Phenomenological Approaches to Prehistoric Attachments: The Evidence from Prehistoric, Complete, Animal Burials of the Eastern Carpathian Basin

One of the most meaningful, but at the same time also neglected, aspects of past manifestations are human bonds, which are at the crux of all activities and relations, both in terms of human to human but also human to nature connections. Phenomenology provides possible explanations that take interpretations a step further from traditional material typologies of human bones and of anthropogenic material culture, while also providing us with a method of thinking that would allow the exploration of these faded, emic nuances. Graves are expressions of intense attachments of individuals of past societies, but also serve as beacons in times of emotionally and socially charged events. A way to approach the intensity and importance of these social connections is to look at a specific category of burials, which normally would be regarded as liminal or in essence, purely gastronomic but, due to the special care given to the disposal of the lifeless corpse, such an interpretation becomes naïve. These are the complete, animal burials, which are either encountered in graves of their possible human companions, in a burial ground but in separate graves or in a single standing burial ground. A phenomenological approach to the research of the funerary landscapes of the prehistoric Eastern Carpathian Basin revealed precisely such a group of burials, which, albeit non-human, indicate intense attachments between what we would call owners and their pets, attachments that were honoured and respected by the living.