Cremated human remains and Iberian megaliths: an analysis from the passage grave of Dolmen de Lácara (Mérida, Spain)

Abstract

This paper presents data from a large sample of burnt human bones analysed from a Neolithic and Copper Age passage grave in the inner Iberian Peninsula. The funerary deposition of some 12 kg of burnt bones is uncommon in the cultural context of the Iberian Late Prehistory and allows for a statistical approximation of the material transformations occurring in the bones during the cremation process. The analysis allows us to conclude that cremation was carried out as a form of cadaveric reduction.