Rethinking Collective Burial in Mediterranean Caves: Middle Bronze Age Grotta Regina Margherita, Central Italy

Drawing on the results of new multi-method research in Grotta Regina Margherita-the largest known Middle Bronze Age mortuary cave in west-central Italy (ca. 1650-1450 b.c.)-this article helps to replace the generic idea of collective burial with a more precise understanding of how the bodies of the deceased were transformed into potent social, symbolic, and sensuous resources housed in caves. It contextualizes this process within a nuanced understanding of settlement and subsistence practices, in which relatively short-lived and small-scale agricultural communities extended inland to the edge of the Apennine Mountains, ritually demarcating mortuary assemblages in caves in the process.

Automated summary

This article draws on new multi-method research to provide a more precise understanding of how the bodies of the deceased were transformed into potent social, symbolic, and sensuous resources housed in caves in the largest known Middle Bronze Age mortuary cave in west-central Italy. It contextualizes this process within a nuanced understanding of settlement and subsistence practices, where agricultural communities ritually demarcated mortuary assemblages in caves as they extended inland to the edge of the Apennine Mountains.