Excarnation (secondary burial) was practiced at megalithic sites across ancient Europe. Sardinia's Giants' Tombs were communal burial structures. Balearic navetas held multiple remains, and Croatian tumuli sometimes contained modified human bones. The practice involved exposing bodies to remove flesh before secondary burial, with methods including reburial, knife defleshing, and sky burial.
Excarnation practices identified at cyclopean sites
Key facts
- Excarnation (secondary burial) involves exposing dead bodies to remove flesh before bone storage
- Three methods: reburial (maggots ate flesh), knife defleshing, and sky burial (vultures/animals)
- Tombs of Giants in Sardinia contained dismembered human bones with cut marks
- In mainland Italy, Bronze Age custom was shoving bones into caves
- Navetas in Balearic Islands were tombs packed with dismantled bones
- In Croatia (Monkodonja), people took skulls home and piled remaining bones in tumuli
- Toes often left at original excarnation sites, not carried to secondary burial locations
Sources
Tombs of the Giants and Sacred Wells in Sardinia - Italia.ititalia.it
The locals have always called them the Tombs of the Giants because of their sheer size: In reality they are communal burial tombs dating back to ancient times.
Giants' grave - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
Giants' grave is the name given by local people and archaeologists to a type of Sardinian megalithic gallery grave built during the Bronze Age by the ...
The burial in the giant's tombs - La Sardegna verso l'Unescosardegnaversounesco.org
This question is still a topic of debate among scholars. The traditional hypothesis sees, in the tombs of giants, the collective burials of an entire village, ...
Nuragic Tombs of the Giants in Sardinia - Archaeology Travelarchaeology-travel.com
Archaeological evidence suggest these were communal burial structures. These structures are made up of a long burial chamber, formed by a series of vertical and ...
The Giants of Mont'e Prama - The Metropolitan Museum of Artmetmuseum.org
The extraordinary site features individual tombs covered with stone slabs, colossal male statues, sacred stones known as baetyls, and models of ...
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