Perspektiv på postkrematoriska handlingar under yngre bronsålder – äldre järnålder

Abstract

This study examines cremation graves in Västra Götaland, focusing on the chaîne opératoire of actions that both preceded and followed the deposition of burnt human remains, and on how these practices were materialized through ritual performance over time. A substantial number of graves with well-preserved contexts have been analysed, and their chronology established through ¹⁴C dating of bones, cereals, or charcoal. The burial record has been divided into two analytical categories: graves in which cremated remains have been deposited together with pyre debris, and graves lacking said debris. This distinction, when considered alongside the quantity of bone recovered, is crucial for understanding post-cremation practices and transformations in mortuary ritual strategies.

In contrast to comparable material from Funen, Denmark, the West Swedish evidence does not indicate abrupt shifts between these burial categories. Instead, the Pre- Roman Iron Age emerges as the period of greatest variability in funerary traditions, pointing towards a more permissive and less hierarchical configuration of ritual norms. Such variation can be approached through ritual performance theory, where funerary practice is seen as a dynamic negotiation of meaning, identity, and authority. The evidence suggests that cremation rites functioned as arenas of ritual agency in which participants enacted and reconfigured social memory, cosmological order, and relational identities.

The analysis further highlights the significance of the size of bone assemblages, the spatial and symbolic role of the pyre site, and the dramaturgy of cremation. These elements are discussed in relation to the ritualization of mortuary practice. From the perspective of materiality and relational ontology, the cremation process is understood as an entanglement of human and non-human actors – bodies, fire, substances, and places – that co-produced meaning within mortuary practice.