"Invisible burials" and fragmentation practices in Iron Age Europe:Excavations at the Monte Bernorio Necropolis (Northern Spain)

The scarcity of burial remains in large parts of Iron Age Europe, particularly in the Atlantic regions, has often led scholars to discuss the apparent “invisibility” of graves. This paper presents the results from several excavation campaigns at Monte Bernorio, one of the most important sites of the 1st millennium b.c. on the Iberian Peninsula. The fieldwork and post-excavation work carried out in the area of the necropolis have identified numerous burial pits, with complex ritual activities characterized by fragmentation and the practice of the pars pro toto. In addition, evidence for later rituals in some of the graves can be linked to ancestor worship. The results provide important insights into funerary practices in Late Iron Age Europe, leading us to rethink the very meaning of cemeteries in the study area and beyond.- Burial Traditions in Iron Age Europe - The Monte Bernorio Archaeological Zone - The 2007–2008 Necropolis Excavations - The 2015–2016 Necropolis Excavations - Post-Excavation Work and Interpretation: The Faunal and Human Remains - Structure and Chronology of Monte Bernorio Area 7 - Destruction of the Body, Commemoration in the Absence of a Corpse, and Visibility of the Mortuary Rite

A new approach to the temporal significance of house orientations in European Early Neolithic settlements

The files provide supplementary information for the paper "A new approach to the temporal significance of house orientations in European Early Neolithic settlements" published in PLOS ONE. First it provides magnetic plans of sites unpublished before. For the sites Horný Ohaj, parts of Čifare, Nevidzany, parts of Úľany nad Zitavou and Vlkas, a handcart with 6 Foerster fluxgate gradiometers in a 0.5 m spacing was used. Each of these magnetometers consists of two sensors which are vertically positioned in a distance of 0.65 m and the difference in their signals is measured. For Maňa, Telince and parts of Úľany nad Zitavou, a handcart with 9 SENSYS-Foerster fluxgate gradiometers, also spaced 0.5 m apart was employed. Finally, the site Vráble 'Drakovo' was measured with a 16-channel system (SENSYS MAGNETO®-MX ARCH). In all three cases, the setup was accompanied with a DGPS and a monitoring laptop. Second,it contains a PostgreSQL-dump (vers. 9.3.25) as txt-file with the relevant tables and views to reproduce the computation of house orientations. For further reference, the main tables (polygons_mf, polygons_nms, polygons_wm) also exist in a version as plaintext WKT (polygons_mf_as_text, polygons_nms_as_text, polygons_wm_as_text). All geographic information is projected in WGS84/UTM34N (EPSG-Code: 32634)

A new approach to the temporal significance of house orientations in European Early Neolithic settlements

The files provide supplementary information for the paper "A new approach to the temporal significance of house orientations in European Early Neolithic settlements" published in PLOS ONE. First it provides magnetic plans of sites unpublished before. For the sites Horný Ohaj, parts of Čifare, Nevidzany, parts of Úľany nad Zitavou and Vlkas, a handcart with 6 Foerster fluxgate gradiometers in a 0.5 m spacing was used. Each of these magnetometers consists of two sensors which are vertically positioned in a distance of 0.65 m and the difference in their signals is measured. For Maňa, Telince and parts of Úľany nad Zitavou, a handcart with 9 SENSYS-Foerster fluxgate gradiometers, also spaced 0.5 m apart was employed. Finally, the site Vráble 'Drakovo' was measured with a 16-channel system (SENSYS MAGNETO®-MX ARCH). In all three cases, the setup was accompanied with a DGPS and a monitoring laptop. Second,it contains a PostgreSQL-dump (vers. 9.3.25) as txt-file with the relevant tables and views to reproduce the computation of house orientations. For further reference, the main tables (polygons_mf, polygons_nms, polygons_wm) also exist in a version as plaintext WKT (polygons_mf_as_text, polygons_nms_as_text, polygons_wm_as_text). All geographic information is projected in WGS84/UTM34N (EPSG-Code: 32634)

The proof is in the pudding: crop isotope analysis provides direct insights into agricultural production and consumption

Stable isotope analysis of crop remains complements conventional isotope analysis of human and faunal bones, permitting a more holistic insight into subsistence practices in the past. Here, we demonstrate the insights that can be gained from crop isotope analysis by synthesising crop, faunal and human isotopic data from Linearbandkeramik villages, Late Neolithic lakeshore settlements and Early Iron Age sites in southwest Germany. As well as demonstrating the central role that plants played in the human diet, extensive stable isotope analysis of crop remains provides evidence for a strong interrelationship between crop production and consumption practices, which often belies a purely ecological motivation behind the differential treatment of crops