Ship formed monuments from the Late Bronze Age on the island of Öland, southeast Sweden, have never been thoroughly dealt with in previous research, despite the fact that the region is suggested to have had a key-role in maritime trade networks. This thesis aims to address the ship formed monuments on Öland in relationship to the monuments in northern Småland and the island of Gotland. My goal is to discuss how the ship symbolism was practised during the Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia from a new perspective. I also aim to shed new light on the Bronze Age culture on Öland. I show that the ship formed monuments on Öland mark important maritime routes in the landscape leading to the core areas in the Late Bronze Age. These routes are not only linked to the trade which took place, but also to the landscape it self. I argue that the maritime movement in the landscape has helped to create and re-create the cosmology. Thus, the symbolic and practical function of the ship is tied together. Furthermore, I show that the memory connected to a mythological past has played a crucial role in the rituals leading up to the building of the monument. By integrating a circular view of time while interpreting the rituals instead of a linear one, I argue that this can be understood as a way of transforming the soul for rebirth.

Mounds of fire-cracked stones is a typical Bronze Age monument for the region around lake Mälaren. They are usually, because of their content, interpreted as piles of rubbish. But as they often have kerbs, are situated on cemeteries and sometimes contain human bones, the traditional interpretation is not fully satisfactory. The main focus of this essay is on the mounds of fire-cracked stones which contain human bones in the region north of lake Mälaren. With a detailed study of these, and a comparison with those without human bones, my aim is to get closer to an explanation why the human bones were deposited. The essay consist of a comp­ilation  of 98 excavated mounds and a database with various information gathered from excavation reports and archive documents. With different kinds of osteological aspects taken in consideration, the study shows that human bones have been found in about a third of the mounds. The mounds with human bones more often have kerbs. The same types of artefacts are found both in mounds with and without human bones. A significant difference is that the mounds with human bones contain more categories of artefacts and sometimes even bronze. The study also shows that there is nothing that indicates that the bones were deposited after the primary use of the mound. The human bones could therefore had been deposited contemporary to the “rubbish”. To understand this phenomenon I strongly believe that the mounds no longer only can be interpreted as heaps of garbage.

Tthis presented work is focused on a issue of atypical burials in medieval Bohemia. There are groups of people and the reasons which they led a community to such an action at that time. This work contains a summary of selected sites with the mentioned specific graves. Analysis and evaluation of character and significance of atypical burials in a medieval community is a part of this work.

In this paper, I analyze body position and orientation based on material from nine grave fields belonging to the Pitted ware culture (3300-2400 BC) on Gotland, Sweden. The archeological sites consist of Ajvide, Fridtorp, Grausne, Gullrum, Hemmor, Ire, Visby, Västerbjers and Västerbys. The aim of the thesis is to generate information, through the use of Correspondence Analysis, about the individuals and similarities and differences in an attempt to discern possible structures in ritual practice. The subject of the thesis is discussed with a focus on ritual based on Pierre Bourdieu's (1977) theories relating to practice and habitus. The analysis shows that specific body positions were preferred, which expressed minor variations between the archaeological sites. At the same time, it was possible to discern specific practices that were more frequent in certain areas. The dead were most often arranged either in a supine position or on their sides with knees straight or flexed, in a crouched position. The placement of the body in flexed position expressed a distinct differentiation linked to the degree of contraction of the knee- and hip joint, which show that there existed guidelines or standards in the practice of body position. The result also indicated age and gender differentiations expressed through skeletal position and orientation, which were expressed differently within some of the populations. The study has identified both regional and local patterns in ritual practice in relation to body position and orientation. Possible interpretations relating to similarities and differences in the material are further discussed in the thesis in order to identify a ritual context.

Fishtail Points at Quebrada Santa María and the Antiquity of the Man in South AmericaIn light of new discoveries and theoretical proposals, the discovery of the first sites containing evidence of fish tail points at Quebrada Santa María, Chicama valley, northern Perú, contributes with new information that answers more than one of the questions concerning the first inhabitants of South America. / El descubrimiento de los primeros sitios con evidencias de la tradición de puntas de proyectil en cola de pescado en Quebrada Santa María, valle de Chicama, norte del Perú, por las caracteristicas de hallazgos, y a la luz de los nuevos descubrimientos y propuestas teóricas, plantea la posibilidad de contribuir con nuevos datos para dar respuesta a más de una de las interrogantes que tenemos sobre los primeros habitantes en Sudamérica.

