An interdisciplinary perspective on mobility and cremation practices in the Early and Middle Iron Age in the southern Netherlands
Together with Dr. Lisette Kootker, I started the Travelin’ Bands project several years ago to investigate the relationship between mobility and funerary practices in the southern Netherlands during the Early and Middle Iron Age. The project combines my own expertise as a material culture specialist with Lisette’s extensive experience in strontium isotope analysis, bringing together archaeological interpretation and scientific analysis within a broad interdisciplinary framework.
During the Early and Middle Iron Age (8th–5th centuries BCE), burial traditions in the Lower Rhine–Meuse region changed dramatically. After centuries in which most people were cremated and buried in relatively similar ways, a small group of individuals suddenly began receiving exceptionally elaborate funerary rites. Their graves contained imported bronze vessels, weapons, horse tack, and even wagons and chariots — objects that connected local elites to long-distance cultural and exchange networks across Iron Age Europe.
But who were these individuals? Were they local elites adopting foreign customs and objects, or migrants who had travelled from elsewhere? And did human mobility play a role in the emergence of these new funerary traditions?
Travelin’ Bands explores these questions through an interdisciplinary approach combining mortuary archeology and use-wear studies of grave goods, with radiocarbon dating and strontium isotope analysis. By integrating scientific methods with detailed analyses of funerary rituals and material culture, the project aims to reconstruct not only when these individuals lived, but also how they moved, interacted, and expressed identity through burial practices. And in particular, whether there is a connection between individual mobility and the type of funeral individuals received.
Particular attention is paid to the changing cultural networks reflected in the graves themselves. Earlier Hallstatt-period burials reveal strong connections to southern Germany and Upper Austria, while later La Tène graves increasingly show ties to the Aisne–Marne and Middle Rhine–Moselle regions. Even the vehicles themselves change over time, shifting from four-wheeled wagons to two-wheeled chariots — subtle but significant signs of broader social and cultural transformations.
Ultimately, Travelin’ Bands investigates how mobility, long-distance interaction, and shifting elite identities reshaped the social landscape of northwest Europe during a transformative period in prehistory. At its heart, the project asks a deceptively simple question: when people, objects, and ideas travel, how do societies change?
PS — Yes, the project title is a nod to one of my favourite songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival. Giving papers and projects slightly tongue-in-cheek song titles was one of my PhD supervisor’s favourite habits, and every time I do the same, it feels a little like an homage.