Sepolture anomale oltreconfine: uno sguardo internazionale

Analysis and contextualization of deviant burials are necessary before misinterpreting historically and archaeologically a case study. Funerary practises change according to geographical localization, historical and sociocultural substratum, influence from other cultures with which a community gets in touch. It is appropriate to carefully assess a specific burial as deviant, especially if there are not quantitatively and qualitatively relevant features: only position or orientation are not enough and other complementary factors need to be considered, as type of burial, elements of ornament or ritual objects, any manipolation of the corpse. The aim of this archaeotanatological approach is to reconstruct not only the nature of an individual’s death, which reasons are not always understandable, but especially the way of perceiving the death among a community. This purpose is actionable only evaluating finds in association with the context, that is the true reflection of a society: through a synoptic interpretation it is possible to understand social aspect of the death among living people and social persona of the deceased 4. In this ancestral relationship, the human corpse is considered sacred. When the holiness is disturbed with peri o post mortem desecrations of the corpse, there are reactions in the society where the deceased – although passed away – continues to be highly active in the society, influencing it. Last researches about an inventory of deviant burials, especially for Italy, France, Great Britain5, have defined a diachronic framework about different treatments of deceased considered abnormal. Therefore, a general overview of atypical burials in Europe from Middle Ages to Modern period is offered with this paper, in order to underline unusual aspects of past societies, shedding light on strategies adopted to exorcise the death, key moment of community life. Funerary variations can be found in position of the individual and type of burial: prone or crouched positions, mutilations, decapitations, shallow and hastily dug graves are considered atypical burials. Starting from Murphy and Reynolds’observations and with an aware approach, a reflexion on historical, sociocultural and ethnographic developments that led to define deviant burials is indispensable6. Gradual conversion to Christianity and the atmosphere created by Counter Reformation have certainly influenced social aspect of a community: examples from Great Britain, that presents the most cases of funerary anomalies of Europe, and Portugal demonstrate it7. There are also Scandinavia, Slavic area and sporadic cases from France, Switzerland and Greece, where atypical features are linked to the fear of revenants and folkloristic beliefs. Analysis of these deviant burials can be interpreted in different ways: on one side – considering necrophobic aspects, supplied by historical, cultural and religious developments – it seems to immobilize the deceased, punishing and stopping him in the new habitat, so that he cannot return to living people world8; on the other side, these practises – after contextualization – seem to be related to interpersonal violence, post mortem punishment or warfare. Finally a good knowledge of historical and sociocultural substratum is indispensable to make an archaeoanthropological reconstruction of such funerary aspects of past societies. If correctly interpreted, deviant burials can represents an high potentiality for the recomposition of the complicated social reality of past communities9.