Trapezoid Structures from the Transition of the Younger to the Late Neolithic Time Period at Nördlingen, Southern Germany: Evidence for Collective Burial Sites?
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Death is a timeless, inevitable fact of human biology and the only explanation for the absence of burials from a distinct archaeological time period is therefore most likely caused by a low visibility due to the burial mode in combination with taphonomic processes. In respect of the favourable soils and the archaeological record piled up by decades of research, the absence of burials from the second half of the 4th millennium BC in the Nördlinger Ries area is remarkable but in line with the general scarce burial evidence from this time period in Southern Germany. Here we present a group of trapezoid structures discovered in the alluvial plain of the Eger valley near Nördlingen. Based on cremated human bones found in one of these structures we suggest the structures to have been collective burial chambers. Both the function and layout strongly resemble comparable grave chambers in Southwest Germany and may indicate that the Ries area was part of a wider tradition of non-megalithic burial structures.
Source: Journal of neolithic archaelogy
DOI: 10.12766/jna.2025.2
Institution: University of Tübingen
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7082245199
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: