Rituales con restos humanos en ámbito ilergete: reflexiones a partir de las evidencias de El Molí d’Espígol (Tornabous, Lérida)

This chapter discusses the archaeological context of the materials at Point San Jose. A history of Fort Mason and the hospital building is provided, followed by a narrative describing the discovery of the human remains and the excavation of the pit. The discovery’s comparative context with similarly modified skeletal series is addressed as well as portions of two guiding questions of the overall work: what purpose had the human remains served and what did their disposal represent?

In all, 1065 fragments of bone were recovered from trench B. The bulk of the bone (868 fragments: 81%) came from the ditch; 121 fragments came from pits and scoops, 74 fragments from post holes and 1 fragment from a layer in the ‘working area’. Four of the pits and three of the post holes are in the ‘working area’ and they contained a total of 104 fragments of bone; the five post holes interpreted as a four-post structure contained 40 fragments of bone. With the exception of post holes 96 and 117, which contained one and two fragments of bone respectively, no bone was recovered from contexts east of the ditch running north-south at the eastern side of the site (39 and 78), nor from those contexts lying between its terminals. Two fragments of worked bone were recovered, one from context 5 in the ditch and one from post hole 75, which also contained one of the bird bones; the other bird bone came from context 41 in the ditch. The human remains and the dog bones were recovered exclusively from the ditch. The distribution of the bones of the larger domesticates and pig indicates consistency and continuity in disposal practices: 95.6% of the identified horse bones, 92.5% of the identified cattle bones and 80.5% of the identified pig bones w*re recovered from the ditch. Only the caprovid bones were spread more evenly over the site: 66.7% came from the ditch, 26.1% from the pits and scoops and 7.2% from post holes. Fragments of burnt bone were recovered from contexts 3 (ditch), 16 (post hole) and 107 (pit). Butchered and gnawed bones were distributed without any particular pattern in all three types of bone-bearing context.

The archaeological site of Salorno—Dos de la Forca (Bozen, Alto Adige) provides one of the rarest and most significant documentations of cremated human remains preserved from an ancient cremation platform (ustrinum). The pyre area, located along the upper Adige valley, is dated to the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1150–950 BCE) and has yielded an unprecedented quantity of cremated human remains (about 63.5 kg), along with burnt animal bone fragments, shards of pottery, and other grave goods made in bronze and animal bone/antler. This study focuses on the bioanthropological analysis of the human remains and discusses the formation of the unusual burnt deposits at Salorno through comparisons with modern practices and protohistoric and contemporaneous archaeological deposits. The patterning of bone fragmentation and commingling was investigated using spatial data recorded during excavation which, along with the bioanthropological and archaeological data, are used to model and test two hypotheses: Salorno—Dos de la Forca would be the result of A) repeated primary cremations left in situ; or B) of residual material remaining after select elements were removed for internment in urns or burials to unknown depositional sites. By modelling bone weight and demographic data borrowed from regional affine contexts, the authors suggest that this cremation site may have been used over several generations by a small community–perhaps a local elite. With a quantity of human remains that exceeds that of any other coeval contexts interpreted as ustrina, Salorno may be the product of a complex series of rituals in which the human cremains did not receive individual burial, but were left in situ, in a collective/communal place of primary combustion, defining an area of repeated funeral ceremonies involving offerings and libations across a few generations. This would represent a new typological and functional category that adds to the variability of mortuary customs at the end of the Bronze Age in the Alpine are, at a time in which “globalising” social trends may have stimulated the definition of more private identities.

The archaeological site of Salorno-Dos de la Forca (Bozen, Alto Adige) provides one of the rarest and most significant documentations of cremated human remains preserved from an ancient cremation platform (ustrinum). The pyre area, located along the upper Adige valley, is dated to the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1150-950 BCE) and has yielded an unprecedented quantity of cremated human remains (about 63.5 kg), along with burnt animal bone fragments, shards of pottery, and other grave goods made in bronze and animal bone/antler. This study focuses on the bioanthropological analysis of the human remains and discusses the formation of the unusual burnt deposits at Salorno through comparisons with modern practices and protohistoric and contemporaneous archaeological deposits. The patterning of bone fragmentation and commingling was investigated using spatial data recorded during excavation which, along with the bioanthropological and archaeological data, are used to model and test two hypotheses: Salorno-Dos de la Forca would be the result of A) repeated primary cremations left in situ; or B) of residual material remaining after select elements were removed for internment in urns or burials to unknown depositional sites. By modelling bone weight and demographic data borrowed from regional affine contexts, the authors suggest that this cremation site may have been used over several generations by a small community-perhaps a local elite. With a quantity of human remains that exceeds that of any other coeval contexts interpreted as ustrina, Salorno may be the product of a complex series of rituals in which the human cremains did not receive individual burial, but were left in situ, in a collective/communal place of primary combustion, defining an area of repeated funeral ceremonies involving offerings and libations across a few generations. This would represent a new typological and functional category that adds to the variability of mortuary customs at the end of the Bronze Age in the Alpine are, at a time in which "globalising" social trends may have stimulated the definition of more private identities.

