Mortuary Traditions Research Articles

På höjderna och i stadens utkant. Gravfält och gravgårdar i det äldsta Sigtuna

This article discusses late Viking Age mortuary practices in the town of Sigtuna during the early urban phase (c. 980–1100 AD) with focus on the so-called graveyards (Sw. gravgårdar): cemeteries where the dead were inhumed mainly in accordance with Christian customs, but that lacked churches. It aims to trace cultural, social, or religious communities among the early town dwellers based on an analysis of their burial rituals, in combination with results of osteological and bioarcheological studies of their physical remains. The paper shows that burial customs varied within the early townscape: the dead were laid to rest under visible grave constructions in exposed topographical locations, as well as on flat-ground cemeteries in lower terrain close to the settlement area or at early churchyards. Moreover, diversity in mortuary customs, sex and age distribution, gender division, and diet can be detected between individual cemeteries, indicating that they were used by different urban groups that to some extent parted from their dead in different ways. The results of bioarcheological analyses indicate a heterogenous early urban population, comprising people from the Mälaren area, and also from distant regions. The burial customs reflect this specific urban situation, bearing witness to both long-distance contacts and roots in local mortuary traditions.

The "angioletti" of Palermo: the health and development of mummified non-adults in late modern Palermo, Sicily (1787-1880 CE).

The Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily, have been home to non-adult mummified remains since the seventeenth century CE. Despite the increasing numbers of scientific studies conducted at this site, very little research has focused specifically on the youngest members of late modern (1787-1880 CE) society. This research aims to redress the balance by examining 43 individuals to gain insight into the demographic profile of mummified non-adults, to characterize their health status and possible cause of death, and to better understand the funerary treatment offered to the youngest members of society. A portable X-ray unit was used to capture anteroposterior and lateral images of each mummy; this facilitated age estimation, the identification of pathological and/traumatic lesions, and evidence of conservation and the mummification process more generally. This study revealed that regardless of age and health status at the time of death, the mortuary rite performed was primarily influenced by the wealth and social standing of the deceased's kin. No demographic trends were observed in the data and the lack of evidence of metabolic, neoplastic, and traumatic bone lesions suggest these non-adults died from short-term, acute illnesses. Even when individuals did display evidence of chronic health conditions that would have impacted their day-to-day lives (e.g., B035), they were not excluded from this mortuary tradition on the basis of their long-term health and care requirements in life. Artifacts were found with all individuals examined and were associated with the mummification process, conservation of mummies, and/or their display. This research has ultimately demonstrated that non-invasive imaging can be used to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the lives and deaths of non-adults inhabiting late modern Palermo.

Beyond The Veil: Unraveling The Mysteries of The Ahom's Mortuary Traditions

The last stage of human's life culminates in mortality. After the demise of an individual the funeral practices vary in accordance with geographic location and among the specific ethnic groups or communities, and it encompasses diverse religious traditions. The Tai Ahom ethnic group of Assam upholds a unique and culturally significant burial ritual that traces its roots to the practices of Yunan Province, their original homeland. In addition to this, various mortuary customs are followed by the Tai Ahom community, from the time of a person's death through their burial and continue even after that. Over time, the gradual influence of Hinduism has led to the transformation of some of their indigenous mortuary customs, while the traditional 'Maidam Dia'(grave) still prevails in certain areas among the Ahom populace of Assam, a tradition dating back to the era of Swargadeo Chao-lung Sukapha. This paper attempts to study the unique mortuary rituals, including the practice of 'Maidam Dia', among the Tai Ahom people of Assam, and it gives an overview of the evolution of these customs over time under the influence of Hinduism.

Mineralogy and Sourcing of a Stone Bead Industry Found in Communal Cemeteries Associated with Eastern Africa's First Pastoralists, ca. 5000 b.p.

ABSTRACT This article describes the mineralogy and sources for a spectacular stone bead industry associated with the first pastoralists in eastern Africa ca. 5000–4000 cal b.p. Around Lake Turkana, northwest Kenya, early pastoralists constructed at least seven mortuary monuments with platforms, pillars, cairns, and stone circles. Three sites—Lothagam North, Manemanya, and Jarigole—have yielded assemblages of stone and ostrich eggshell beads that adorned interred individuals. Mineralogical identification of the stone beads reveals patterns of material selection, including notable differences among the pillar sites. Geological sourcing indicates use of many local raw materials and two (amazonite and fluorite) whose known sources lie > 200 km away. The data suggest that bead-making represented a significant investment by early pastoralists in personal ornamentation. New sociopolitical factors emerged, such as access to grazing grounds and water, and definitions of self and society manifested in novel mortuary traditions as people coped with a drying, cooling climate.

