HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology 61 (2010) 440–452 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology journal homepage: www.elsevier.de/jchb Cremation practices coexisting at the S’Illot des Porros Necropolis during the Second Iron Age in the Balearic Islands (Spain) Giampaolo Piga a,c , Jordi Hernández-Gasch b , Assumpciò Malgosa a,∗ , Maria Luisa Ganadu c , Stefano Enzo c a Grup de Recerca en Osteobiografia (GROB), Unitat d’Antropologia Biologica, Departament de Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Edifici C, 08193 Bellaterra - Barcelona, Spain b Grup de Recerca d’Arqueologia Social Mediterrània, Departament de Prehistòria, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra - Barcelona, Spain c Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Sassari, via Vienna n. 2, I-07100 Sassari, Italy article info Article history: Received 25 November 2009 Accepted 25 September 2010 abstract The necropolis of S’Illot des Porros, one of the most important pre- historic funerary sites of the Balearic Islands (Spain), was in use from the VIth and Vth century BCE until the Ist century CE. Located in a funerary area which contains two cementeries and one sanc- tuary, this site is constituted by three funerary chambers named A, B and C, respectively. Investigations on all the human burnt bone remains of the chambers, carried out mainly by the X-ray diffraction and supplemented in some cases by Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy pointed to the simultaneous use of inhuma- tion and cremation funerary rites, probably due to existing social differences. In particular, it was argued that the chambers were differenti- ated, i.e., B was dedicated to inhumations and A to cremations, the cremations found in chamber B very likely being a result of a cleaning-purification of the burial area. Moreover, chamber C, which is the most ancient (IVth century BCE) and with the largest number of inhumed remains, contains the smallest number of remains that were exposed to fire and just in one case it seems possible to attribute a genuine high-temperature cremation. © 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 935811317; fax: +34 935811321. E-mail address: assumpcio.malgosa@uab.es (A. Malgosa). 0018-442X/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jchb.2010.09.003