Multidisciplinary approach to collective burials in caves and in dolmens at the end of the Neolithic period in Eastern Languedoc and the southern part of the Cévennes—abridged version

Abstract

Since 2012, a research program on the study of collective burial sites dating from the end of the Neolithic period to the beginning of the Bronze Age in eastern Languedoc and the south of the Cévennes has been undertaken. Each study followed the same analysis protocol, both biologically (age at death, sex, health status) and archaeoanthropological (recruitment, reconstruction of the funerary system), as well as on the ceramic analysis. This article presents the first results, discussing the dichotomy observed in the location of these funerary sites: cavities and dolmens. The results make it possible to distinguish differences observed at different scales: structure, site and region, regarding the processing of the bodies and the overall organization of the deposits. We do not observe any significant differences between the two regions of interest, apart from a systematic funerary selection excluding the youngest individuals from the collective burial sites in eastern Languedoc, the south of the Cévennes being more diverse about the funerary selection. The only significant element is the presence of markers of para-masticatory activity on the teeth of a limited number of individuals buried in the dolmens of the south of the Cévennes. This result suggests a practice of basketry or tannery crafts by the populations burying their dead in the monuments of the foothills of the Cévennes, while the individuals found in cavities do not seem to have practiced such an activity. Finally, these studies have led to the establishment of new fieldworks, which have brought to light a preparation of the grounds welcoming the dead, both in caves and in dolmen. These discoveries question the integration of the place of deposit in the funerary “Chaine operatoire” in the collective burial sites. The function (symbolic or technical) of these arrangements has yet to be confirmed.