Mortuary Behavior and Early Holocene Land Use in the North American Midcontinent

Abstract

Evidence presented here indicates that the regional mortuary record for Holocene hunter-gatherers emerges in the immediate post-glacial period. Data concerning mortuary practices are reviewed from twenty Early Holocene (10,500-8,000 B.P.) archaeological sites located throughout the North American midcontinent. Two types of funerary treatment appear pervasive, primary inhumation in a flexed posture and cremation of individuals. Such cremations were frequently followed by reburial at spatially separate locations. Grave goods largely consist of ornaments, weapon components, and toolkits. The initial Holocene sites described in this article provide the earliest evidence in North America for the appearance of formal cemeteries. Application of ethnographically-derived models suggests that such cemeteries were special-place ritual nodes which may have defined home territories and reinforced group cohesion across multiple generations.