Rita Peyroteo Stjerna

• PhD
• Researcher at Uppsala University

Here I present a review on the archaeological data for the mortuary practices of the postglacial communities in the SW Atlantic Europe that precede the shell midden cemeteries known for the Late Mesolithic in the region. This paper is part of my current PhD research “Death in the Mesolithic: mortuary practices of the last hunter gatherers in the ex...

The history of death is entangled with the history of changing social values, meaning that a shift in attitudes to death will be consistent with changes in a society’s world view. Late Mesolithic shell middens in the Tagus and Sado valleys, Portugal, constitute some of the largest and earliest burial grounds known, arranged and maintained by peopl...

For most of human history, funerary burial has been unusual. Archaeology shows a shift in funerary practices in postglacial hunter-gatherers, in parts of Europe during the Late Mesolithic. This is documented by the burial grounds in the Tagus and Sado valleys in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, Portugal, where ca. 376 burials were excavated. Thi...

Cabeço da Amoreira is a well-studied shell midden with a robust chronology based on a large number of radiocarbon dates on Mesolithic human burials. Surprisingly, we discovered one individual that lived about 400 years ago buried in this site. We employed a multidisciplinary approach integrating archaeology, historical records, genetics, radiocarbo...

Recently rediscovered photographs of the remains of thirteen individuals buried in the Sado Valley Mesolithic shell middens of Poças de S. Bento and Arapouco, excavated in 1960 and 1962, show the potential of revisiting excavation archives with new methods. The analysis, which applies the principles of archaeothanatology and is enriched by experime...

Mesolithic research has undergone a series of important transformations over the past several decades, making it one of the most dynamic and prolific fields of archaeology today. The handbook captures our ambition to demonstrate the plurality of perspectives and developments in Mesolithic research, combining theoretically new and innovative questio...

Mesolithic research has undergone a series of important transformations over the past several decades, making it one of the most dynamic and prolific fields of archaeology today. The handbook captures our ambition to demonstrate the plurality of perspectives and developments in Mesolithic research, combining theoretically new and innovative questio...

Since the early Holocene, western and central Europe was inhabited by a genetically distinct group of Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHGs). This group was eventually replaced and assimilated by the incoming Neolithic farmers. The western Atlantic façade was home to some of the last Mesolithic sites of mainland Europe, represented by the iconic open-air...

In this article, we reassess the human remains from the Mumbwa Caves housed in the Raymond A. Dart Archaeological Human Remains Collection at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Based on new radiocarbon dates from human bone collagen and stable isotope analysis, our results revealed that the poorly preserved remains, comprising mostl...

En este artículo se revisa la información disponible sobre las intervenciones arqueológicas llevadas a cabo en la conocida como Área de Estancia de la cueva de Tito Bustillo, tanto por Miguel Ángel García Guinea (campaña de 1970), como por J. Alfonso Moure Romanillo (campañas de 1972 a 1986). Se hace particular hincapié en la publicación de nuevos...

Various skeletons from the uThukela region of the uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa were excavated from rock shelters there during the early part of the twentieth century, with limited accompanying data or analysis. This paper analyses and reports on nine such graves (eight of which contained human remains), excavated during 1931 nea...

This paper summarizes the results of my research (Peyroteo-Stjerna 2016a) focusing on burial activities of the last hunter-gatherers of the south-western Iberian Peninsula. Human burials were investigated in terms of time and practice based on the application of three methods: radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis to define the chronological fra...

El yacimiento de la cueva de Abittaga, excavado por J.M. Barandiarán entre 1964 y 1965, contiene una secuencia arqueológica con ocupaciones del Magdaleniense Superior y de la Prehistoria Reciente. Este yacimiento apenas ha participado en los debates de la prehistoria vasca de los últimos 40 años, fundamentalmente porque el yacimiento había sido est...

CALL FOR PAPERS - MESO2020 - DEADLINE 17 Apr 2020. Session - Death and the dead: new approaches to Mesolithic mortuary practices. Deathways in the Mesolithic are varied and present significant variation across time and space. Recent discoveries, but also new approaches to older finds and archives, reveal an ever more complex and varied archaeologi...

