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all the Same in the Netherworld? a Case-Study for Assessing Identity and Social Markers in Diyala and Middle Tigris Burials

BIGOT, Cécile

I propose to present the results of a systematic analysis of the anthropological data (burial practices, ceramics and artefacts, depositions) offered by the excavations in 12 sites along the Diyala River and the Middle Tigris in Mesopotamia, covering the second half of the 2nd millennium. I wish to assess the possibility to retrieve identity markers and comparative associations, between the Cassite population which reigned at the time, the Babylonian culture with whom the hybridation was strong but not total, the neighboring states (Mittani, Assyria, Elam) which could influence certain practices and productions in the “frontier-zones” or simply be present through individual emigrants and merchants, and eventually local-indigenous populations, who may be recognizable through micro-practices and regional choices. The results will be furnished through different aspects that the funerary data help identifying or, on the contrary, interrogate: the dating of burials determining or not the cultural faciès of a settlement, the presence of foreigners in tombs, cases of welfare distinctions and their meanings, and the problematic interpretation of an unicum in the anthropological record. I intend to explicit my interpretation work with the help of other datas, such as cylinder-seals and cuneiform tablets recovered in the sites.

Session 4. Crafting Identity and Clusters through Material Culture, Iconography and Texts [info]