Left for dead: interpreting human remains in the LBK settlements of the Alsace plain

This article proposes to reconsider the link often established between human remains found in settlements and a supposed ‘deviance’, defined as a failure to comply with the ‘norm’ identified by archaeologists within a given culture. Drawing on discoveries attributed to the Linearbandkeramik (LBK) culture in the Alsace plain (Eastern France), and using data from social anthropology, it seeks to highlight the diversity of practices that may explain the presence of human bones in a domestic context. These reflections lead to the proposal of an interpretative framework, which can be used to identify the social behaviours that might have led to the type of remains encountered in this research (i.e. complete or subcomplete skeletons, isolated bones, bones in ‘bulk’).