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1
Mayo Torné, Julia, Carlos Mayo Torné, Mercedes Guinea Bueno, Miguel Ángel Hervás Herrera, and Jesus Herrerín López. "Approach to the Study of the Phenomenon of Multiple Burials at El Caño, Panama." Latin American Antiquity 31, no. 1 (February 12, 2020): 20–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/laq.2019.99.
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In this article we present a study that seeks to explain the nature of, and the mortuary practices behind, the burials containing multiple individuals at the site of El Caño, Panama (part of the “Gran Coclé” archaeological tradition, ca. AD 700–1000). We set out to test our first impression of these burials as products of sumptuous funerals held upon the death of the rulers that included, among other practices, human sacrifice. With this in mind, our research aims to elucidate the status relationships between individuals, the circumstances of their deaths, and the religious and symbolic significance of their burials. The results reveal the presence of an individual of higher status within every tomb, the existence of a pattern with respect to the status of those who accompany that individual, the practice of mortuary treatments typical of sacrificial contexts, toxic substances, an iconography referring to human sacrifice, and the clear intention of using a burial as a representation of social order. Considering all this, we conclude that multiple burials at this site should be interpreted as high status. Our study highlights the practice of human sacrifice in funerary rituals linked to that status.
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Rhodes, Jill A., Joseph B. Mountjoy, and Fabio G. Cupul-Magaña. "UNDERSTANDING THE WRAPPED BUNDLE BURIALS OF WEST MEXICO: A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF MIDDLE FORMATIVE MORTUARY PRACTICES." Ancient Mesoamerica 27, no. 2 (2016): 377–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956536116000262.
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AbstractThis article reports on the discovery of an unusual type of secondary burial found at two Middle Formative sites in the Mascota valley of Jalisco, West Mexico. We examine these burials within a Middle and Late Formative period context as well as a broader temporal context of funerary customs and mortuary programs involving secondary-type burials. Tightly wrapped, elaborately processed bundled burials were recovered at the cemeteries of El Embocadero II and Los Tanques. We report on the human remains from both sites and examine burial context and biological identity to seek explanations. The individuals selected for this burial treatment are not associated with any markers of high status. These burials may represent a different ethnic, familial, community or ancestral identity, and we consider the broader secondary burial phenomenon as the possible expression of a ritual of seasonal interment associated with the use of a mortuary hut to curate and process the bodies.
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Lloyd-Smith, Lindsay. "The West Mouth Neolithic Cemetery, Niah Cave, Sarawak." Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 79 (October 8, 2013): 105–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2013.5.
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Excavations between 1954 and 1967 in the West Mouth, Niah Cave (Sarawak) uncovered the largest Neolithic cemetery in South-east Asia with over 150 burials. Subsequent work at the site in the 1970s and most recently by the Niah Caves Project (2000–2004) brought the total to 170, comprising 89 primary burials and 79 secondary burials, and two ‘multiple’ burials. The size of cemetery and the scale of the archaeological data are unprecedented in South-east Asian Neolithic archaeology and offer a unique opportunity to investigate the cemetery's origins, development, and history in detail. Analysis of the demographic structure of discrete spatial burial groups within the cemetery and their short term burial sequences are combined to interpret the history of changing burial practice in terms of different social/settlement groups using the cave as a communal place of burial. A new suite of radiocarbon dates are used to date the West Mouth Neolithic cemetery to between 1500 and 200bc. Six phases of burial are defined and the associated transitions of ritual practices are discussed. In particular, a transition from primary to secondary burial occurred aroundc.1000bc, which subsequently intensified into the practice of cremation. This process was likely associated/fuelled by an intensification of economic activity to support more elaborate secondary burial funerals. Two further cycles of primary and secondary burial followed, before the main cemetery ceasedc.200bc. A Post-Neolithic phase of possibly 14 burials (five primary flexed burials and nine secondary burials) is proposed to follow, which while continuing aspects of Neolithic mortuary behaviour, is considered on isotopic data to represent a group of hunter-gatherers living in a closed-canopy environment
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Pereira, Grégory. "ASH, DIRT, AND ROCK: BURIAL PRACTICES AT RÍO BEC." Ancient Mesoamerica 24, no. 2 (2013): 449–68. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956536113000266.
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AbstractRecent research at Río Bec has revealed that interments in residential structures were limited to a very small portion of the population. Although these burials are relatively modest compared to those found in many other Classic period Maya sites, the funerary procedure suggests that they were important individuals in the household. Grave wealth and the size/elaboration of the burial structure do not correlate with the striking socioeconomic differences expressed in residential architecture. In fact, it seems that Río Bec funerary ritual was a private affair focused within the domestic unit, rather than a public display. A study of the variation found among these residential burials reveals two important patterns of mortuary ritual that seem more reflective of ancestor veneration than of social hierarchy: (1) “transition burials” (stressing centrality,verticality,the link to earth, and the transformations of the dwelling) and (2) “occupation burials” (stressing laterality,horizontality,a link to fire and the domestic hearth, and the permanence of the domestic space).
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Standen, Vivien G., Bernardo Arriaza, Calogero M. Santoro, and Mariela Santos. "La Práctica Funeraria En El Sitio Maestranza Chinchorro Y El Poblamiento Costero Durante El Arcaico Medio En El Extremo Norte De Chile." Latin American Antiquity 25, no. 3 (September 2014): 300–321. http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/1045-6635.25.3.300.
