Secondary burial

The secondary burial (German: Nachbestattung or Sekundärbestattung) is a feature of certain prehistoric grave sites of all types, identified since the New Stone Age, which is a frequent feature of megalithic tombs and tumuli. Secondary burials were also a mortuary custom among many Native American cultures.

From an archaeological and ethnographic perspective, the types of burial ceremonies for the dead are divided into two categories: primary burials and secondary burials. Primary burials refers to the initial burial, with temporary or final severance of all physical contact of family and community members with the deceased. Secondary burials may (but do not always) occur after the primary ceremony. Any remains are the focus of the secondary ceremony. These remains are used to alter the spiritual condition of the deceased.

Artificial mounds and other, clearly visible, above-ground structures have been re-used since the New Stone Age (and even in later times, often by much later cultures) for burials of bodies, bones or cremated remains (in urns). These more recent burials, of whatever form, are referred to by archaeologists as secondary burials. They are found in grave mounds, usually in those areas of the site that could at the same time be extended. In larger dolmens, passage graves, stone cists, etc. the re-use of the interior space available was usually closer in time to the original burial (e.g. by the Globular Amphora culture), if necessary also accompanied by the removal or addition of secondary chambers (as in the Megalithic tombs of Hagestad). The mounds of the megalithic tombs, which were usually covered with earth, were re-used following a similar shape as the original grave mound.

Secondary burial in the Holy Land involved an initial interment in a tomb, for example, prone on a bench, until the body decayed. Subsequently, the decayed remains would be relegated to a nearby receptacle within the same tomb. Later, another person, typically a later member of the same family, would be placed on the same bench, and the process would continue. This practice is described in the article on Ketef Hinnom.

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