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The analysis of traces of injuries can be difficult in cases of charred human remains since the alteration and fragmentation are high. The aim of this study is to explore the use of X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technique as a screening tool for detecting and analyzing gunshot residues (GSR) on cremated and highly fragmented materials, as it is a technique that allows for fast qualitative investigations without altering the sample or requiring sample preparation. The study was carried out on two steps: firstly, on completed skeletonized bones to verify if GSR survive to burning; secondly, we considered a more realistic situation, in which soft tissues were present before the shooting. To this aim, nine adult bovine ribs, four retaining soft tissue, five completely skeletonized, were subjected to a shooting test using two types of 9 mm projectiles (jacketed and unjacketed bullets). The ribs were then burnt until complete calcination in an electric furnace. The entry wound of each rib was analyzed using XRF, revealing traces of GSR. The XRF analysis showed that all samples, except for one, contain Pb and/or Sb near the lesion. Furthermore, the samples hit by unjacketed bullets had a more significant presence of Pb in macroscopic yellow areas, which persisted when moving away from the gunshot. These findings could pave the way for the use of XRF technology, mostly when a fast and immediate scan must be done on osteologic materials by a conservative method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the significance of funeral services for animal companions, focusing on grieving clients and the human-animal bond. Reflections of employees at the Animals’ Heaven Cemetery (Cimitirul Raiul Animalelor in Romanian) on the motivations, emotions, and reactions of clients who used the cemetery’s post-mortem animal care services are examined. Findings revealed differing responses from owners, ranging from open expression of emotions to silence; acceptance of loss, desiring to honor their animals’ existence with a final gesture even posthumously. Participants also reported occasional situations arising from distance or situational challenges when clients offer no assistance in their animals’ burial or cremation. The results suggest the necessity of formal qualifications in therapy, psychotherapy, psychology, or a related profession to enhance funeral service providers’ ability to communicate with grieving clients. The concept of an animal companion cemetery as a park, perceived as “a place of hope” and “a spiritual place” is suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The colonial erosion of African traditional and cultural practices continues to dislocate the African identity in different ways. The changes and shifts made to burial practices have simply paved a way for the colonial agenda to bring about more Western ways of doing things, burial rites included. It is important to note that cremation, as another way of burying the dead, is slowly becoming a norm for black people. This paper intends to not only unveil the causes and contestations around cremation burials, but to also seek an African theological response as a way to guide black African culture moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses transformations in human behavior between the Iron Age and the Roman times in the tribal territory of the Treveri, later civitas Treverorum, located between the Rhine and the Ardennes. This aspect has been examined from two perspectives: first, from an anthropological point of view vis‐a‐vis the historical inhabitants, and second, from an archaeozoological perspective regarding domestic animals. Due to small sample sizes and/or difficulty in dating, both regarding humans and domestic animals, transformations in living conditions and animal‐keeping could mostly be outlined only for the La Tène and Roman times. Only the Celtic‐Roman cemetery of Wederath‐Belginum with continued use from middle La Tène to late antiquity offers a more complex insight into human mortality and animal offerings. People lived longer in the Roman times but had more pathologies compared with the previous La Tène period. Body height remained similar in the La Tène and Roman times. However, differences existed within specific human groups (for example, warriors and craftsmen), compared to the normal population. Sex differences in mortality persisted from La Tène to Roman times. The faunal composition in the burials, settlements, and sanctuaries also shows changes. Since the middle La Tène period, chickens have been present. The first oysters can be found in Augustean times, whereas exotic birds such as crested fowls and peacocks are found only in later Roman times and are quite rare. A new direction in animal‐keeping is demonstrated via an increasing logarithmic size index (LSI) in cattle and sheep. The multivariate methods applied in this study offer further insights into the domain and can serve as helpful tools for osteoarchaeological data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cremation was a common behavior during the Early period in the Middle Cauca region of Colombia. Nevertheless, few bioarchaeological analyses have focused on understanding this phenomenon. Four funerary urns from the archaeological site Matecaña (Pereira, Risaralda, Colombia) were analyzed to understand the cremation mortuary practice during the Early period (1000 bc–600 ad). For this, the cremains went through an anatomical classification that led to establishing the minimal number of individuals with the landmark system, as well as reconstructing their biological profile and interpreting the macroscopic changes made by heat exposure, such as colorimetry, the degree of cremation, the presence of heat‐induced changes, and the temperature that the incineration reached. The results indicated that the funerary cycle had three processes divided into 11 steps. During the first process, an individual's biological death led to rituals and a temporary