Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T01:34:20.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The persistent presence of the dead: recent excavations at the hunter-gatherer cemetery at Zvejnieki (Latvia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2013

Liv Nilsson Stutz ,
Lars Larsson  and
Ilga Zagorska
Liv Nilsson Stutz
Affiliation:
1Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA
Lars Larsson
Affiliation:
2Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Lunds Universitet, Box 117, SE-221 00, Lund, Sweden
Ilga Zagorska
Affiliation:
3Institute of the History of Latvia, Akadēmijas laukums 1, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The well-known Mesolithic cemeteries of Northern Europe have long been viewed as evidence of developing social complexity in those regions in the centuries immediately before the Neolithic transition. These sites also had important symbolic connotations. This study uses new and more detailed analysis of the burial practices in one of these cemeteries to argue that much more is involved than social differentiation. Repeated burial in the densely packed site of Zvejnieki entailed large-scale disturbance of earlier graves, and would have involved recurrent encounters with the remains of the ancestral dead. The intentional use of older settlement material in the grave fills may also have signified a symbolic link with the past. The specific identity of the dead is highlighted by the evidence for clay face masks and tight body wrappings in some cases.

Keywords

LatviaZvejniekiMesolithicburial practicesarchaeothanatologycemeteryhunter-gatherers
Type
Research articles
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 338 , December 2013 , pp. 1016 - 1029
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albrethsen, S.E. & Petersen, E. Brinch. 1977. Excavation of a Mesolithic cemetery at Vedbœk, Denmark. Acta Archaeologica 47: 1–28.Google Scholar
Brinch Petersen, E. & Mieklejohn, C.. 2003. Three cremations and a funeral: aspects of burial practice in Mesolithic Vedbœk, in Larsson, L., Kindgren, H., Knutsson, K., Loeffler, D. & ÅKerlund, A. (ed.) Mesolithic on the move: 485-93. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Chapman, R. 1981. The emergence of formal disposal areas and the “problem” of megalithic tombs in prehistoric Europe, in Chapman, R., Kinnes, I. & Randsborg, K. (ed.) The archaeology of death: 71-82. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, G.A. & Neeley, M.. 1987. Social differentiation in European Mesolithic burial data, in Rowley-Conwy, P., Zvelebil, M. & Blankholm, H.P. (ed.) Mesolithic northwest Europe: recent trends: 121-27. Sheffield: Deprtment of Archaeology and Prehistory, University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Duday, H. 2009. The archaeology of the dead: lectures in archaeothanatology. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Eberhards, G. 2006. Geology and development of palaeolake Burtnieks during the Late Glacial and Holocene, in Larsson, L. & Zagorska, I. (ed.) Back to the origin: new research in the Mesolithic—Neolithic Zvejnieki cemetery and environment, northern Latvia (Acta Archaeologica Lundensia: series in 8vo, 52): 25–51. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Eriksson, G. 2003. Norm and difference: Stone Age dietarypractice in the Baltic region (Theses and Papers in Scientific Archaeology 5). Stockholm: Stockholms Universitet.Google Scholar
Fowler, C. 2004. The archaeology ofpersonhood: an anthropological approach. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Gosden, C. 1994. Social being and time. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Gray Jones, A. 2010. The ‘loose human bone’ phenomenon: complexity in Mesolithic mortuary practice in north-west Europe. Paper presented at the Mesolithic in Europe conference, Santander, Spain, September 2010.Google Scholar
Gurina, N. 1956. Oleneostrovski mogilnik (Materialyi issledovaniya po arheologgi SSSR 47). Moscow & Leningrad.Google Scholar
Hallgren, F. 2011. Mesolithic skull depositions at Kanaljorden, Motala, Sweden. Current Swedish Archaeology 19: 244-46.Google Scholar
Helms, M. 2005. Tangible materiality and cosmological others in the development of sedentism, in Demarrais, E., Gordon, C. & Renfrew, C. (ed.) Rethinking materiality: the engagement of mind (McDonald Institute Monographs): 117–27. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Kannegard Nielsen, E. & Petersen, E. Brinch. 1993. Grave, mennesker og hunde, in Hvass, S. & Storgaard, B. (ed.) Da klinger i muld … 25 °ars arkeologi i Danmark: 76–81. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitet.Google Scholar
Knutsson, H. 1995. Slutvandrat? Aspekter p°a ¨overg°angen fr°an r¨orlig till bofast tillvaro (AUN 20). Uppsala: AUN.Google Scholar
Larsson, L. 1988. The Skateholm Project: man and environment (Regiae Societatis Humaniorum Litterarum Lundensis 79). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Larsson, L. 1990. Dogs in fraction—symbols in action, in Vermeersch, P. & Peer, P. Van (ed.) Contribution to the Mesolithic in Europe. Papers presented at the Fourth International Symposium ‘The Mesolithic in Europe,’ Leuven 1990 (Studia Prehistorica Belgia 5): 153-60. Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Larsson, L. 2009. T¨ander t¨ander tankar, in Ekengren, F. & Stutz, L. Nilsson (ed.) I tillvarons gr¨ansland. Perspektiv p°a kroppen mellan liv och d¨od (Acta Archaeologica Lundensia: series in 8vo, 60): 174-96. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Larsson, L. 2010. A double grave with amber and bone adornments at Zvejnieki in northern Latvia, in Bliujien˙, A. (ed.) At the origins of the culture of the Balts (Archaeologia Baltica 13): 80–90 and plates I–IV. Klaip˙eda: Klaip˙eda University Press.Google Scholar
