Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - Revealing archaeological features linked to mortality increases
AU  - Castex D
AU  - Kacki S
AU  - Réveillas H
AU  - Souquet-Leroy I
AU  - Sachau-Carcel G
AU  - Blaizot F
AU  - Blanchard P
AU  - Duday H
Y1  - 2014
VL  - 52
IS  - 3
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 299
EP  - 318
KW  - Archaeothanatology
KW  - Multiple burials
KW  - Taphonomy
KW  - Sepulchral management
N2  - 
N2  - In this paper, we discuss criteria for evaluating the simultaneous deposit of multiple cadavers within a single pit. This archaeological approach is fundamental in identifying an abnormal mortality episode, whether occasional or linked to a mortality crisis, whatever its cause. This diagnosis must rely on the discussion of the relative chronology of body deposits, which can be particularly complex when numerous cadavers and superposition of bodies are involved. We illustrate our approach with several case studies from sites excavated as part of academic research and rescue archaeology. These examples emphasise the contribution, as well as the limits, of archaeothanatology and highlight the need to use alternative arguments for the study of some plural burials.
ER  -