Buried at home? Stable isotope analysis of the late hunter-gatherer cemetery population at Tamula, SE Estonia
Buried at home? Stable isotope analysis of the late hunter-gatherer cemetery population at Tamula, SE Estonia

Summary/Abstract: The function of European Stone Age forager sites with several burials has been debated for decades. One little-known site of this kind is the 4th–3rd millennium cal BC Tamula I (hereinafter Tamula) in south-eastern Estonia. Bringing together the results of archaeological and archaeothanatological analyses and departing from stable isotope based dietary reconstructions together with the idea of ‘you are what you eat’ as a basis for forming a group identity, we discuss the function of Stone Age forager sites with more than one interment. Should these be considered cemeteries, meeting places or ordinary settlements? Bulk stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen isotope (δ15N) analysis of human skeletal remains from Tamula and a spatio-temporally close multiple burial at Veibri (5th millennium cal BC) demonstrate a significant consumption of freshwater resources. However, the stable isotope values from these two sites differ significantly, allowing a clear distinction between the two populations. Regarding these values not merely as a reflection of peoples’ dietary preferences, but also as a reflection of their primary identities and an indication of local ecologies, we argue that the stable isotope data together with the fact that the late foragers were sedentary provides additional insights into the discussion on the structure of buried populations. These new isotope data together with archaeological records from Tamula, Veibri and the Stone Age complex Zvejnieki in Latvia suggest that at least three different types of burial places existed among the hunter-gatherer communities in the eastern Baltic region during the Stone Age. In the future, these preliminary results about the people forming a burial community could be further consolidated by the establishment of local baseline information and the application of stable isotope analysis of single amino acids.

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