Archéologie

Modwene Poulmarc’h and Françoise. Le Mort,

In Transcaucasia, a wide range of Early Bronze Age funerary practices have been evidenced. Results obtained from the methods of “archaeothanatology” that were, recently applied in one site from the region, has allowed a better understanding of this diversity and revealed an unsuspected complexity.
The excavation of part of the unexpectedly discovered necropolis of Kalavan 1, located north of Lake Sevan in Armenia, yielded three adult and one child single burials as well as a burial including the remains of at least three adults. From a typological point of view, the tombs can be compared to other Kura-Araxes burials. However, thanks to the methods of “archaeothanatology”, unsuspected funerary gestures such as the disposal of the dead in a perishable body container or the possible re-opening of burials have been pointed out.
Archaeothanatology seems to be one of the most promising approaches in the “archaeology of death”. A re-evaluation of the data available from old excavations according to such methods, would give us the opportunity to better reconstruct the funerary practices in Transcaucasia during the Early Bronze Age.

En Transcaucasie, les pratiques funéraires des populations chalcolithiques (Ve-1ére moitié du IVe millénaire) sont essentiellement connues à partir des données récoltées lors des fouilles conduites entre 1950 et 1990. Jusqu’à une date récente, aucunes des sépultures découvertes dans cette région n’avait fait l’objet de véritable étude anthropologique, tant sur le terrain qu’en laboratoire. Il était traditionnellement admis que les populations chalcolithiques de Transcaucasie inhumaient systématiquement leurs défunts dans des tombes en fosses, soit individuellement soit collectivement. Néanmoins, il a été récemment démontré (Lyonnet, 2008) que les kourganes apparaissaient au Chalcolithique et non au Bronze ancien, comme on l’a longtemps supposé.
Tout récemment, la fouille du site de Godedzor, situé dans le sud-est de l’Arménie, a conduit à la mise au jour de deux sépultures individuelles. L’une est la sépulture primaire d’un enfant qui reposait dans une fosse ovale, dont les parois avaient été enduites d’une solution argileuse, pratique jusqu’alors inconnue. Le défunt était inhumé sur le côté droit, en position contractée et en partie recouvert par des fragments de céramique. L’autre est celle d’un adulte. Il s’agit également d’une sépulture primaire en fosse. Le défunt reposait sur le dos, les membres inférieurs fléchis sur la gauche du tronc. Les membres supérieurs étaient également fléchis, l’avant-bras droit passant sous le crâne et le gauche sous les membres inférieurs.
Ces découvertes apportent d’ores et déjà  de nouvelles données sur les pratiques funéraires des populations préhistoriques de Transcaucasie. L’étude des ossements, actuellement en cours, permettra de d’identifier les caractères biologiques de ces populations, totalement inconnus jusqu’à présent.

Recent excavations at Early Bronze Age kourgan of Mentesh Tepe in Azerbaijan brought to light a collective burial of 40 individuals and permitted to recognize intentional fire setting at the time of its abandonment. The aim of this paper is to present the methodology and results of the excavation and analysis of the human remains in the burial. This study is the first of its kind in Azerbaijan.
The kourgan is located on a tepe, the upper part of which was destroyed by cultivation activities in the early 70s. The structure, which was covered with pebbles, contains a dromos (corridor) and a chamber, both dug into earlier Chalcolithic levels. The dromos, which is 1 m wide, was situated east of the chamber and lined on both sides with rows of pebbles. The chamber is 5.1 x 4.3 m. The presence of a wooden construction is indicated by the discovery of post imprints on the walls of the chamber. The method of excavation employed permitted recognition of two main layers in the burial. The upper layer is rubefied with white (calcined) bones. The soil and bones in the lower one are dark brown in color. At the back of the chamber, lightly burnt and non-burnt bones also occur.
The presentation of the anthropological study focuses on the effects of fire on the human bones by analyzing their color, deformation, and cracking. An attempt is also made to determine the stage of decomposition of the body during the fire; to localize fireplaces; to evaluate burning temperatures; and to recognize deliberate bone displacement.
The application of taphonomic criteria as defined in “Anthropologie de terrain” permits to identify burial practices unsuspected, up to the present time, in the geographical area under study and sets the basis for future anthropological research in Azerbaijan during the Early Bronze Age.

Throughout the South Caucasus at least 137 archaeological sites yielded burials belonging to  the Neolithic (6), Chalcolithic (19) and Early Bronze age (112) periods. In the last few years, research in funerary archaeology intensified in the region and recently developed approaches, such as archaeothanatology, have led to new results. The excavation of burials according to the methods of archaeothanatology as well the re-evaluation of the data available from old excavations provided evidence of an unsuspected diversity and complexity of funerary practices in the region during these periods. For example, we were able to identify cases of architecture in perishable material, of decomposition in a void and of post-sepulchral practices and to recognize seated burials during the Early Bronze age. The combination of our results with the published data allows us to make a statement about the diversity and complexity of funerary gestures for each period and to discuss their distribution.

Although many excavations have been carried out on sites of the Kura-Araxes culture (3500-2400 BC) in Southern Caucasus since 1940, no overall study has been made about the funerary practices of the populations. This article presents a synthesis of the information by combining earlier and more recent excavation data with a new viewpoint, the archaeothanatology methods. Across the whole region, 111 sites with burials have been discovered. The burials can be divided into six categories: cists, tombs built in various forms, horseshoe-shaped tombs, pit tombs without surface evidence, tombs indicated on the surface by small heaps of stones, and kurgans. Maps of the sites distribution were established according to the different types of tombs identified and the ways in which the deceased were deposited. The use of archaeothanatalogical methods provides a better comprehension of the body deposits and enables to identify unsuspected burial practices.

The funerary practices of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic populations of the Southern Caucasus are poorly known. However, in the last few years, research in funerary archaeology intensified in the region, using recently developed approaches such as archaeothanatology. Thanks to the excavation of burials according to this method as well as to the reassessment of the published data, it is possible to achieve a
state of knowledge on funerary behavior of these populations. Across the whole region, 23 sites with burials have been recorded: Neolithic (2), Chalcolithic (15), Neolithic and Chalcolithic (2) and uncertain chronological attribution (Neolithic and/or Chalcolithic) (4). All data collected revealed a diversification of the practices from the Neolithic to the Chalcolithic. Neolithic funerary practices are less homogeneous
than previously thought and burial sites appear to have been closely related to living places. During the Chalcolithic, a diversification of the ways of burying the dead occurs with the appearance of new types of tombs (burials in ceramic vessels and kurgans) and an evolution of the relations between the place of life and the place of the dead can be seen.

Kurgans appear in the Southern Caucasus during the first half of the 4th millennium and since then they represent one of the main funerary traditions of the region for millennia.
Archaeological data show an impressive variability of the south Caucasian kurgans in terms of their dimensions, architectural traditions and burial practices.
This variability of the archaeological data is accompanied by a bewildering variability of terminologies used in publications and which often correspond to the same funerary “fact”.
For instance, the term “kurgan” is often used as a synonym for cromlech, barrow and burial mound, thus leading to ambiguity and confusion.
What is more, even if hundreds of kurgans have been excavated for almost a century in the Southern Caucasus, do we really know about these funerary practices from an archaeo-anthropological point of view?
This paper aims to present a review of the available documentation in order to pose questions on terminology, architectural variability and on the still dramatic lack of information concerning the body-treatment, funerary gestures and the biological identity of the people buried in the kurgans.