Middle Neolithic Burials in Baikal-Yenisey Siberia: Problems of Cultural Identity and Genesis

The study focuses on the analysis of Middle Neolithic burial complexes of the Baikal-Yenisey Siberia. Based on a series of reliable radiocarbon dates, their age lies within the range of 6190–5900 cal BP. It partly corresponds to the end of the hiatus in the mortuary traditions of Cis-Baikal. Features of the burial rite and funerary offerings are analyzed and compared with those of neighboring territories. One of the most frequent images in the art of the Middle Neolithic Baikal-Yenisey Siberia is that of the waterfowl, rendered as fi gurines. The common grave goods are leaf-shaped stone arrowheads, shell beads, and pendants made of animal bones and teeth. The funerary rite included the use of fi re and reddish mineral pigment, as well as disrupting the anatomical integrity of the skeletons, possibly due to partial burial (the data are tentative). Most burials of the late stage of the hiatus are evidently those of hunter-gatherers manufacturing the Ust-Belaya ceramics, which were found in certain burials. A bone arrowhead with a biconical point and fi gurines representing waterfowl suggest cultural ties with the Urals and Western Siberia; but their nature has yet to be clarifi ed, which requires large-scale AMS-dating and paleogenetic analysis.

Debate over Post-Mortem Existence and Thrifty Burial in Wang Chong’s Lunheng

Han China （202 BCE-220 CE） is a haunted world filled with spirits, demons, and ghosts of all kinds, whose influence is felt everywhere. In a time when variegated theories on the spirit world and mortuary traditions vie with each other for prominence, Wang Chong (27-ca. 100 CE), a most original philosopher, offers his systematic treatment of these contentious issues. Writing in a lively style with passion, reason, and patience, Wang Chong actively engages himself in these debates and applies organized and meticulous inquiry to tell fallacies of belief from what he believes to be the truth. This paper examines Wang Chong’s arguments on post-mortem existence and thrifty burial in detail and pays special attention to the strengths and weaknesses of his thesis.

Неолит и ранний бронзовый век Предбайкалья: хронология и пищевые тренды

Analyses of radiocarbon dates (all corrected for the freshwater reservoir effect) and associated stable isotope values obtained from the skeletal remains of ~560 individuals provide many new insights about Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers (HG) of the Cis-Baikal region, Eastern Siberia. The new radiocarbon evidence clarifies the culture history of the region by defining better the boundaries between the chronological (archaeological periods) and cultural (mortuary traditions) units, as well as our understanding of the transitions between them. Furthermore, differences between the four archaeological micro-regions with regard to the timing and duration of these culture historical units have come into focus for the first time. In terms of dietary patterns, the Early Neolithic foragers of the Angara and Southwest Baikal trended towards a greater reliance on aquatic foods. A similar trend was found in the Late Neolithic Isakovo group on the Angara, while the Late Neolithic Serovo group in the Little Sea trended towards an increased dietary reliance on terrestrial game. In the Early Bronze Age HG, a mosaic of dietary patterns was found: some groups experienced dietary shifts (frequently emphasizing different foods), while other groups displayed stability. Such differences were found even between close neighbours. All these results suggest significant variation in patterns of culture change within and between archaeological periods, mortuary traditions, and micro-regions. Some cultural patterns developed at a quick pace, others much more slowly; some appear to have collapsed rapidly, while others probably went through a more gradual transition to a different pattern. Additionally, this large set of radiocarbon dates allows novel insights into patterns of cemetery use: some seem to have been used continuously, others only sporadically, and some show long periods of disuse. Moreover, some cemeteries of the same mortuary tradition were apparently in use substantially earlier than others were even established. In sum, Cis-Baikal Middle Holocene HG strategies underwent a range of changes not only at the boundaries between relevant culture historical units but also within such units. New insights suggest considerable spatio-temporal variation in the nature, pace, and timing of these developments.

