Animal Remains in Burials
Résumé
Archaeological analyses have the potential to reveal the role of animals in funerary practices from past societies. This aspect of the relationship between humans and animals as glimpsed from the perspective of burials, benefits from favourable taphonomic conditions due to the care taken in the deposition of the remains and their rapid burial, that protects them from the action of scavengers and weathering. However, positive taphonomic conditions are not always sufficient to provide all of the answers to the questions raised by the animal remains present in burials. Indeed, practices are very diverse across the world and through time, but can also vary between two contemporary burials in the same burial ground. This chapter presents some examples that highlight the role of collection methods, analysis, and interpretation of animal remains discovered in burials as it is impossible to propose an exhaustive inventory of all of these practices,But even with these essentially methodological aspects, it is not possible to treat all cases, nor to take into account all preservation conditions encountered during archaeological excavations. The remains of animal products, for example fat, meat, milk, which can be revealed by chemical analysis of residues in ceramics, will not be treated here.