Homines, Funera, Astra 3-4: The Multiple Faces of Death and Burial: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Funerary Anthropology, ‘1 Decembrie 1918’ University (Alba Iulia, Romania)

The third volume of the Homines, Funera, Astra series gathers works presented at the third and fourth editions of the International Symposium on Funerary Archaeology: Death and Fire in Ancient Times (15–18 September 2013), and Time and Cause of Death from Prehistory to the Middle Ages (21–23 September 2014), both held at the ‘1 Decembrie 1918’ University in Alba Iulia, Romania. The contributions focus on two central topics regarding past funerary behaviour in Central and South-Eastern Europe: cremation, and cause and time of death. As in previous volumes, interdisciplinarity is a key feature. The study of archaeological contexts through 14C dating and Bayesian modelling, osteological studies including palaeopathologies, and epigraphic and numismatic evidence were all taken into account to establish the various causes of death and/or the moment these tragic events took place. The present volume includes 13 studies, six of which are dedicated to prehistoric funerary practices – dating to the Neolithic and Eneolithic periods (four studies), Bronze Age (one study) and Iron Age (one study). Three more papers are focused on the Roman Age, while the volume is completed with four papers on the Medieval period, overall providing a wealth of new information on funerary behaviour in this part of Europe.

Table of Contents:
Foreword ; Neolithic and the sacred fire – Sanda Băcueţ Crişan and Corina Bejinariu ; Burned bones from the Late Neolithic Hamangia cemetery from Cernavodă, Romania – Raluca Kogălniceanu and Angela Simalcsik ; The times of their death – question of contemporaneity in burials from a Late Neolithic settlement in Polgár– Csőszhalom (NE Hungary) – Alexandra Anders and Zsuzsanna Siklósi ; A ditch in time: A bioarchaeological analysis of the human skeletal remains discovered at Alba Iulia – Lumea Nouă (Romania) – Mihai Gligor, Kirsty McLeod, Ana Fetcu and Călin Şuteu ; Landscape of the living and landscape of the dead. Long barrows: fire in the mortuary practices of Funnel Beaker culture communities in the Polish Lowland – Andrzej Pelisiak ; Early Iron Age burials at Gelmar (Hunedoara County, Romania) – Gabriel Bălan, Adrian Bolog, Cristian Dima, Silviu Popa, Daniel Tentiş and Andrei Soficaru ; Mors immatura. The causes of death in inscriptions from the Roman Empire – Alexander Rubel ; The critical years of life: Censorinus on the right time of death – Kai Brodersen ; Osteoarchaeological study of cremation burials from the Roman period necropolis of Zadar: taphonomy, demography and pathology – Mario Novak and Smiljan Gluščević ; Meeting a medieval community of Bizere Monastery: lifestyle, occupation and nutritional status – Luminița Andreica-Szilágyi ; Disappearance of grave goods: changes in burial practices in 14th century Ivanec, Croatia – Juraj Belaj and Filomena Sirovica ; Can the position of the forearms serve as a dating determinant in medieval and early modern cemeteries on the territory of the northern Croatia? – Siniša Krznar ; Coin finds at Crkvari – Saint Lawrence Church site (northern Croatia) as terminus ante quem non for funerary features – Tatjana Tkalčec