The human remains from early medieval Domburg (Netherlands) and other coastal communities in international perspective: towards an international research agenda for the cemeteries of the North Sea Emporia

Harkel, A.T. ten; Dierendonck, R. van; Farber, E.; Dee, M.; Doeve, P.; Hamerow, H.; Jansma, E.; Le Roux, P.; Panhuysen, R.; Deckers, P.

doi:doi:10.1080/00766097.2023.2204661

Persistent URL of this record https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3715906

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Harkel, A.T. ten; Dierendonck, R. van; Farber, E.; Dee, M.; Doeve, P.; Hamerow, H.; ... ; Deckers, P. (2023)

The human remains from early medieval Domburg (Netherlands) and other coastal communities in international perspective: towards an international research agenda for the cemeteries of the North Sea Emporia

Article / Letter to editor

THIS PAPER ADDRESSES THE QUESTION, who were the people who were buried at the early medievalNorth Sea emporia? Conclusions about the mercantile character of the North Sea emporia are often based on portablematerial culture. In recognition of the fact that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the identities of people basedon finds assemblages, two pilot projects have been completed that involved bioarchaeological analyses of cemetery pop-ulations associated with these sites. The first of these, the Investigating the Dead in Early Medieval Domburg project,undertook multi-disciplinary analyses of the (very small) surviving burial population from the mostly destroyed sitesin the Domburg area (Netherlands), combining isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating, biological anthropology, dendro-chronology, and provenancing and study of previous use of coffin wood. The second, the Medieval Migrants of theNorth Sea World project, inventoried available isotopic evidence for human remains...Show moreTHIS PAPER ADDRESSES THE QUESTION, who were the people who were buried at the early medievalNorth Sea emporia? Conclusions about the mercantile character of the North Sea emporia are often based on portablematerial culture. In recognition of the fact that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the identities of people basedon finds assemblages, two pilot projects have been completed that involved bioarchaeological analyses of cemetery pop-ulations associated with these sites. The first of these, the Investigating the Dead in Early Medieval Domburg project,undertook multi-disciplinary analyses of the (very small) surviving burial population from the mostly destroyed sitesin the Domburg area (Netherlands), combining isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating, biological anthropology, dendro-chronology, and provenancing and study of previous use of coffin wood. The second, the Medieval Migrants of theNorth Sea World project, inventoried available isotopic evidence for human remains from emporia sites in England,the Netherlands and Scandinavia, alongside contextual archaeological information. This paper presents both projects,providing the detailed information from Domburg in its wider, international context, and highlighting the need for acomprehensive research agenda to fill current gaps in our understanding of early medieval emporia populations.
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Early medieval period

Trade

Emporia

Osteoarchaeology

Biological anthropology

History