Au sein du vaste phénomène pan-européen de l’émergence de nombreuses sépultures collectives apparaissent à partir de la deuxième moitié du 4e millénaire av. J.-C. des structures dites allées sépulcrales dans deux régions distinctes, notamment en Hesse et Westphalie, dans le Bassin parisien et avec de faibles effectifs en Belgique et aux Pays-Bas. Ces caveaux de matériaux diverses et de forme rectangulaire sont organisés en une antichambre courte réservée au dépôt de mobiliers collectifs et en une vaste chambre funéraire réservée aux dépôts successifs de nombreux défunts. Les similitudes architecturales entre les structures de ces deux aires géographiques furent reconnues dès le 20ème siècle et la nature de leurs liens a été dès lors interrogée à partir de perspectives diffusionnistes. La trajectoire d’influences unilinéaires varia au cours du temps en fonction du progrès des méthodes et de la mise en œuvre de datations par le radiocarbone. Ce travail s’est penché une fois de plus sur cette question, en effectuant une analyse comparative à deux niveaux: une comparaison empirique de toutes les tombes recensées afin de vérifier en quoi les structures collectives correspondent effectivement à un stéréotype architectural et afin de saisir les variations potentielles entre elles sur le plan régional, et d’autre part une comparaison qualitative de trois Galeriegräber et six allées sépulcrales afin de déceler à quel degré leurs modes de fonctionnement convergent ou diffèrent en fonction d’aspects architecturaux distincts et régionaux. Ce travail interroge enfin la manière dont on peut considérer ces tombes comme les vestiges d’une idéologie partagée de la mort. / Amidst the pan-European phenomenon of the rise of numerous collective burials in the second half of the 4th millennium BC appear so-called gallery graves in two distinct regions, notably in Hessia and Westphalia, in the Paris Basin, and in scarce numbers also in Belgium and the Netherlands. These collective burial vaults of diverse construction materials and of rectangular shape are organised in a short antechamber reserved to the deposit of collective grave good assemblages and in a long chamber sheltering numerous deceased individuals, which were deposited successively. The similarities of the structures of both main study regions in terms of architecture were already noted since the 20th century and the nature of the ties binding latter have since then been interrogated in the line of diffusionist approaches. The resulting presumptions of the direction of unilinear diffusionist processes changed according to the progress of dating methods and processing of radiocarbon samples. With the present research work, the issue was revived anew, and this time via a twofold comparative analysis: A first, empirical comparative analysis is destined to check at what level the collective structures correspond to a structural stereotype and to inform us in terms of potentially regional variations. A second, qualitative comparison included three Galeriegräber and six allées sépulcrales in order to determine to what degree their uses conferred or differed according to distinct architectural and regional features. The resulting observations are finally argued jointly concerning to what extent we finally can consider them the remains of a shared ideology of death.

In two burials found in the archaeological site of Justin were highlighted human subjects and animals interred, concomitantly, in the mortuary context of prehistoric culture of the Xingó region, between the states of Sergipe and Alagoas. After the archaeological intervention, the skeletons remained in plaster cocoons until the time to be studied. In the second half of the 1990s there was an application of a consolidating substance for morphological preservation of skeletons 119 and 166, whose burials have indicated the presence of animals probably interred in human graves on purpose. This fauna archaeological found in the funerary context of past groups, showed that both the individual 119, which evidenced a ferret (Galictis cuja), as the 166, found with a bird, possibly prey, associated, offered evidence linked funeral activities the symbolic activities, in other words, that culture had a sense of abstractly fauna in which individuals could hold a different social status and the animals would have functions such as psychopomp. / Em dois enterramentos encontrados no sítio arqueológico do Justino foram evidenciados indivíduos humanos e animais inumados, concomitantemente, no contexto mortuário de cultura pré-histórica da região de Xingó, entre os Estados de Sergipe e Alagoas. Após a intervenção arqueológica, os esqueletos permaneceram em casulos de gesso até o momento de serem estudados. Na segunda metade da década de 1990 houve uma aplicação de uma substância consolidante para conservação morfológica dos esqueletos 119 e 166, cujos enterramentos indicaram a presença de animais provavelmente inumados em sepulturas humanas de forma proposital. Essa arqueofauna, encontrada no contexto funerário dos grupos pretéritos, demonstrava que tanto o indivíduo 119, no qual foi evidenciado um furão (Galictis cuja), quanto o 166, encontrado com uma ave, possivelmente de rapina, associada, ofereciam indícios de atividades fúnebres ligadas a atividades simbólicas, ou seja, essa cultura tinha uma percepção da fauna de forma abstrata na qual os indivíduos poderiam deter um status social diferenciado e os animais teriam funções como a de psicopompo.