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We discuss Chinchorro mortuary practices during the Middle Archaic (7000-5000 B.P.) as demonstrated by 12 funerary contexts excavated at the site of Maestranza Chinchorro, northern Chile. First we describe each of the funerary contexts. Then we discuss the variability of mortuary practices, the configuration of multiple burials, the mortuary treatment of human fetuses, lifestyle, and paleopathology. We conclude that mortuary practices are heterogeneous and that not all subjects received elaborate treatment. Mortuary ritual focused on the seven infants in the group, which included two fetuses of a few months' gestation, something fairly unusual in human prehistory. Treatment consisted in the removal of all soft tissue and the use of sticks to reinforce the skeletons, upon which abundant gray clay was mounted in order to model the human figure. In contrast to the infants, just one young adult woman received complex mortuary treatment. Finally, based on the spatial distribution of contemporary burial sites, we propose that Middle Archaic communities in coastal Arica comprised small groups, including adults and children of different sexes, that settled around key resources like watering holes, rivers, wetlands, and hunting and fishing areas. This resulted in fierce intergroup competition and highly territorial behavior.
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Rodeck, Salome. "Dying with ‘Infinity Mushrooms’ – Mortuary Rituals, Mycoremediation and Multispecies Legacies." Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, no. 3-4 (September 30, 2019): 62–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.7146/kkf.v28i2-3.116309.
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In a world conceptualised as Anthropocene, in which human activities are transforming every part of the biosphere, funerals have become political and ethical activities in new and unforeseen ways. The use of formaldehyde in embalming practices and the release of air pollutants during cremation are only two of many points of criticism which have led to the rise of alternative ‘greener’ burial methods. The ‘infinity burial project’ is one such alternative, but it exceeds discourses on sustainable funerals by highlighting the toxicity of human bodies and challenging cultural taboos surrounding corporeal decomposition. Infinity burial employs ‘mycoremediation’, the usage of fungi for decomposing and cleaning up contaminated bodies and landscapes. Departing from Donna Haraway’s call for embracing situated technical projects in order to make ‘oddkin’, this article explores how the infinity burial project engenders queer communities which dismiss taxonomical lines between species as well as ontological claims about life and death. Drawing on new materialisms’ work on the radical openness of bodies, I explore how the infinity burial project sheds light on the material reality of decaying and the implications of dying in a polluted world.
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Bliujienė, Audronė, Miglė Stančikaitė, Giedrė Piličiauskienė, Jonas Mažeika, and Donatas Butkus. "Human-Horse Burials in Lithuania in the Late Second to Seventh Century ad: A Multidisciplinary Approach." European Journal of Archaeology 20, no. 4 (March 20, 2017): 682–709. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2017.14.
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Contemporary Lithuania, an area of the Balt cultures, is the northernmost region where burials, dated from the late second to the late seventh century ad, have been found with selected parts or whole bodies of horses. This study presents new information about these burials based on a multidisciplinary—archaeological, zooarchaeological, and chronological—approach. Our aim is to reconstruct the funeral rites and the human-horse relationships in Lithuania from the late second to the late seventh centuries ad, to refine the chronology of the horse burials in the region, and to use the new zooarchaeological data for more detailed studies of mortuary practices.
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Charalambidou, Xenia. "IRON AGE MORTUARY PRACTICES AND MATERIAL CULTURE AT THE INLAND CEMETERY OF TSIKALARIO ON NAXOS: DIFFERENTIATION AND CONNECTIVITY." Annual of the British School at Athens 113 (November 2018): 143–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0068245418000102.
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Naxos, the largest of the Cycladic islands, offers a nuanced insight into Iron Age funerary behaviour in the Cyclades and relations between social groups as reflected in the archaeological record. The focus of this paper is the cemetery of Tsikalario in the hinterland of the island, with emphasis on two burial contexts which exhibit a range of activities related to funerary ceremonies and the consumption of grave-offerings. The grave-tumuli found in the Tsikalario cemetery comprise a mortuary ‘phenomenon’ not found otherwise on Naxos during the Early Iron Age. Such a differentiation in mortuary practice can be interpreted as a strategy used by the people of inland Naxos to distinguish their funerary habits from the more typical Naxian practices of, for example, the inhabitants of the coastal Naxos harbour town. This distinctive funerary practice can speak in favour of an attempt by the kinship group(s) that buried their deceased in the cemetery of Tsikalario to articulate status and identity. Beyond these tumuli, evidence from a different type of grave context at Tsikalario – Cist Grave 11 and its vicinity (Burial Context 11) – offers an additional example of a well-thought-out staging of funerary beliefs in the inland region of Naxos. Not only does it illustrate the coexistence of other types of burials in the cemetery, but, alongside the tumuli and their finds, it also demonstrates, through the symbolic package of the grave-offerings and the multifaceted network of interactions they reveal, that inland Naxos participated in the intra- and supra-island circulation of wares and ideas.
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Pettitt, Paul. "Hominin evolutionary thanatology from the mortuary to funerary realm: the palaeoanthropological bridge between chemistry and culture." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 373, no. 1754 (July 16, 2018): 20180212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2018.0212.
