Funerary Practices Research Articles

Igla kao forma specifične materijalne kulture s kraja bronzanog i početka željeznog doba sjeverne Bosne / Pins as a form of specific material culture from the end of the Late Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age in the northern Bosnia

During the final stages of the Late Bronze Age the territory of northern Bosnia was characterised by remarkable cultural dynamics, visible primarily in the distribution of metal finds: weapons, tools, jewelry, and functional costume objects. The new type of funeral practice – inhumation – emerged here and was perhaps an important factor in the formation and social stratification of communities living here at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the beginning of the Early Iron Age. The area of northern Bosnia is situated between the Pannonian Basin to the north and the mountainous region of the western Balkans to the south commonly referred to as Dinarides. Thanks to its geographical location, the upper course of the Sava River facilitates direct connections with the Alps, while its lower course leads to the Danube that creates a link with the Black Sea region. To the north, the area is open to the wide peripanon regions of Slavonia and Syrmia. Up the Danube valley, the communication corridor reaches Transdanubia and, along the Tisza River, the central part of the Carpathian Basin. This paper presents a specific form of material culture, a bronze pins with disk-shaped head and short thickening on the neck. A total of six pins are known; two of which have been discovered in hoards (Osredak and Gajina pećina), one in a grave (Ostrožac near Cazin), while the remaining pins are chance finds (Donja Dolina, Prud, and Soukbunar). They all come from a very limited region south of the Sava River and chronologically cover the period from the 10th to the end of the 9 century BC or with Ha B2/3 horizon of Central European periodization.
 The pins with a disk-shaped head and short thickening on the neck most likely became part of women’s headgear or complex hairstyles, suggesting the development of special local habits and dress codes intended to promote status and rank. The choice of jewelry and local costume of the females yields information on their origins, affiliations, status, and social and economic role within the community. This paper posits that female costume in nothern Bosnia played the role of an important medium of social communication and interaction, and that it was important for the self-identification of its wearer in identifying their status. Furthermore, women’s mobility played an important role in spreading cultural habits at the end of the Late Bronze Age and in the Early Iron Age in the Western Balkans, with such mobility being evidenced through the distribution of personal items, especially jewellery and ornaments. Reasons for this mobility are related to economic, artisanal, military-political, ritual, and other various practices of the time. A special place in these exchanges was afforded to women, who, through exogamous marriages, became visible in the processes of cultural and social interaction.

Why Keep the Old Dead Around?

The aim of this article is to focus on the ways in which communities imagined their relationship with the dead throughout the Balkan area during the Neolithic and Eneolithic (6200–3800 cal BC). My claim is that we should go beyond seeing the human remains discovered in settlements as unusual/atypical/non-funerary discoveries. Instead, they can be read as traces of complex funerary practices, which contributed to the creation and manipulation of collective identities. The dead became part of a place-making strategy, they fixed time and become central to certain kinds of assemblages, which in turn were meant to create more powerful ancestors who could intervene in the present.

Pluridisciplinary evidence for burial for the La Ferrassie 8 Neandertal child

The origin of funerary practices has important implications for the emergence of so-called modern cognitive capacities and behaviour. We provide new multidisciplinary information on the archaeological context of the La Ferrassie 8 Neandertal skeleton (grand abri of La Ferrassie, Dordogne, France), including geochronological data -14C and OSL-, ZooMS and ancient DNA data, geological and stratigraphic information from the surrounding context, complete taphonomic study of the skeleton and associated remains, spatial information from the 1968–1973 excavations, and new (2014) fieldwork data. Our results show that a pit was dug in a sterile sediment layer and the corpse of a two-year-old child was laid there. A hominin bone from this context, identified through Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) and associated with Neandertal based on its mitochondrial DNA, yielded a direct 14C age of 41.7–40.8 ka cal BP (95%), younger than the 14C dates of the overlying archaeopaleontological layers and the OSL age of the surrounding sediment. This age makes the bone one of the most recent directly dated Neandertals. It is consistent with the age range for the Châtelperronian in the site and in this region and represents the third association of Neandertal taxa to Initial Upper Palaeolithic lithic technocomplex in Western Europe. A detailed multidisciplinary approach, as presented here, is essential to advance understanding of Neandertal behavior, including funerary practices.