Неолит и ранний бронзовый век Предбайкалья: пространственно-временные паттерны использования могильников

Hunter-gatherer archaeology typically focusses on the details of subsistence strategies and material culture and, in the case of cemeteries, on various aspects of mortuary practices, beliefs, and social differentiation. This paper aims to look rather at patterns of change over time and space in how past hunter-gatherer cemeteries were used from Late Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age (~8600–3500 cal BP) in the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. The approach is based on a Kernel Density Estimate methodology applied to 560 radiocarbon dates obtained for individual burials from 65 cemeteries and representing 5 distinct mortuary traditions. This enables a number of different types of analysis to be performed at different scales: (1) It is possible to examine the overall tempo of burial events at each cemetery or a group of cemeteries; (2) Within each cemetery the spatial patterns of the sequence of graves and burials can be analyzed further; (3) It is possible to compare the different cemetery-specific chronologies within the microregional or regional context; and (4) Although tentatively at this time, the spatiotemporal pattern of cemetery use over the whole region can be visualised. The spatiotemporal analysis of individual cemeteries shows that each one had its own pattern, some very distinct and clear in their characteristics, which relate to the role the cemetery played for the local group, and within the microregional or regional population. On the regional scale some broader patterns such as shifts in frequency of burial events between microregions within mortuary traditions are visible. However, at this scale the existing sampling biases require caution in assessment of the results and future fieldwork will help improve the analysis and insights. On the other hand, many of the individual cemeteries have been excavated in full and such comprehensive datasets already provide a range of entirely new and important insights into cemetery use by the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal.

Dying for a Drink on the Meroitic Frontier: Imported Objects in Funerary Assemblages at Faras, Sudanese Nubia

This paper examines the use of imported objects in funerary assemblages at the Meroitic cemetery of Faras in Sudanese Nubia (north Sudan). Excavated at the beginning of the 20th century by Francis Llewellyn Griffith (1862-1934), Faras was situated on the frontier between the Kingdom of Meroë (c.300 BCE – 350 CE) and Ptolemaic-Roman Egypt. Its location granted it access to wide-ranging commercial networks and imported objects were frequently utilised as grave goods. Drawing upon the author’s PhD research, this paper offers a nuanced assessment of how imports were selected and used in funerary practice at Faras. It disputes the traditional idea that the Meroitic frontier functioned as an acculturated buffer of the classical world and demonstrates that, despite centuries of material contact with Egypt, the people of Faras maintained a distinctly Meroitic identity expressed through local mortuary tradition.

The day the music died: Making and playing bone wind instruments at La Real in Middle Horizon, Peru (600–1000 CE)

• Forty bone wind instruments (aerophones) produced from camelids and condors were recovered from La Real, Arequipa. • Recreating a chaîne opératoire can illustrate the way these instruments were produced and played by all members of society. • Use of these instruments is abandoned in the later Middle Horizon overlapping with Wari expansion into the region. • Condor and camelid bone related to the symbolism of Andean mobile agropastoral communities and gender complementarity. • Cessation of making and playing these bone instruments attests to shifting ideologies about musical experiences. Musical performance and audience participation are important activities in both group celebrations and funerary practices. This paper considers the intersection of music and ritual in shifting local mortuary traditions during state expansion in the southern Peruvian Andes. It addresses musical activities and burial rites during the Middle Horizon (MH) (600–1000 CE), a period defined by social change, population expansion and greater influence of the Wari state. We present new evidence for shifting sound-making practices from the site of La Real in the Majes Valley of Arequipa. We mobilize morphological and acoustic analyses to determine the variation in instrument production and the likely idiosyncratic ways that participants played these objects. There is a musical tradition of manufacturing wind instruments from animal bone in the early MH (600–850 CE) followed by abandonment of these practices in the late MH (850–1000 CE). We suggest this shift correlates to a higher valuation of formalized acoustic aesthetics over collective instrument production and group musical performance. Instead of playing their own instruments at mortuary events, communities listened to music as spectators.

The Jarigole mortuary tradition reconsidered

The megalithic pillar sites found around Lake Turkana, Kenya, are monumental cemeteries built approximately 5000 years ago. Their construction coincides with the spread of pastoralism into the region during a period of profound climate change. Early work at the Jarigole pillar site suggested that these places were secondary burial grounds. Subsequent excavations at other pillar sites, however, have revealed planned mortuary cavities for predominantly primary burials, challenging the idea that all pillar sites belonged to a single ‘Jarigole mortuary tradition’. Here, the authors report new findings from the Jarigole site that resolve long-standing questions about eastern Africa's earliest monuments and provide insight into the social lives, and deaths, of the region's first pastoralists.

