Messing with the dead: post-depositional manipulations of burials and bodies in the South Scandinavian Stone Age

Abstract

This paper concerns post-depositional manipulations of burials at two Stone Age sites in Southern Sweden: the Late Mesolithic Skateholm and Middle Neolithic Ajvide. A distinction is made between non-aggressive and aggressive manipulations of graves and dead bodies. Fine-grained horizontal stratigraphies make it possible to associate each category with different phases of occupation. It is suggested that aggressive manipulations are generally the result of social stress during periods of hybridisation between different groups and traditions.