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Palaeoanthropology, or more precisely Palaeolithic archaeology, offers the possibility of bridging the gap between mortuary activities that can be observed in the wider animal community and which relate to chemistry and emotion; to the often-elaborate systems of rationalization and symbolic contextualisation that are characteristic of recently observable societies. I draw on ethological studies to provide a core set of mortuary behaviours one might expect hominoids to inherit, and on anthropological observations to explore funerary activity represented in the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, in order to examine how a distinctly human set of funerary behaviours arose from a more widespread set of mortuary behaviours. I suggest that the most profound innovation of the hominins was the incorporation of places into the commemoration of the dead, and propose a falsifiable mechanism for why this came about; and I suggest that the pattern of the earliest burials fits with modern hunter–gatherer belief systems about death, and how these vary by social complexity. Finally, I propose several research questions pertaining to the social context of funerary practices, suggesting how a hominin evolutionary thanatology may contribute not only to our understanding of human behavioural evolution, but to a wider thanatology of the animal kingdom. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary thanatology: impacts of the dead on the living in humans and other animals’.
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Mantha, Alexis. "Houses, Residential Burials, and Identity in the Rapayán Valley and the Upper Marañón Drainage, Peru, During Late Andean Prehistory." Latin American Antiquity 26, no. 4 (December 2015): 433–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/1045-6635.26.4.433.
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The impressive multi-story funerary monuments found in the Upper Marañón Drainage of the northern Central Andes of Peru have long fascinated people. Archaeologists and historians have studied their spatial distribution to define the identity of the populations occupying the region during the Late Intermediate period (A.D. 1000—1450). Rather than focus on monumental architecture, in this paper I explore group identity in the Upper Mara ñon by analyzing the shape and layout of houses and evidence of residential funerary practices. Based on a regional comparative approach, I argue that diversity in domestic architecture and mortuary customs reflects a constellation of distinct collective identities
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Millaire, Jean-François. "The Manipulation of Human Remains in Moche Society: Delayed Burials, Grave Reopening, and Secondary Offerings of Human Bones on the Peruvian North Coast." Latin American Antiquity 15, no. 4 (December 2004): 371–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4141584.
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Abstract A careful reexamination of funerary contexts suggests that Moche (ca. A.D. 100–800) graves were not simply spaces for the disposal of decaying corpses, but contexts periodically revisited by certain members of Moche society. The dynamic nature of funerary practices is documented through an examination of delayed burials. It is argued that these were the product of two distinct ritual processes, one of which involved the storage of corpses to be used as retainers in subsequent rituals. The practice of grave reopening is also explored, leading to the identification of different types of rituals. At least some graves were reopened to remove skeletal parts of possible potent ancestors. Related ideology is addressed by examining cases of bone destruction and the more common secondary offerings of human remains. This study highlights the dynamic nature of Moche mortuary activity while stressing the important role of those in charge of manipulating ancestors’ remains. Finally, it is argued that the Moche shared with their highland neighbors a common vision of the eternal character of human remains, comparable ritual practices involving the human body, and a similar belief in the capacity of the living to influence the course of their destiny through periodic manipulation of ancestors’ remains.
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Rife, Joseph L. "The burial of Herodes Atticus: élite identity, urban society, and public memory in Roman Greece." Journal of Hellenic Studies 128 (November 2008): 92–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0075426900000070.
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AbstractThis paper discusses the burial of Herodes Atticus as a well-attested case of élite identification through mortuary practices. It gives a close reading of Philostratus' account of Herodes' end inc. 179 (VS2.1.15) alongside the evidence of architecture, inscriptions, sculpture, and topography at Marathon, Cephisia and Athens. The intended burial of Herodes and the actual burials of his family on the Attic estates expressed wealth and territorial control, while his preference for Marathon fused personal history with civic history. The Athenian intervention in Herodes' private funeral, which led to his magnificent interment at the Panathenaic Stadium, served as a public reception for a leading citizen and benefactor. Herodes' tomb should be identified with a long foundation on the stadium's east hill that might have formed an eccentric altar-tomb, while an elegantklinêsarcophagus found nearby might have been his coffin. His epitaph was a traditional distich that stressed through language and poetic allusion his deep ties to Marathon and Rhamnous, his euergetism and his celebrity. Also found here was an altar dedicated to Herodes ‘the Marathonian hero’ with archaizing features (IGII26791). The first and last lines of the text were erased in a deliberate effort to remove his name and probably the name of a relative. A cemetery of ordinary graves developed around Herods' burial site, but by the 250s these had been disturbed, along with the altar and the sarcophagus. This new synthesis of textual and material sources for the burial of Herodes contributes to a richer understanding of status and antiquarianism in Greek urban society under the Empire. It also examines how the public memory of élites was composite and mutable, shifting through separate phases of activity — funeral, hero-cult, defacement, biography — to generate different images of the dead.
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Macheridis, Stella. "Symbolic connotations of animals at early Middle Helladic Asine. A comparative study of the animal bones from the settlement and its graves." Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome 10 (November 2017): 128–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.30549/opathrom-10-06.
