Mathieu Boudin

Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage | KIK/IRPA · Department of Laboratories

The high temperatures reached during cremation lead to the destruction of organic matter preventing the use of traditional isotopic methods for dietary reconstructions. Still, strontium isotope (87 Sr/ 86 Sr) and concentration ([Sr]) analyses of cremated human remains offer a novel way to assess changing consumption patterns in past populations tha...

At the transition between the Scheldt valley and the Campine microcuesta near Antwerp, two separate organic deposits are present in the subsoil. Sedimentological, macrobotanical and palynological analyses from two cores are used to reconstruct the evolutions of the local depositional and ecological environment, as well as the regional vegetation. A...

Megacarnivore behaviours shape ecological dynamics between their prey and competitors and therefore play a key role in structuring ecosystems. In Late Pleistocene Eurasia, hominins and hyenas were sympatric predators. Since the first discoveries of Crocuta c. spelaea in the 19th century, this ‘bone-crushing’ species has been identified at most Pala...

Most researchers accept that by the end of the Pleistocene dogs were part of the daily life of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. Recent analyses of the mammal assemblages from the third cave of Goyet (Belgium) reveal that a large component of the material from bone level A1 postdates the Last Glacial Maximum. The biometric study of the large canid rema...

Studies of funerary practices provide information about many aspects of death in past societies. However, only limited archaeological evidence documents the circumstances under which cremations occurred and the person(s) who were performing the funerary rituals. Lying at the border between Atlantic and Continental cultural traditions, the Scheldt a...

Cremation is a complex mortuary practice, involving a number of activities of the living towards the dead before, during, and after the destruction of the bodily soft tissues by fire. The limiting information concerning these behavioral patterns obtained from the pyre remains and/or cremation deposits prevents the reconstruction of the handling of...

The article introduces new paleoanthropological materials from the Mayak burial ground near Sidelkino village in the Samara region into scientific discourse. The materials were obtained as a result of excavations in 1995 and only recently was it possible to date them. As a result of AMS analysis fulfilled by the authors, human remains from two buri...

The latest data on holes in the spinous processes of the vertebrae of woolly mammoths, a rare pathology, are presented. This was identified at 19 sites of northern Eurasia. Such destructive changes are recorded ca. 34–12k 14C a bp, and only two sites dated to >50k and >41k 14C a bp. The main hypotheses about hole formation are: vertebral abnormalit...

Archaeological research at Aalst – Siesegemkouter revealed several pits within a Middle to Late Bronze Age settlement. Most of them hardly contained any artefacts, but one exception showed a structured stratigraphy with an abundance of finds, including a large amount of shattered pottery, charcoal and calcined animal bone. The study of this assembl...

This paper presents the results of an inter-comparative study in view of assessing the reliability of radiocarbon dates obtained on calcined bones from open-air Palaeolithic and Mesolithic sites. The results demonstrate that the success rate is largely dependent on site-taphonomy, in particular the speed of covering of the site. Sites quickly cover...

The funerary Bronze Age culture in the Belgian part of the Meuse valley is poorly understood due to the challenging nature of cremation deposits that dominate the archaeological record. Only a few sites were analysed in that region, limiting the possibilities to reconstruct the development of Bronze Age populations in Belgium. Due to its good prese...

The CRUMBEL project brings together researchers from three Belgian universities and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. The purpose of this collaboration is to study the Belgian archaeological collections of cremated bones dating from the Neolithic till the Merovingian period. Th e project aims to improve knowledge concerning the living cond...

This study aims to better understand the development of group identity, mobility, and health in the Early Medieval Meuse Valley. This is achieved by combining existing demographic and palaeopathological information from 73 cremation deposits from Echt, the Netherlands, with new strontium isotope ratios (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) and strontium concentrations ([Sr]...

Objectives This study aims to increase the rate of correctly sexed calcined individuals from archaeological and forensic contexts. This is achieved by evaluating sexual dimorphism of commonly used and new skeletal elements via uni‐ and multi‐variate metric trait analyses. Materials and methods Twenty‐two skeletal traits were evaluated in 86 indivi...

Studies of funerary practices provide information about many aspects of death in past societies. However, only limited archaeological evidence documents the circumstances under which cremations occurred and the person(s) who were performing the funerary rituals. Lying at the border between Atlantic and Continental cultural traditions, the Scheldt a...

