Provider: Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic

TY  - JOUR
JO  - Anthropologie (Brno)
TI  - BURIAL RITES IN ARCTIC EURASIA:
A SEARCH FOR UNDERSTANDING MID-UPPER
PALEOLITHIC HUMAN SKELETAL BITS
AND PIECES IN MORAVIA
AU  - Sázelová S
Y1  - 2023
VL  - 61
IS  - 3
PB  - Moravian Museum, Brno, Czech Republic
SN  - 0323-1119
SP  - 315
EP  - 326
KW  - Ethnoarcheology – Gravettian – Pavlovian – Czech Republic – Siberia – Human adaptations – Cold
climate – Hunter-gatherers – Reindeer herders – Mortuary practice
N2  - 
N2  - The paper addresses the understanding of the complexity in intentional and random manipulation with
deceased human bodies in the Mid-Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia. A series of single or multiple anatomic human modern burials
at open air-sites, in caves or under rock shelters have been documented. Some of them are decorated and covered by
extra-large sized mammal bones for protection. Beside these ritually buried individuals, isolated human cranial and
postcranial fragments are scattered through the cultural and other depositional layers, many of them being identified during the post-excavation
processing of faunal remains (e.g. Dolní Věstonice I, II and Pavlov I sites in the Czech Republic). These bits and pieces
often lack direct evidence of predator or human manipulation (except intentionally perforated human teeth), which
raises the question of a differential mortuary practice employed by our ancestors and/or the presence of specific
depositional and post-depositional taphonomic conditions in the preservation of human remains. The paper addresses
ethnoarcheological observations in different types of treatment of deceased human bodies among recent Arctic and sub-
Arctic hunter-gatherers and reindeer herders in Eurasia with a special emphasis on the burial rites among the Nenets
from northwestern Siberia. The work aims at the author's own social and economic scope, in which inappropriate or
partial manipulation with the deceased human body presents a disputable, unethical and even illegal act.
ER  -