The Archaeology of Cremation

Burned Human Remains in Funerary Studies

Tim Thompson

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781782978497
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Human societies have disposed of their dead in a variety of ways. However, while considerable attention has been paid to bodies that were buried, comparatively little work has been devoted to understanding the nature of cremated remains, despite their visibility through time. It has been argued that this is the result of decades of misunderstanding regarding the potential information that this material holds, combined with properties that make burned bone inherently difficult to analyse. As such, there is a considerable body of knowledge on the concepts and practices of inhumation yet our understanding of cremation ritual and practice is by comparison, woefully inadequate.
This timely volume therefore draws together the inventive methodology that has been developed for this material and combines it with a fuller interpretation of the archaeological funerary context. It demonstrates how an innovative methodology, when applied to a challenging material, can produce new and exciting interpretations of archaeological sites and funerary contexts.The reader is introduced to the nature of burned human remains and the destructive effect that fire can have on the body. Subsequent chapters describe important cremation practices and sites from around the world and from the Neolithic period to the modern day. By emphasising the need for a robust methodology combined with a nuanced interpretation, it is possible to begin to appreciate the significance and wide-spread adoption of this practice of dealing with the dead.

Chapter 1

Fire and the body: Fire and the people

Tim Thompson

Introduction

For many years, the study of cremated bone has been seen as less important and worthwhile than the study of unburned human remains. Williams (2008), in the excellent Schmidt and Symes edited volume The Analysis of Burned Human Remains, has argued that human remains from cremation contexts were viewed as being peripheral to other less fragmented bodies, such as unburned remains, mummies and bog bodies. He concluded that “cremation is assumed to be ‘poor’ archaeological data” (ibid., 240), and that there has been an over-emphasis on the destructive nature of cremation. The reasons for this marginalisation focussed on the perceived lack of information that this material can present combined with the challenging nature of actually analysing it. Unfortunately this defeatist view within archaeology fails to recognise the “rich evidence provided by the artefacts, contexts, monuments and landscapes” (ibid.) associated with the act and process of cremation. We must remember that “context is all important: burned human remains do not just simply occur in a vacuum but are, rather, mostly the result of human agency” (Thompson 2009, 296). Cremation is therefore not simply burning a body – there are myriad stages, technologies and actions involved, which can vary between communities and across time, resulting in a practice that can be a dominant or exceptional rite. The study of cremation therefore “offers insights into life and the living” (Kong 2012, 416). In addition, this lack of focus on burned remains means that our understanding of the nature of heat-induced change of bone itself is still lacking. This complex situation demands that the topic requires its own theoretical framework, beyond simple reference to the burial of unburned bodies – an archaeology of cremation. This book demonstrates that the study of cremation and its associated material culture is well underway, and combined with new intellectual frameworks, is offering interesting and innovative interpretations of the past.

Our ability to provide full and rounded interpretations of cremations from the past relies upon the quality and quantity of our research – and we can see that this underpinning research has undergone thematic changes over the past few decades. Table 1.1 displays the general thematic trends in this area. As can be seen, initial case studies and isolated preliminary studies developed into more thorough experimental work, although arguably at the expense of the surrounding funerary context. This is perhaps understandable since so little has been fully understood about heat-induced changes in the skeleton. Over the past few years, the majority of publications have focussed on the increasingly analytical study of bone microstructure, with the incorporation of progressively more complex methodologies to further understand the physical and chemical changes to the bone itself and relate these back to the process of burning (Table 1.1). Yet subsequent use of this information to interpret archaeological contexts is rare. That is not to say that it is not happening, as will be explored further below. Nonetheless, we are still largely in the situation where we understand the heat-induced changes in bone in much greater detail and depth, and have a larger portfolio of tools to study this material, but have advanced our understand of the importance and significance of the act of cremation by only a little.

In the October of 2009, archaeologists at Cardiff University hosted the ‘Ancient Cremations Workshop: Ancient Cremation – reigniting the debate’ conference. This marked the first time that such a conference had been held focussing solely on the study and interpretation of cremated bone and cremation contexts. It was a useful event for galvanising those interested in this area – indeed, some of those present and giving papers in Cardiff have also contributed to this volume. In the years since that workshop there has been an increase in the work undertaken on cremated material and as a result the discipline more widely is seeing the potential value of these remains. As such, the cremated remains and associated material from a range of new areas and contexts are being studied. These are very positive developments for the study of ancient cremations, but it was still felt that a single volume was needed to draw together current thought on their study of cremations and their contribution to our understanding of the funerary context, and past societies more broadly.

Table 1.1: General themes of research with burned bone.

