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Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods

Changes in funerary practices are key to the understanding of social transformations of past societies. Over the course of the Nordic Bronze Age, funerary practices changed from inhumation to cremation. The aim of this study is to shed light on this fundamental change through a cross-examination of...

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Autores principales: Reiter, Samantha S., Møller, Niels Algreen, Nielsen, Bjarne Henning, Bech, Jens-Henrik, Olsen, Anne-Louise Haack, Jørkov, Marie Louise Schjellerup, Kaul, Flemming, Mannering, Ulla, Frei, Karin M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8115792/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33979332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249476
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author Reiter, Samantha S.
Møller, Niels Algreen
Nielsen, Bjarne Henning
Bech, Jens-Henrik
Olsen, Anne-Louise Haack
Jørkov, Marie Louise Schjellerup
Kaul, Flemming
Mannering, Ulla
Frei, Karin M.
author_facet Reiter, Samantha S.
Møller, Niels Algreen
Nielsen, Bjarne Henning
Bech, Jens-Henrik
Olsen, Anne-Louise Haack
Jørkov, Marie Louise Schjellerup
Kaul, Flemming
Mannering, Ulla
Frei, Karin M.
author_sort Reiter, Samantha S.
collection PubMed
description Changes in funerary practices are key to the understanding of social transformations of past societies. Over the course of the Nordic Bronze Age, funerary practices changed from inhumation to cremation. The aim of this study is to shed light on this fundamental change through a cross-examination of archaeometric provenance data and archaeological discussions of the context and layouts of early cremation graves. To this end, we conducted 19 new provenance analyses of strontium isotopes from Early Nordic Bronze age contexts in Thisted County and Zealand and Late Bronze Age contexts from Thisted County and Vesthimmerland (Denmark). These data are subsequently compared with data from other extant relevant studies, including those from Late Bronze Age Fraugde on the Danish island of Fyn. Overall, the variations within our provenience data suggest that the integration and establishment of cremation may not have had a one-to-one relationship with in-migration to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark. Moreover, there seems to be no single blanket scenario which dictated the uptake of cremation as a practice within this part of Southern Scandinavia. By addressing habitus in relation to the deposition of cremations as juxtaposed with these provenance data¸ we hypothesize several potential pathways for the uptake of cremation as a new cultural practice within the Danish Nordic Bronze Age and suggest that this may have been a highly individual process, whose tempo may have been dictated by the specificities of the region(s) concerned.
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spelling pubmed-81157922021-05-24 Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods Reiter, Samantha S. Møller, Niels Algreen Nielsen, Bjarne Henning Bech, Jens-Henrik Olsen, Anne-Louise Haack Jørkov, Marie Louise Schjellerup Kaul, Flemming Mannering, Ulla Frei, Karin M. PLoS One Research Article Changes in funerary practices are key to the understanding of social transformations of past societies. Over the course of the Nordic Bronze Age, funerary practices changed from inhumation to cremation. The aim of this study is to shed light on this fundamental change through a cross-examination of archaeometric provenance data and archaeological discussions of the context and layouts of early cremation graves. To this end, we conducted 19 new provenance analyses of strontium isotopes from Early Nordic Bronze age contexts in Thisted County and Zealand and Late Bronze Age contexts from Thisted County and Vesthimmerland (Denmark). These data are subsequently compared with data from other extant relevant studies, including those from Late Bronze Age Fraugde on the Danish island of Fyn. Overall, the variations within our provenience data suggest that the integration and establishment of cremation may not have had a one-to-one relationship with in-migration to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark. Moreover, there seems to be no single blanket scenario which dictated the uptake of cremation as a practice within this part of Southern Scandinavia. By addressing habitus in relation to the deposition of cremations as juxtaposed with these provenance data¸ we hypothesize several potential pathways for the uptake of cremation as a new cultural practice within the Danish Nordic Bronze Age and suggest that this may have been a highly individual process, whose tempo may have been dictated by the specificities of the region(s) concerned. Public Library of Science 2021-05-12 /pmc/articles/PMC8115792/ /pubmed/33979332 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249476 Text en © 2021 Reiter et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Reiter, Samantha S.
Møller, Niels Algreen
Nielsen, Bjarne Henning
Bech, Jens-Henrik
Olsen, Anne-Louise Haack
Jørkov, Marie Louise Schjellerup
Kaul, Flemming
Mannering, Ulla
Frei, Karin M.
Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods
title Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods
title_full Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods
title_fullStr Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods
title_full_unstemmed Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods
title_short Into the fire: Investigating the introduction of cremation to Nordic Bronze Age Denmark: A comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods
title_sort into the fire: investigating the introduction of cremation to nordic bronze age denmark: a comparative study between different regions applying strontium isotope analyses and archaeological methods
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8115792/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33979332
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0249476
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