Funerary treatment of immature subjects during the Linear Pottery culture in France

Abstract : Following an enrichment of the corpus of funerary remains from the Linear Pottery period, new questions have emerged [1]. ln  France,  the sites  are often distinguished  in two regions: Parisian basin and the North East of France.  Three  types of  burials are considered:  those in necropolises, isolated tombs in villages and grouped tombs associated  with the habitat  like small necropolises [3]. The latter have only been found in the Parisian Basin where no necropolis  has been discovered  [4]. ln this context we are going to wonder which place the children took in the funeral rites of the LBK in France (Linearbandkeramik French "rubané").

Children were considered to have been treated with very little attention, but many new burials

have been documented that prompt a rethink of this paradigm [5]. lt is interesting  to ask whether  the corpus  is representative of the LBK  populations.  We found   few individuals  buried compared  to the

estimated size of the populations of this period: we have only a small proportion of the headcount. According to Thevenet's study [2], there are two major biases in the Parisian  Basin: a deficit of the youngest (96% of those under 1 year old are missing) and an excess of classes from 5 to 19 years old which could be explained by a deficit  of adults  (35%  of them could be missing) in the funeral recruitment in relation to natural mortality. Moreover, in this region, the immatures are preferentially in graves inside houses and the younger they are the closer they are to the habitat. The immatures are in the same conventional positions as the adults and are deposited in a typical pit, so these are not considered as relegation burials. Moreover,  some of the most richly endowed tombs are immature burials [7], especially for the more recent part of this period. The social differentiation which is observed in recent LBK in adults is also believed to exist in children,  suggesting  a heritable  social hierarchy  and respect for children even in death.