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This paper is a contribution to the zooarchaeological research on animals or animal parts found in human graves during the Middle Bronze Age in Greece. The animal bones from the early Middle Helladic settlement (MH I-II, c. 2100–1800 BC) and contemporary burials at Asine are presented. The goal is to compare the animal bones from the settlement with those from the burials, in terms of species composition and body part distribution. Through this comparison, this paper aims to discuss any symbolic connotations of bone waste from everyday-life practices. The results show that the most common domesticates from settlement contexts, pig, sheep/goat and cattle, also appear to be the most abundant animals deposited in the early MH graves at Asine. This is consistent with mortuary data from other sites on the Peloponnese, especially Lerna. The pig was most abundant in both settlement and graves at Asine. The similarities between wild and domestic pigs might be important, and are discussed as a possible inspiration for the pig symbolism in MH I-II Asine. I also propose a regional change in the later Bronze Age of how animals were deposited in graves, in which period the presence of wild mammals, dogs, and horses in high status graves increases. Throughout, pig, sheep/goats and cattle remained the most important animals for ritually connoted events such as funerary meals or feasts.
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Miniaci, Gianluca. "Multiple Burials in Ancient Societies: Theory and Methods from Egyptian Archaeology." Cambridge Archaeological Journal 29, no. 2 (December 6, 2018): 287–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s095977431800046x.
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The paper aims at providing theoretical models and data interpretation applied to multiple burials. Challenging the current fuzzy definition of multiple burials in ancient societies, the paper proposes a more accurate classification of multiple burials, with particular reference to ancient Egypt funerary culture, based on two main parameters, which may have influenced the association of bodies: p1) architecture; p2) time span, and three flexible sub-parameters that may be used to customize different scenarios, on occasion: sp1) number of deceased; sp2) age of deceased; sp3) nature of death/deposition. The body has been often considered the real ontological centre of the burial itself with all of the other countable objects intended as radiating projections supporting the body-nucleus. The practice of multiple burials disrupts such a perception as it juxtaposes horizontal, multidirectional perspectives: the role of a new body entering among older bodies and objects, and of the multiple bodies and objects themselves. The study of multiple burials, if correctly framed, can lead to insights into different religious, social, and economic reasons behind the mortuary programmes within a society. For instance, sequential multiple burials reinforce the transformation of dead bodies into part of the burial equipment itself, reducing the centrality of the body and disrupting the narrative tied to individual biographies, increasing an ‘artefactual’ perception.
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Oliveira, Maria Aparecida da Silva. "PRÁTICAS FUNERÁRIAS NA ARQUEOLOGIA: Pluralidades e Patrimônio." CLIO Arqueológica 33, no. 2 (August 15, 2018): 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.20891/clio.v33n2p1-43.
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Este artigo apresenta algumas considerações sobre a importância do estudo das práticas funerárias na arqueologia, com ênfase, ao final, na questão do cemitério como patrimônio. Os problemas de pesquisa relacionados com a arqueologia das práticas funerárias se esbarram com a arqueologia social dos remanescentes funerários, a bioarqueologia social, os estudos mortuários e a arqueologia da morte. Muito aquém dessas pesquisas, no Brasil, os sítios de interesse para esta área de pesquisa foram identificados na legislação federal como existentes, carecendo de demandas significativas de atividades científicas relacionadas às áreas e temas dos estudos mortuários. FUNERARY PRACTICES IN ARCHAEOLOGY: Pluralities and Heritage ABSTRACTThis paper presents some considerations on the importance of the study of burial practices in archaeology, with emphasis, in the end, the question of the cemetery as equity. The research problems related to the archaeology of the funerary practices to collide with the social archaeology of funerary remains, social bioarchaeology, the mortuary studies and archaeology of death. Far short of these surveys in Brazil, sites of interest to this area of research were identified in federal law as existing, lacking significant demands of scientific activities related to the areas and issues of mortuary studies.Keywords: Funerary practices; burial terminology; mortuary studies; archaeological heritage
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Beavan, Nancy, Sian Halcrow, Bruce McFadgen, Derek Hamilton, Brendan Buckley, Tep Sokha, Louise Shewan, et al. "Radiocarbon Dates from Jar and Coffin Burials of the Cardamom Mountains Reveal a Unique Mortuary Ritual in Cambodia's Late- to Post-Angkor Period (15th–17th Centuries AD)." Radiocarbon 54, no. 1 (2012): 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i1.15828.
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We present the first radiocarbon dates from previously unrecorded, secondary burials in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. The mortuary ritual incorporates nautical tradeware ceramic jars and log coffins fashioned from locally harvested trees as burial containers, which were set out on exposed rock ledges at 10 sites in the eastern Cardamom Massif. The suite of 28 14C ages from 4 of these sites (Khnorng Sroal, Phnom Pel, Damnak Samdech, and Khnang Tathan) provides the first estimation of the overall time depth of the practice. The most reliable calendar date ranges from the 4 sites reveals a highland burial ritual unrelated to lowland Khmer culture that was practiced from cal AD 1395 to 1650. The time period is concurrent with the 15th century decline of Angkor as the capital of the Khmer kingdom and its demise about AD 1432, and the subsequent shift of power to new Mekong trade ports such as Phnom Penh, Udong, and Lovek. We discuss the Cardamom ritual relative to known funerary rituals of the pre- to post-Angkorian periods, and to similar exposed jar and coffin burial rituals in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia.
