STUDYING REOPENED GRAVES WITH TAPHONOMY-BASED METHODOLOGIES: WHERE WILL WE GO NEXT?
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 27/02/2021

In this paper we want to review the state of the art of taphonomy-based studies of reopened graves. The aim is to identify areas for future developments to answer specific research questions as well as potential standardisations of methodologies. The focus of the paper will be on archaeothanatology, but we will also consider results from micromorphology and digital archaeology. Subject of our contribution are inhumation graves, characterised by the interment of the complete body soon after death, usually in an organic container in a single grave cut in the ground. Many of these graves are found to have been reopened after deposition. Such evidence is typical for European cemeteries of the early Medieval period and can also frequently be seen in the central European early Bronze Age. The authors of this paper started their studies independent of each other and have recently summarised their results from applying archaeothanatology to reopened graves. In this paper they will discuss potential further methodological developments using archaeothanatology and other taphonomic methodologies to explore why a grave has been reopened in the past. To achieve this, answers to the following questions have to be found: When was the grave reopened? Which practices were carried out upon reopening? How have the human remains been treated? Have objects or human remains been moved, removed or deposited?


Author(s): Aspoeck, Edeltraud (Austrian Academy of Sciences) - Noterman, Astrid (Stockholm University, Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies)