Search results for "Cemeteries"

Tietäjiä, taikojia, hautausmaita : taikuus Suomessa 1700-luvun jälkipuoliskolla

2016

The chemistry of death--Adipocere degradation in modern graveyards.

2015

The formation of adipocere slows further decomposition and preserves corpses for decades or even centuries. This resistance to degradation is a serious problem, especially with regard to the reuse of graves after regular resting times. We present results from an exhumation series in modern graveyards where coffins from water-saturated earth graves contained adipocere embedded in black humic material after resting times of about 30 years. Based on the assumption that this humic material resulted from in situ degradation of adipocere, its presence contradicts the commonly held opinion that adipocere decomposition only occurs under aerobic conditions. To test our hypothesis, we collected black…

Lombards on the move--an integrative study of the migration period cemetery at Szólád, Hungary.

2014

In 2005 to 2007 45 skeletons of adults and subadults were excavated at the Lombard period cemetery at Szólád (6th century A.D.), Hungary. Embedded into the well-recorded historical context, the article presents the results obtained by an integrative investigation including anthropological, molecular genetic and isotopic (δ(15)N, δ(13)C, (87)Sr/(86)Sr) analyses. Skeletal stress markers as well as traces of interpersonal violence were found to occur frequently. The mitochondrial DNA profiles revealed a heterogeneous spectrum of lineages that belong to the haplogroups H, U, J, HV, T2, I, and K, which are common in present-day Europe and in the Near East, while N1a and N1b are today quite rare.…

Dental disease and dietary isotopes of individuals from St Gertrude Church cemetery, Riga, Latvia.

2018

This research explores oral health indicators and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data to explore diet, and differences in diet, between people buried in the four different contexts of the St Gertrude Church cemetery (15th– 17th centuries AD): the general cemetery, two mass graves, and a collective mass burial pit within the general cemetery. The main aim is to assess whether people buried in the mass graves were rural immigrants, or if they were more likely to be the victims of plague (or another epidemic) who lived in Riga and its suburbs. The data produced (from dental disease assessments and isotope analyses) were compared within, as well as between, the contexts. Most differences em…

Snail fauna of the oldest cemeteries from Riga (Latvia)

2008

We report on the snail fauna from one of the oldest cemeteries from Riga city (Latvia), viz. Lielie kapi and Pokrova kapi. A list of all the snail species recorded from both cemeteries and limited information on the biotope conditions are given. Cecilioides acicula (O.F. Müller, 1774) is first recorded from Latvia and was found at a grassland within the tomb area of the Pokrova kapi cemetery.

Short review: Field recovery and potential information value of small elements of the skeleton

2011

The recovery of small elements of the skeleton (e.g. hyoid, carpals, and hand and foot phalanges) is one of the established tasks of the archaeologist and physical anthropologist when working in the field, whether in an archaeological or forensic context. In the present work, we illustrate the field location of ossified laryngeal cartilages, hand sesamoids, and the medial clavicular epiphyses. The potential information offered by these elements is briefly summarized. The frequency of these elements observed in a cemetery dating from 1943 indicates the possibility that these elements could be found in other contexts at a higher frequency than expected.

Entre moneo e memini. Arquitectura funeraria militar en el sureste de Sicilia.

2023

Nel luglio del 1943 la costa sud-orientale della Sicilia fu teatro dello sbarco attuato dalle forze militari Alleate da cui prende avvio la liberazione dal nazi-fascismo dell’Italia e dell’Europa. Gli eventi bellici siciliani furono inevitabilmente piuttosto cruenti e videro un numero elevato di morti di soldati italiani, tedeschi e dei militari delle forze anglo-americane. Sin dagli anni Cinquanta del ’900, la Commonwealth War Grave Commission e la Volksbund, al fine di onorare i militari Alleati e tedeschi caduti in battaglia, avviarono la realizzazione di diversi cimiteri di guerra tra Agira, Catania, Siracusa e Motta Sant’Anastasia. I primi tre, progettati da Louis de Soissons, destinat…

Emerging genetic patterns of the european neolithic: Perspectives from a late neolithic bell beaker burial site in Germany

2011

The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in Europe is associated with demographic changes that may have shifted the human gene pool of the region as a result of an influx of Neolithic farmers from the Near East. However, the genetic composition of populations after the earliest Neolithic, when a diverse mosaic of societies that had been fully engaged in agriculture for some time appeared in central Europe, is poorly known. At this period during the Late Neolithic (ca. 2,8002,000 BC), regionally distinctive burial patterns associated with two different cultural groups emerge, Bell Beaker and Corded Ware, and may reflect differences in how these societies were organized. Ancie…

The massacre mass grave of Schöneck-Kilianstädten reveals new insights into collective violence in Early Neolithic Central Europe

2015

Conflict and warfare are central but also disputed themes in discussions about the European Neolithic. Although a few recent population studies provide broad overviews, only a very limited number of currently known key sites provide precise insights into moments of extreme and mass violence and their impact on Neolithic societies. The massacre sites of Talheim, Germany, and Asparn/Schletz, Austria, have long been the focal points around which hypotheses concerning a final lethal crisis of the first Central European farmers of the Early Neolithic Linearbandkeramik Culture (LBK) have concentrated. With the recently examined LBK mass grave site of Schöneck-Kilianstädten, Germany, we present ne…

Dicrocoelium dendriticum found in a Bronze Age cemetery in western Iran in the pre-Persepolis period: The oldest Asian palaeofinding in the present h…

2015

Dicrocoeliasis of animals and humans is caused by trematode species of the genus Dicrocoelium, mainly Dicrocoelium dendriticum in ruminants of the Holarctic region. D. dendriticum may be considered an old parasite, probably related to the appearance and diversification of Eurasian ovicaprines, occurred 14.7-14.5 million years ago. The oldest palaeoparasitological findings of Dicrocoelium in domestic animals and humans date from more than 5000 years BC in Europe. Eggs of D. dendriticum have been found in a burial of a Bronze Age cemetery (2600-2200 BC) close to Yasuj city, southwestern Iran. This is the oldest finding of D. dendriticum in the Near East, where present human infection reports …