On the border between land and water: The environmental conditions of the Neolithic occupation from 4.3 until 1.6 ka BC at Serteya, Western Russia

AbstractThe paper presents the results of a palaeoecological study of Neolithic archaeological layers from a wetland, multilayer site, Serteya II (Western Russia). It contains, domestic structures, rich organic artefacts, skeletons, and ecofacts preserved within lacustrine deposits that are extremely important on a European scale. We employed a set of specialised palaeoecological analyses and accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating to identify the principal environmental conditions which attracted Neolithic hunter‐fisher‐gatherer communities from 4300 to 1600 cal. BC. The distinct impact of communities using a nonproductive economy on the ecology of the palaeolake shore zone was recorded. Also, palaeolake water level changes influenced the palaeoeconomic activity of local Neolithic societies, such as gathering of plants (for the medicinal use or serving as dietary components), fishing activities, and possible funeral practices. In addition, the identified phases of high‐water level changes, which were responses to climatic oscillations, were correlated with supraregional climatic events, especially ca. 6.2, 5.9, and 4.2 ka cal. BP. Thus, our results allowed for the reconstruction of environment transformations and conditions of Neolithic communities' activity, as well as for a better understanding of the relationships between local Neolithic communities' way of life and neolithisation processes in Eastern Europe.

Human remains under the microscope of funerary taphonomy: Investigating the histological biography of the decaying body in the prehistoric Aegean

Funerary practices and especially the manipulation of the dead body have in the last decades become a central focus in prehistoric Aegean mortuary research. Variation in the character of human remains recovered from a rich array of mortuary contexts in varying state of articulation suggests that the dead were subject to a diverse range of mortuary rites. Taphonomic analysis of skeletal remains has been more recently employed by bioarchaeological research in the prehistoric Aegean with a view to understanding modes of pre- and post-burial treatment and reconstructing funerary activities. Recent studies of modern and archaeological bone have shown that bacterial bioerosion of internal bone microstructures is related to taphonomic processes which affect soft tissue decomposition and thus varies in ways which correspond to early post mortem funerary and corpse treatment. This paper presents the histotaphonomic analysis by thin section light microscopy of 108 human bones (107 individuals) from eleven Aegean human skeletal assemblages dating from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The results show variation in bacterial attack in different burial environments and often in the same deposit, which is more likely to reflect early taphonomic processes rather local soil circumstances. The microscopic analysis is combined with macroscopic (taphonomic surface modifications) and contextual information to discriminate between different formation mechanisms of skeletal assemblages and make inferences about funerary treatment and manipulation of the deceased. High levels of bacterial attack in Neolithic articulated and disarticulated samples suggest primary soil burial soon after death. Minoan bone assemblages provide evidence of considerable variation in levels of diagenesis, suggesting divergent taphonomic histories, whereas the results from Mycenaean sites are consistent with the deposition of fresh, intact bodies in chamber tombs, resulting in rapid skeletonisation by invertebrates and limited bone exposure to bacteria associated with soft tissue decomposition.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE BURIAL ACTIVITY OF THE LAST HUNTER-GATHERERS IN THE SOUTHWESTERN IBERIAN PENINSULA, PORTUGAL

ABSTRACTFor most of human history, funerary burial has been unusual. Archaeology shows a shift in funerary practices in postglacial hunter-gatherers, in parts of Europe during the Late Mesolithic. This is documented by the burial grounds in the Tagus and Sado valleys in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, Portugal, where ca. 376 burials were excavated. This study presents a chronology for the burial activity in these sites and contextualizes the start and end activity phases within regional environmental changes and cultural developments. The dataset consists of 76 14C dates on human bone (19 new, 57 published) including new dates from contexts in Portugal outside these valleys. Bayesian chronological models were defined in OxCal, and protein carbon contributions of marine foods were estimated by the Bayesian mixing model FRUITS. The results indicate a broader timeframe for the Late Mesolithic in Portugal, than previously suggested, starting during a period of significant environmental changes, ca. 8500–8300 cal BP, and ending ca. 7000 cal BP. The burial activity decreased during the establishment of Neolithic farmers in southwestern Iberia from ca. 7450 cal BP, however, these burial grounds continued to be used by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, showing that diverse social structures and worldviews coexisted for several generations.

