Elke Kaiser (Hrsg.): : Space not only for the living: Human remains in Bronze Age settlements / Raum nicht nur für die Lebenden: Menschliche Überreste in Bronzezeitlichen Siedlungen

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Elke Kaiser
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 538940680

Finds of human bones are not uncommon in prehistoric settlements. The spectrum ranges from single, disarticulated bones to complete skeletons, from scattered bones to carefully deposited find complexes. For a long time these finds and features were hardly considered for the Bronze Age, at most merely discussed in the context of so-called irregular (deviant) burials. It is only in the last decade that the interest among Bronze Age researchers is directed towards human bones in settlements. Ten of twelve articles in the planned volume will present the various forms and aspects of such finds and features and debate interpretive approaches. For the first time, the spatial framework is explicitly extended to Eurasia, thus reaching from Kazakhstan over the northern Black Sea area and Southeastern Europe to Western as well as Central Europe, demonstrating that the deposition of human remains in the Bronze Age is not a regional or temporally limited phenomenon. On the contrary, such finds constitute an important source category that calls into question the often made separation of profane and sacred spheres and whose systematic research is strongly required for this very reason. The planned volume thus constitutes a first important step in this direction and presents the diversity of such finds and features. At the same time, the importance of bioarchaeological research becomes clear in order to expand the potential for interpretation. It is imperative that the interdisciplinary study of human remains in settlements be expanded to include concepts from social and cultural anthropology for a better understanding of practices with the human body. This perspective is widespread among the present articles, even while containing different approaches to the subject. The book starts with an article offering a diachronic overview of the phenomenon of so-called settlement burials and presents a concept for the systematic recording as well as investigation of such complexes. Furthermore, the case study of a settlement in the Bolivian highlands contrasts the studies in Eurasia. The results of this interdisciplinary project, in which burials in settlements are the rule rather than the exception, provide insight into religious practices that casts doubt on boundaries between life and death often implied in other parts of the world and presents so as well as a perspective on further interpretation.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants