Unlocking the secrets of cremated human remains from Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age Austria.
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2023-05-30

Lukas Waltenberger & Katharina Rebay-Salisbury (Austrian Archaeological 
Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Lukas Waltenberger (Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences) and 
Katharina Rebay-Salisbury (Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
In eastern Central Europe, late Bronze Age burial practices encompass large cremation burials 
with hundreds of urn burials. Early Iron Age cemeteries first only differ in terms of including 
iron objects; subsequently, burial practices change to deposition in larger wooden chambers 
under burial mounds that include multiple burials, including inhumations. Recently, the 
scientific methods of isotope analysis and osteological sexing advanced, which increased the 
information that can be extracted from cremated human remains. 

We analysed 690 urn burials from the necropoleis Franzhausen-Kokoron, Inzersdorf, 
Statzendorf, and Getzersdorf the Lower Austrian Traisen valley spanning from the beginning 
of the Urnfield phenomenon in the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age (1300-600 BC). 
Methods included strontium isotope analysis of 450 human bone samples and comparative 
environmental samples to identify local and non-local individuals, 100 C14 dates of cremated 
remains and unburnt meat offerings, osteological age and sex assessment, as well as tooth 
cementum annulation. TCA allowed age-at-death calculations when no diagnostic elements for 
age estimations in adults were present. Compared to the gender, age and status analysis based 
on grave goods, the data obtained in this project significantly advances our knowledge of ritual 
practices, gendered mobility and social relations during the Late Bronze Age in Austria. 
Preliminary results indicate different patterns of gendered migration at different sites and in 
different chronological periods. Non-local individuals at the early Urnfield Culture cemetery 
of Inzersdorf are primarily sub-adult and female, whereas male mobility increased at the late 
Urnfield Culture cemetery of Franzhausen-Kokoron. Our case studies at the dawn of the Iron 
Age provide insights into how identity categories intersect with aspects of mobility.