Project description
Uncovering Baltic ritual activity in pre-Christian cemeteries
From colonisation and forced conversions to environmental change, the Baltic Sea communities faced various pressures between the 12th and 13th centuries. The EU-funded BONEZ project will investigate the role external pressures played in the regional pan-Baltic identity. The findings may transform perceptions of shifting tribal affinities using changes in ritual practice as an index of social resiliency. Specifically, it will investigate funerary and non-funerary ritual deposition of animals at five cemetery sites in Poland, Lithuania and Kaliningrad before, during and after colonisation (1st to 13th AD). To reconstruct where, how, why and with whom animals were treated and buried in pre-Christian cemeteries, the project will combine long-established osteological methods with cutting-edge, high-resolution histological, isotope and proteomic analyses. By analysing bone assemblages, BONEZ will unite the study of Baltic ritual activity with broader academic discussions of pre-Christian religion.
Objective
Baltic Sea communities faced intense pressures from the 12th to 13th century AD, including colonization, forced conversions, and environmental change. The social resiliency of these communities in response to this crucial inflection point remains controversial. Did the external pressures catalyse the formation of a regional pan-Baltic identity? Or did splintered, hyper-local responses intensify differences between communities? The clearest measure of these seismic social shifts is how religious and mortuary behaviour changed in response, as communities create and negotiate a shared identity through the performance of ritual. The BONEZ project integrates multi-proxy osteological methods to investigate funerary and non-funerary ritual deposition of animals at five cemetery sites in Poland, Lithuania, and Kaliningrad before, during, and after colonization (1st to 13th AD). By combining long-established osteological methods with cutting-edge, high-resolution histological, isotope, and proteomic analyses, BONEZ reconstructs where, how, why, and with whom animals were treated and deposited in pre-Christian cemeteries. BONEZ will be the first study to unite the study of Baltic ritual activity with broader academic discussions of pre-Christian religion through rigorous scientific analysis of underutilized bone assemblages. This research has the potential to transform our perception of shifting tribal affinities using changes in ritual practice as an index of social resiliency. The first-of-its-kind integration of these methodologies as well as the regional and temporal scale of the analysis make BONEZ highly innovative and a key case study in the comparative osteology of complex skeletal assemblages. This research will have significant legacy benefits for the broader anthropological community as a state-of-the-art methodological blueprint for multi-proxy research on complex ritual deposits as an index of social resiliency transferable to any geographic or temporal context.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
CF10 3AT CARDIFF
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.