32 - Crossing Borders: Death and Life in Second Millennium BC Southern Iberia and North Africa

Summary

This chapter takes a macro-scale perspective of the mortuary record of the second millennium BC, the Early-Middle Bronze Age of southern Iberia. It considers three Bronze Age culture areas that are most commonly considered separately: the Iberian southwest, the southeast or Argaric, North Africa and the role of the Mediterranean as a geographic space and an ecological regime. The chapter discusses important themes that transcend the regional focus of Iberia and North Africa, such as the long use and reuse of tombs, the contributions of bioarchaeology toward understanding the lives of ancient peoples. It also examines how the living transformed the dead through ritual practices during the Early and Middle Bronze Age of southern Iberia. Finally, the chapter discusses the construction of the burial chamber, the manipulation of the body, and the offering of goods to accompany the deceased. Ceramics and metal weapons and tools were generally placed with the deceased in the Middle Bronze Age.