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Abstract
This paper focuses on how the human body, and the dead body in particular, was used to create social categories and identities in prehistoric Cyprus. Specifically, it explores how a particular condition, such as death, was integrated into social processes, and how the treatment of dead bodies both created and reinforced social categories and identities. The material the paper focuses on is the mortuary evidence from Chalcolithic Cyprus (3800–2300 bc). In particular, it argues that the extensive, intentional manipulation of dead bodies and human remains visible in Cypriot Chalcolithic cemeteries was aimed at integrating the individual to communal, collective wholes on the occasion of death and during the time period that followed.
Cet article porte sur la façon dont le corps humain, et plus particulièrement le cadavre, était utilisé pour créer des catégories et identités sociales en Chypre préhistorique. Plus précisément, il examine comment une condition particulière comme la mort fût intégrée dans des processus sociaux, et comment le traitement des cadavres créait et renforçait en même temps des catégories et identités sociales. Les preuves matérielles sur lesquelles cet article se base sont les maisons mortuaires en Chypre chalcolithique. On soutient notamment que la manipulation extensive et intentionnelle des cadavres et restes humains comme on l'observe dans les cimetières du Chalcolithique chypriote, avait pour but d'intégrer l'individu à des ensembles communautaires et collectifs à l'occasion d'un décès et pendant la période consécutive. Translation by Isabelle Gerges.
Dieser Beitrag untersucht, wie der menschliche Körper—und insbesondere der eines Verstorbenen—dazu genutzt wurde, soziale Kategorien und Identitäten im prähistorischen Zypern zu schaffen. Insbesondere betrachtet er, wie ein bestimmter Zustand, wie z. B. der Tod, in soziale Prozesse eingebettet war und wie die Behandlung des toten Körpers soziale Kategorien und Identitäten schuf und auch vertiefte. Das Ausgangsmaterial des Artikels umfasst menschliche Überreste des kupferzeitlichen Zypern. Insbesondere wird betont, dass die umfassende und intentionelle Manipulation des toten Körpers und menschlicher Überreste, die auf chalkolithischen Nekropolen Zyperns beobachtet werden können, darauf hinzielte, das Individuum anlässlich des Todes und der nachfolgenden Zeit in die kommunale, kollektive Gesamtheit einzubeziehen. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Prof. Edgar Peltenburg, the director of the Lemba Archaeological Research Centre and excavation director of the Chalcolithic sites referred to here, for the invitation to excavate and analyse the Souskiou-Laona human remains, as well as for access to the rest of the human remains discussed. I gratefully acknowledge the permission given to me by Prof. Edgar Peltenburg, as the Director of the Souskiou-Laona Project, to publish human remains and specific photographs from specific Souskiou-Laona tombs, and the plan in Figure 4, in advance of the final publication of the site. Further, I would like to thank Dr Lindy Crewe, in charge of the excavation of the Souskiou-Laona cemetery, for her collaborative spirit, and permission to modify the site plan in Figure 4 from the original prepared by her. Thanks are also due to my students, too numerous to mention by name here, who over the years have contributed to the excavation, cleaning, and inventory of the human remains discussed. I am grateful to colleagues who have commented on drafts of this paper, the anonymous reviewers, and the editor, whose comments greatly improved the paper—any mistakes that remain are mine. Different parts of research contributing to this paper have received funding and/or support in kind from the following bodies and institutions, whose support is gratefully acknowledged: The Oskar Huttunen Foundation, The Dorothy Garrod Fund (Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge), The University of Newcastle Fieldwork Fund, The Cyprus Institute.