Burying the Dead at Ayawiri: Mortuary Diversity and Postmortem Manipulation at an Andean Hillfort (AD 1100–1450)

This article presents results from the excavation and analysis of 11 slab-cist tombs associated with the site of Ayawiri, one of the largest hillforts in the western Lake Titicaca Basin during the Late Intermediate period (LIP; AD 1100–1450). These semi-subterranean tombs typically contain commingled human remains. Variation between and within tombs in the number of individuals, the body parts represented, and the degree of skeletal articulation points to a complex burial practice that likely involved tomb reopening, successive burial, and even the deposition of select body parts. Demographic and mortuary profiles suggest that burial practices were decentralized and flexible, structured by shared attitudes toward “the dead” and the dead body but also subject to the prerogatives and preferences of semi-autonomous corporate groups. This study advances our understanding of a lesser-known mortuary tradition in the Lake Titicaca Basin—one long overshadowed by more prominent burial towers (chullpas)—and sheds new light on the complex interactions that took place between the living and the dead during the LIP.

The Early Bronze IV — Middle Bronze I transition in the southern Levant: analysis and assessment

The transition between the Early Bronze Age IV and the Middle Bronze Age in the southern Levant remains poorly understood, stemming in part from traditional approaches to the problem that frame it in terms of exogenous cultural origins and disjuncture versus indigenous growth and continuity of development. However, the growing range of diversity of data relating to both eras increasingly mitigates against such monocausal interpretations. Instead, assessment and analysis of different strands of evidence such as settlement patterns, subsistence practices and mortuary traditions, together with accompanying physical material culture, indicate that the transition between eras in the southern Levant was a complex and variable process that included considerable inter-regional variation, and incorporated both external influence and internal developments.

Первые радиоуглеродные данные для средненеолитических погребений Южного Приангарья (сообщение)

In the Neolithic studies of the Cis-Baikal, the problem of hiatus (break in mortuary traditions) remains topical. According to the latest data, adjusted for the freshwater reservoir effect, it manifests itself over a period of about 600 years (6660–6060 cal BP). During the implementation of the project “Missing Link: The Problem of Identification of Middle Neolithic Burials on the Territory of Baikal-Yenisei Siberia”, carried out under the guidance of one of the authors, it was proposed to associate with the Middle Neolithic complexes of campsites where Ust-Belaya and Posolskaya ceramics are recorded. In parallel, a search was carried out for burials that could be correlated with this stage. More recently, we have received the first radiocarbon data on two burials from the Southern Angara region. One of them (Ust-Ilir burial ground) was included in the database already at the first stage of the study. The second (from Shumilikha burial ground) was not initially considered as a potential object for dating and was analyzed as an addition to other materials. As a result of radiocarbon dating, two determinations were obtained from fauna samples (fragments of bone tools). It has been established that the age of the Ust-Ilir burial complex with bone pendants with waterfowl images, unique for the Angara region, is within the range of 6275–6012 cal BP (6182±70 mean HPD cal BP). A similar burial (Gremyachii Klyuch) was excavated in 1959 in Krasnoyarsk. Burial No. 44 from Shumilikha is somewhat older and is dated in the range of 6622–6410 cal BP (6508±43 mean HPD cal BP). Thus, the age of this burial complexes falls within the interval of the Middle Neolithic hiatus. Moreover, these data do not require any correction, since they were obtained from samples from the bones of herbivorous mammals. Both burials could have been left by huntergatherers who made Ust-Belaya ceramics, as evidenced by the finds of fragments of this type in the collection of exposed materials from the Ust-Ilir burial ground, as well as the synchronism and territorial proximity of burial No. 44 of the Shumilikha burial ground and complexes of cultural layer 3 of the Ust-Belaya site with fragments of similar vessels. This is the first reliable data on hiatus, the problem of which is likely to lose its relevance in the near future.

Christian burials in Western Galilee and the emergence of christian local mortuary traditions in Late Antiquity : Preliminary Considerations at the Onset of a Research Project

The goal of the research project described and discussed here is the meticulous assessment of the tombs and cemetery sections investigated in two geographically fairly restricted regions: Western Galilee and the broader area of Caesarea Philippi, both lying in the former Late Roman province of Phoenicia. With the generous support of the Israel Antiquities Authority, we were granted access to several mortuary assemblages that have remained unpublished or were only partially published. The meticulous assessment of these assemblages provides a unique opportunity for studying mortuary practices in the Eastern Mediterranean on a micro-regional level as well as for tracing changes through half a millennium at a finer resolution. We expect to gain a deeper understanding of the region’s mortuary traditions and their change as well as of local attitudes to death among the region’s pagan and pagan-turned-Christian population across half a millennium.

Domestic Architecture at Letchworth (8JE337) and Other Woodland Period Ceremonial Centers in the Gulf Coastal Plain

Architectural remains, especially domestic architecture, are essential for understanding the ways in which households organized themselves socially and economically in the past. Unfortunately, these remains are infrequently identified from Woodland period (1000 BC–AD 1000) archaeological sites along the Gulf Coast, an area home to well-known ceramic and mortuary traditions during this time. As a result, our knowledge of Woodland period households in the region is scant. In this article I present a newly discovered house from Letchworth (8JE337), a large Woodland period ceremonial center in northwest Florida, and compare it to the few published examples of houses from this region. I show that domestic architecture along the Gulf Coast during the Woodland period is diverse, suggesting differences in the organization of households and the historical development of ceremonial centers.

An Ethical, Cultural and Historical Background for Cemetery-Based Human Skeletal Reference Collections

OPEN ACCESS-PAID-CC BY-NC-ND In historically Protestant countries, human skeletal reference collections curated by research institutions have been amassed from bodies dissected by anatomists, typically unclaimed cadavers from morgues and hospitals, or from remains donated to science. In contrast to these anatomy-based and donation-based collections, skeletal reference collections in historically Roman Catholic countries on mainland Europe and in Latin America are for the most part derived from unclaimed remains exhumed from modern cemeteries and ossuaries at the end of the mandated interment period. While much has been written in English about the history, context and ethical framework of anatomy-derived collections, cemetery-based collections have received very little critical attention. The current paper addresses this gap, with particular reference to cemetery-derived collections in Portugal. The cultural and historical context of southern Europe is discussed, particularly Roman Catholic mortuary traditions and the influence of the Napoleonic Code, and these provide the background for an overview of the ethical issues raised by cemetery-derived collections. Here, general principles that should guide the work of human osteologists working in archaeological contexts are relevant, as regards consent, dignity and respect and benefits to science and education, because unlike their anatomy-derived counterparts, cemetery-based collections include individuals who were once buried.

Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries by Ryan K. Smith (review)

Reviewed by: Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries by Ryan K. Smith Lynn Rainville (bio) Ryan K. Smith Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020 328 pages, 52 black-and-white illustrations ISBN: 9781421439273, $34.95 HB Not everyone's daily perambulations include a walk by or through a cemetery, but after reading Ryan K. Smith's book you might change your habits. In his latest book, Death and Rebirth in a Southern City: Richmond's Historic Cemeteries, Smith sets out an ambitious goal: to survey three hundred years of urban history by reviewing the concomitant changes to a city's burial grounds. This approach allows him to survey local community ideas about and attitudes toward Native Americans, enslaved and free African Americans, elite and poor Whites, as well as Christian and Jewish communities. By keeping his focus on one southern city—Richmond, Virginia—he is able to survey the diversity of mortuary traditions within that locale throughout numerous eras. As he insightfully observes, "The realm of the dead played an active part in all stages of the city's growth, providing a parallel history still capable of surprise" (10). Smith charts out a second and very timely goal: to explore the individuals (many of whom are recent transplants to the city) who have dedicated countless hours to preserving these sites and/or fighting to protect them. His interviews with these individuals are an important component of his research and this book. Smith's book is a welcome addition to the somewhat crowded field of cemetery studies. Most manuscripts focus upon either one burial ground in great detail or a specific type of cemetery, such as urban cemeteries influenced by the Rural Cemetery Movement, over time. While both approaches have their advantages, each are often too specialized for wider audiences. It is less common to find a scholar who is willing to research the burial grounds used by different ethnic, socioeconomic, and religious groups, while also covering a broad timeframe. In order to cover this wide range of topics, Smith organized his manuscript into eight chapters, plus an introduction and epilogue. The introduction connects the historic research to the function and importance of these sites in the present. In his first chapter, "The Churchyard," Smith integrates biographical examples from specific individuals into broader trends within Virginian history. By tracing specific deaths, such as the demise and burial of Parson Robert Rose (1703–1751), Smith provides a concrete example of how a person's identity and status in life dictates their burial options. In the next chapter, "The African Burial Ground," he traces the scant historic evidence for early African and African American burials and integrates them alongside the archaeological, topographical, and legal documentation. The accompanying figures and maps for this chapter are excellent and help the reader see that the sacred burial spaces for Black Americans are now hidden under modern highways and buildings. This chapter also provides an important overview of the preservation battles that have surrounded historic African American burial grounds in Richmond and provides a necessary context for the elite burials in nearby Shockoe Hill Cemetery (surrounded by sites such as the poorhouse and a Jewish burial ground). Chapter 3, "The New Burying Ground," discusses that cemetery in Shockoe Hill—originally for Whites only—which contains the bodies of Richmond's most prominent families, including governors, Revolutionary War heroes, congressmen, and professionals including ministers, physicians, businessmen, and lawyers. The multicentury trajectory of burials at this site enables Smith to track the evolution of mortuary traditions, the design of cemetery landscapes, and the function of these grounds to display and interpret the gradual desegregation of this formerly White [End Page 126] cemetery, and he also weaves individual biographies into larger historic narratives in a compelling fashion. As with most of the chapters in this book, the author discusses contemporary efforts to protect this site, including the formation in 2007 of the Friends of Shockoe Hill Cemetery, which cares for the site. This cemetery has an interesting challenge in the present: to reconcile "its position as 'a white aristocratic burial ground' set within a...

Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer mortuary practices in the Little Sea microregion on Lake Baikal, part I: Early Neolithic

Archaeological research on Cis-Baikal Early Neolithic mortuary practices has traditionally focused on the Kitoi mortuary tradition with its rich materials known from several large cemeteries of the Angara Valley and Southwest Baikal. Assemblages that do not fit that description have attracted much less attention. Currently, in Cis-Baikal, the Little Sea microregion has the highest number of such graves. The mortuary variation displayed by this material (31 burials from 26 graves at 8 localities) allows their provisional classification into two mortuary groups: the Khotoruk Group, which shows a few similarities with the Kitoi pattern, and the Kurma Group, which does not. Both groups also share a few characteristics, primarily their “Mesolithic” character of many grave inclusions. Not a single grave of the Khotoruk Group displays a complete package of classic Kitoi mortuary pattern, giving an overall impression of being its much impoverished and limited version. It seems that while on the Angara and Southwest Baikal the Kitoi cultural pattern was going through a period of rather dynamic cultural developments, the Little Sea microregion was not much affected by these processes. The evidence suggests a fusion of a few typical Kitoi mortuary characteristics with those of local origin. Based on the set of 15 radiocarbon dates, both groups coexisted roughly at the same time and together date from 8154±153 to 7277±103 modelled cal. BP. As such, the origin of the Khotoruk and Kurma Groups appears to predate the formation of the Kitoi cultural pattern by a few centuries and their end seems to be also earlier than that of the Kitoi.

Spatio-temporal patterns of cemetery use among Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal, Eastern Siberia

Hunter-gatherer archaeology typically focusses on the details of subsistence strategies and material culture and, in the case of cemeteries, on various aspects of mortuary practices, beliefs, and social differentiation. This paper aims to look rather at patterns of change over time and space in how past hunter-gatherer cemeteries were used from Late Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age (~8600–3500 cal. BP) in the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. The approach is based on a Kernel Density methodology applied to 560 radiocarbon dates obtained for individual burials from 65 cemeteries and representing 5 distinct mortuary traditions. This enables a number of different types of analysis to be performed at different scales: (1) It is possible to examine the overall tempo of burial events at each cemetery or a group of cemeteries; (2) Within each cemetery the spatial patterns of the sequence of graves and burials can be analyzed further; (3) It is possible to compare the different cemetery-specific chronologies within the micro-region or regional context; and (4) Although tentatively at this time, the spatiotemporal pattern of cemetery use over the whole region and can be visualised. The spatio-temporal analysis of individual cemeteries shows that each one had its own pattern, some very distinct and clear in their characteristics, which relate to the role the cemetery played within the microregional or regional population. On the regional scale some broader patterns such as shifts in frequency of burial events between microregions within mortuary traditions are visible. However, at this scale the existing sampling biases require caution in assessment of the results and future fieldwork will help improve the analysis and insights. On the other hand, many of the individual cemeteries have been excavated in full and such comprehensive datasets already provide a range of entirely new and important insights into cemetery use by the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal.