Investing in the Dead: A novel model for evaluating social value of mortuary practices in the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transition of the Southern Levant

Abstract

The mortuary remains from the Epipalaeolithic and early Neolithic of the Southern Levant have been the focus of considerable academic interest among archaeologists for nearly a century. The burials – and particularly those burials decorated with beads – have been used as evidence for uncovering the origins of the Neolithic Package; sedentism, incipient religious practices, agriculture, and social stratification. The often-restrictive focus on the social status of the deceased, however, fails to consider the nuanced roles that mortuary behaviours may play within a social context. This project aims to reassess the mortuary remains of the Southern Levantine Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transition by considering the changing social investment in mortuary practices within these periods.

To complete these aims, this project begins by presenting an updated assemblage as the current synthesis of published mortuary remains from the Epipalaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A of the Southern Levant. Using traditional analytical methods, this assemblage is re-evaluated to assess long-standing conclusions about this mortuary record. This project then utilises a novel method – the Performative Currency Model – to uncover the relative social value of diverse mortuary practices and identify trends in social investment in the mortuary realm of these communities.

The results presented in this thesis demonstrate a change in the relationship between the living and the dead, towards a more domestic, intimate, and personal connection with the dead through time. This shift is evidenced by increasing Performative Currency investment in physical interaction with, and domestic localisation of, the dead. In the broader context, this trend mirrors an increasingly close and domestic world amongst the living, suggesting an overarching shift in worldview in the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic transition.