Burial goods and social structure in Mesolithic Europe

This paper will present some results of the Ph.D. dissertation by the author on Mesolithic burials in Europe at the University of Münster (Germany). The social differentiation in Mesolithic society is illustrated by many details of the burial rites (e.g. distribution of grave goods, burial construction, ochre etc.). The following examples will focus on the quantitative distribution of sex and age groups as well as burial goods. All results are, however, limited by the preservation conditions of organic artifacts.