Constructing Kurgans: Burial mounds and funerary customs in the Caucasus, Northwestern Iran and Eastern Anatolia during the Bronze and Iron Age.
Workshop international organisé par Sylvie Müller Celka et Giulio Palumbi du laboratoire Archéorient et Guido Guarducci, Nicola Laneri et Stefano Valentini du Camnes.
- Du 29 au 30 mars 2018, Florence (Italie)
Programme et Inscription

The tradition of burying the dead in burial mounds (kurgans), usually consisting of a funerary chamber limited by stone or brickslabs and covered by dirt and gravel, started in the fourth millennium BCE in the northern Caucasus and then spread south to the rest of the Caucasus regions, eastern Anatolia and northwestern Iran during the Bronze Age and Iron Age. The spread of the kurgan tradition, as well as the territorial, political, social, and cultural values embedded in their construction and their symbolic relation to the surrounding landscape are under debate. The workshop aims to examine chronological issues, cultural dynamics at inter-regional scale, rituals and burial patterns related to these funerary structures. The beliefs and ideologies that possibly connected the "kurgan people" over such a wide geographical area, as well as past and present theoretical frameworks, will also be discussed.
Poster (.pdf)