Headless on the Henares

One of the notable things about the Magdalena cemetery Bell Beakers is that all but two are missing their heads.  Two of those headless Beakers are a woman and an old woman pictured below, 4598 and 4599.  Their mummified heads were cut off with a sharp instrument at some point before skeletalization, or perhaps were they alive?  This follows a series on Alcala de Henares.

The only two Beakers with their heads intact are the baby 4307 buried with the man with the most steppe ancestry (I6471), and the woman with zero steppe ancestry 4467 (I6475).  I have a hunch as to why it is these two individuals were spared head removal.

From Cabrera et al, 2012

But first, let's look at these headless women.  Cabrera et al, 2012 seem to suggest somewhat cryptically (no pun intended), that the two women were human sacrifices for a third headless woman (Beaker associated) buried underneath to which they were intentionally segregated.  To be clear, let me say that that is not Cabrera et al explicitly said but my interpretation of how they have framed the evidence (which is why their quote is below).  Only DNA could resolve this question, for if they are all closely related, like aunts or sisters, then sacrifice is much less likely.

"Más difícil de interpretar es la presencia, en una tumba del yacimiento de La Magdalena, de dos mujeres “decapitadas” a las que les faltan también las prime- ras cuatro vértebras cervicales. Están colocadas sobre el sellado de una inhuma- ción con ajuar campaniforme, al parecer removida (HERAS, GALERA y BASTIDA, 2011:19) y, quizás, depositadas tras dicho expolio. Aunque resulta difícil saber si su presencia está relacionada con la acción de violación de la tumba del individuo campaniforme o por su posible vinculación, en vida, a este personaje. Sea cual sea la causa de la inhumación de las dos decapitadas, lo que sí queda claro es que hubo una intencionalidad en no asociar directamente sus cuerpos con los restos del primer inhumado pertenciente a un colectivo campaniforme."

Whether or not the two women were sacrificed, beheading doesn't seem to provide any positive evidence for a sacrificial act since almost everyone was beheaded regardless of their position or status. Heras and Galera make this observation in Antropoarqueología en la Magdalena:

"Un claro ejemplo de acción antrópica es una de las tumbas campaniformes (Figura 07) en donde se han encontrado los esqueletos de dos mujeres, una adulta y otra madura, en conexión anatómica y, debajo de ellas, huesos dispersos de otra mujer también adulta. Las tres carecían de cráneo y de las primeras vértebras cervicales (C1 a C4). No se ha podido determinar la presencia de marcas de cortes en la vértebra C5, debido al mal estado de conservación del hueso. Es interesante destacar que de los 10 individuos campaniformes, únicamente en 2 casos conservan el cráneo la mujer 4467, y un niño el 4307. Parece que los campaniformes tenían algún tipo de ritual que consistía en el culto a los antepasados, centrado en los cráneos a modo de reliquia."

If we were get DNA on the three headless women, I think we'd find that they were first or second degree relatives deposited at different times.  The intentional segregation of the primary grave from the other two could be interpreted as an attempt to maintain distance between a putrefied, rotting corpse and a fresh interment.

Of course if that isn't true, and there is no meaningful genetic relationship between the three, then some other explanation would be required, and of course that doesn't necessarily require contemporary executions.  If I had to guess, we have something along the lines of a mother/daughter/daughter-in-law type of situation in which the grave was re-opened up to three times.

To the head-chopping.   Although it is possible that these Beakers were engaged in some sort of pre-Celtic head worship, and though the preservation and display of mummified relicts appear to have been in place with British Beakers, I'm somewhat skeptical that this is the case at Magdalena.

I find it interesting that the only graves with meaningful copper are those with heads, whereas in the case of 5005 above, we have evidence that copper was in the grave and is now gone (green stains on the phalanges).  I think what were are dealing with is smash and grab grave robbing (If you're German you may be re-reading that last bit).  Smash and grab.  As far as head removal, either these graves were intentionally desecrated or the heads were removed by the robbers for other reasons.

I'll guess the reason why 4467 (I6475) was spared the looting and head removal is because her grave was not apparent to the pillagers from the surface.  Was her grave older than the rest?  The robbers digging through the mound probably were not even aware a child was buried there as well.  They would rightly assume that it was a man's grave, which they found and looted before the sunrise.