Geoarchaeology of Ancient Burials in their Environment

The richest archive of archaeological and environmental information in any site is not the artifacts or the buildings, but rather the soil and sediment which cover them.

The sediment matrix of ancient cemeteries is a complex archive of socio-cultural and environmental change, an archive which is often overlooked by researchers.

GRABEn employs a diverse methodological and theoretical toolkit to reconstruct burial traditions from sites in Greece, Denmark, and Norway.

The proposed project employs a diverse toolkit of geoarchaeological techniques including: elemental and mineralogical analysis (via X-Ray Fluorescence, Fourier Transform Infrared Analysis) microscopic analysis (Thin Section Soil Micromorphology and Scanning Electron Microscope) and luminescence profiling (Portable Optically and Infrared Stimulated Luminescence) to reconstruct the soil environment of graves, and the sequence of human actions and natural processes which created them.

GRABEn will address the formation of cemetries at three levels: the planning, construction, and use of the cemetery itself, the excavation and use of the graves themselves, and the soil environment of the graves and how it impacts the preservation of skeletal remains and important biomolecular evidence such as DNA and isotopes.

Importantly, GRABEn will address a wide variety of burials including stone-lined and soil pits, burials with and without a coffin, historic and prehistoric (Bronze Age), and Christian and pre-Christian.

This novel and innovative project encompasses both cooler wetter climates and warmer drier climates, allowing for better observation of how variations in the speed of decay affet the burial processes and the preservation of the burial.

This data will be used to better understand variations in community practices of burying the deceased and re-using the graves, as well as the soil conditions of the cemetery and how they impact the preservation of the remains and other evidence of funerary practice.