The Mesolithic shell middens in Portugal aggregate some of the largest and earliest burial grounds known, around 8000 years old, arranged and maintained by populations with an exclusive hunting, fishing, and foraging lifestyle. The archaeological material is housed in museums and consists of artefacts, field documentation (written, graphic) and mor...

The Neolithic expansion in the Iberian Peninsula is marked by the introduction of livestock and domesticated crops which modified subsistence strategies in an unprecedented manner. Bulk collagen stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis has been essential to track these changes, which have largely been discussed in relation to particular geograph...

The arrival of farmers to the south-western Iberian Peninsula was followed by a period of complex human interaction after 5500 BCE. This marked the arrival of new technologies and subsistence practices such as pottery, husbandry and domestication of plants, but also the co-existence of diverse social structures and world-views in a territory popula...

The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in the Iberian Peninsula is marked by the introduction of livestock and domesticated crops which modified the subsistence strategies in an unprecedented manner. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis have been essential to this discussion, but most of the debate has resolved around single case studies. In th...

Os contextos arqueológicos com ossos humanos apresentam desafios específicos relativos à interpretação dos processos culturais associados à sua deposição. É neste contexto que se desenvolve a arqueotanatologia, uma metodologia que integra conhecimentos de anatomia humana e teoria tafonómica. Contudo, o método foi desenvolvido para o contexto de esc...

Archaeologists interact with mortuary assemblages in a range of different contexts. We tend to focus on the initial excavation as the prime moment for archaeological data collection and interpretation, but we all know that a significant part of the process takes place much later, in the post excavation phase, or even, as will be explored in this pa...

In the context of postglacial environmental changes, the new form of settlement known for the late Mesolithic seems to be followed by a different relation to Death. In the archaeological record, this is well observed in the shell midden sites known for both Tagus and Sado valleys in Portugal, with ca. 374 human burials of both sexes and ages, mostl...

Ancient Death Ways – proceedings of the workshop on archaeology and mortuary practices, contains articles of the work in progress presented and discussed at the Ancient Death Ways 2013 meeting, which was organised around three main themes: current research, landscapes of death, and defining death. The diversity of case studies and subjects tackled...

This paper explores the intricate relations between mortuary ritual practice and the active role of memory in the construction and re-construction of place by hunter-gatherer groups. The data for this preliminary study are drawn from the Mesolithic shell midden sites located in the Tagus and Sado valleys in Portugal, where ca. 374 human burials hav...

The advantage of Archaeology in the research of past mortuary practices lays on the material nature of Death. The deceased itself is a material entity. Archaeology observes the human behaviour through long periods of time and in vast geographic areas. Archaeology brings temporal depth to the great variety of the human agency and an exceptional pers...

Practice led approaches have risen during the last decade in the archaeology of death and burial. In this context, archaeothanatology is arguably one of the most effective methodologies to reconstruct the chaîne opératoire of past mortuary practices. This repertoire of techniques is ideally applied from the early stages of field work when human rem...

The Mesolithic shell middens located in the Sado valley, Portugal were first excavated in the 1950s. During these first excavations ca. 112-116 human burials were recovered from six sites. Many of these burials were then preserved in paraffin blocks to maintain the position they had when excavated. Currently, only 15 of these burials are still pres...

In the context of postglacial environmental changes, the new form of settlement known for the Late Mesolithic seems to be followed by a different approach to Death. In the archaeological record, this is well observed in the shell midden sites known for both Tagus and Sado valleys in Portugal, where new born babies, children, young adults, men and...

In the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula, the rise of the sea levels during the Atlantic climatic optimum (c.7500 BP-5500 BP) result on the formation of large inland estuaries. The typical costal sites known for the Pre-boreal and Boreal (c.10000 BP-7500 BP) are now left for relatively more interior regions, by these rich ecosystems. This new...

The research on mortuary practices is central on the resolution of multiple questions related with the prehistoric landscape and identity – full of meanings, memories and new conceptions on Life and Death. The advantage of Archaeology on the research of past mortuary practices is the material nature of Death. The deceased itself is a material enti...