Abstract The Iberian Chalcolithic displayed a remarkable variety of funerary practices, which has been related to interpopulation differences, intrapopulation social‐cultural differences, and complex multistage funerary rituals. Perdigões, a Chalcolithic set of ditched enclosures, reflects such diversity including a wide array of funerary practices. Among those practices is cremation, which, despite relatively rare, is represented in different structures in Perdigões. One of these structures (Pit 40) presents an unparalleled high minimum number of individuals (n = 240), contrasting with nearby and coeval structures. In this study, we analyse heat‐induced bone changes and other archaeothanatological variables to tentatively assess the preburning condition of the human remains. The results of Pit 40 are also compared with other comparable contexts to assess if this unique context presents further funerary differences relative to those other contexts in, for example, body processing. Our results suggest preferential cremation of fleshed human remains, but burning of at least a minority of skeletonised remains and deposition of possibly unburned remains also likely occurred. Body processing appears to be comparable with that of the cremation contexts of Perdigões but contrasts with that of another nearby context (Dolmen of Olival da Pega 2b) in which burned bones were also found.
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