House of the dead, Skull building, wells…: diversity and specificities of collective burials during the pre-pottery Neolithic period in the Near East

International audienceThe first stages of the Neolithization process in the Near East are accompanied by a progressive diversification of the mortuary practices. During the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period (8800 – 6900 BC), a series of innovations, among which the gathering of a more or less large number of deceased either in funeral buildings as it is the case at Cayönü in Turkey or at Dja'de el Mughara in Syria or in wells as at Shillourokambos in Cyprus, can be observed. The composition of the groups of individuals deposited in these structures as well as the existence of contemporary burials of other types on the same sites seem to indicate, at least in certain cases, a possible selection. Links between the appearance of these new ways for gathering the dead and the deep changes occuring in the prehistoric Near Eastern societies at the time of the Neolithization can be established