PhD student, Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Doctoral Grant SFRH/BD/72758/2010 - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (http://alfa.fct.mctes.pt/)
Death in the Mesolithic.
Mortuary practices of the last hunter-gatherers in the extreme SW of Atlantic Europe.
Host institutions:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Sweden
(http://www.arkeologi.uu.se/)
Centre for Archaeology of the University of Lisbon, Portugal (UNIARQ)
(http://www.uniarq.net/)
National Museum of Archaeology, Lisbon, Portugal (MNA)
(http://www.mnarqueologia-ipmuseus.pt/)
Supervisor:
Kjel KNUTSSON (kjel.knutsson@arkeologi.uu.se)
Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Sweden
Co-advisors:
Mariana DINIZ (m.diniz@fl.ul.pt)
Centro de Arqueologia (UNIARQ), Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Liv NILSSON STUTZ (lstutz@emory.edu)
Department of Anthropology, Oxford College of Emory University, USA
Abstract:
The Portuguese shell middens, located at both Tagus (PT Tejo) and Sado Valleys are characterized by a large number of burials, unique in the Iberian Peninsula, and among the largest and the oldest concentration known in the European Mesolithic.
The available data urges for a profound and multi-dimensional re-examination, seeking meaningful explanations to archaeological questions, with a critical eye on the generalized models traditionally established for the Mesolithic.
This new research project, «Death in the Mesolithic», is focused on the funerary rituals and is the first plan fully developed towards a systematic study on the mortuary practices of these populations.
These large cemeteries embody a new attitude towards death, a key feature to understand the dynamics within the last hunter-gatherers of Europe, and in a wider extent they also enclose some of the fundamental human conceptions on the invention of death.
«Death in the Mesolithic» aims to contribute with a series of new questions to the research – with a multi-disciplinary inquiry – centred on the ritual practices in the treatment of the body after the moment of death.
One of the main goals of this project is to reconstruct the gestures that characterized the mortuary practices of both communities of Tejo and Sado Valleys, through a detailed analysis of the human remains as the main archaeological data and the centre of all performance. Particular attention will be taken on method and theory, by crossing the analytical tools of Archaeothanatology with the theoretical approaches to Ritual Practice developed within the Social Sciences.
For this research, it is also essential to address questions focused on the space of the dead and its actual relation with the shell middens. Most of these burials were found in these artificial mounds, composed by a variety of shells, animal bones and a wide mixture of debris. Once viewed as an economic indicator, some authors are rethinking the middens as “monuments” of the Mesolithic with attendant roles in the funerary process, territorial claims and feastings.
Through a profound and critical analysis of the archaeological data, published and (mainly) unpublished; crossed with the abundant anthropological data already available; an accurate contextualization of the radiocarbon dating on human bones; and the new data being recovered from ongoing excavations in some of these middens - we will be close to determine a spatial and chronological relation between three key aspects: shell midden, burial ground and habitat. A complex but fundamental reflection as it points to a central question in the actual debate: the functional and/or symbolic interpretation of the shell midden, and in this specific study, its concrete role in the funerary process.
The research on mortuary practices is, in this perspective, a fundamental contribution for the resolution of multiple questions related with the Mesolithic landscape and identity – full of meanings, memories and new conceptions on Life and Death.
Keywords:
1. Late Mesolithic
2. Archaeology of Death
3. Archaeothanatology
4. Ritual Theory
5. Identity
6. Shell midden
7. Tagus (PT Tejo) Valley, Portugal
8. Sado Valley, Portugal
Basic data:
Fig. 1 - Shell midden cemeteries at the extreme SW of Atlantic Europe - Portugal
Tejo Valley (T):
- 1st shell middens discovered and excavated in the late 19th century
- ~12 identified/6 with human burials
- ~ 300 burials
- ~ 6300 to 7600 bp (Meiklejohn et al. 2009)
- Ongoing excavations oriented by N. Bicho (Univerisity of Algarve, Portugal)
Sado Valley (S):
- 1st shell middens discovered in the 1930s
- First excavations in the 1950s
- 11 identified/6-7 with human burial
- ~ 100 burials
- ~ 6600 to 7300 bp (Meiklejohn et al. 2009)
- Ongoing excavations oriented by M. Diniz and P.Arias (University of Lisbon, Portugal and University of Cantabria, Spain)
Current team projects:
From shell middens to crop fields: The transition to the Neolithic in the coastal regions of SW Europe-ATLANTMIDDENS (U. Cantabria, Spain – Coord. Pablo Arias)
SADO-MESO (U. Cantabria, Spain/U. Lisbon, Portugal – Coord. Pablo Arias and Mariana Diniz)