deposition. After the skeletonization of the corpse, the second process was the cremation itself. The combustion of at least 28 individuals of different ages (fetuses, infants, and adults) was intense (400°C to over 600°C) and finalized in the third process with their burial in funerary urns. This funerary behavior reflects the long‐term relationship between the living and the dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The petrous parts of temporal bones are considered to be the densest parts of the human skeleton. Because of their high biomechanical strength, these elements can be preserved well even exposed to destructive processes. It has been proved that these bones are very well preserved in cremation graves and thus can be used as the foundation for anthropological analyses of cremated remains. The aim of the study was to determine the degree of shrinkage of the petrous portion of temporal bone under the influence of high temperature during the cremation. In a modern crematorium in Prague (Czech Republic), an experiment was conducted by burning 15 human temporal bones and a fresh pig's heads with soft tissues. Nine measurements were collected from each bone before the burning process. Cremation was carried out under controlled conditions in a modern cremation oven—the process took 45 min, and the temperature reached 1000°C. All the bones were burned together to maintain the same experimental conditions. Measurements of the individual bones were then repeated, and the significance of the dimensional changes was assessed. The presented study pointed out the significant size's reduction at level to 14% for dry petrous parts of temporal bones, while the size of fresh bones changed to 28% of their mass depending on the examined feature. Furthermore, the results of comparative analyses revealed that the differences between burning of dry and fresh bones are insignificant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents archaeological findings from excavations within the Salvamento Arqueológico Planta de Licuefacción de Gas Natural in winter 2022. The project area is located 2 kilometers southeast from the town of Puerto Libertad, Sonora and 800 meters inland from the coastline. A pre-Hispanic cemetery was recorded and excavated, with secondary pit cremations, secondary cremations placed inside locally produced plain ware and decorated vessels, and an articulated primary burial of a female, between 18 and 20 years old and with evidence of scalping. A possible crematorium 1.8 km away with cremations was also identified. The study area borders the precolonial cultural limits of the Costa Central and Trincheras Traditions and the documentation of cremations from the site were compared against previously excavated mortuary features across both cultural traditions. In addition to funerary practices, ceramic analysis demonstrated that the ancient inhabitants of Puerto Libertad belonged to the Trincheras Tradition and suggests they may have migrated from the valleys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of the exposure temperature of skeletal remains can be done by means of colourimetry and a previously published decision model for the colourimetric data, resulting in clusters that represent a range of exposure temperature. The method was based on thermally altered freshly burned human skeletal remains. However, in practice the origin or pre-burning condition of (possibly fragmentary) burned remains can be unknown. Further, in order to use the colourimetric analysis, and accompanying decision model, it is important to have a reference or test set. Fresh human material is not available for this purpose in all countries. Hence, the classification accuracy of the decision model was tested for, in some countries more readily available substitutes for fresh bone; embalmed human bone and non-human bone. The model yielded high accuracies for these sample materials, making it possible to create a reference or test set from fresh non-human and embalmed human bone as substitute for human, and also to use the decision model for these deviating samples in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Alkaline hydrolysis can lay claim to being a resource-efficient, effective, economical and environmentally sound method of final body disposition, relative to burial and cremation. On technical grounds it may have much to recommend it, however, like many other technical innovations, its take-up is hindered by the fact that it lacks a clear position in the public imagination. For this position to take shape, an understanding of just what it is and what it offers is required by proponents in the funeral industry who advise the bereaved, as well as by the material representations of the alkaline hydrolysis technologies themselves. In this article, we describe and analyse four extant alternative material and discursive forms of alkaline hydrolysis and how they variously occupy the fraught space where morality, death and marketing converge. Currently, each of the four forms of alkaline hydrolysis struggle to represent themselves in a public narrative that conveys their different ontologies and their competitive advantage, relative to burial and cremation, and this paper describes some key rhetorical and technical aspects of these struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses a crematorium inaugurated in 1923 in the municipal Northern Cemetery (Nordre Kirkegård) of Aarhus as a case of vernacular classicism in interwar Denmark. While earlier works by its architect Sophus Frederik Kühnel (1851–1930) followed National Romantic, Renaissance, and Gothic models, the crematorium stands out because of its crowning feature, a stepped pyramid roof that emulates one of the most characteristic architectural elements of the mid-fourth-century BCE Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, described by Pliny the Elder (HN 36.31) and other ancient authors. This reference to one of the most famous funerary monuments from classical antiquity is both functionally and symbolically appropriate in a cemetery setting and also fits into a longer history of 'Mausoleumania', both in Denmark and internationally. Furthermore, it reflects a broader architectural movement of vernacular, 'Nordic' classicism during the interwar period, when local architects 'translated' classical elements into the vernacular, for example, through prominent use of brickwork and eclectic combinations of classical motifs with both medieval and National Romantic forms. Kühnel's crematorium shows some of the creative ways in which Scandinavian architects freely adapted distinctive elements from the repertoire of classical architecture, in this case in response to the rise of cremation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Moroccan economic migration to Catalonia began in the mid-1960s and was consolidated in the early 1990s. The history of migration is usually reconstructed on the basis of associative, cultural and religious initiatives, as an expression of a collective identity. But this history is also the result of interaction with the receiving society. This article analyses the process of community funeral management among Moroccans in Catalonia, which represented one of the first expressions of their community configuration, but which at the same time reveals the negative consideration that their presence would arouse in Catalan society. The study of the archives of the Moroccan Consulate in Barcelona allows us to reconstruct the first funerary initiatives, but also some of the situations of early racism that were already occurring throughout the 1970s and 1980s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major complications in the palaeopathological analysis of burnt human remains include distinguishing whether bone was fresh or dry at the time of burning, and whether trauma/damage was inflicted 'perimortem' or postmortem. Some prehistoric societies are suggested to have defleshed human remains prior to cremation, mostly classified based on the lack of warping and thumbnail fractures. The distinction between perimortem and postmortem sharp force trauma (SFT) characteristics has rarely been investigated on burnt bones. This study investigates whether these features are distinguishable on burnt bone, as well as assessing the rate of cutmark survival, and the presence of heat-induced fractures in relation to the bone's pre-burnt collagen content. Pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) tibiae were left to decay in a field for 14, 34, 91, 180, and 365 days in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, UK. Prior to burning, bones were inflicted with SFT by a non-serrated and partially serrated knife and a flint blade (N = 15/bone). Fleshed bones with cutmarks and bones without trauma served as controls. Cutmark survival, features, and heat-induced fractures were recorded on the burnt bones and compared with the collagen extracted from unburnt bones at the abovementioned time intervals. Statistical analysis included linear regression and MANOVA. Heat-induced fractures did not depend on the limited collagen loss during the 1-year postmortem inverval (PMI) prior to burning. There was a loss (mean 18.4%) of identifiable cutmarks after burning. Significant alterations in the cutmark characteristics appeared after 6 months of exposure in burnt bones, marked by the increase in postmortem features, which can inform on the pre-burning PMI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Death causes considerable contagion and is fraught with potential danger for Nepali mourners. The main purpose of cremation ritual practice at Pashupati crematorium is to purify and free the soul from the body to secure the transition of the soul to another realm, and subsequently as an ancestor. It is the family’s obligation to facilitate a safe journey and to turn the deceased into a benign ancestor instead of a haunting ghost. Since the first COVID-19 death in Nepal on the 14th of May 2020, the Pashupati electric crematorium has been prioritised for COVID confirmed cremations in the Kathmandu valley area. These cremations were done free of cost by the crematorium staff without mourners’ presence, with the extensive logistic assistance of Nepal Army. The management of the COVID corpses was strictly controlled and regulated to minimise spread of the virus. The severely limited access for bereaved mourners and the obligatory use of closed body bags restricted the cremation ritual practice for mourners to a bare minimum outside the crematorium premises gate. How did mourners comply with these extensive restrictions? In this paper I explore the various factors that influenced the handling of the deceased COVID-19 bodies at Pashupati electric crematorium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When bone is exposed to thermal stress, the chemical composition changes. This affects bone tissue regeneration after surgery, and these changes can also aid in reconstructing ante-, peri-, and post-mortem events in forensic investigations and past activities on cremation practices in archaeology. However, to date, no complete overview exists on the chemical composition of both fresh and thermally altered bone. Therefore, we aimed (i) to present the chemical composition of fresh bone and (ii) to present an overview of heat-induced chemical changes in bone under both reducing and oxidizing conditions. From the overview, it became clear that some chemical changes occur at a consistent temperature, independent of exposure duration, meaning there is a temperature threshold. However, the occurrence of other chemical changes appeared to be more inter-experimentally variable, and therefore, it is recommended to further investigate these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the role of calculations in shaping what numbers convey in crematorium burden sharing schemes. Two co-existing numerical indicators are present in these schemes, with one speaking to the limitation of environmental risk and another to exchange value generation. The environmental risk indicator emerges from the