Novel multidisciplinary approach detects multiple individuals within the same Late Bronze–Early Iron Age cremation graves

Cremation graves appear in different forms and shapes, from urns to simple pits and from single to plural graves.
The challenging nature of highly fragmented cremated human remains renders the identification of multiple
individuals within the same cremation grave rather complex. Osteological analyses alone are often insufficient to
detect the presence of bone fragments from different individuals as they are small and diagnostic elements are often
missing, although, detection of nonadult bone fragments within adult bone assemblages (or the other way around)
points to the presence of at least two individuals—one adult and one nonadult—within the same grave.
The combination of osteological analyses, radiocarbon dating, and strontium isotope ratios has proven to be
particularly powerful. At different Belgian Metal Age sites, this novel multi-disciplinary approach enabled to
identify the presence of bone fragments belonging to up to three different individuals within the same cremation
grave who were cremated up to several centuries apart. Whether the presence of these two or three individuals in the
same grave is intentional (e.g. curation) or not requires more in-depth analyses. This study shows the high level of
complexity of cremation burial (intentionally or not) and shows the necessity to carry out all analytical
measurements (i.e. radiocarbon dating, infrared, elemental and isotope analyses) on the same bone fragment to
ensure the results are related to the same individual.