (Nickel 1997, 126). For the south-west German Aichbühl culture, the only possible funerary site is the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave. Here, the extremely fragmented skulls and long bones of at least 30 individuals were deposited near the cave entrance in a shallow scoop partially ringed with stones (Orschiedt 1999, 179–188).
Generally then, the majority burial rite of many late Neolithic groups has left no archaeologically recognizable traces. As for the early and middle Neolithic, available evidence shows no rigid idea of an exclusively employed funerary rite, but an emphasis on diversity at the level of the individual corpse. The reasons for this have hardly been studied, but could include ritual factors, specific characteristics of the person, or the circumstances of death. Overall, bodies are not categorized through ornaments and grave goods, as many early and middle Neolithic individuals were, but through the rite itself. The burials we observe have less to do with the repetition of accepted acts and more with a memorable ceremony, often carried out in eminently public places such as enclosures. It can be suggested that human bodies were used alongside animals and objects as part of wider statements concerned with defining the community and its boundaries. This is consistent with the burial of victims of violence and the frequent selection of boundary ditches, although it may not explain all instances. These individuals were denied the perhaps more time-consuming but archaeologically invisible rites probably employed for the majority, and were instead used in an almost theatrical way.
Case study: funerary diversity in the Mittelelbe–Saale area
Owing to the increasing number of regional late and final Neolithic groupings, we ha
ve chosen to limit discussion of the post-Michelsberg horizon to the archaeologically rich Mittelelbe–Saale area in central eastern Germany. Here, the Baalberge culture (c. 3800–3400 BC), in contrast to Michelsberg, is characterized by the increasing elaboration of generally single interments, either through grave goods, or through architectural features such as cists or mounds (Müller 2001, 313–320). But from about 3400 BC onwards, collective burials increasingly dominate. For Müller (2001, 384), the main distinction is the shift of attention away from a specific buried individual and towards the ritual activities of the survivors, a trend visible in contexts as diverse as settlement burials, collective megalithic graves, or single burials under mounds and in cists. Interestingly, the many ceramic culture groups in existence, such as Salzmünde, Walternienburg, and Bernburg, do not correlate with a specific funerary custom, but use several concurrently, drawing on a shared range of practices.
For instance, at the eponymous enclosure of Salzmünde, more than 50 skulls, already decomposed at the time of deposition, were placed in the two parallel ditches, singly or in groups, alongside human and animal skeletons in varying states of completeness, and isolated bones. Human remains were recovered from storage pits, including stacks of more or less incomplete skeletons, torsi in irregular positions, and isolated skulls. Most remains were interpreted as secondary burials. However, there are also some primary interments containing grave goods, such as large flint blades, loom weights, and spindle whorls. Other individual and collective burials were laid on a tightly packed scatter of intentionally smashed pottery and sometimes surrounded by sherds (Schlenker and Stecher 2013).