This paper argues that conservators working on human remains preserve not only the physical remnants of a once-living body, but also the traces of the narratives of a human life and its afterlife. The author examines the conservator's ethical and moral obligations to the dead and their associated artifacts, and considers the conservator's role in both dehumanizing remains into mere "objects," and in rehumanizing such "objects." These issues are explored in relation to the conservation of the remains of three specific individuals and their possessions: an ancient Egyptian female mummy now in a museum in the United States, an ancient Egyptian child excavated on an archaeological site, and a beatified Catholic nun's relics and bone fragment. The author recounts her personal interactions with these three individuals to argue that the traditionally detached, technical role of the conservator may be inappropriate or inadequate when preserving both the tangible and intangible aspects of human remains. The paper suggests that even minimal and mundane conservation practices can take on invasive qualities or new ritual significance when performed on human remains, and that respectful conservation treatments elicit an empathy for, and emotional response to, the remains themselves.

Peer Reviewed

We provide the description and comparative analysis of all the human fossil remains found at Axlor during the excavations carried out by J. M. de Barandiarán from 1967 to 1974: a cranial vault fragment and seven teeth, five of which likely belonged to the same individual, although two are currently lost. Our goal is to describe in detail all these human remains and discuss both their taxonomic attribution and their stratigraphic context. We describe external and internal anatomy, and use classic and geometric morphometrics. The teeth from Axlor are compared to Neandertals, Upper Paleolithic, and recent modern humans. Two teeth (a left dm2 , a left di1 ) and the parietal fragment show morphological features consistent with a Neandertal classification, and were found in an undisturbed Mousterian context. The remaining three teeth (plus the two lost ones), initially classified as Neandertals, show morphological features and a general size that are more compatible with their classification as modern humans. A left parietal fragment (Level VIII) from a single probably adult Neandertal individual was recovered during the old excavations performed by Barandiarán. Additionally, two different Neandertal children lost deciduous teeth during the formations of levels V (left di1 ) and IV (right dm2 ). In addition, a modern human individual is represented by five remains (two currently lost) from a complex stratigraphic setting. Some of the morphological features of these remains suggest that they may represent one of the scarce examples of Upper Paleolithic modern human remains in the northern Iberian Peninsula, which should be confirmed by direct dating.

How have imperialism and its after-effects impacted patterns of cultural exchange, artistic creativity and historical/curatorial interpretation? World Art and the Legacies of Colonial Violence - comprised of ten essays by an international roster of art historians, curators, and anthropologists - forges innovative approaches to post-colonial studies, Indigenous studies, critical heritage studies, and the new museology. This volume probes the degree to which global histories of conflict, coercion and occupation have shaped art historical approaches to intercultural knowledge and representation. These debates are relevant to contemporary artists and scholars of visual, material and museological culture in their attempts to negotiate imperial and colonial legacies. Confronting the aesthetics of Abolition, Fascism and Filipino independence, and re-thinking relationships between colonised and coloniser in Cameroon, North America and East Timor, the collection brings together new readings of Primitivism and Aboriginal art as well. It features discussions of touring exhibitions, popular media, modernist paintings and sculptures, historic photographs, human remains and art installations. In addition to the critical application of phenomenology in a fresh and contemporary manner, the volume’s ‘world art’ perspective nurtures the possibility that intercultural ethics are relevant to the study of art, power and modernity.

This is the first detailed study of the micromorphology of archaeologically important cave sediments in the Great Cave of Niah, in the humid tropics of Sarawak, Borneo. Micromorphology is used to describe the sediments and post-depositional alteration, reconstruct the palaeoenvironments, and refine the environmental history of late Pleistocene deposits associated with the human remains (the so-called Deep Skull dated to ca. 43,000-42,000 B.P.). Micromorphology provides details of the shape, roundedness, arrangement, and chemistry of grains, aggregates, precipitates, and sedimentary structures that make up the cave sediments. The dominant processes in the West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah are guano sedimentation, fluvial and shallow pond deposition interrupted by desiccation, mass movement, and chemical weathering. Also important is post-depositional alteration by bioturbation, mineral translocation and reprecipitation, and diagenesis. Micromorphology also provides evidence for short periods of soil development, burnt surfaces, and deposition of small fragments of bone within the sediment. Together this information indicates the fine details of the environment occupied by humans, the scale and effects of the mass movement processes that deformed the beds in which the human remains are preserved, and the taphonomic processes that reworked and redistributed archaeological material within this part of the cave.

