El ritual de la incineración durante el Bronce Final-Hierro en el conjunto de Beaskinarte (Sierra de Aralar, Gipuzkoa)

Abstract

This article is about three structures that we discovered and excavated in Beaskinarte (Aralar mountain range, Gipuzkoa). One of them is a cremation tomb with a stele, before which there was a bone deposit. The nearest places to the stele were altered, probably due to attempts during the Middle Ages to check if it was a haustarri –shieling marking stone. Cremated bones (approximately 100 gr) were deposited on a small loculus excavated in the bedrock. Next to the deposit there were found fragment of four ceramic vessels, out of context, two of which present only one fragment. One of the vessels is apparently without any decoration and the other three are decorated (with grooved motives, with triangular excised themes; and with a cordon decorated with fingernail impressions). The recovered charcoals fragments were dated to Late Bronze Age (BP 2770±30). This new cremation tomb is a sign of the possible complexity of the funerary practices of these mountain areas, up to now represented only by the baratze or stone circles, in their different varieties, or the occasionally reuse of previous funerary monuments –cists–. .