Iberomaurusian funerary customs: new evidence from unpublished records of the 1950s excavations of the Taforalt necropolis (Morocco)

Recently, Jean Roche kindly made available some unpublished field photographs and plots regarding the 1950s excavations of the necropolis. In this work we analyze these 'new' documents in order to test the validity of the hypotheses previously advanced, especially regarding the presence of contextual primary and secondary depositions, the division of the bones of the same individual in different graves, each containing the bones of several persons, and the deliberate intervention in previous burial sites. We also describe some additional aspects of the funerary customs of the Taforalt population (e.g. bovid horns and stones associated to the graves). This study supports our previous conclusions and reveals a complex of funerary rituals with the structure of the rites of passage, which probably reflect specific conceptions of life and death, enabling the establishment of group identity. These rituals had probably evolved during the time period in which the necropolis was used.