The Wangjiabang cemetery of the Chenghe site of the Neolithic Age in Shayang County, Hubei Province

From March 2018 to January 2019, the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other institutions excavated the Wangjiabang cemetery outside the north moat of the Chenghe ancient city site. They recovered 112 burials and three pottery ware pits and unearthed large numbers of artifacts, including pottery wares, jade and stone yue-battle-axes, ivory objects, bamboo-woven wares, lacquer wares, pig mandibles, and so on. These burials all belonged to the Qujialing culture, the large-scale ones mostly double- or triple-chamber burials in the same graves, and many burials were furnished with tree trunk coffins. Some pottery assemblages in the grave goods also had unique features. This discovery has filled a gap of the prehistoric burials in the middle reach of the Yangtze River, and provided valuable materials for further understanding the funeral customs and social structure of the Qujialing culture.

Covering the Dead in Later Prehistoric Britain: Elusive Objects and Powerful Technologies of Funerary Performance

This paper examines the containment and covering of people and objects in burials throughout later prehistory in Britain. Recent analyses of grave assemblages with exceptionally well-preserved organic remains have revealed some of the particular roles played by covers in funerary contexts. Beyond these spectacular examples, however, the objects involved in covering and containing have largely been overlooked. Many of the ‘motley crew’ of pots and stones used to wrap, cover, and contain bodies (and objects) were discarded or destroyed by antiquarian investigators in their quest for more immediately dazzling items. Organic containers and covers – bags, coffins, shrouds, blankets – are rarely preserved. Our study brings together the diverse and often elusive objects that played a part in covering and containing prehistoric burials, including items that directly enclosed bodies and objects, and those that potentially pinned together (now mostly absent) organic wraps. Overall, we contend, wrapping, covering, and containing were significantly more prevalent in prehistoric funerary practices than has previously been recognised.

SISTEM PENGUBURAN AKHIR JAMAN PRASEJARAH DI SULAWESI SELATAN

This paper described the forms of prehistoric burials in South Sulawesi. Results of this study indicate that there are different forms of burial has been known since the Neolithic period to ethnography period. Burial forms such as direct burial without the use of container, burial directly or indirectly by using containers. Vehicle used as a rock (stone coffin, gravel pit, stone carving), wood (erong, duni, allung, passilliran), ceramics (balubu, bowl, jar), or simply wrapped with a cloth or mat. Grave orientation is generally east-west or toward the sacred mountain, in accordance with their beliefs. Accompanied by a burial tomb various provisions, such as ceramics, objects of metal (gold, copper and bronze), beads and bracelets. Patterned pre-Islamic burial system is still life in certain communities, for example various forms tomb in Tana Toraja.

Dental Anthropology of the Neolithic Russian Far East: I Eurasian Russia

Dental morphological trait frequencies of Neolithic Russian Far East burials are more similar to those of Neolithic Central and Western Siberia than to percentages found in contemporaneous European Russians and Ukranians. Yet, archaeological evidence fails to indicate a close relationship between the Neolithic Russian Far East and Central and Western Siberia cultures. The Neolithic Far East sample is also dentally and culturally more like coastal prehistoric burials and present-day Eskimo and Chukchi samples from Chukotka than like non-coastal people of the Russian Far East.

Necropolis under a tumulus at Veprcani: Representative case of using sacred places during several periods in the past

Six Late Roman graves and one prehistoric burial have been discovered under a tumulus in the course of investigations. The tumulus is around 11meters in diameter and around 1 meter high and is situated at Veprcani, in the mountainous area of Mariovo in south Macedonia. The graves mostly contained cists of broken stones or slabs covered with stone slabs, one grave was carved into the rock and one consisted of a dislocated grave association. One prehistoric burial containing the remains of a cremated individual and grave goods was encountered under a small stone mound to the south of tumulus. Regarding the grave goods, mortuary practice and funerary rituals of the original tumulus as well as the prehistoric burials, and material from the mound have been dated to the Ha A period, while the antique graves were dated to the 3rd-4th century.

TEMUAN RANGKA MANUSIA AUSTRONESIA DI PANTURA JAWA TENGAH: “SEBUAH KAJIAN AWAL"

Preliminary research in Lasem, Sluke and Kragan Districts, Rembang Regency, Central Java has been conducted in late 2012. The first problem in this study is to reviewing the Prehistoric Burials Site at North Beach area (PANTURA) of Rembang Regency. The objective is to seek possibility of discovering several prehistoric grave sites along the coast between Kragan and Lasem Districts. By surveying the surface along the coast, was found a few locations that are identified as prehistoric grave site such in the village of Leran, Sluke District and village of Binangun, Lasem District. Based on the survey results followed by excavation to learn more about the grave sites, especially the skeleton that was buried as the main data of this research. The skeleton findings those are typical of the Austronesian culture. This finding is significant data. Even in terms of paleoanthropological study known about tooth modification in some individuals, both of which are found on Binangun and Leran. Modified forms of the teeth look likes jasmine flower buds have never been found anywhere else in Indonesia.

On the custom of burying dogs in prehistoric burials

By careful analyses to the available data to date, this paper discusses the issues on the custom of burying dogs in the burials in the prehistoric times, including the temporal and spatial distribution of dog burials, the different characteristics of the dog burials in different times and regions, the intentions of burying dogs in the human burials and the changes and evolutions of them, and so on, by which this paper suggests the origins of this custom and the cultural inheritance of the cultures in the historic period reflected by the appearances of this custom, and finally puts forward new clues of searching for the place of origin of the Shang civilization.