Burial taphonomy and megalithic ritual practices in Iberia: the Panoría cemetery Vílchez Suárez, Miriam Aranda Jiménez, Gonzalo Díaz‑Zorita Bonilla, Marta Robles Carrasco, Sonia Sánchez Romero, Margarita Milesi García, Lara Bibiana Esquivel Sánchez, Francisco Javier Megalithic societies Burial taphonomy Funerary ritual Radiocarbon chronology Iberian Peninsula Supplementary Information The online version contains supplemen- tary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01716-5. Our ability to build precise narratives regarding megalithic funerary rituals largely depends on an accurate understanding of bone assemblage formation. The cemetery of Panoría offers an excellent opportunity for exploring the ritual variability through the study of funerary taphonomy, as four of the nine recently excavated dolmens are remarkably well-preserved. Based on a multi-proxy approach that includes the contextual archaeological features, skeletal preservation and representation indexes, taphonomic processes, and radiocarbon chronology, three main ritual practices can be outlined: (i) primary sequential inhumations followed by the differential in situ decomposition of skeletal remains; (ii) the selective removal of crania and long bones; and (iii) the curation of subadult crania and probably long bones. The use-life of tombs, the intensity of mortuary depositions, and the intentional protection of specific bones appear as key aspects for understanding the variability in bone assemblage formation. 2023-02-02T07:46:21Z 2023-02-02T07:46:21Z 2023-01-07 journal article VÍLCHEZ SUÁREZ, M., ARANDA JIMÉNEZ, G., DÍAZ-ZORITA BONILLA, M., ROBLES CARRASCO, S., SÁNCHEZ ROMERO, M., MILESI GARCÍA, L. & ESQUIVEL SÁNCHEZ, F. J. 2023. Burial taphonomy and megalithic ritual practices in Iberia: the Panoría cemetery. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01716-5 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/79545 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-023-01716-5 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional Springer Nature