Approche des comportements funéraires dans la région du Bas-Danube à la fin du Néolithique

Around 5,500 BC, the social structure of civilisations from the area of the lower Danube started to change. It was first visible with Hamangia and Boian and then with GumelniÅ£a. It was followed by increasing complexity of worship behaviours. One of these concerned the funerary field: the gathering of the dead bodies to form necropolises. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that the necropolises of the Low Danube were created following different features. Two of them are the sex and the age of the dead. Actually, the age of the dead seems to be the first criterion to enter in a necropolis. The abundance and the quality of the personals and the presence of particular burials in the cemetery show that there were rules to be placed in a necropolis. Moreover, a few individuals were buried out of the necropolises continuing old funerary behaviours. Varna is a specific necropolis regarding the contemporary other cemeteries. The personals inside it and the way the dead bodies are placed are different. The diversity of rituals maybe reflects interregional funerary areas gathering the elite of different villages from around. Finally, the relationship between those elements give valuable indications concerning the way of influences of the origin of the setting-up, the blooming and the decline of the societies from this study. Therefore the appellation “cultural complex Boian-GumelniÅ£a” appears to be reducing the features of this cultural movement. In addition, the civilisation of Hamangia played a more important role in the formation of the GumelniÅ£a culture that it was believed before.