BY CHRISTOPHE SNOECK
The CRUMBEL project (Cremation, Urns and Mobility; ancient population dynamics in BELgium) proposes to study the important collections of cremated bone found in Belgium dating from the Neolithic to the Early-Medieval period. It includes existing collections available at UGent as well as in Federal Institutions (e.g. KMKG-MRAH). In addition, recently excavated material from different urnfields and archaeological site will be included in this project. CRUMBEL will greatly improves current understanding of how people lived in Belgium between 3000 BC and 700 AD. Until now the dominance of cremation as funeral practice from that period in Northern Europe led to limited information on migrations and living conditions. The objectives of this project are threefold:
- Bring back to life the important Belgian collections of Neolithic to Early-Medieval cremated bone
- Establish a map of the biologically available strontium for Belgium that will be useful as a baseline for the strontium isotope ratios obtained from cremated bone
- Look into the possibility to extract further isotopic signals from cremated bone