Objectives The Falys–Prangle‐method assesses age‐related morphological changes to the sternal clavicle end (SCE), enabling the observation of mature adults from the 5th decade onwards in unburnt human skeletal remains. The aim of this study is to investigate the applicability of the Falys–Prangle‐method on burnt human remains. Materials and method...

The excavation of a building in the village of Felanitx in the eastern part of the island of Mallorca (Balearic Islands) has revealed the existence of a small necropolis. The inhumations did not provide grave goods except for a bronze belt buckle for which the typological study suggests a Late Antique chronology. The stratigraphical sequence howeve...

The article is focusing on the re-assessment of two linen 2/1 twill fragments from the early excavations of Hallstatt in Austria, which were for a long time assumed to date to the Bronze Age. The new 14C data presented here prove that the pieces are early modern, dating to about 1600 CE. Then new dating and reassessment of the possible find context...

The paper presents preliminary results of a new analysis of textile assemblage from the Caolino necropolis at Sasso di Furbara (Cerveteri), Italy, which is one of the largest and most important Iron Age textile corpora known from Italy. The material was found in 1953 by construction workers in a wooden monoxile boat, interpreted as a cenotaph. The...

From the Prehistory until the Late Middle Ages wood was the most important construction material for buildings in Flanders. With the exception of wet contexts, the wooden posts of the structures are not preserved anymore. Because of this, these buildings are difficult to date. Charcoal or charred grains preserved in these postholes are a dating opt...

The distribution of the first domesticated animals and crops along the coastal area of Atlantic NW Europe, which triggered the transition from a hunter-gatherer-fisher to a farmer-herder economy, has been debated for many decades among archaeologists. While some advocate a gradual transition in which indigenous hunter-gatherers from the very beginn...

Iron Age archaeology in Europe and the Mediterranean often faces significant difficulties to establish precise chronological frameworks by means of radiocarbon dating due to the so-called Hallstatt Plateau. This problem worsens in those archaeological sites excavated decades ago with a lack of stratigraphic control of the objects recovered. The arc...

The adoption of a new funerary ritual with all its social and cognitive meanings is of great importance to understanding social transformations of past societies. The first known occurrence of cremation in the territory corresponding to modern Belgium dates back to the Mesolithic period. From the end of the Neolithic onward, the practice of cremati...

The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH) radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) laboratory in Brussels, Belgium, has acquired experience for pretreating samples with 60 years of involvement in ¹⁴ C dating, and the implementation of routine protocols. These procedures as applied to wood, seeds, charred materials, bones, ivory, textiles (silk, wool, cotton, lin...

The freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) was estimated for the northern part of West Siberia for the first time, based on securely dated samples from the late medieval town of Mangazeya existed mainly in AD 1601–1650. Twelve specimens of six species of freshwater fish were selected for ¹⁴C dating, and C and N stable isotopes analysis. The FRE varies f...

L’article suivant est un résumé des résultats préliminaires des crémations étudiées dans le cadre du projet CRUMBEL (Crémations, urnes et mobilité, la dynamique du peuplement de la Belgique - Projet EOS N°30999782) qui seront publiés dans une prochaine monographie dédiée au site de Pommeroeul.

The CRUMBEL project aims to investigate the mobility of the former population in Belgium from the Neolithic period until the Early Middle Ages. To reach these research goals different topics will be studied. In a preliminary phase, the ancient collections of cremated bone will be documented. A selection of these funerary sites will be studied to un...

En fonction de la température de combustion, les ossements ayant subi une chauffe présentent une variété de couleurs allant du jaune rougeâtre à brun, en passant par noir, gris et blanc. Les ossements de couleur blanche sont considérés comme incinérés, ils ne contiennent plus aucunes traces de matière organique et sont donc datés grâce à leur fract...

As part of the study of the early medieval cemetery at Broechem (Belgium), human bones from 32 cremation graves have been dated through radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) analysis. It was noted that many of the dates were not in accordance with the chronological ranges provided by the characteristics of the cultural artifacts deposited in the graves. In fact, the...

Direct dates of pottery obtained from food crusts or other organic residues on the vessel surfaces can be affected by a reservoir effect and/or an old wood effect and therefore be unreliable. Hence, there is a need for alternative ways to directly date pottery. Moss is used as temper by several cultural groups of the late 6th to early 4th millenniu...