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Beavan, Nancy, Sian Halcrow, Bruce McFadgen, Derek Hamilton, Brendan Buckley, Tep Sokha, Louise Shewan, et al. "Radiocarbon Dates from Jar and Coffin Burials of the Cardamom Mountains Reveal a Unique Mortuary Ritual in Cambodia's Late- to Post-Angkor Period (15th–17th Centuries AD)." Radiocarbon 54, no. 01 (2012): 1–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200046701.
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We present the first radiocarbon dates from previously unrecorded, secondary burials in the Cardamom Mountains, Cambodia. The mortuary ritual incorporates nautical tradeware ceramic jars and log coffins fashioned from locally harvested trees as burial containers, which were set out on exposed rock ledges at 10 sites in the eastern Cardamom Massif. The suite of 2814C ages from 4 of these sites (Khnorng Sroal, Phnom Pel, Damnak Samdech, and Khnang Tathan) provides the first estimation of the overall time depth of the practice. The most reliable calendar date ranges from the 4 sites reveals a highland burial ritual unrelated to lowland Khmer culture that was practiced from cal AD 1395 to 1650. The time period is concurrent with the 15th century decline of Angkor as the capital of the Khmer kingdom and its demise about AD 1432, and the subsequent shift of power to new Mekong trade ports such as Phnom Penh, Udong, and Lovek. We discuss the Cardamom ritual relative to known funerary rituals of the pre- to post-Angkorian periods, and to similar exposed jar and coffin burial rituals in Mainland and Island Southeast Asia.
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Mitkoski, Aleksandar, Aleksandar Bulatovic, and Ilija Mikic. "Necropolis under a tumulus at Veprcani: Representative case of using sacred places during several periods in the past." Starinar, no. 66 (2016): 27–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.2298/sta1666027m.
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Six Late Roman graves and one prehistoric burial have been discovered under a tumulus in the course of investigations. The tumulus is around 11meters in diameter and around 1 meter high and is situated at Veprcani, in the mountainous area of Mariovo in south Macedonia. The graves mostly contained cists of broken stones or slabs covered with stone slabs, one grave was carved into the rock and one consisted of a dislocated grave association. One prehistoric burial containing the remains of a cremated individual and grave goods was encountered under a small stone mound to the south of tumulus. Regarding the grave goods, mortuary practice and funerary rituals of the original tumulus as well as the prehistoric burials, and material from the mound have been dated to the Ha A period, while the antique graves were dated to the 3rd-4th century.
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Appleby, Jo. "Temporality and the Transition to Cremation in the Late Third Millennium to Mid Second Millennium bc in Britain." Cambridge Archaeological Journal 23, no. 1 (February 2013): 83–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0959774313000061.
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Time and temporality have been at the centre of a number of accounts of burial practices in the Bronze Age of Britain in the last twenty years. Up to now, however, the temporality of practice has been taken as an indication of past understandings of time and/or the ancestors. In this article I wish to argue that the temporality of mortuary practices was not merely reflective of understandings of time, but in fact was constitutive of them, and that through the changing temporality of mortuary practices, people's engagement with monuments themselves was changed. These changing temporalities were driven by the transition from inhumation to cremation as the dominant mode of disposal of the dead. By invoking chaînes opératoires for each mode, I will demonstrate the underlying similarities and differences of the two rites, showing how cremation led to a fundamental change in the temporality of mortuary behaviour, and as such created new understandings of funerary monuments and place.
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Adinkrah, Mensah. "Suicide and Mortuary Beliefs and Practices of the Akan of Ghana." OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying 74, no. 2 (August 3, 2016): 138–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0030222815598427.
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Akan society has traditionally held a negative and condemnatory view of suicide. Evidence of this is reflected in the lack of public mourning, brevity of the grieving period, and denial of proper burial rites and funeral obsequies for the suicide. Furthermore, because suicide is regarded as an abomination against the living, the departed ancestors, as well as the gods of the land, the political authorities of the land must be notified immediately of suicide deaths so that proper placatory and propitiation rituals can be undertaken to forestall any catastrophic diseases, accidents, and natural disasters. Given the current paucity of scholarship on the issue, it is the purpose of this article to explore in depth traditional Akan mortuary beliefs and practices governing suicidal death.
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Ivison, Eric A. "Funerary monuments of the Gattelusi at Mytilene." Annual of the British School at Athens 87 (November 1992): 423–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0068245400015240.
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Five fragments from the tombs of the Gattelusi dynasty of Lesbos are presented, which were originally published by F.W. Hasluck in BSA 15 (1908–9). The monuments are published in detail for the first time, and are placed in the context of contemporary Byzantine and Genoese funerary monuments at Constantinople and in the Aegean. The identification of a church, recently excavated within the Kastro, with the Gattelusi burial church is also discussed, with remarks touching upon the mortuary practices of Latin rulers in the Levant. A final section attempts to attribute the tombs to members of the dynasty, using Gattelusi heraldry and iconography.
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Parker-Pearson, M. "From corpse to skeleton: dealing with the dead in prehistory." Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 28, no. 1-2 (March 1, 2016): 4–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13219-016-0144-y.