This research aims to provide a framework for identifying vestiges of vertebral haemangioma (VH), a benign tumour originating from the cells that form blood or lymphatic vessels, in archaeological human skeletal remains. The macroscopic alteration was observed in the fourth thoracic vertebral body of a female aged 2535 years at death from the necropolis of Pontecagnano (Salerno, Italy), dated to 725650 BCE; the adult individual was associated with the skeletal remains of an infant. Macroscopic assessment was combined with stereomicroscopy, micro-CT, and 3D reconstruction. Macroscopically, areas of cortical bone loss enabled evaluation of trabecular thickening and rarefaction. Radiographically, small punctuate areas of sclerotic bone resulting from the replacement of the normal cancellous bone by vertically oriented and thickened vertical trabeculae were typified as polka-dot on the axial plane and corduroy sign on the sagittal image. The bone alterations are considered pathognomonic of an intraosseous VH. This study, which describes one of the few cases of VH in the palaeopathological literature, highlights the importance of combining macroscopic assessment and advanced imaging techniques for the diagnosis of VHs in archaeological human skeletal remains.

In 1994, a series of human bones was found at the Sidron cave in Borines (Concejo de Pilona, Asturias), Spain. Since the investigators suspected that they were dealing with human remains from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the bones were collected by the Civil Guard, but were not subjected to archeological scrutiny. The finding was reported then to the corresponding authorities, who had them sent to the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology of the Forensic Institute of Madrid (Spain), where an anthropological study was undertaken. This revealed the extraordinary palaeoanthropological and palaeopathological interest of the remains. The specimen studied herein, a mandible catalogued as SDR 7-8 (SIDRON 7-8) by the Forensic Laboratory in Madrid (Spain) and belonging to Homo neanderthalensis , with an age of 90,000 to 40,000 years BCE, showed special characteristics of oral pathology, making it a specimen of great palaeodontological interest. Key words: Mandible, Neanderthal, oral pathology, Sidron, Asturias.

The objective was to develop an odontometric technique for sex estimation based on dental measurements from adult individuals, and to evaluate its applicability and reliability for diagnosis of sex of nonadult skeletal remains. This study was conducted on the permanent dentition of 132 individuals (70 males, 62 females) from the identified human skeletal collection of the Certosa Cemetery (Bologna, Italy) of the University of Bologna. Binary logistic regression equations were developed based on dental measurements of the permanent teeth of the adult individuals, and these equations were subsequently applied to the permanent dentition of nonadult individuals to estimate their sex. These data show that the canine teeth of both the maxilla and mandible are the most sexually dimorphic teeth in adults, followed by the mandibular second molar, maxillary and mandibular second and first premolars, and mandibular first molar. These data provided correct assignment of sex in 80.4-94.9% of cases, which depended on the measurements used. Of the 26 nonadult individuals of the experimental sample, sex diagnosis was possible for 22, which represented an applicability rate of 84.6% of the individuals. Comparing the sex of these 22 nonadult individuals estimated by odontometrics with the known biological sex, correct assignment was obtained in 90.9% of cases. As a method of sex estimation, odontometric analysis of permanent dentition can be used successfully for nonadult human skeletal remains in both forensic and archeological contexts.

This paper revisits the series of disarticulated human remains discovered during the 1980s excavations of the Cnip wheelhouse complex in Lewis. Four fragments of human bone, including two worked cranial fragments, were originally dated to the 1st centuries BC/AD based on stratigraphic association. Osteoarchaeological reanalysis and AMS dating now provide a broader cultural context for these remains and indicate that at least one adult cranium was brought to the site more than a thousand years after the death of the individual to whom it had belonged.

James Brow: Demons and development the struggle for community in a Sri Lankan village. (Hegemony and Experience: Critical Studies in Anthropology and History.) xviii, 218 pp. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1996, $45 (paper £19.95.) - Volume 61 Issue 2