Le présent travail aborde l'architecture domestique de la côte syrienne à l'âge du Bronze récent. L’architecture domestique a certes déjà donné lieu à de nombreux travaux sur les sites côtiers, mais notre étude vise à réétudier entièrement l’importante documentation que compte cette région, objet de nombreux travaux archéologiques, notamment ces dernières années. Nous avons travaillé sur les constructions domestiques au sens large du terme : les maisons en elles-mêmes, ainsi que les installations domestiques, que l’on pourrait qualifier de secondaires, telles que certains espaces de travail et lieux de stockage (lorsque ceux-ci sont directement rattachés aux habitations). Nous avons aussi étudié en profondeur la question des installations sanitaires, éléments complémentaires dans la composition architecturale. Notre travail s’est penché aussi sur les tombes qui constituaient en effet un élément architectural intégré à la maison.Nous avons comparé les maisons de la côte syrienne datant du Bronze récent afin de mettre en évidence les analogies et les différences existant dans la construction de ces bâtiments. Nous les avons comparés avec certains bâtiments situés sur l’Euphrate. L’objectif de ces comparaisons était aussi de mettre au jour l’image propre des maisons des sites de la côte syrienne au regard des maisons de la même période, mais construites dans d’autres régions. / This research addresses the domestic architecture of the Syrian Coast during the Late Bronze Age. This subject has already given many scientific works about numerous archaeological sites. Our study aims at a full revaluation of the considerable literature about this area which has been the subject of many archaeological works, particularly during the last years.We have studied the domestic buildings, in the broad sense of the terms: houses, but also household installations that someone would describe as side effects, such as workings areas and stocking places (when they are completely united with the dwelling houses). We have deeply studied the matter of the sanitary appliances which are additional complement in the constructions. Our study has also examined the burials: they are architectural pieces of family houses.In our study we have tried comparison with the various houses of the Syrian Coast in the Late Bronze Age in order to give prominence to the analogies and differences which appear in the erections of private. We have also compared these buildings with those found on the Euphrate River. The subject of these comparisons was to update the specific characteristics of the houses of the Syrian Coast when you compare them with private houses of the same period, but in other areas.

Nos travaux ont un double objectif : (1) analyser conjointement les indicateurs afin de qualifier la relation entre leurs développements d’après les sollicitations fonctionnelles ; (2) étudier les modes d’exécution des activités d’un ensemble funéraire collectif vauclusien, l’hypogée des Boileau. Nous avons élargi cette étude à l’échelle départementale avec quatre gisements funéraires : les hypogées du Capitaine et de Roaix et le dolmen de l’Ubac. Le but est d’appréhender l’homogénéité ou la spécificité des comportements entre sujets et séries grâce aux différents indicateurs sur la majorité des os longs. L’étude des adaptations structurales a bénéficié de l’approche tomographique. Aucune relation directement due aux sollicitations n’a été mise en évidence entre les indicateurs.Les activités des sujets de l’hypogée des Boileau sont bilatérales et la pratique d’activités spécialisées n’a pas été mise en évidence. Les femmes ont un investissement physique similaire à celui des hommes pour le membre supérieur avec toutefois quelques différences comportementales. Les hommes sont plus mobiles et la posture récurrente du membre inférieur est différente par rapport aux femmes. La posture accroupie a été observée chez les deux sexes. Nous proposons l’existence d’une division sexuelle des tâches.La comparaison inter-échantillon indique une homogénéité comportementale avec quelques nuances selon les sites concernant principalement la posture du membre inférieur et les muscles sollicités du membre supérieur. Nos travaux apportent un nouvel éclairage sur les indicateurs de l’activité et le comportement des populations du Néolithique final. / Our work has two aims. First, the joint analysis of the indicators in order to qualify the relationship between their developments based on the mechanical loads. Then, the study of the behavioral patterns of one collective funeral deposit in Vaucluse: the hypogeum of Boileau. Then, we expand the study at the departmental scale while comparing four funeral deposits: the Capitaine and Roaix hypogeums and the dolmen of the Ubac. The goal is to apprehend the homogeneity or the specificity of behaviors between subjects and samples through the various indicators thanks to the long bones. No relationship due to mechanical loads aroused between the indicators. Their developments are not influenced by the presence of another one and do not infer it. Indicators bring complementary information on a global skeleton or a smaller scale.The activities of the Boileau hypogeum subjects are bilateral and specialized activities is difficult to prove. Males have a physical investment equal to females for the upper limb with a few behavioral differences. Men are more mobile and their recurring postural mode for the lower limb is different. The squatting posture is common for both sexes. We propose a sexual division of labor.Inter-samples stressed a behavioral uniformity with a few nuances depending of the samples along the postural mode of the lower limb and the solicited muscles of the upper limb. The terrain has no real impact on the robusticity of the lower limb for all the samples. The artifacts in the burials cannot be used to reconstruct the behavioral patterns.Our work shed light on occupational markers and the data behavioral patterns of late Neolithic populations.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the pins from Bunge church, in order to investigate how what they can tell us about the burials inside the church. During the post medieval and early modern period pins were used to fasten the burial shrouds, and to stabilize the fabric on the inside of the coffin lids. Therefore these pins appear in grave contexts, and thus offer possibilities for interpretation of burials. The pins have been ordered according to the shape of the needlehead. A total of 697 pins have been analysed, amongst which four main pin types have been detected. The next step in the study was a chorological study where the pins positions were analysed in comparison to other finds such as craniums and coffin handles. Comparisons were also made with the placement of wall paintings, furnishings and the natural light intake in the church. The spatiality and dating of the pins have been used for the interpretation of the graves temporal and physical placement.