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The shortcomings of the archaeological record raise many challenges for the interpretation of prehistoric funerary practices, particularly because the remains of most people in prehistory have left no trace at all. Throughout prehistory, most human remains were treated in ways that are archaeologically invisible. A brief review of the sequence of funerary practices in British prehistory reveals major gaps and deficiencies in the burial record. It may well be that the normative rites for much of British prehistory were those that left little or no archaeological trace, such as excarnation through exposure of corpses or scattering of cremated ashes.One form of mortuary practice only recently demonstrated for British prehistory is that of mummification. Scientific analysis of Late Bronze Age skeletons from Cladh Hallan, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, has revealed that they were not only composites of multiple individuals but were also mummified prior to burial. In particular, histological analysis of bioerosion in the bone microstructure reveals that putrefaction was arrested soon after death. This method of histological analysis has been applied to a large sample of prehistoric and historical human remains, and reveals that patterns of arrested decay are particularly a feature of the British Bronze Age from the Bell Beaker period onwards.
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Cullen, Tracey. "Mesolithic mortuary ritual at Franchthi Cave, Greece." Antiquity 69, no. 263 (June 1995): 270–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00064681.
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Mesolithic sites are rare in the Aegean, and Mesolithic burials are uncommon throughout Europe. The Mesolithic human remains from Franchthi Cave, that remarkable, deeply stratified site in southern Greece, offer a rare glimpse into the burial practices of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Mediterranean.
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Elson, Christina M., and Kenneth Mowbray. "BURIAL PRACTICES AT TEOTIHUACAN IN THE EARLY POSTCLASSIC PERIOD: The Vaillant and Linné Excavations (1931–1932)." Ancient Mesoamerica 16, no. 2 (July 2005): 195–211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956536105050224.
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In 1931 and 1932, George Vaillant and Sigvald Linné excavated 34 burials and 17 offerings dating to the Early Postclassic period (a.d.900–1150). The features were located on the ruins of the Classic-period site of Teotihuacan and within the boundaries of a roughly 25–50 ha zone identified by the Teotihuacan Mapping Project as having a dense Early Postclassic-period occupation. The results of Vaillant's excavations have not been published. An examination of the Vaillant–Linné data sheds new light on Early Postclassic-period mortuary ritual and social organization. The identification of several types of burials shows that local people conducted primary and secondary mortuary rituals and indicates the presence of at least two social strata at the site. The content of the burials and offerings supports a division of the Early Postclassic period into two local phases, Mazapan (ca.a.d.900–1000) and Atlatongo (ca.a.d.1000–1100/1150), with these features dating to the earlier phase.
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KOTULA, ANDREAS, HENNY PIEZONKA, and THOMAS TERBERGER. "THE MESOLITHIC CEMETERY OF GROß FREDENWALDE (NORTH-EASTERN GERMANY) AND ITS CULTURAL AFFILIATIONS." Lietuvos archeologija Lietuvos archeologija T. 46 (December 18, 2020): 65–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.33918/25386514-046002.
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The site of Groß Fredenwalde was discovered in 1962 and has been known as a Mesolithic multiple burial since 14C-dates verified an early Atlantic age in the early 1990s. New research since 2012 reconstructed the situation of the poorly documented rescue excavation in 1962 and identified six individuals from at least two separate burials. The new excavations uncovered more burials and Groß Fredenwalde stands out as the largest Mesolithic cemetery in North Central Europe and the oldest cemetery in Germany. In this paper the known burial evidence from this site is presented and the location of the cemetery, mortuary practices, and grave goods are discussed in a broader European context. Northern and Eastern connections appear especially tangible in Groß Fredenwalde and it is suggested that the community associated with the Groß Fredenwalde Mesolithic cemetery was integrated into wider cultural networks connected to the North and East. Keywords: Mesolithic burials, Mesolithic networks, East-West contacts, mortuary practices, grave goods.
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Macāne, Aija, and Kerkko Nordqvist. "More Than Just Zvejnieki: An Overview of Latvian Stone Age Burials." European Journal of Archaeology 24, no. 3 (January 12, 2021): 299–323. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/eaa.2020.64.
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The well-known Zvejnieki cemetery, with 330 burials, is one of the largest hunter-gatherer cemeteries in northern Europe, overshadowing the more than 115 other Stone Age burials from over ten sites in Latvia. This article is a first overview of these other burials, summarizing their research history, characteristics, and assemblages. The authors discuss the problematic chronology of Latvian Stone Age burials and place them in a wider regional context. Most of the burials are hunter-gatherer burials, and a few are Corded Ware graves. This overview broadens our understanding of Latvian Stone Age burials and brings to light the diversity of hunter-fisher-gatherer mortuary practices in the eastern Baltic region.
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Little, Aimée, Annelou van Gijn, Tracy Collins, Gabriel Cooney, Ben Elliott, Bernard Gilhooly, Sophy Charlton, and Graeme Warren. "Stone Dead: Uncovering Early Mesolithic Mortuary Rites, Hermitage, Ireland." Cambridge Archaeological Journal 27, no. 2 (October 20, 2016): 223–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0959774316000536.