Thinking outside the cist: interpreting a unique artefact assemblage from an Early Bronze Age burial on the Isle of Man

Recent analysis of Early Bronze Age human remains from Staarvey Farm on the Isle of Man has revealed a rare bone knife pommel and 20 other bone objects, offering insight into the importance of bone ornaments and artefact fittings at this time. This article adopts a relational typological approach to analyse the Staarvey burial and comparable assemblages, identifying patterns in the deposition of knife pommels in central and southern Britain. In exploring regional interaction in Early Bronze Age Britain and Ireland, the authors refine and move beyond traditional typologies to trace types of both objects and practice. This approach allows them to consider multiple, overlapping spheres of funerary practice and their relation to identities at different regional scales.

Power, Personhood and Changing Emotional Engagement with Children's Burial during the Egyptian Predynastic

Archaeological analyses of child funerary remains have often revolved around discussions of ascribed status and demographic trends. Other social and spatial dimensions of child burial are often left unexplored. This article introduces a novel perspective, through the analysis of child burials in Predynastic Egypt. My analysis focuses on the changing rates and spatial distribution of child burials in community necropoleis, with special attention to how their placement was used to renegotiate power relationships, and perhaps even concepts of personhood, in Predynastic society. The importance of children's funerals for creating of a sense of community through attachment to place is also considered. Criticizing analyses that rely on quantitative data to the exclusion of other factors, I emphasize the contribution of childhood, practice theory, emotions and personhood for the study of social complexity. My arguments point towards significant changes in the emotional dimension of children's funerary practices experienced during the later fourth millenniumbc, and links these transformations to processes of state formation in Egypt.

Use of decayed wood for funerary practices: Archaeobotanical analysis of funerary wooden artefacts from Prehispanic (ca. 400–1500 CE) Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain)

The island of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) shows great potential for studying the wooden raw materials used by the indigenous population during the Prehispanic period based on xylological analyses from domestic and funerary contexts. This paper includes archaeobotanical data from wooden funerary artefacts recovered from several archaeological contexts of the island and deposited at El Museo Canario (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain). Our results provide pioneering data as only a few xylological and anthracological analyses have been carried out on this island. Thus, the preferential use of pinewood (Pinus canariensis) for the manufacture of most of the artefacts is suggested, although dragon tree wood (Dracaena sp.) has also been identified in some funerary boards. Wood selection criteria not focusing on healthy wood has been suggested based on a combination of the microscopic observation of fungal decay patterns and archaeoentomological data. In addition to this, morpho-technological analysis suggests extensive woodworking knowledge in a geographic context lacking metal ores. Further xylological and experimental research, including other islands of the archipelago, is needed to obtain a more comprehensive perspective of wood procurement and use during the Prehispanic period.

A State of (Greater) Exception? Funerals, Custom and the “War on COVID” in Rural South Africa

ABSTRACT In the analysis of the implementation of the lockdown restrictions in South Africa, a great deal has been made of the unequal ways in which middle-class suburban communities, with access to large homes and biomedical support, have experienced the state of exception in comparison to the poor and unemployed in townships and shack areas. What has been less visible so far is the picture that is beginning to emerge from the rural areas and more marginal provinces. In this paper, we argue that when those experiences are carefully analysed, we begin to see that the former homelands were treated as a kind of “third country,” a country where custom and tradition posed particular threats and required specialised control and management. Using Giorgio Agamben’s notion of a state of exception to frame the discussion, the aim of this paper is to lift the veil from the state’s “war on COVID” in these rural areas during the first wave of infection (April to July 2020) and explore the frightening implications of suspended customary rights to cultural dignity, circular migration and social reproduction in these areas. The empirical focus of the paper is on changing funeral practices and burial rites, and how these were impacted by the COVID lockdown restrictions in the rural Eastern Cape Province, with special reference to rural municipalities in the former Transkei.

