Assembling ancestors: the manipulation of Neolithic and Gallo-Roman skeletal remains at Pommerœul, Belgium

Veselka, Barbara;Reich, David;Capuzzo, Giacomo;Olalde, Iñigo;Cattelain, Laureline;et.al.
(2024) Antiquity — Vol. 98, n° 402, p. 1576-1591 (2024)

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Authors
  • Veselka, Barbaraorcid-logoArchaeology, Environmental Changes & Geochemistry Research Group, Department of Art Sciences and Archaeology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
    Author
  • Reich, Davidorcid-logoDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Boston, USA Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, USA Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA
    Author
  • Capuzzo, Giacomoorcid-logoArchaeology, Environmental Changes & Geochemistry Research Group, Department of Art Sciences and Archaeology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Department of Humanities, University of Trento, Italy
    Author
  • Olalde, Iñigoorcid-logoDepartment of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA BIOMICs Research Group, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
    Author
  • Cattelain, Laurelineorcid-logoHALMA-UMR 8164, Université de Lille, France - Cedarc/Musée du Malgré-Tout, Viroinval, Belgium
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Abstract
Post-mortem manipulation of human bodies, including the commingling of multiple individuals, is attested throughout the past. More rarely, the bones of different individuals are assembled to create a single ‘individual’ for burial. Rarer still are composite individuals with skeletal elements separated by hundreds or even thousands of years. Here, the authors report an isolated inhumation within a Gallo-Roman-period cremation cemetery at Pommerœul, Belgium. Assumed to be Roman, radiocarbon determinations show the burial is Late Neolithic—with a Roman-period cranium. Bioarchaeological analyses also reveal the inclusion of multiple Neolithic individuals of various ages and dates. The burial is explained as a composite Neolithic burial that was reworked 2500 years later with the addition of a new cranium and grave goods.
Affiliations
  • Université de Lille, FranceHALMA-UMR 8164

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Veselka, B., Reich, D., Capuzzo, G., Olalde, I., Callan, K., Zalzala, F., Altena, E., Goffette, Q., Ringbauer, H., van der Velde, H., Polet, C., Toussaint, M., Snoeck, C., & Cattelain, L. (2024). Assembling ancestors: the manipulation of Neolithic and Gallo-Roman skeletal remains at Pommerœul, Belgium. Antiquity, 98(402), 1576-1591. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.158 (Original work published 2024)