Memorials in Times of Transition - Susanne Buckley-Zistel and Stefanie Schafer 1. Social Memory, Memorials and Meaning 2. Memorialisation, Memorials and Transitional Justice 3. Forms of Memorials in Times of Transition 4. Structure of the Volume Bibliography I. CONNECTING TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND MEMORIALS Chapter 1. Memorialisation in Post-conflict Societies in Africa: Potentials and Challenges - Ereshnee Naidu 1. Debates in the Field of Transitional Justice 2. Symbolic Reparations and Memorialisation in Post-conflict Societies 3. Memorialisation: Fuelling Underlying Divisions? 4. Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 2. Reflecting the Fractured Past: Memorialisation, Transitional Justice and the Role of Outsiders - Judy Barsalou 1. Defining Memorialisation: Forms, Timing, Initiators and Intentions 2. Memorialisation and Types of Conflict 2.1. Dictatorships and Political Repression 2.2. Ethnic Conflict 2.3. Mass Killings and Genocide 3. Connecting Memorialisation to Transitional Justice and Reconciliation 4. Getting Involved: The Role of Outsiders in Memorialisation 5. Conclusion Bibliography Chapter 3. Aletheia and the Making of the World: Inner and Outer Dimensions of Memorials in Rwanda - Julia Viebach 1. Memorialisation in Rwanda 2. Inside and Outside of Memorials 2.1. Making the World: Inside of Memorials 2.1.1. To the Beginnings: The Unmaking of the World 2.1.2. Fragments of World Alteration: The Practice of Care-taking and Human Remains as Collective Artefacts 2.2. Aletheia: The Outer Dimension of Memorials 2.2.1. Memory-Truth 2.2.2. Memory-Justice 2.2.3. The Unforgotten: Suffering and Victimhood in the Visuality and Materiality of Memorials 3. Juxtaposing Aletheia and Making the World or Juxtaposing Inner and Outer Dimensions . 92 Bibliography II. MEMORIAL SPACES AND REPRESENTATION Chapter 4. Detained in the Memorial Hohenschonhausen: Heterotopias, Narratives and Transitions from the Stasi Past in Germany - Susanne Buckley-Zistel 1. The Berlin-Hohenschonhausen Memorial Museum 2. Analysing Memorial Museums 3. Of Other Spaces: Inside Hohenschonhausen 3.1. The Physical Structures 3.2. The Guided Tours 4. Out of Other Spaces: Outside Hohenschonhausen 4.1. Transitional Justice and Memory in Germany 4.2. Competing Narratives and the 'Aufarbeitungskombinat' 5. The Gap between Transition and Justice 119 Bibliography Chapter 5. Stories of Beginnings and Endings: Settler Colonial Memorials in Australia - Elizabeth Strakosch 1. Settler Colonialism 2. Colonial Beginnings 3. Colonial Endings 4. Transitional Justice and Reconciliation Memorials 5. Reconciliation Place as Colonial Ending 6. Conclusion 144 Bibliography Chapter 6. Manicured Nails but Shackled Hands? The Representation of Women in Northern Ireland's Post-conflict Memory - Kristian Brown 1. The Northern Ireland Troubles 2. Transitional Justice and Memorialisation in a Divided Society 3. Women and Memory in Northern Ireland 3.1. A Complex Gender Matrix: Nationalisms, Peace-making and 'the Troubles' 3.2. Gendered Memories of the Northern Ireland Conflict: Marginalisation 4. The Representation of Women in Irish Republican Memorials 4.1. Women and Historical Struggle 4.2. Woman as Fighter 4.3. Woman as Prisoner 4.4. Woman as Victim 4.5. Woman as Symbol of the Nation 4.6. Woman as Resisting Citizen 4.7. Woman as Icon or Martyr 4.8. Woman as Mother 5. Representations of Republican Women: Beyond Marginalisation? 6. Possible Futures in Representing the Past 7. Conclusion 168 Bibliography III. CONTESTATION AND POLITISATION OF MEMORIALS Chapter 7. The Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial: Promoting (In)Justice? - Christian Braun 1. The Srebrenica Memorial as an Example for Memorials in Divided Societies 2. The Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial 2.1. The Form of the Srebrenica-Potocari Memorial 2.2. Exploring the Memorial: The Narratives of Commemorating Genocide 2.3. Narratives of Remembrance 2.4. Conceiving and Construction of the Memorial 2.4.1. The Serb Community: Denial and Obstruction 2.4.2. The International Community: Between Security and Shame 2.4.3. The Bosniaks: Mourning, Revenge and Political Benefits 2.5. The Memorial in the Mind of the Community 3. Transitional Justice in Divided Societies 194 Bibliography Chapter 8. Memorials, Memorialisation and Social Action in Santiago de Chile - Katrien Klep 1. Transitional Justice and Memorialisation 2. The Cemetery: Mourning and Demands of Justice at the Memorial del Detenido Desaparecido y del Ejecutado Politico 3. The City: Political Agency and Public Debate at Londres 38, Espacio de Memorias 4. Local and National Dynamics of Memorialisation 215 Bibliography Chapter 9. Commemorating the Famine as Genocide: The Contested Meanings of Holodomor Memorials in Ukraine - Tatiana Zhurzhenko 1. The Holodomor as Genocide: National Memory in the Age of Globalisation 2. Memorialising the Holodomor as Genocide 3. The 'Candle of Memory': The National Memorial to the Victims of the Holodomor in Kyiv 4. The Holodomor Memorial in Kharkiv 5. Conclusion Bibliography About the Authors