Search results for " Skeleton Biology"

NEW ANTHROPOLOGICAL DATA FROM THE ARCHAIC CEMETERY AT MOTYA

2014

The archaic necropolis at Motya has been long recognized as a site of great interest for the study of Phoenician burial customs in the West. Since its discovery by Joseph Whitaker more than a century ago, over 300 burials have been brought to light - mainly dating to the late 8th-7th century BC. Burials are characterized by jars used as urns and box-shaped stone cists containing the ashes and burnt bones of the dead. These are indeed secondary cremations, a very common funerary ritual of the Iron Age in the Phoenician homeland and in the colonies overseas. Despite the relevant bearing of this cemetery on historical and cultural grounds, anthropological analysis unfortunately has been mostly…