Collective and individual burial practices. Changing patterns at the beginning of the third millennium BC: The megalithic grave of Altendorf

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Christoph Rinne
Clara Drummer
Christian Hamann

Abstract





The re-analyses of the Altendorf gallery grave reveal three different phases of inhumation burial practices: collective burials of a whole community (3250–3100 BC), a hiatus in burial practice (3100–2600 BC), and fewer but continuous single inhumations (2600–1450 BC). These changes can be associated with the abandonment of collective social practices all over Central Europe at the end of the fourth millennium BC, and the establishment of new ideologies and the re-use of older monuments by 2600 BC. In Altendorf, this last phase extends to the next pan-European change in burial practices, and reveals an enduring relationship with a local burial monument.





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How to Cite
Rinne et al. 2019: C. Rinne/C. Drummer/C. Hamann, Collective and individual burial practices. Changing patterns at the beginning of the third millennium BC: The megalithic grave of Altendorf. JNA 21, 2019, 75–88. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12766/jna.2019.4.