Complex mortuary treatment of a Corded Ware Culture individual from the Eastern Baltic: A case study of a secondary deposit in Sope, Estonia

We present an individual biography of an adult woman from the 3rd millennium BC from the Eastern Baltic. Being a representative of a Corded Ware Culture she is considered one of the first documented cases carrying the early plague bacteria, Yersina pestis. The appearance, life, and death of this individual from Sope, NE Estonia, is provided through an application of a range of osteological and biomolecular analyses. The mortuary practices that accompanied her death are revealed through post-excavation archaeothanatological analysis. The position of bones within the grave indicates that her remains were handled differently from the known contemporary Corded Ware Culture inhumations. The mortuary treatment consisted of at least two phases that resulted in an imitation of a ‘proper’ flexed burial. Probably, the reburial of bones was undertaken during the Corded Ware period.