Perspektiv på postkrematoriska handlingar under yngre bronsålder – äldre järnålder

Abstract

The ritual actions and their meaning in connection with the cremation are clearly different from the actions at the grave site. The cremation and the events at the pyre were likely a sensitive event that concerned a larger audience. Here there is also a proximity in time from the time an individual dies until the body has to be taken care of, something that does not necessarily have to be the case with regards to the rituals at the burial site. In the majority of archaeological investigations of grave sites, the material traces show no signs that the sites were used particularly frequently. This also applies when, based on dating documents, we know that the site was visited for several centuries. If you add that we generally only find a few bones in the cremation graves and that almost half of all grave-like structures are completely devoid of bones, you can assume that the rituals that were performed here fulfilled other needs, needs that should not be confused with the burial rituals of our time.
In the study, the burial process is problematized based on the material remains at the burial site. What represent the amount of burned bones, what choices were available, when and where the ritualization takes place?