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In Europe, cremation as a burial practice is often associated with the Bronze Age, but examples of cremated human remains are in fact known from the Palaeolithic onwards. Unlike conventional inhumation, cremation destroys most of the evidence we can use to reconstruct the biography of the buried individual. Remarkably, in Ireland, cremation is used for the earliest recorded human burial and grave assemblage (7530–7320 bc) located on the banks of the River Shannon, at Hermitage, County Limerick. While we are unable to reconstruct in any great detail the biography of this individual, we have examined the biography of a polished stone adzehead interred with their remains. To our knowledge, this adze represents the earliest securely dated polished axe or adze in Europe. Microscopic analysis reveals that the adze was commissioned for burial, with a short duration of use indicating its employment in funerary rites. Before its deposition into the grave it was intentionally blunted, effectively ending its use-life: analogous to the death of the individual it accompanied. The microwear traces on this adze thus provide a rare insight into early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer belief systems surrounding death, whereby tools played an integral part in mortuary rites and were seen as fundamental pieces of equipment for a successful afterlife.
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Hausmair, Barbara. "Topographies of the afterlife: Reconsidering infant burials in medieval mortuary space." Journal of Social Archaeology 17, no. 2 (April 24, 2017): 210–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1469605317704347.
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Across societies, deaths which take place in early infancy often trigger distinctive responses in burial practices, signifying the ambivalent social status of those who died before they really lived. This paper focuses on burial practices in medieval Central Europe pertaining to children who died before, during or shortly after birth. It discusses the relationship between medieval laity, ecclesiastic power and social space, using three medieval cemeteries in Switzerland and Austria as examples. By integrating considerations of medieval practices of infant baptism, afterlife topography and social theories of space, a methodological and interpretative framework is outlined and employed for approaching burials of early-deceased infants, the social dimension of related local burial practices, and processes of power negotiation between medieval laypeople and church authorities.
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Chicoine, David. "Death and Religion in the Southern Moche Periphery: Funerary Practices at Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru." Latin American Antiquity 22, no. 4 (December 2011): 525–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.7183/1045-6635.22.4.525.
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AbstractThis article explores religion, death, and mortuary practices in the Southern Moche (A.D. 1-800) periphery as viewed through the excavation of grave contexts at the site of Huambacho, Nepeña Valley, Peru. Moche influence reached Nepeña as is visible in the construction of religious buildings at the site of Pañamarca and the presence of Moche style ceramics at several sites. In 2003 and 2004, scientific excavations at Huambacho, an Early Horizon center mainly built and occupied during the first millennium B.C., yielded a series of intrusive graves containing Gallinazo, Virú, and Moche style objects. This contribution contextualizes these discoveries and focuses on the analysis of funerary patterns of burial, osteological evidence, and symbolic meanings with the objective of understanding local funerary practices and Moche religious and cultural expressions. Symbolic references to coast-highland interactions, inversions in body positioning, and possible human sacrifices bring insights into the complex and potentially tense sociohistorical cirmcumstances in Nepeña during the Moche phase.
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Lieske, Rosemary. "COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PRECLASSIC AND PROTOCLASSIC BURIAL PRACTICES AT IZAPA AND IN SOUTHEASTERN MESOAMERICA." Ancient Mesoamerica 29, no. 2 (2018): 289–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956536118000226.
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AbstractExtensive investigation at the archaeological site of Izapa in southern Chiapas, Mexico, by the New World Archaeological Foundation yielded few burials at the site's core ceremonial precinct. Those found were located on the acropolis that supports Mound 30a and defines the north side of Izapa Group B. The majority of caches found in this zone date to the Protoclassic Hato and Itstapa phases (100 b.c.–a.d. 250). The shift in mortuary practices ca. 100 b.c. was accompanied by several changes to the site's occupation and architectural patterns. Study of these mortuary traditions provides important insights regarding the reconfiguration of Izapa's political organization at the turn of the millennium. Comparisons of mortuary practices at Izapa with those of neighboring civic-ceremonial centers El Ujuxte, Takalik Abaj, and Kaminaljuyu during the Preclassic and Protoclassic transitions contextualizes the practices found at Izapa at a regional level.
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Devi, Dr S. Jayalaxmi, Dr Oinam Ranjit Singh, and Dr Th Mina Devi. "Mortuary Customs Of The Meiteis Of Manipur: A Historical Study." History Research Journal 5, no. 5 (September 26, 2019): 113–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.26643/hrj.v5i5.8051.
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The rites of passage are the rites and ceremonies that mark a critical transition in the life cycle of an individual from one status to another in a given society. It covers birth, marriage and death. Death is the last crisis in the lifecycle of an individual. Siba means death in local dialect. It is believed that when the soul leaves the body permanently the man dies. The paper is an attempt to throw light on death and related customs of the Meiteis. There were four kinds of funeral systems such as disposal of dead body in the wild place, in the fire, in the earth (burial) and into the water (river). Disposal of dead in the fire (cremation) in Meitei society commenced from the time of Naophangba. But, the practice of cremation was prevalent among the Chakpas from the very early times. In ancient times, dead body was exposed; the dead body was kept throwing about in the Sumang (the space in front of the house) in the Khangenpham and a bird called Uchek Ningthou Lai-oiba which took away the dead body to a river called Thangmukhong in Heirok. Usually, funeral rites were considered as unclean; therefore, the performers had to wash and cleanse their body. They believe in a future life and in the survival of the soul. The data are based on available primary and secondary sources.
