Assembling ancestors: the manipulation of Neolithic and Gallo-Roman skeletal remains at Pommerœul, Belgium
The ancient cemetery of Pommerœul, Belgium, was classified as Gallo-Roman in the 1970s', yielding 76 cremation graves and one inhumation. However, subsequent radiocarbon analyses dated the inhumation to the Late Neolithic (4<sup>th</sup>-3<sup>rd</sup> millennium calBC). We report osteoarchaeological analysis indicating that the inhumation was composed of bones from multiple individuals, afterwards buried as "one". Ancient DNA analyses also finds evidence of multiple individuals and revealed another surprise: the cranium is post-Neolithic and genetically related to a pair of siblings from another Belgian Gallo-Roman site. This composite burial may have been created in Late Neolithic times, with Gallo-Romans adding the cranium, or alternatively the burial may have been fully assembled in the Gallo-Roman periods. This exceptional burial documents unexpected burial practices for both prehistoric and Roman times.
Authors
- David Reich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7037-5292)
- Harald Ringbauer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4884-9682)
- H.M. van der Velde (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2771-7231)
- Michel Toussaint (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3036-6949)
- Barbara Veselka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2692-9577)
- Íñigo Olalde (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2660-6807)
- Giacomo Capuzzo
- Laureline Cattelain
- Eveline Altena (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8911-7771)
- Christophe Snoeck (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3770-4055)
- Kimberly Callan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3170-8514)
- Caroline Polet (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5616-4387)
- Fatma Zalzala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8981-1277)
- Quentin Goffette (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2845-1746)
Institutions
- Broad Institute (US)
- Musée de la Civilisation (CA)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel (BE)
- Harvard University (US)
- University of the Basque Country (ES)
- University of Trento (IT)
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- Institute of Natural Sciences (BE)
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (DE)
- Archeologisch Diensten Centrum (Netherlands) (NL)
- Department of Archaeology (LK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Antiquity
- Published
- 2024-10-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2024.158
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 8.77
Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- John Templeton Foundation
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- National Institutes of Health