Journey to murder: Atypical graves of the immigrants in the Early Bronze Age Europe

Dalia Anna Pokutta

Published: 2014-01-01

Vol. 66 (2014)

Journey to murder: Atypical graves of the immigrants in the Early Bronze Age Europe

Dalia Anna Pokutta

Abstract

Migrations had important effects on Bronze Age economy, adaptation of new inventions and technological cohesion, however their impact upon society remains under-studied. The knowledge of how individual longdistance journeys affected forms of societal interaction is limited and fragmented, especially when it comes to murder. In archaeology the analyses of criminality encounter massive obstacles due to unknowable character of crimes, victims and social contexts of these. In this paper we present new data and results of isotopic analyses (14C, 87Sr/86Sr, 15N and 13C) of the four individuals discovered in the mass grave in Milejowice, SW Poland, and associated with the Únětice Culture (2200–1700 B.C).Our data indicate the presence of immigrants from other parts of Europe in prehistoric Silesia and sheds a new light upon likely nature of crimes in the Early Bronze Age Úněticean society. The availability of high-resolution data on various levels, from intra-individual to interpopulation, makes stable isotope analysis a powerful tool for studying mobility and food practices

Keywords:

stable isotopes, forensic archaeology, carbon reservoir effect, Early Bronze Age, Únětice culture, Silesia

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Pokutta, D. A. (2014). Journey to murder: Atypical graves of the immigrants in the Early Bronze Age Europe. Sprawozdania Archeologiczne, 66, 91–100. Retrieved from https://journals.iaepan.pl/sa/article/view/1193

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