Secondary Burials

Here we document the investigation of the first Australian Aboriginal mortuary tree found since the early 20th century and the first studied by archaeologists and Aboriginal traditional owners. In 2001, a landowner discovered Aboriginal skeletal remains inside a fallen, dead tree while evaluating the tree's potential as firewood, leading to the investigation of the site. The tree was located near Moyston, in southwestern Victoria, in traditional Djab Wurrung country and held the partial skeletons of three Aboriginal individuals-two adults and a child. Clay pipe-stem wear on several teeth belonging to the two adults indicates that these remains were broadly contemporaneous secondary placements from the early post-contact period (ca. A.D. 1835-1845). Along with five additional mortuary trees within 30 km of the Moyston tree, this practice constitutes a previously unknown traditional mortuary pattern and contributes to our understanding of the complex mortuary behavior of the Aboriginal people of southwestern Victoria.

The publication done by the group of specialists from Novosibirsk and Vladivostok is devoted to research of secondary burials in vessels in Japan, exactly in the territory of northern Tohoku region, from the end of the Middle Jomon to the second half of the Late Jomon. The work is based on the wide-range of literature and the reports on the archaeological excavations in Japanese language. Studying of this phenomenon began in early XX century and still proceeds. Within this territory Japanese archeologists have discovered more than 50 sites on which were discovered 70 jar used for burial with traces of secondary burial. As to the territory of distribution of secondary burials, the most part of sites are located in Aomori Prefecture (42 sites), some of them were founded in Akita and in Iwate Prefectures. And more two sites were opened in the southern part of Osima Peninsula (the southwest of Hokkaido). It is clear that the ceramic vessels found in burial constructions were produced specially for the ritual and were never used in other life contexts. As a working hypothesis the authors propose the version about the origin of this tradition in the northern part of the Japanese Archipelago.