Sine Sepulchro cultural complex of Transoxiana (between 1500 and the middle of the 1st Millennium BCE). Funerary Practices of the Iron Age in Southern Central Asia: Recent Work, old Data, and new Hypotheses

International audienceOne of the primary characteristics of the Iron Age (c. 1500–329 BCE) in southern Central Asia is the widespread absence of graves, associated with the appearance of excarnation as the most common funeral practice. Based on new data from recent excavations (Dzharkutan in Uzbekistan and Ulug-depe in Turkmenistan) and a review of available published and unpublished data found in Central Asian and Russian archives, the authors question this widely accepted fact. They show that the funerary practices of the Iron Age populations were more complex than previously understood (individual and multiple burials, primary and secondary burials, collection of selected skeletal remains, excarnation, etc.). The archaeological record refers to a broad variety of interpretations, particularly different levels of interaction between the world of the dead and the living