Les inhumations et les dépôts d’animaux en fosses circulaires du Néolithique récent du sud de la plaine du Rhin supérieur

Abstract

This article presents a synthetic analysis of the human and animal burials in circular pits attributed to the late Neolithic of the southern plain of the Upper Rhine. It is based on new, often unpublished, data resulting from preventive excavations. The large regional corpus allows us to reveal several recurrent traits that permit the study of a complex system with the coexistence of regular, simple inhumations, simultaneous burials associating individuals in a regular position and bodies in disorderly positions, successive burials and secondary burials. The discovery of human bodies and animal carcasses, which were the object of post-decompositional manipulations, allows us to reconstruct a complex act that could be similar to that observed in numerous enclosure wall trenches. We also address the question of the possible existence of human burials realized outside of the funerary context, based on the association of a non prepared body and a deposit of copper objects. A confrontation of the model with data from other regions, notably the Rhone Valley and Germany, allow us to insist on the coherence of the phenomenon of burials in circular pits from one extremity to the other of its zone of distribution.