calculations present within environmental policy discussions, where numbers are measured against the damage of air emissions to the environment. Yet, burden sharing involves the introduction of new calculations that cultivate a second indicator of exchange value generation. These calculations are used to decide on the worth of environmental compliance afforded by emissions credits, correlating numbers with the generation of money and away from a focus on sustaining environmental health. The paper offers an empirically grounded contribution to the politics of the environmental disposal of the dead body by demonstrating how the use of numbers inside of crematorium burden sharing schemes reflects a tension between environmental and market-based values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alkaline hydrolysis is an increasingly popular method of disposing of human corpses, which involves dissolving them into a solution of 95% water and 5% alkali, producing some bone residue and a liquid waste that can be flushed into the sewer system or otherwise hygienically disposed of. Favoured particularly by environmentalists for its perceived ecological advantages over traditional methods of inhumation and cremation, alkaline hydrolysis has been charged by some critics with being insufficiently respectful of the human corpse, and by implication the living human being whose body it once was. Following a discussion of the idea of respect for the dead and its cultural variability, it is argued that alkaline hydrolysis breaches no fundamental principles of respect for the deceased or their remains and that worries on this score are based on misunderstanding or prejudice. The question is raised whether alkaline hydrolysis might nevertheless be considered less respectful to the dead than traditional methods of burial and cremation. Three prima facie reasons in support of this claim are weighed and rejected. It is concluded that there are no sound objections based on considerations of human dignity to the adoption of alkaline hydrolysis as a disposal method for human bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the experiences of tourists visiting a cremation site, an unconventional tourist destination. By analyzing online reviews collected from TripAdvisor, using text mining and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, the study aims to fill the gaps in the literature on tourists' experiences at cremation sites. The study explores the differences in the experiences of Indian domestic tourists and those from other cultural backgrounds. This study applies the views of Urry's gaze theory and Stone's dark tourism classification theory to discuss the tourists' experiences. The results reveal significant differences in the experiences of Indian and international tourists. The emotion of foreign tourists lies with the existential and philosophical dimension, and Indian tourists are more connected with religious and mythological dimensions. The results validate Urry's gaze theory and disagree with Stone's dark tourism classification. This research contributes to the existing knowledge of dark tourism by providing valuable insights into tourists' experiences at unconventional sites. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of location managers understanding the significance of tourists' experiences at sites to create enjoyable tours for domestic and international visitors. The article will benefit casual vacationers, academics, and scholars specializing in dark tourism, travelers??? narratives, online reviews, NLP, and trip organizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Golasecca Celtic Civilization (GCC) developed in the Italian Iron Age, between the 9th and 4th centuries BCE, and is characterized by the predominant use of cremation as a funerary ritual in the Italian area. Reconstructing the steps of the cremation ritual in archaeology is a complex challenge, as many anthropic actions leave only faint traces in cremated remains. Within the funerary rituals of prehistoric and protohistoric Italy, the skull has received particular attention from numerous archaeological cultures and civilizations. The context of via Marconi 2020 (Sesto Calende, Varese, northern Italy) has allowed hinting at this practice also in GCC, through the anthropological analysis of cremated remains found in two different but spatially close tombs. The analysis of the cremated remains identified the selection of some elements of the skull of an adult individual and the post‐cranium of a non‐adult individual in the first tomb, and the presence of only the skull of the non‐adult individual in the second tomb. The possibility of a ritual attention of the GCC reserved for the skull has been proven for the first time thanks to the analysis of these subjects. This work provides new data on funerary ritual behaviors of the GCC, allowing for a better understanding within the Italian and European panorama. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Despite extensive research on the functions and meanings of ritual, the question of ritual efficacy remains a topic of debate. This paper explores how the concept of worlding can contribute to the study of ritual efficacy. Based on theoretical literature and qualitative research into cremation and perinatal loss, it proposes that rituals can be understood as worlding practices characterized by an entanglement of virtuality and actuality. In rituals, individuals frame a subjunctive time-space, playfully speculating with multiple experiential realities (what could be) while being anchored in the present (what is). The paper demonstrates that this intricate entanglement is key to the self-and-world-making quality of rituals and is crucial to understanding their efficacy. Furthermore, it shows that the value of the concept of worlding lies in its emphasis on embodied experiences, the active nature of our being in the world, and the recognition of power dynamics. Ritual worlding enables individuals to navigate the ambiguities that accompany life and death.

