Living and dying in the Neolithic period: a collaborative anthropological study of populations in the Lake Geneva basin

A better understanding of past populations leads to a better understanding of our present and our future. To this end, the project ‘Living and dying in the Neolithic: a collaborative anthropological study of populations in the Lake Geneva basin’ focuses on Middle Neolithic communities around Lake Geneva in order to gain a better understanding of their lifestyles, social organisation and the circumstances of their deaths.

We are analysing three major necropolises in this region: Pully-Chamblandes (CH), Corseaux-sur-Vevey (CH) and Thonon-Genevray (FR). These sites are being studied using an interdisciplinary approach based on three complementary areas: funerary recruitment, paleopathology and paleogenomics. Each individual and each bone is studied individually to establish the biological profile of the buried individuals, identify any pathological lesions, and analyse their DNA. These analyses aim to understand the internal and inter-site structure of these populations: kinship ties, residence patterns (patrilocality, matrilocality, etc.), and population genetics. This genetic work, in particular, is part of a doctoral thesis conducted by Rowan Welti at the PACEA laboratory. All anthropological data is considered within a broader archaeological framework, taking into account all our current knowledge of the period, through the many specialities that make up archaeology: archaeozoology, archaeobotany, geomorphology, etc.

The project complements the research of the SNSF Advanced Grants entitled ‘Specialised craftspeople on the move: a holistic approach to Bell Beaker societies in the Alps and in Europe’. Data from the Middle Neolithic will be cross-referenced with data from two major sites from the Late Neolithic and Bell Beaker periods: Sion Petit-Chasseur (Valais, Switzerland), the subject of Dr Claudine Abegg's thesis, and Saint-Martin-de-Corléans (Aosta Valley, Italy). This will give us a new perspective on these populations and a better understanding of how they functioned.