The application of quantitative petrography and macroscopic colour change in a comparative analysis of Roman and Anglo‐Saxon cremation practices

AbstractThe microscopic examination of burned bone has allowed cremation research to infer a wealth of information concerning burning practices and pyre technology from archaeological contexts. Recently, a new approach for quantifying the microscopic heat‐induced alterations in burned bone to categorise burning intensity using petrography has been developed within histomorphological studies. The following study is the first application of quantitative petrography to examine cremated remains from two archaeological contexts, with the aim of comparing funerary practices from Roman Britain and Anglo‐Saxon England. Fifteen burials from the Roman cemetery of Folly Lane, Hertfordshire, and 16 burials from the Anglo‐Saxon cemetery of Elsham, North Lincolnshire, were studied, with individuals ranging in age and sex. Analysis revealed a mix of burning intensities, with the majority of the Roman samples2 from Folly Lane (n = 10, 66.7%) achieving temperatures over 1000°C. In contrast, the Anglo‐Saxon samples from Elsham showed greater diversity in burning intensity, with only six (37.5%) reaching temperatures in excess of 1000°C. The discussion suggests this differentiation is due to the use of ustores, or professional cremators at the Roman town of Verulamium, a custom that has been referenced amongst the Roman elite in literary sources. This assessment demonstrates how quantitative petrography combined with macroscopic colour change is an effective assessment of burning intensities from archaeological burned bone and should be applied on a larger scale, with a greater sample size across more sites.

Remembrance Day for Lost Species: Remembering and mourning extinction in the Anthropocene

This article examines what is lost and remembered at a time of mass extinction; identifying the Anthropocene – the geological epoch in which the incremental and disruptive impact of the human species has become the main planetary force – as an epoch of mourning. The paper explores the memory and future memory of extinction through the example of Remembrance Day for Lost Species, an international initiative encouraging people all over the world to gather annually on 30thNovember in funeral ceremonies to mourn extinct species. The article particularly draws on Ursula Heise’s concept of ‘eco-cosmopolitanism’ (2008, 2016) and Michael Rothberg’s ‘multidirectional memory’ (2009) as well as fieldwork notes and interviews conducted during Lost Species Day 2018 in Brighton, UK. The analysis considers the conditions of future memory at a time of ecological loss by examining the extinction memorial and funerary practices formulated and performed during the Remembrance Day’s events.

An advanced version of a conformable mathematical model of Ebola virus disease in Africa

An SIR-type (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) model for the study of the spread of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is developed, by using conformable derivatives. Every possible way of transmission of the disease is incorporated (direct or indirect), such as funeral practices, consumption of contaminated bush meat and the environmental contamination etc. We have added an extremely important term to the model which have very high physical significance i.e., the possibility of the birth of an infected individual and the migration of an infected individual to the existing population. Well-posedness of the proposed problem has been shown by using a well-known theorem. The situations for the disease to be died out or sustain, have been discussed in the details. We found that the only disease-free situation is, the absence of flow of Ebola virus disease from the environment. We also have observed that by adopting a few strategies, such as isolation of infected individuals and careful burial of deceased bodies, the spread of EVD can be controlled. Memory effects for each case (disease-free and endemic states) are discovered (by using Khalil’s conformable transform) and plotted to make future predictions more accurately. Graphs are clearly elaborating that the problem is stable for both the equilibria states i.e., endemic state and disease-free state.

Ninety years after: New analyses and interpretations of Kubenino hunter-gatherer burials, north-western Russia (c. 5000 cal BC)

Burial practices in the large area of the north-eastern European and especially the western Russian forest zone are not as well-known as contemporary sites in, for example, western or southern Europe. To fill this gap in our knowledge of north-western Russian Stone Age hunter-gatherer burial traditions and to better understand the similarities and differences in burial traditions between these areas, a new Russian-Finnish collaboration was launched in late 2016. The main aim of this collaboration is to systematically investigate previously excavated mortuary materials from north-western Russia and study them in the broader context of hunter-gatherer funerary practices in north-eastern Europe. As a first case study, we revisited the burial finds from the Stone Age site of Kubenino, a multi-period site with at least six inhumation burials. Burials have been excavated here since the 1930s, but only three have been published so far. Here we describe all the Kubenino burials and present the results of new analyses, namely the osteological study of bone artefacts, the traceological study of flint artefacts, and new radiocarbon determinations. According to the novel radiocarbon data, the Kubenino burials date to the emergence of the Neolithic, which in this region is marked by the appearance of the first pottery-using hunter-gatherers. As our new analyses show, this transition towards the Neolithic is not only present in the everyday life of these hunter-gatherer groups but also resulted in subtle changes in the funerary realm. These changes include, for example, the intentional breakage of grave goods and the introduction of new artefact forms for animal raw materials that were present already in pre-pottery burials.