Larsson, L. & Zagorska, I. (ed.). 2006. Back to the origin: new research in the Mesolithic–Neolithic Zvejnieki cemetery and environment, northern Latvia (Acta Archaeologica Lundensia: series in 8vo, 52). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Mannermaa, K. 2008. Birds and burials at Ajvide (Gotland, Sweden) and Zvejnieki (Latvia) about 8000-3900 BP. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27:201-25.Google Scholar
Mieklejohn, C., Petersen, E. Brinch & Alexandersen, V.. 2000. The anthropology and archaeology of Mesolithic gender in the western Baltic, in Donald, M. & Hurcombe, L. (ed.) Gender and material culture in archaeological perspective: 222-37. New York: St Martin's.Google Scholar
Newell, R.R. & Constandse-Westermann, T.S.. 1988. The significance of Skateholm I and Skateholm II to the Mesolithic of Western Europe, in Larsson, L. (ed.) The Skateholm Project I: man and environment (Regiae Societatis Humaniorum Litterarum Lundensis 79): 164-74. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Nilsson Stutz, L. 2003. Embodied rituals and ritualized bodies. Tracing ritual practices in Late Mesolithic burials (Acta Archaeologica Lundensia: series in 8vo, 46). Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Nilsson Stutz, L. 2006. Unwrapping the dead, in Larsson, L. & Zagorska, I. (ed.) Back to the origin. New research in the Mesolithic–Neolithic Zvejnieki cemetery and environment, northern Latvia (Acta Archaeologica Lundensia: series in 8vo, 52): 217-33. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Nilsson Stutz, L., Larsson, L. & Zagorska., I. 2008. More burials at Zvejnieki. Preliminary results from the 2007 excavation. Mesolithic Miscellany 19(1):2–6.Google Scholar
O'Shea, J. & Zvelebil, M.. 1984. Olenostrovski mogilnik: reconstructing the social and economic organization of prehistoric foragers in northern Russia. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 3:1–40.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. 2000. Ancestral places in the Mesolithic landscape. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 17 1:123-38.Google Scholar
Porr, M. & Alt, K.W.. 2006. The burial of Bad Durrenberg, central Germany: osteopathology and osteoarchaeology of a Late Mesolithic shaman's grave. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 16:395–406.Google Scholar
Price, T.D. 1985. Affluent foragers of Mesolithic southern Scandinavia, in Price, T. D. & Brown, J.A. (ed.) Prehistoric hunters-gatherers: the emergence of cultural complexity: 341-63. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. 2000. Shamans and northern cosmology: the direct historical approach to Mesolithic sexuality, in Schmidt, R. & Voss, B. (ed.) Archaeologies of sexuality: 220-35. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schmidt, R. 2001. Sex and gender variation in the Scandinavian Mesolithic. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Strassburg, J. 2000. Shamanic shadows: one hundred generations of undead subversion in southern Scandinavia, 7000-4000 BC. Stockholm: Stockholm Studies in Archaeology.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Braziunas, T.F.. 1993. Modelling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples to 10 000 BC. Radiocarbon 35:137-89.Google Scholar
Thorpe, N. 1996. The origins of agriculture in Europe. London:Routledge.Google Scholar
Tilley, C. 1996. An ethnography of the Neolithic: early prehistoric societies in southern Scandinavia (New Studies in Archaeology). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Villena Mota, N., Duday, H.. & HouëT, F.. 1996. De la fiabilit´e des liaisons ost´eologiques. Bulletins et M´emoires de la Soci´et´e Anthropologique de Paris NS 3-4: 373-84.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. 2001. Amber graves of Zvejnieki burial ground, in Butrimas, A. (ed.) Baltic amber: 109-24. Vilnius: Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. 2006. The history of research on the Zvejnieki site, in Larsson, L. & Zagorska, I. (ed.) Back to the origin: new research in the Mesolithic–Neolithic Zvejnieki cemetery and environment, northern Latvia (Acta Archaeologica Lundensia: series in 8vo, 52): 5–24. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. & Larsson, L.. 1996. New data on the chronology of the Zvejnieki Stone Age cemetery. Mesolithic Miscellany 15 2:3–10.Google Scholar
Zagorska, I. & Lougas, L.. 2000. The tooth-pendant head-dresses of Zvejnieki cemetery. Muinasaja Teadus 8:223-44.Google Scholar
Zagorskis, F. 1987. Zvejnieku akmens laikmeta kapulauks. Riga: Zin¯atne.Google Scholar
Zagorskis, F. 2004. Zvejnieki (northern Latvia) Stone Age cemetery (British Archaeological Reports international series 1292). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. 1993. Concepts of time and ‘presencing’ the Mesolithic. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 12 2:51–70.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. 2008. Innovating hunter-gatherers: the Mesolithic in the Baltic, in Bailey, G. & Spikins, P. (ed.) Mesolithic Europe: 18–59. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. & Dolukhanov, P.. 1991. The transition to farming in Eastern and Northern Europe. Journal of World Prehistory 5:233-78.Google Scholar