Leichenbrand erzählt vom Umgang mit den Toten – Die interdisziplinäre Rekonstruktion ritueller Handlungen am Beispiel eines Urnengräberfelds der Lausitzer Kultur

Abstract

Cremation remains talk about the treatment of the dead – The interdisciplinary reconstruction of ritual action: An example from an urnfi eld of the Lusatian  Culture Bones “speak” – even when they are burned. Cremation remains are one of the major source materials for archaeological research; moreover, as this paper explains, they do not only yield biological data but also provide us with information for particular historical questions. An overview of the essentials of the anthropological examination of cremation remains displays that there is considerable potential inherent in this source material beyond biological data. Furthermore, it becomes clear that already the collection of data relies upon the research questions that are asked; thus, cremation remains only do “speak” if they are analysed in interdisciplinary cooperation between anthropology and archaeology. Using the Bronze Age urnfi eld from Cottbus Alvensleben-Kaserne (Brandenburg, Germany) as a starting point the interdisciplinary approach is explicated, which allows the detailed reconstruction of funeral practices. This reconstruction of the sequence of ritual actions fi nally serves as the basis for  interpreting how social identities are presented and transformed in burial ritual.