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‘Living burials’: reopening actions in kurgans and tombs between Central Europeand the Eurasian Steppe
Crescioli, Lorenzo
2020
Abstract
In recent years increasing attention has been devoted to the re-opening and disturbance actions of several typologies
of tombs, especially in monumental burial mounds, amply attested from Eurasia to Europe. It emerged
that these funerary monuments were very dynamic areas and represented important places for the societies that
built them. Traces of secondary rituals, intentional re-opening actions and other types of activities, and interferences
have been often recorded in or around kurgan structures, but also in other typologies of graves. Their
interpretations are still rather unclear, but it appears, however, that some of these rituals recur over a very wide
geographical and chronological horizon (from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period), within a cross-cultural
dimension. The paper presents some case studies, mainly related to the Eurasian Steppes (Scythian culture
in particular) showing the typological multiplicity of the phenomenon and their possible interpretations, and
stresses the need of a strict methodological approach to the excavation and analysis of these contexts, essential
to correctly understand the evidence for re-opening actions and not mistake these with ‘simple’ robbing actions.In recent years increasing attention has been devoted to the re-opening and disturbance actions of several typologies
of tombs, especially in monumental burial mounds, amply attested from Eurasia to Europe. It emerged
that these funerary monuments were very dynamic areas and represented important places for the societies that
built them. Traces of secondary rituals, intentional re-opening actions and other types of activities, and interferences
have been often recorded in or around kurgan structures, but also in other typologies of graves. Their
interpretations are still rather unclear, but it appears, however, that some of these rituals recur over a very wide
geographical and chronological horizon (from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period), within a cross-cultural
dimension. The paper presents some case studies, mainly related to the Eurasian Steppes (Scythian culture
in particular) showing the typological multiplicity of the phenomenon and their possible interpretations, and
stresses the need of a strict methodological approach to the excavation and analysis of these contexts, essential
to correctly understand the evidence for re-opening actions and not mistake these with ‘simple’ robbing actions.
Publisher
EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste
Source
Lorenzo Crescioli, "‘Living Burials’: reopening actions in kurgansand tombs between Central Europe and theEurasian Steppe", in: Costanza Coppini, Francesca Simi (Edited by), "Interactions and New Directions in Near Eastern Archaeology. Volume 3. Proceedings of the 5th “Broadening Horizons” Conference (Udine 5-8 June 2017)", Trieste, EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2020, pp. 111-135
Languages
en
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internazionale
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