An urnfield cemetery, or jar burial, is a type of secondary burial that involves placing the cremated body of a deceased person into a large jar or urn, within a large defined cemetery area. Additional grave goods might include additional smaller pots, bronze ornaments and beads.
The earliest jar burials may be the Jomon hunter-gatherers, such as the infant burials discovered at the Sannai Maruyama site of Japan. The Jomon[ are thought by some to have been the inventors of ceramic vessels.
Urnfields were commonly used during the Late Bronze through Early Iron Ages of central Europe between about 1300-800 BC, at sites such as Seddin, Sobiejuchy, and Przeczyce. As with other cemeteries, many urnfields would be adjacent to settlements. Asian urnfields such as those of the Sa Huynh culture of Vietnam or the Plain of Jars in Laos are dated somewhat later than the European sites, from about 1000 BC to 300 AD.
Sources
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology, Archaeology Site Types and Archaeology Burial Types.
Rakita, Gordon F. M., Jane Buikstra, Lane A. Beck, and Sloan R. Williams(eds). 2005. Interacting with the Dead: Perspectives on Mortuary Archaeology fo the New Millennium. University Press of Florida, Gainsville.
Roth, Roman 2009 From Clay to Stone: Monumentality and Traditionalism in Volterran Urns. American Journal of Archaeology 113(1): 39-56.
Sorensen, Tim F. 2009 The presence of the dead: Cemeteries, cremation and the staging of non-place. Journal of Social Archaeology 9(1):110-135.
Sprague, Roderick. 2005. Burial Terminology: A guide for researchers. Altamira Press, Lanham, Maryland.
