Archaeologist reveals factors affecting ocher application in ancient burials at Khok Phanom Di

A study by Dr. Sarah Elizabeth Paris published in the International Journal of Osteoarcheology has investigated the link between ocher burials and chronology, age, sex mobility and funerary tradition at the site of Khok Phanom Di (~4000–3500BP), Thailand.

The study examined around 150 skeletal remains excavated in 1985 by Professor Charles Higham, Dr. Rachanie Thosarat and a team of local and international excavators. The remains which span the site’s use were found to have a significant correlation between chronology, burial type, and age, with ochered burials becoming the dominant funerary practice after the initial settlement phase.

According to Dr. Paris, the remains from Khok Phanom Di are particularly incredible due to their excellent preservation; she states, “One of the most incredible things about human remains from Khok Phanom Di is the standard of preservation. In order to fully understand the patterns of bone surface staining across the body and between individuals, they need to be complete.

“This is never the case in the archaeological record; you are always dealing with missing data, but the assemblage at KPD is about as good as it gets. This enabled me to record and analyze staining patterns with a greater degree of confidence that I am seeing a reflection of pigment application and taphonomy, rather than preservation bias.”

Ocher is a naturally occurring iron-rich mineral that has been used worldwide for thousands of years. Some of the earliest examples of ocher are associated with burials around 92,000 years old.

Elaborating on this, Dr. Paris says, “The most well-known examples of pigmented burials are from the Gravettian in Europe, where the selective application of ocher in burials and to specific parts of the body has been linked to sex and pathology. I had not anticipated that the absence of pigment would be culturally more significant than its presence.

“My research demonstrates that ocher is largely a unifying aspect of burial traditions at the site, more so than any other material aspect.”

According to the study, while the initial phase of occupation only had a single ochered burial, subsequent phases were more ocher burial dominated, with Mortuary Phase 5 having 100% ochered burials.

This indicates that during the initial settlement, where, based on isotopic evidence, individuals migrated to Khok Phanom Di, most individuals would likely have brought their varying burial customs with them. This included burial practices that did not include ocher.

Over time, however, the practice of using ocher was more widely adopted, signaling that the people living at Khok Phanom Di were likely to have started coming together as a community. Additionally, sharing the same burial practices may have helped showcase a sense of belonging and shared identity and perhaps facilitated the maintenance of connections with the deceased.

Additionally, the study found that there was a nearly equal divide in burials with ocher between males and females, indicating that sex was not a determining factor in which burials received ocher pigment.

Similarly, individuals with grave goods tended to be linked with ochered burials. However, those without grave goods had a nearly equal split in graves with ocher and without. This potentially indicates that social standing and grave goods were not the only factors that may have influenced who received ochered burials.

Surprisingly, however, the study did find that age may have been a determining factor in ochered burials. According to Dr. Paris, “The absence of pigment is nearly exclusively reserved for some of the youngest individuals who, notably, are also absent of other sitewide burial traditions such as grave goods, or formal grave cuts.”

These younger individuals, such as infants, neonates (up to a month old), perinates (death around birth), were usually interred in shallow scoop graves. These non-formal grave cuts were easy to dig and required less energy than formal rectangular graves.

Dr. Paris elaborates further by stating, “I currently have a follow-up paper in review that focuses more specifically on the perinates and personhood. I don’t want to say too much because it needs to go through the peer review process, but findings from my doctoral research demonstrate that around one-fifth of perinates were buried without pigment and that they were, on average, physically smaller than those buried with pigment.”

Despite these infants, perinates and neonates not being afforded ochered burials, the inclusion within the cemetery boundaries indicates that they were still acknowledged as part of the community.

In addition, it was found that unlike contemporary and later sites, ocher burials were not as common in Nong Nor (3100–2700 BP) and Non Ban Jak (~1400–1700 BP), with only around 5% of their individuals interred with ocher.

Additionally, at some sites, including Ban Non Wat (~3700–1450 BP), inhabitants changed how they used ocher during their funerary practices. Here, initial burials used powdered ocher; however, later, this was changed with pellets of ocher being placed by the head or between the ankles, more akin to a grave good.

This finding makes Khok Phanom Di unique as not only were the majority of its burials ocher burials, with the exception of the first phase of settlement. But at Khok Phanom Di, burials continued to use ochered powder to sprinkle over the body throughout its 500-year use.

Looking ahead, Dr. Paris says, “I am currently looking at the patterns of distribution across the body and whether that differs between individuals, and working more broadly on understanding transitions of ocher use through prehistory.”

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