Mortuary practices in Late Bronze Age Cyprus: Demographic and taphonomic insights from two tombs in Limassol

Abstract

This paper explores mortuary practices of the Late Bronze Age (Late Cypriot), focusing on the demographic and taphonomic analysis of human skeletal remains discovered in two tombs in Limassol, Cyprus. These tombs featured multiple burials and a variety of grave goods that suggest an elite status for the deceased. The results supported inclusive burial practices, whereby all age groups and both sexes shared the burial space. Although tentative, these results also appear to support that infants and young children were initially buried in separate parts of the chamber tombs before being relocated within the tomb. In contrast, older children and adolescents received the same treatment as adults, sometimes being secondarily relocated inside the tombs and others left undisturbed. Information from the excavation diaries shows the repeated use of the tombs and the interaction between the deceased and the living in the form of piling the bodies from earlier interments to make room for new ones, as well as arranging selected crania in certain ways. However, the taphonomic study has not identified any other evidence of intentional post-mortem body manipulation. In addition, the good representation of all skeletal elements, which largely matches anticipated patterns from undisturbed contexts, supports that neither were bodies and/or body parts removed from the tomb after their initial burial, nor were bodies/body parts initially deposited elsewhere being transported into these tombs. The observed secondary treatment of the bodies inside the chamber tombs reveals a complex relationship between the living and the dead, fostering a connection with the ancestors and possibly highlighting a lineage-based collective identity. Future research of the grave goods and additional bioarchaeological parameters (diet, mechanical and physiological stress, biological kinship), coupled with a refined dating of the different strata of each tomb, should yield further important insights.