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Neolithic Priorities: Ritual and Visual Preferences within Burials and Corporeality in the Balkans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Goce Naumov
Goce Naumov*
Affiliation:
Archaeological Museum of Macedonia, FYR Macedonia
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Abstract

Neolithic bodies are not only manifestations of subjective principles. Social and symbolic norms are also incorporated within the bodies of both actual and represented individuals. These norms often relate to economic and religious notions of society, as well as to effigies. Owing to high population densities in Neolithic villages, only a select group of the inhabitants were buried within settlements or represented in images. This generated a category of privileged individuals and body features, which were related to symbolic principles rather than social hierarchy. Such practices among Neolithic societies in the Balkans are evident within burials and human representations. Individuals buried inside settlements, anthropomorphic house models, and figurines from several sites in Ovče Pole, Pelagonia, and the Skopje Valley are used as case studies in this paper. Placing these sites into a wider geographical context, it is argued that gender, age and body parts were significant criteria in funerary practices and features of corporeality.

Les corps néolithiques ne sont pas seulement des manifestations de principes subjectifs; aux corps d'individus réels ainsi que représentés sont également associées des normes sociales et symboliques. Ces normes se rattachent souvent à des notions économiques et religieuses de société de même qu'à des effigies. En raison de la densité de population élevée dans les villages néolithiques, seul un groupe favorisé de défunts fût enterré au sein des agglomérations ou représenté en images. Ceci engendrait une catégorie d'individus et de caractéristiques physiques privilégiés, apparentée à des principes symboliques plutôt qu'à une hiérarchie sociale. De telles pratiques au sein des sociétés néolithiques des Balkans sont évidentes parmi les sépultures et représentations humaines. Des individus enterrés à l'intérieur des villages, des modèles de maison et des figurines anthropomorphes provenant de plusieurs sites de Ovče Pole, Pelagonia et de la vallée de Skopje ont fait l'objet d'études de cas. En plaçant ces sites dans un contexte géographique plus large, on fait valoir que le sexe, l'âge et les parties du corps étaient des critères significatifs pour les pratiques funéraires et caractéristiques de corporéité. Translation by Isabelle Gerges

Zusammenfassung

Zusammenfassung

Neolithische Körper sind keinesfalls allein Manifestationen subjektiver Prinzipien; auch soziale und symbolische Normen sind in die Körper von gleichermaßen tatsächlichen und dargestellten Individuen eingeschlossen. Diese Normen beziehen sich häufig auf ökonomische und religiöse Auffassungen der Gesellschaft wie auch auf die Figuralplastik. Aufgrund der hohen Bevölkerungsdichte in neolithischen Dörfern wurde nur eine ausgewählte Gruppe von Verstorbenen innerhalb der Siedlungen bestattet oder in Bildern dargestellt. Dies schuf eine Gruppe privilegierter Individuen und Körpermerkmale, die sich eher an symbolischen Prinzipien als an sozialer Hierarchie orientierten. Derartige Praktiken in den neolithischen Gesellschaften der Balkanhalbinsel spiegeln sich bei den Bestattungen und menschlichen Darstellungen deutlich wider. Siedlungsbestattungen, anthropomorphe Hausmodelle und Figurinen von verschiedenen Fundplätzen im Ovče Pole, in Pelagonien und der Skopje-Ebene werden in diesem Beitrag als Fallstudien angeführt. Indem diese Fundstellen in einen weiteren geographischen Kontext gesetzt werden, soll dargestellt werden, dass das soziale Geschlecht, Alter und Körperteile bei Bestattungspraktiken und Merkmalen der Korporealität eine signifikante Rolle spielten. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg

Keywords

anthropomorphic figurinesbodyburialssymbolismNeolithicBalkansfigurines anthropomorphescorpssépulturessymbolismeNéolithiqueBalkansanthropomorphe FigurinenKörperBestattungenSymbolismusNeolithikumBalkanhalbinsel
Type
Articles
Information
European Journal of Archaeology , Volume 17 , Issue 2: Special Issue—Body Practices and Concepts in Later Prehistoric Europe , 2014 , pp. 184 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © European Association of Archaeologists 2014 

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