Table 1.2: Cremated bone terminology (adapted from Thompson 2009).

Term	Definition
Cremation	The act and process of burning a body as part of a funerary rite; a ritualised event
Cremated bone	The bone that remains, usually having undergone some form of heat-induced alteration, after a cremation
Burned bone	Bone that has been heated or burned, but not necessarily as part of a funerary rite
Incineration	The act of burning
Calcined bone	Bone that has progressed through all stages of heat-induced transformation (Mayne Correia 1997; Thompson 2004) resulting in structural change, a loss of organic material and a white colouration
Cremains	Generally an American term to describe cremated human remains
Pyrolysis	The transformation of a compound by heat

At this stage, it is worth just defining the terms that are used within the study of cremated bone, as the misuse of some terms has and can cause problems when discussing interpretations of archaeological contexts (Symes et al. 2008; Thompson 2009). Table 1.2 presents definitions of the key terms and phrases used within the cremation literature. As can be seen, there are subtle but important differences between these terms which are particularly significant when attempting to interpret the funerary context. With these in mind, it is important to consider the physical changes to the body as a result of burning, before we can consider the wider social implications of the rite.

Fire and the body

The body undergoes significant change when it is exposed to fire; this is what makes the study of cremated remains so challenging, but is also likely why cremation has been used as a funerary rite for thousands of years. Since it is not possible to fully interpret a scene of burning or cremation without reference to the transformation the burning causes to the body, a summary of these changes is presented below. Readers who require greater detail are directed to the likes of Fairgrieve (2008) or Schmidt and Symes (2008).

Damage to the body is largely the result of proximity to the fire. Thus since the soft tissues are the most external and superficial of the bodily tissues, they will be exposed to the heat of the fire and will change first. The initial change that is undergone by the soft tissues (and the hard tissues too, see below) is dehydration as the water contained within the body is lost. In the soft tissues, this causes shrinkage and contraction which result in the splitting and tearing of the organs and thus exposure of the deeper tissues. Burns are often described by their severity, with a first degree burn involving the epidermis, second degree burns going deeper into the dermal layer, third degree burns involving all layers of the skin and some subcutaneous structures, and fourth degree burns extending deep to the muscle and bone. Hair and nails will also be affected, and will tend to melt and deform. The internal organs will shrink considerably due to their high moisture content.

Blood will also be affected by the process of burning. This happens in two ways. First, the heat of the fire causes physical destruction of the contents of the blood, such as the red blood cells. But the products of the fire will also cause changes in the blood. A common example is the release of carbon monoxide from the fire which is breathed into the body and then binds preferentially with the red blood cells instead of oxygen. This in turn can cause characteristic colour change in the soft tissues.

Once the soft tissues are severely compromised, the fire can begin to alter the underlying skeleton. Symes et al. (2008) provide a detailed description of the order in which the skeleton would be exposed and damaged. They note that areas with thin soft tissue coverage will exhibit heat-induced changes first. Thus for example, the skeletal elements associated with the back of the hands, the knees, heels, and face will be damaged before the shafts of the long bones, the inner pelvis and the palms of the hands. One should also note that the body will adopt the “pugilistic attitude” when burned which will provide further protection for some anatomical regions. This sort of information, which is based on the examination of modern burning cases and examples from modern crematoria, allow one to interpret the position of the body in relation to the fire when only the bones remain. This is particularly helpful in identifying examples of “non-standard” body positioning or handling.

Microscopically the skeleton will also undergo significant change, and it is in this area that much of the recent burned bone research has focussed (see Table 1.1). In her important review of 1997, Mayne Correia described four stages of heat-induced degradation in bone. These stages are Dehydration (the loss of the water from the bone), Decomposition (the loss of the organic components of the bone), Inversion (the alteration of the inorganic structure), and Fusion (the coalescing of the inorganic crystals in the bone). Later, Thompson (2004) slightly modified the detail of these stages, but crucially termed them “heat-induced transformation” rather than “degradation”. This was important as the original term implied that as burning continues the usefulness of the bone for study decreases. Recent research has shown that this is not the case, but rather it simply becomes more difficult to glean useful information from this material. Further, while it is useful for our understanding to use these four categories, the heat-induced changes that occur within them are rather more complicated, and several stages can be exhibited on the same bone simultaneously. Thompson (2005) has divided the range of heat-induced changes seen in bone into primary- and secondary-level changes. Prior to 2000 (Table 1.1), the bulk of the work on burned and cremated bone focussed on so-called secondary-level changes. These include colour change, propagation of fractures and changes to the mechanical strength of the bone. This is easy to understand since these changes are easy to see and record, and do not require advanced methods for study. However as has been noted (Thompson 2005; 2009), these changes do not actually explain what is occurring within the bone as it is burned. Rather they are the manifestation of other, more fundamental, changes. Thompson (2005) has shown that these more fundamental, or primary-level changes, are the removal of the organic component and the modification to the inorganic crystal component. All other changes (that is, the more visible and popular secondary-level changes) derive from this.