고대 동남아시아 내륙부의 묘제와 장제

베트남 중부의 사 휜 문화는 대형의 전용 옹관을 매장에 사용한다는 점에서 한국 학계의 큰 관심을 불러 모았다. 특히 영산강유역의 대형 옹관과 사 휜 옹관을 비교하는 작업이 최근에 정열적으로 진행되고 있다. 물론 이 작업 자체로도 학술적 의미가 크다고 평가되지만 한 가지 아쉬운 점은 사 휜 문화와 같은 시기에 공존하였던 동남아시아 각지의 고대 묘제와 장제에 대한 이해가 결여되어 있다는 점이다.<BR> 베트남 북부와 중국 남부를 무대로 발전한 동 손 문화는 사 휜 문화와는 상이한 묘제와 장제를 발전시켰으나 일부 상호교류한 흔적이 보이기도 한다. 라오스 고원지대의 돌항아리는 재질이 흙에서 돌로 바뀌었을 뿐 기본적인 관념은 사 휜 옹관과 유사하다. 반면 태국이나 캄보디아 지역에서는 토광묘나 목관묘가 주류 묘제일 뿐 옹관묘는 유소아용에 국한되고 있다.<BR> 이렇듯 다양한 묘제와 장제를 발전시킨 동남아시아 각지에 대한 이해는 앞으로 영산강유역 옹관묘 문화를 이해하는 데에는 물론이고 동남아시아와 동북아시아를 연결하는 광역 네트워크를 이해하는 작업에서도 반드시 필요할 것이다.

Between belief and fear - Reinterpreting prone burials during the Middle Ages and early modern period in German-speaking Europe.

Prone burials are among the most distinctive deviant burials during the Middle Ages and early modern period. Despite their worldwide distribution, the meaning of this burial practice is still a matter of debate. So far, a comprehensive analysis of prone burials is lacking for Central Europe. By compiling evidence from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, this study investigates how these findings fit into the scope of medieval funerary practices. 95 prone burials from 60 archaeological sites were analyzed regarding geographical distribution, dating, burial features, body position, age-at-death and sex. We applied descriptive statistics accompanied by multiple correspondence analysis in order to highlight possible multivariate patterns in the dataset. Prone burials occur in funerary and non-funerary contexts, with a predominance of single churchyard burials, followed by favored and exterior location and settlements. In terms of grave features, the majority of churchyard burials do not differ from regular graves. Multivariate patterns appear to reflect diachronic changes in normative burial practices. We found a significant correlation between burial location and dating, due to a higher frequency of high medieval males in favored locations. In these cases, prone position is interpreted as a sign of humility, while similar evidences from late and post-medieval times are seen as an expression of deviancy. Apparent lack of care during burial reveals disrespect and possible social exclusion, with inhumations outside consecrated ground being the ultimate punishment. In some regions, apotropaic practices suggest that corpses should be prevented from returning, as attested in contemporaneous sources and folk beliefs. We hypothesize that the increase of prone burials towards the late and post-medieval period is linked to such practices triggered by epidemic diseases. The multiplicity of meanings that prone position might have in different contexts demands for careful interpretations within the same regional and chronological frame.

An archaeothanatological approach for interpreting a complex funerary deposit: the case study of “Burial 2” at Toca do Enoque (Middle Holocene, Northeastern Brazil)

The discovery of funerary deposits with atypical and complex characteristics requires the use of an archaeothanatological approach to better interpret the mortuary practices. This approach comprises the processes of deposit formation and the reconstruction of the funerary cycle. Simultaneously, to best describe and classify some types of mortuary deposits—when traditional categories of classification are insufficient—it is necessary to incorporate complementary analytical categories, such as ongoing tomb use, body reduction process, funerary, extra or post-funerary formation processes, or corporeal relics. We present the case study of Burial 2 at Toca do Enoque, located within a Middle Holocene archaeological funerary site from Northeastern Brazil, whose remarkable features required such an approach and analytical categories towards a step-by-step reconstruction for a proper understanding of the funerary practices. Here, we highlight the funerary and post-funerary cycle of the mortuary deposit including the simultaneous and successive disposal of several bodies within a context of ongoing tomb use, with various phases of use and reuse, tomb re-opening, intentional anthropic disturbance, body-manipulation, commingled human remains formed by a body reduction process, and redundant human bones displayed as corporeal relics.

