A special body: Exposure ritual of a Bronze Age seated cadaver from the cemetery of Humanejos (Parla, Madrid, Spain)

Abstract Seated positions are extraordinarily exceptional in prehistoric graves and despite the increasing number of new cases its social meaning remains uncertain. This paper presents a new finding of a Bronze Age seated burial discovered in the prehistoric cemetery of Humanejos (Parla). Such a unique burial is carefully analyzed in the context of the IInd millennium cal BC burial rituals. Firstly, the different phases of the inhumation were described through an archaeothanatological approach, which showed that the body was originally bound in a sitting position and then the upper part, which was exposed, naturally collapsed after the decomposition process. Furthermore, the biological features of this young man were studied by the osteological examination of the body and C/N isotopes analyses. Finally, the only object found within the human remains, a flint arrowhead, was examined through use-wear analyses. Different hypothesis are proposed about the possible social meaning behind this strange burial ritual in the context of the Late Prehistory mortuary dataset, from the “bad death” (execution?, public punishment?) to other parallels pointing to the burial ritual of someone special within the community (elite/Shaman).