Human Skeletons, Grave Goods and Textual Sources: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Southwestern Switzerland’s Late Iron Age Communities through the Study of their Funerary Rites

Abstract

Abstract This paper’s primary focus is the investigation of Late Iron Age funeral practices. This is carried out by means of a multidisciplinary study of two necropolises, Randogne – Bluche and Sion – Parking des Remparts, which are located in southwestern Switzerland. The overall purpose of this paper is to enhance the socio-cultural understanding of this period through an integrated approach that combines the fields of bioanthropology, archaeology and ancient cultural history. Consequently, sex, age, pathologies and biological proximity first were assessed for the individuals found in the two studied necropolises. Next, data from these necropolises was contrasted with the archaeological and cultural environment from the surrounding regions. Finally, a combined perspective was developed in order to consider and combine the data collected through these different approaches. The obtained results appear to point to a regional particularism present in southwestern Switzerland’s funerary practices during the Late Iron Age. However, cultural influences from both northern and southern neighbouring regions can be identified in southwestern Switzerland’s funerary rites and material productions, which sheds light on the innerworkings of the Celtic communities populating this region.