The exceptional finding of Locus 2 at Dehesilla Cave and the Middle Neolithic ritual funerary practices of the Iberian Peninsula.

There is a significant number of funerary contexts for the Early Neolithic in the Iberian Peninsula, and the body of information is much larger for the Late Neolithic. In contrast, the archaeological information available for the period in between (ca. 4800-4400/4200 cal BC) is scarce. This period, generally called Middle Neolithic, is the least well-known of the peninsular Neolithic sequence, and at present there is no specific synthesis on this topic at the peninsular scale. In 2017, an exceptional funerary context was discovered at Dehesilla Cave (Sierra de Cádiz, Southern Iberian Peninsula), providing radiocarbon dates which place it at the beginning of this little-known Middle Neolithic period, specifically between ca. 4800–4550 cal BC. Locus 2 is a deposition constituted by two adult human skulls and the skeleton of a very young sheep/goat, associated with stone structures and a hearth, and a number of pots, stone and bone tools and charred plant remains. The objectives of this paper are, firstly, to present the new archaeological context documented at Dehesilla Cave, supported by a wide range of data provided by interdisciplinary methods. The dataset is diverse in nature: stratigraphic, osteological, isotopic, zoological, artifactual, botanical and radiocarbon results are presented together. Secondly, to place this finding within the general context of the contemporaneous sites known in the Iberian Peninsula through a systematic review of the available evidence. This enables not only the formulation of explanations of the singular new context, but also to infer the possible ritual funerary behaviours and practices in the 5th millennium cal BC in the Iberian Peninsula.

An assessment of the Arabic RH5 Neolithic fishing community’s mortuary practices by examining human rib cross-sections for bioerosion patterns

The purpose of this research is to offer a micro-anatomical skeletal means for understanding the funeral practices of the Neolithic fishing community of Ra’s al Hamra 5, which is located on the Arabian Peninsula. The archaeological site is located on the Oman gulf of the Arabian Sea coast near the suburb of Qurum; located near the Omani capital Muscat. Archaeological evidence dates the graveyard between 3800 BCE. and 3300 BCE. The burials focused on in this research come from Area 43, a part of the site that held partially burnt and commingled human remains. The study was conducted on 24 histological samples taken from ribs. The traces of bioerosion found on the non-burnt and burnt samples are analyzed. The percentage of bioerosion for each samplehas been documented (area of involvement; Ct.BAD/Ct.Ar.). Less than 5% of the rib cross-sections lack diagenetic alteration. Of the remaining samples, 52.2% show less than 49% diagenetic alteration of the cortical cross-sectional area, while 47.8% of the samples show greater than 50% or more of diagenetic change to the bone matrix. The variability in bioerosion indicates that different lengths of surface decomposition time were involved during funeral practices.This suggests that there may have been a degree of cultural variation employed as these Neolithic people buried their dead. Our results suggest that some of the remains were buried shortly after death. Other remains were exposed to open-air decomposition prior to both burning and burial.

Paraphernalia of Funerary Display at Kaneš

AbstractThe Hittite royal funerary ritual šalliš waštaiš prescribes gold pieces to be placed on the eyes and mouth of the deceased. This is consistent with the manner in which thin sheets of hammered gold are reported to have been found on the faces of occupants of in-house graves in the Lower Town of Kültepe, ancient Kaneš. Mouth-pieces of unmistakable similarity have also turned up in great numbers in Late Bronze Age graves on Cyprus, most notably at Enkomi. Beyond comparison with the šalliš waštaiš text, gold eye- and mouth-pieces from Kaneš have received little attention. This contribution offers the first comprehensive study of these objects specifically as a class of funerary paraphernalia. It provides a catalogue and typology of gold sheets, and explores their archaeological context before turning to their social and symbolic significance against the backdrop of the cosmopolitan Kanešean households. The discussion considers hybridity in terms of a compatibility between funerary practices across different cultural settings, also noting chronological implications.