Tumuli with Circular Ditch and the Ritual Scenario among Corded Ware Culture Societies on the North European Plain

In the literature on the subject, the opinion is predominant that the construction of Corded Ware Culture (CWC) tumuli was connected with a single event, namely the burial of a person. The supposition that all actions, including digging a grave, depositing the body, digging a ditch and raising a tumulus, were made during one ceremony is still commonly accepted. In the last few years, however, in the area under investigation several new finds were unearthed which seem to be contradictory to the opinions mentioned above. This turns our attention to a new more complex explanation. Moreover, we can also use these new finds to reinterpret old data. In this paper the authors intend to analyze certain Corded Ware Culture graves from the North European Lowland. In the next step, the reconstruction of individual ritual scenarios for each of them will be presented. The analysis shows that a round ditch or a tumulus were often merely individual stages in a long lasting process and a very complex ritual scenario.Czebreszuk Janusz, Szmyt Marzena. Tumuli with Circular Ditch and the Ritual Scenario among Corded Ware Culture Societies on the North European Plain. In: Ancestral Landscape. Burial mounds in the Copper and Bronze Ages (Central and Eastern Europe – Balkans – Adriatic – Aegean, 4th-2nd millennium B.C.) Proceedings of the International Conference held in Udine, May 15th-18th 2008. Lyon : Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean Pouilloux, 2012. pp. 321-328. (Travaux de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée. Série recherches archéologiques, 58