The colonial erosion of African traditional and cultural practices continues to dislocate the African identity in different ways. The changes and shifts made to burial practices have simply paved a way for the colonial agenda to bring about more Western ways of doing things, burial rites included. It is important to note that cremation, as another way of burying the dead, is slowly becoming a norm for black people. This paper intends to not only unveil the causes and contestations around cremation burials, but to also seek an African theological response as a way to guide black African culture moving forward.

In high-income countries where eye care is advanced, cornea harvesting is hidden from public view. Here entire eyeball enucleations performed on corpses are done in hospital morgues without mourners' presence. For the last two decades, the traditional public crematorium area next to the Pashupatinath temple at the holy river Bagmati east of Kathmandu, has become a major Nepal Eye Bank site for motivated cornea donations. To be cremated in the premises of the Pashupatinath temple is considered highly auspicious. After families have given their consent, the cremation rituals are briefly interrupted by the Nepal Eye Bank staff, and cornea button excisions are performed in public space. Thus, mourners regularly view and assist during the removal of cornea button tissues from the deceased before the bodies are burned on the open funeral pyres or in the electric crematorium. How is it that Nepali mourners at Pashupati crematorium accept and comply with cornea donation practice? I argue that cornea donation at Pashupati is a collective achievement accomplished by complex socio-material arrangements that bring together various professionals, procedural manuals, legal framework, equipment, medical intervention, the deceased body, and mourners during the cremation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of alcohol on Celtic culture in Europe during the Iron Age. It highlights the role of alcohol, particularly beer and mead, in shaping trade, diplomacy, and cultural geography among the diverse Celtic tribes. The production processes, regional variations, and significance of drinking vessels are also discussed. Alcohol served as more than just a beverage, acting as a medium for international trade, influencing regional relations, and playing a role in religious practices. The study of alcohol in Celtic Europe provides insights into social organization, cultural diffusion, and historical geography, which can be valuable in geography education. [Extracted from the article]

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Phoenician and Carthaginian infant cremation sanctuaries (tophet), attested throughout the central Mediterranean (north Africa, Sardinia and Sicily, and perhaps Malta), up to this point lack convincing archaeological evidence in the Phoenician motherland and the far western Mediterranean. This study collects and re-examines the evidence of its Levantine origin of historical order, (the chronology of the settlements and the almost contemporary installation of tophet precincts in them), epigraphic (the inscription of Nebi Yunis) and literary (biblical testimonies and some Greek and Latin writers). Taken as a whole, this documentation strongly leads us to exclude an explanation of the tophet as a novelty introduced by the migrants, but an ancient traditional institution that derived in all probability from the city of Tyre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article presents the results of a study of the Neolithic burial ground Bolshaya Umytia 100, located in the upper part of the Konda River – the left tributary of the Irtysh River. The burial ground is characterized by biritual mortuary practice, i.e. inhumation and cremation in rectangular-shape burials, oriented NW–SE. The deceased were buried in a stretched position with their heads to the NW, cremated bones – in the center of the pits. The remains were covered with ochre. According to stratigraphy and carbon-14 dating, it was found that the most ancient were the burials of the first grave row. The recorded grave goods include renovated stone tools (adzes, chisel, point, arrowhead, plane tool), as well as unique artefacts – resin tube beads and an item made of a human skull. In contrast, the graves on the periphery of the burial ground with a spatial structure different from that of the central ochre graves, yielded no skeletal remains and grave goods. According to the few finds of Shoushma-type ceramics inside graves and on the ancient surface, the burial ground is dated back to the Middle Neolithic of the VI millennium BC at the Konda River. In terms of the scale and structure of the cemetery, the site is comparable to the large Meso-Neolithic burial grounds of the VIII–VI millennium BC in the northeast of Europe.

The Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground is located on the Bolshoy Oleny Island in the Murmansk region. It was discovered in 1925 and investigated by excavations three times (A.V. Shmidt, N.N. Gurina, V.Ya. Shumkin, respectively). In 1935, during the construction of military facilities, a quarry was built on the site of the burial ground. A significant inventory accompanying about 25 buried, as well as the anthropological materials themselves, collected by the builders during earthworks, considered as lost. During all the years of excavations 32 burials with 40 skeletons have been studied. Many of the buried were placed in a kind of "sarcophagus" in the form of boats, made of boards according to all the rules of shipbuilding technology and covered with a "lid" of the same design. The archaeological material has numerous analogies among the tools and artifacts of a non-utilitarian nature of the Arctic Lapland coastal settlements of the Bronze Age, and some of them in the Ymyyakhtakh culture of Siberia. Anthropological and paleogenetic data indicate that the Oleny Island ancient population, buried in the Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground, do not show similarities neither with the previous residents, nor with the Saami, who replaced them, but find certain correspondences among the inhabitants of the south of West and Northeast Siberia.

People’s ambiguous, ambivalent, non-rational and nonsensical relation towards death is a constant feature throughout the human past. The obvious way of dealing with such a stressful moment in personal and community life is guided by tradition – the well-established system of ways and manners of making spiritual meaning that implicitly answers how to go through this difficult period. From the long-term perspective, burying the deceased in pre-established burial grounds is a rather recent phenomenon. We can trace the intentionally arranged cemeteries as a continuous and prevalent way of treating the deceased in today’s Slovenia for no more than the last three millennia, from the Late Bronze Age onwards. The treatment of the deceased was much more diverse before that. From the earliest discoveries of human remains in the territory of Slovenia in the Mesolithic (8th–7th mill. BC) to the Bronze Age (2nd mill. BC), three different major manifestations of treating the remains of the deceased are documented. The first and most numerous was to expose and/or bury the deceased in the caves. The second was keeping the excarnated predecessors’ remains close to the daily life in the settlements. The third was to bury human remains in cemeteries. However, recent research revealed the fourth way of handling the dead – the immersion of their remains in the waters. Only from the Late Bronze Age onwards does burying all the deceased of a given community in communal cemeteries become the dominant custom.

Questions: During the winter of 2014, an intense drought combined with sub‐zero temperatures resulted in a massive Calluna dieback in Norwegian heathlands. We studied the initial vegetation recovery under two management approaches: natural recovery and prescribed burning. We hypothesized that natural recovery will be slower in more drought‐affected sites, whereas burning will facilitate post‐fire recovery in all sites by effectively removing dead and damaged heath. Both natural recovery and post‐fire succession will be slower in the north. Location: Calluna heath in seven sites spanning an approx. 600‐km latitudinal gradient along the coast of Norway (60.22–65.69° N). Methods: After a natural drought, 10 permanent plots per site were either burnt or left for natural recovery. Vegetation data were recorded annually in 2016 (pre‐fire) and 2017–2019 (post‐fire) reflecting a factorial repeated‐measures design (n = 280). The data were analyzed using mixed‐effects models. Results: Two years after the drought, we observed high but variable Calluna damage and mortality. Over the four years of study, damaged Calluna recovered, whereas dead Calluna showed little recovery. Both the extent of the damage and mortality, as well as the rate of natural recovery, are only weakly related to site climate or environmental factors. Fire efficiently removed dead and damaged Calluna and facilitated post‐fire successional dynamics and recovery in a majority of sites. Conclusions: Extreme winter drought resulted in substantial and often persistent damage and dieback on Calluna along the latitudinal gradient. In sites with high mortality, prescribed burning removed the dead biomass and, in some cases, facilitated vegetation recovery. Traditional heathland management, which uses burning to facilitate all‐year grazing by Old Norse sheep in Atlantic coastal heathlands, can be an efficient tool to mitigate dieback events and more generally to increase resistance to and resilience after extreme drought events in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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