The Mesolithic shell middens in Portugal aggregate some of the largest and earliest burial grounds known, around 8000 years old, arranged and maintained by populations with an exclusive hunting, fishing, and foraging lifestyle. The archaeological material is housed in museums and consists of artefacts, field documentation (written, graphic) and more than 300 human skeletons. This archaeological assemblage is exceptional due to its quality and antiquity, but its early excavation introduces several challenges to the modern research.
Here we present an analysis of the burials in the shell middens of Arapouco and Poças de S. Bento in the Sado valley, Portugal following the principles of archaeothanatology to reconstruct past ritual practices as responses to death. Our analysis was based on unpublished photographs from the 1960s and our aims were 1) to identify the nature of the deposits (primary, secondary); 2) to describe the space of decomposition of the cadaver (filled, empty, mixed); 3) to reconstruct the initial position of the cadaver in the feature; 4) to reconstruct the grave features, such as size and shape; 5) to detect the initial presence of perishable materials deposited along with the cadaver, such as structures behind the bodies, or wrappings of the body at the time of disposal; 6) to clearly define the deposits containing more than one individual; 7) to identify post-depositional manipulations of the cadaver.
The method, which emerged in the context of field archaeology lays great emphasis on the field situation and it has been argued that assessment of the material may not be possible if key observations are not documented in situ. Despite the limitations, we demonstrate with this case study that archaeothanatology is a robust and reliable method to assess, study, and retrieve new data from the extensive archaeological assemblages of human remains available in museums.N/