The most obvious change to occur to bone as it is burned is in colour, and this has been repeatedly used in the interpretation of cremation and burned bone contexts. The general trend regarding heat-induced colour change is for the bone to alter from its natural colour of creamy white, through dark greys and black and then if burning continues, to travel through light greys and finally resulting in white bone with occasional light blue patches (Asmussen 2009; Gejvall 1969; Gilchrist and Mytum 1986; Heglar 1984; Lyman 1994; Mayne Correia 1997; Nicholson 1993; Quatrehomme et al. 1998; Shipman et al. 1984; Sillen and Hoering, 1993; Stiner et al. 1995). An argument has been made that colour is related to the temperature of the fire, and there are a number of publications that explicitly make this link, although some with more conviction than others (for example: Chandler 1987; Grévin et al. 1998; Parker 1985; Shipman et al. 1984). Yet this is not entirely the case. Colour is actually related to the combustion of the carbon within the bone (Buikstra and Swegle 1989; Mayne Correia 1997) and this in turn is influenced by a range of variables (such as duration, oxygen levels, clothing, presence of accelerants, etc.) of which temperature is but one. Not all colours found on burned bone are related to the combustion of carbon-rich compounds either. Although the presence of browns has been associated with the presence of haemoglobin, other colours such as greens, yellows and pinks have been linked to trace metals and various contaminants from the burial and funerary contexts (Amadasi et al. 2014; Dunlop 1978; Gejvall 1969; Gilchrist and Mytum 1986). Further, the removal of the organic component (and therefore the changes in colour) can even occur in bone buried under a source of fire (Asmussen 2009; Bennett 1999; Stiner et al. 1995), although clearly the protection of the surrounding soil matrix means that the loss of the organic matter is not as great as if the bones were directly in the fire (Bennett 1999).

The presence of heat-induced fractures has also been used to interpret cremation contexts. Early work (Baby 1954; Binford 1963; Buikstra and Swegle 1989; Gonçalves et al. 2011; Kennedy 1996; Thurman and Willmore 1981) suggested that bone burned with soft tissue present produced U-shaped fractures along the long axis of the bone, while bone burned dry resulted in linear fractures in a grid-like pattern. With the U-shaped fracture, the concave surface generally forms on the side with the soft tissues remaining (Symes et al. 2008). This rule has held true for a number of years, although recent work by Gonçalves et al. (2011) has noted that U-shaped fractures can also appear in bone that was burned without the surrounding soft tissues. Their suggestion is that it might not be the soft tissue per se that results in the U-shaped fractures, but rather the collagen contained within the bone which can survive after the decomposition of the external soft tissues. The longitudinal fractures are likely running along lines of weakness present in the diaphysis (Turner-Walker and Parry 1995). In cremation studies, the examination of fracturing is common since it ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of contributors
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Fire and the body: Fire and the people
• Chapter 2: Flesh, fire, and funerary remains from the Neolithic site of La Varde, Guernsey: Investigations past and present
• Chapter 3: Past cremation practices from a bioarchaeological perspective: How new methods and techniques revealed conceptual changes in cremation practices during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age in Denmark
• Chapter 4: The weight of the matter: Examining the potential of skeletal weight for the bioarchaeological analysis of cremation at the Iron Age necropolis of Tera (Portugal)
• Chapter 5: Funerary rituals and ideologies in the Phoenician-Punic necropolis of Monte Sirai (Carbonia, Sardinia, Italy)
• Chapter 6: The funerary practice of cremation at Augusta Emerita (Mérida, Spain) during High Empire: contributions from the anthropological analysis of burned human bone
• Chapter 7: The integration of microscopic techniques in cremation studies: A new approach to understanding social identity among cremation practicing groups from early Anglo-Saxon England
• Chapter 8: Analysing cremated human remains from the southern Brazilian highlands: Interpreting archaeological evidence of funerary practice at mound and enclosure complexes in the Pelotas River Valley
• Chapter 9: Case applications of recent research on thermal effects on the skeleton
• Chapter 10: The interpretation and reconstruction of the post-mortem events in a case of scattered burned remains in Chile
• Chapter 11: Conclusion