LONDON: Neolithic people may have followed a class system, say scientists who analysed 5,000-year-old megalithic graves and caves in Spain.
Previous research on the burial practices of the Western European Neolithic has revealed variation in burial location and treatment, but their significance is difficult to interpret.
Researchers at University of the Basque Country in Spain analysed the bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope measurements of 166 individuals from a series of broadly contemporary Late Neolithic (3500 to 2900 BC) mortuary monuments and caves, closely situated together in north- central Spain.
The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found evidence of C3 plant-based human diet, mostly consisting of wheat and barley, as well as a substantial amount of protein from cattle and sheep.
However, the study revealed significant carbon isotope differences between people interred in both funerary site- types – caves and graves.
These differences seem to be correlated with elevation, temperature, and precipitation, implying that land use was partitioned on a surprisingly local scale, researchers said.
The team proposes two possible explanations. The first is that this division of land could indicate different socioeconomic classes within the same community.
The lower classes were being interred in caves with restricted access to agricultural resources, while the individuals of higher status in the community were buried in monumental graves whose construction would involve a considerable investment of labour.
Alternatively, researchers also consider the possibility that this partitioning of the landscape may involve different populations performing different funerary practises and following distinct subsistence economies in some respect.
“Using carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis of human and animal remains, our study has identified meaningful differences between those buried in caves and megalithic graves in the Late Neolithic of north-central Spain,” said Teresa Fernandez-Crespo from University of the Basque Country.
“This implies that, despite living in close proximity, these communities had distinct life ways involving a partitioning of the landscape,” Fernandez-Crespo added.
This study offers new insights into different mortuary practises and how they related to life ways, particularly dietary and subsistence practises, and implications for the emergence of socioeconomic inequality in the Western European Neolithic, researchers said. (AGENCIES)
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