Funerary Practices of the British Beaker Peoples: An Osteo-Archaeological Assessment of Individuals

伴随着公元前第三个千年中期“烧杯情结”在西欧传播的文化变革一直是欧洲史前史长期变化的核心，并继续吸引关于其起源，传播和特征的激烈辩论（Vander林登2013）。烧杯文化的证据已经从不同的角度进行了研究，不同的区域重点，但一个共同的线索是探索社会类别，仪式和人口统计学的太平间数据的重要性（例如菲茨帕特里克2011）。同位素和遗传分析的最新科学进展重新将注意力集中在迁移上，作为解释“烧杯现象”的一种方式（Olalde et al. 2018;帕克Pearson et al. 2019; Armit &赖希2021）。该项目将通过回答与尸体处理和埋藏学有关的关键问题，大大提高我们对烧杯停尸房实践的理解。英国的证据是理想的，因为有完善的研究框架（例如，Clarke 1970;艾伦et al.（eds.）2012年），40年的资源丰富的商业挖掘，以及最近的大规模放射性碳测年和同位素研究（帕克皮尔逊等人2019）。英国的烧杯葬礼传统也是其长寿例外（c.2450-1850 BC：同上; Needham 2005）以及在Beaker社会生活中太平间做法的重要性，最近通过承认广泛的死后身体操纵，包括肢解，（Booth & Bruck 2020），去除康乃馨（Booth et al. 2020）和木乃伊化（Pearson et al. 2005; Booth et al. 2015）.为了深入了解烧杯传统的社会习俗，M4 C提案旨在确定：（i）基于年龄或性别的社会待遇;（ii）在未研究的人群中进行死后处理的普遍性和类型;（iii）在稀有/易碎材料的调查过程中，Micro-CT（MCT）的适用性。为了确定烧杯体的死后处理的特征和程度，将对至少40名个体进行深入的骨骼学、背景和组织解剖学分析。这将涉及以下方面的比较研究：（i）出版物和现场记录中的沉积数据;（ii）骨骼材料检查得出的生物特征数据（年龄、性别、创伤）;（iii）基于骨样本MCT扫描的微成岩数据的量化，使用牛津组织学指数（Hedges等人，1995年）确定身体完整性和分解过程（白色& Booth，2014年）。这些样本被收藏在众多的博物馆和商业考古档案馆中，其中一些已经得到了坎特伯雷考古信托基金会、萨内考古信托基金会和威塞克斯考古信托基金会的批准。(1)这是欧洲第一个大规模的基于MCT的Beaker墓葬研究，也是英国早期青铜时代墓葬群最大的成岩评估。本研究的结果将为阐明死后操纵的形式和频率及其对理解Beaker丧葬仪式和身体概念的意义提供新的依据。(2)这项研究的结果也将有助于我们更普遍地理解古代人类骨骼中的微成岩作用，以及生物考古和法医专家使用MicroCT扫描的方法和解释挑战。

The cultural transformations that accompanied the spread of the 'Beaker complex' across western Europe in the mid-3rd millennium BC have been central to narratives of long-term change in European prehistory, and continue to attract intense debates concerning their origins, diffusion and character (Vander Linden 2013). Beaker culture evidence has been studied from a range of perspectives with varying regional emphases, but a common thread is the significance of mortuary data for exploring social categories, ritual and demography (e.g. Fitzpatrick 2011). Recent scientific advances in isotopic and genetic analyses have refocused attention on migration as a way to explain the 'Beaker phenomenon' (Olalde et al. 2018; Parker Pearson et al. 2019; Armit & Reich 2021).This project will significantly advance our understanding of Beaker mortuary practices by answering key questions relating to body treatment and taphonomy. The British evidence is ideal for this purpose due to well-established frameworks of study (e.g. Clarke 1970; Allen et al. (eds.) 2012), 40 years' of well resourced commercial excavations, and recent large-scale radiocarbon dating and isotopic research (Parker Pearson et al. 2019). The British Beaker funerary tradition is also exceptional for its longevity (c.2450-1850 BC: ibid.; Needham 2005) and the prominence of mortuary practices in Beaker social lives, highlighted recently by recognition of widespread post-mortem body manipulation, includingdisarticulation (Booth & Bruck 2020), excarnation (Booth et al. 2020), and mummification (Pearson et al. 2005; Booth et al. 2015).To gain insight into the social customs of the Beaker tradition, this M4C proposal aims to determine: (i) social treatments based on age or sex; (ii) the prevalence and types of post-mortem treatments in an unstudied population; (iii) applicability of Micro-CT (MCT) during the investigation of rare/fragile materials.To determine the character and extent of post-mortem manipulation of Beaker bodies, at least 40 individuals will be subject to intensive osteological, contextual and histotaphonomic analysis. This will involve comparative study of: (i) depositional data in publications and site records; (ii) biometric data (age, sex, trauma) derived from examinations of skeletal material; (iii) quantification of micro-diagenetic data based on MCT scans of bone samples, using the Oxford Histological Index (Hedges et al. 1995) to establish body intactness and decompositional processes (White & Booth 2014). The samples are housed in numerous museums and commercial archaeology archives, access to some of which has already beenapproved by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Trust for Thanet Archaeology and Wessex Archaeology.This project will have major impacts in two areas of research. (1) This is the first large-scale MCT-based study of Beaker burials in Europe, and the largest diagenetic assessment of a British Early Bronze Age mortuary population. The results of this work will provide a new basis for clarifying forms and frequency of post-mortem manipulation and its significance for understanding Beaker mortuary ritual and conceptions of the body. (2) The findings of the study will also contribute to our understanding of microdiagenesis in ancient human bone more generally, and the methodological and interpretative challenges of using MicroCT scanning for both bioarchaeological and forensic specialists.