Prior to the construction of a flood control area in the valley of the Scheppelijke Nete near the village of Mol, a palaeo-landscape survey was commissioned by the province of Antwerp (Aluwé et al. 2018). This survey demonstrated the presence of organic deposits that are suitable for palaeo-ecological analyses. One core from this study area was sub...

The article presents the results of textile and fibre analysis of four textile fragments recovered during archaeological excavations at the site of Zawaydah, Naqada, in Upper Egypt. Although the main phase of the occupation at this site is ascribed to the Pre- and Protodynastic period (c. 4th millennium BC), the structural and fibre analyses of the...

Finds from Ewald Schuldt’s 1952–54 excavations at Hohen Viecheln, on the shore of Lake Schwerin, form one of the most important assemblages of Mesolithic bone/antler tools in Germany, including over 300 projectile points. Re-evaluation of Schuldt’s excavation records has created doubts about the published stratigraphic sequence. For reliable chrono...

Radiocarbon (14 C) results on cremated bone are frequently published in high-ranking journals, but 14 C laboratories employ different pretreatment methods as they have divergent perceptions of what sources of contaminants might be present. We found pretreatment protocols to vary significantly between three laboratories (Brussels [RICH], Kiel [KIA],...

This paper discusses a series of 11 new radiocarbon dates obtained on antler and bone tools dredged at Wintam from the Rupel River, a tributary of the Scheldt River. Combined with previous dates these allow a further refinement of the chronology of antler beam and base mattocks within the Scheldt basin. The dates confirm the appearance of unperfora...

Excavations at the Cistercian abbey of Klein-Sinaai “Boudelo” in 2011 and 2012 revealed the presence of a well-preserved sedimentological archive, providing additional information on the Lateglacial and Holocene evolution of the Moervaart depression. Situated at the northeastern bank of a former Lateglacial freshwater lake, the sequence was studied...

An augering campaign in search of prehistoric sites in the area of “Landschap De Liereman” (Province of Antwerp) has shown the presence of peat in the subsurface of the Liereman depression. Microfossils (pollen, spores and non-pollen palynomorphs) and macrofossils (such as seeds) in two peat sequences were analyzed. The aim of this palaeoecological...

If post-cremation life histories of cremains and cremation-related deposits can be readily investigated as they refer to the last handling of the deceased, the treatment of the corpse during the burning act itself is little addressed by textual sources and often discussed in anthropological studies. Among the topics discussed are questions whether...

On the African continent, the population is expected to expand fourfold in the next century, which will increasingly impact the global carbon cycle and biodiversity conservation. Therefore, it is of vital importance to understand how carbon stocks and community assembly recover after slash-and-burn events in tropical second growth forests. We inven...

The last decade increasing evidence of soil erosion by sediment runoff predating agriculture has been found in different areas of west and central Europe. A central discussion is whether pre-agricultural erosion was triggered by vegetational disturbances caused by hunter-gatherer activities (trampling, controlled forest fires) or natural processes...

The reliquary of Jacques de Vitry, a prominent clergyman and theologian in the early 13th century, has experienced several transfers over the last centuries, which seriously question the attribution of the remains to the late Cardinal. Uncertainty about the year of his birth poses an additional question regarding his age at death in 1240. The reliq...

Isotopic fractionations of carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) according to diet. (DOCX)

Jacques de Vitry and Marie d’Oignies. (A) Cardinal Jacques de Vitry on his deathbed (A. Marminia and E. Borne, engraving). (B) Saint Marie d’Oignies (engraving). Republished from “De B. Maria Oigniacensi in Namurcensi Belgii dioecesi. Appendix” in “Acta Sanctorum” under a CC BY license, with permission from Société des Bollandistes, original copyri...

Reliquary of Jacques de Vitry. (A) The reliquary. (B) The remains found in the reliquary after opening on 8th September 2015. Reprinted under a CC BY license with permission from Vedrin, Guy Focant, original copyright 2015. (TIF)

Non-invasive sampling of parchment parts of Jacques de Vitry’s mitre. Gentle rubbing of the parchment surface with a PVC eraser for proteomic analyses. Reprinted under a CC BY license with permission from Vedrin, Guy Focant, original copyright 2012. (TIF)

In 2015, a domed oven from the late fifth millennium cal BC was excavated near Kortrijk, northern Belgium. In terms of its size, tripartite structure, stone flooring and well-preserved domed combustion chamber, the oven is unique in Neolithic Western Europe, although mostly smaller, less well-preserved parallels are known in northern France. Such f...