»All are equal in Death … or are they?«
»All are equal in Death … or are they? West anatolian Burial practices oF the 14th anD 13th century Bce in context«
Filip Franković | University of Heidelberg
Earlier research perceived the Late Bronze Age (LBA) East Aegean-West Anatolia merely as a contact zone between Central Anatolia and the West Aegean. Burial practices played a crucial role in the formation of such interpretative narratives. For example, the research focusing on the process of Mycenaeanization in the 14th and 13th century BCE commonly interpreted the appearance of Mycenaean-type funerary forms as a sign of colonization, foreign settlers and/or political influence. Unsurprisingly, such studies mostly dealt with the sphere of the Mycenaean cultural influence in the southeastern-southwestern part of the East Aegean-West Anatolia, while »local« cemeteries in other parts of the region received only secondary interest. This lecture overturns such interpretative narratives and focuses on the development of »local« cemeteries in West Anatolia. The local and independent gradual development of burial practices will be presented in the context of socio-political and historical changes of the 14th and 13th century BCE in West Anatolia