Commingled burials and shifting notions of the self at the onset of the Mycenaean era (1700-1500Â BCE): The case of the Ayios Vasilios North Cemetery, Laconia

Our results demonstrate a considerable extent of variation in funerary disposal and secondary treatment during this transitional period. Shifts of emphasis within this diverse treatment, especially regarding bodily fragmentation and modes of dispersal, suggest that, in Ayios Vasilios, a) age, but not sex, differences in funerary treatment were at play, b) mortuary transformation embodies the transformation from narrower (possibly household-based) associations to increasingly wider concepts of lineage and descent, c) tensions between tradition and innovation, as well as integration and differentiation, are evident in the variation of secondary treatment and co-existence of different forms (as already attested in other funerary and daily practices).