Burial and identity in the Late Neolithic and Copper Age of south-east Europe Susan Stratton Thesis submitted in candidature for the degree of PhD Cardiff University March 2016 CONTENTS List of figures…………………………………………………………………………7 List of tables………………………………………………………………………….14 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................................ 16 Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 17 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 18 2 Archaeological study of mortuary practice ........................................................................... 22 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 22 2.2 Culture history ................................................................................................................... 22 2.3 Status and hierarchy – the processualist preoccupations ............................................ 26 2.4 Post-processualists and messy human relationships .................................................... 36 2.5 Feminism and the emergence of gender archaeology .................................................. 43 2.6 Personhood, identity and memory ................................................................................. 46 2.7 Recent burial studies in south-east Europe ................................................................... 50 2.8 Where are we now? ........................................................................................................... 55 3 Society, the individual, and the treatment of the dead: towards an approach for the study of burial practice ...................................................................................................................... 57 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 57 3.2 The body and identity ....................................................................................................... 58 2 3.2.1 The individual, the body and “being in the world”: the importance of the everyday in creating identity .................................................................................................... 58 3.2.2 The clothed body ...................................................................................................... 59 3.2.3 The role of memory in the creation of identity .................................................... 61 3.2.4 Social memory, community, and traditions ........................................................... 62 3.2.5 Social roles and identities and their material expression ..................................... 65 3.3 In mortuary practice ......................................................................................................... 76 3.3.1 Burial and identity ..................................................................................................... 76 3.3.2 The location of burials ............................................................................................. 78 3.3.3 Commensality and the funerary ritual .................................................................... 79 3.3.4 Continuity and change in mortuary practice ......................................................... 79 3.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 82 4 Methodology .............................................................................................................................. 84 4.1 Site selection ....................................................................................................................... 84 4.2 Statistical approaches ........................................................................................................ 85 4.2.1 Univariate analyses .................................................................................................... 86 4.2.2 Correspondence analysis .......................................................................................... 87 4.3 Method and theory ............................................................................................................ 89 4.4 Summary ............................................................................................................................. 90 5 What’s in a name? The culture-historical complexity of south-east Europe ................... 91 5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 91 5.2 The politics of Balkan archaeology: ethnicity, communism, and nationalism ......... 96 3 5.3 Mesolithic occupation in south-east Europe ...............................................................101 5.4 Early Neolithic (c. 6500–5500 cal BC) .........................................................................103 5.4.1 Agriculture ...............................................................................................................106 5.4.2 Settlements ...............................................................................................................106 5.4.3 Burials .......................................................................................................................107 5.4.4 Beyond the Starčevo-Körös-Çris-Karanovo I complex ....................................107 5.5 Middle Neolithic (c. 5500–4900 cal BC) ......................................................................108 5.5.1 Western Region .......................................................................................................108 5.5.2 Eastern region .........................................................................................................111 5.6 Late Neolithic ..................................................................................................................112 5.6.1 The eastern region (c. 4900–4550 cal BC)...........................................................112 5.6.2 The western region (c. 5100–4500 cal BC) .........................................................116 5.7 Copper Age ......................................................................................................................121 5.7.1 The eastern region (c. 4650–3000 cal. BC)..........................................................122 5.7.2 The western region (4500/4400–2600/2500 cal BC) ........................................124 5.8 Discussion: the reality of cultural (id)entities ..............................................................128 5.9 Summary ...........................................................................................................................131 6 Case studies of the eastern region ........................................................................................132 6.1 Introduction .....................................................................................................................132 6.2 The Early and Middle Neolithic burial record ............................................................133 6.2.1 Cemeteries: a break with tradition? ......................................................................136 6.3 The first extramural cemeteries of the Late Neolithic and Early Copper Age ......138 4 6.4 Cernica ..............................................................................................................................139 6.4.1 Location ....................................................................................................................139 6.4.2 Excavation ...............................................................................................................140 6.4.3 The archive ..............................................................................................................144 6.4.4 Cemetery phasing ....................................................................................................145 6.4.5 The burial data .........................................................................................................148 6.4.6 Grave goods .............................................................................................................153 6.4.7 Correspondence analysis ........................................................................................159 6.4.8 Burial and identity at Cernica ................................................................................165 6.4.9 Summary ...................................................................................................................166 6.5 Durankulak .......................................................................................................................167 6.5.1 Location ....................................................................................................................167 6.5.2 Excavation ...............................................................................................................168 6.5.3 Publication ...............................................................................................................169 6.5.4 Cemetery phasing and development ....................................................................169