1. Evidence of innovation and social differentiation in burial practices in Early Bronze Age Moravia.
- Author
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Pankowská, Anna and Monik, Martin
- Subjects
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INTERMENT , *CEMETERIES , *BRONZE Age , *ARCHAEOLOGICAL finds - Abstract
Central European Early Bronze Age (EBA) society is distinguished by its greater variety of burial practices. Along with common grave burials in cemeteries, there is a significant increase in storage pit burials (PBs). PBs are assumed to be a minor deviation from common EBA burial practices. Based on archaeological and skeletal evidence found in contemporaneous pit and grave burials (GBs) within EBA settlements and cemeteries in Moravia, Czech Republic, we present an alternative view that PBs are a social innovation and evidence increasing cultural complexity and gender differentiation. Multidimensional scaling was used to visualise the degree of similarity of the archaeological data, and the relationship of health status to burial location was determined through cross-tabulation. Binary logistic regression was used to predict the odds of being buried in PBs or GBs. Our analyses indicate that in the Moravian EBA community, here are at least two archaeologically visible burial practices, each with different gender treatments. We posit that increased variation in burial practice evidences increasing social differentiation of males from females. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
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