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Meitei, Akoijam Milan, and Queenbala Marak. "A STUDY OF TRADITIONAL MORTUARY PRACTICES OF THE JAINTIAS OF MEGHALAYA, INDIA." Journal of Indo-Pacific Archaeology 39 (September 7, 2016): 74. http://dx.doi.org/10.7152/jipa.v39i0.14715.
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<p><em>The uses of megaliths have been mentioned as many since the Neolithic period. Some of its uses are still in practice in some living communities today. The use of such stones in burial practices is one of its most identifiable continual traits. This paper discusses the traditional mortuary practices of the tribal Jaintias of Meghalaya, India. It compares the mortuary practices prevalent among the Jaintias living in two different geographical locations within the Jaintia Hills District, but at a distance of 36 kms from each other.</em></p><p><em>Jaintias are one of the tribes of northeast India who practice the megalithic traditions in various ways like commemorative, burial, ceremonial etc. Stones like menhir, dolmen, cist, capstones etc. are found in different locations in Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya, India. Among these stones, deposition of the deceased’s bones in cist burials is one of the main practices which continue till today. In this paper we will discuss the different practices connected to these cist burials, the reasons thereof, and the changes that have taken place. While comparing the practices prevalent in two locations (inhabited by the same people) we conclude that spatial distance within the same group also aids in an intra-group difference. </em></p><strong><em>Keywords</em></strong><em>: megalith, mortuary practices, Jaintias, Niamtre, Christianity.</em>
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Lillios, Katina T. "Practice, Process, and Social Change in Third Millennium BC Europe: A View from the Sizandro Valley, Portugal." European Journal of Archaeology 18, no. 2 (2015): 245–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1461957114y.0000000069.
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This paper considers the shift from the practice of collective burials to individual (or double) burials in western Europe at the end of the Neolithic/Copper Age, around 2500–2000 BC, through the lens of a particular mortuary site—the artificial cave of Bolores (Torres Vedras, Portugal). It suggests that the practices involved in making and using collective burials played an important role in this transformation towards increasing social differentiation. It explores how a focus on materiality at different scales, both temporal and spatial, might contribute new insights into geographically widespread and relatively co-synchronous social change.
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Kaliff, Anders, and Terje Oestigaard. "Cultivating Corpses: A Comparative Approach to Disembodied Mortuary Remains." Current Swedish Archaeology 12, no. 1 (June 10, 2021): 83–104. http://dx.doi.org/10.37718/csa.2004.05.
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Disembodied remains of corpses are often found in the archaeological record but seldom interpreted and understood. This mortuary practice challenges our traditional understanding of funerals and what constitutcs a "grave". Through a comparative analysis of prehistoric Bronze Age and Iron Age mortuary remai ns and contemporary funeral practices in Nepal, it is argued that the disembodiment is a cosmogonic act whereby the corpse is an intrinsic part of the agricultural and hydrological cycle. An explicit combination of the past and present for interpretations of the past is a premise for understanding and knowledge production in archaeology, and this theoretical stance is developed and explored.
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Middleton, William D., Gary M. Feinman, and Guillermo Molina Villegas. "Tomb Use and Reuse in Oaxaca, Mexico." Ancient Mesoamerica 9, no. 2 (1998): 297–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0956536100002005.
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AbstractRecently, a major debate has arisen over the interpretation of Monte Albán Tomb 7. This debate hinges, in part, on whether the skeletal assemblage comprised either primary or secondary burials. Previous studies of Mesoamerican mortuary practices generally have recognized only primary and secondary burials in tombs. Findings from a recently excavated tomb in Ejutla, Oaxaca, demonstrate that a third possibility exists: multiple-interment tomb assemblages. These assemblages result from a process we call “ongoing tomb use.” Based on comparisons with the Ejutla interments we propose that the Monte Albán Tomb 7 assemblage may have resulted from ongoing tomb use.
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Pollard, Helen Perlstein, and Laura Cahue. "Mortuary Patterns of Regional Elites in the Lake Patzcuaro Basin of Western Mexico." Latin American Antiquity 10, no. 3 (September 1999): 259–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/972030.
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Based primarily upon evidence from the site of Urichu in the Lake Pátzcuaro Basin of Michoacán, we propose that changes in the burial practices of local elites document a transformation of these elites from highly ranked local chiefs into a socially stratified elite class associated with the emergence of the Tarascan state. Two distinctive mortuary patterns that represent the Classic-Epiclassic and Late Postclassic periods are presented. These patterns vary in the age and sex composition of differing mortuary facilities, the preparation and treatment of the bodies, the mortuary facilities, the types of burial goods, and the location of the burials within settlements. Comparison to mortuary practices from the sites of Loma Santa María (Morelia), Guadalupe (Zacapu Basin), Tingambato, and Tres Cerritos (Cuitzeo Basin) place these patterns in a regional context. By contrasting the earlier mortuary pattern, which is associated with societies poorly known, with the later mortuary pattern, which is associated with the well documented Tarascan empire, it is possible to propose a model of a transformation in regional political economies associated with the emergence of the Tarascan state in the Postclassic period. This transformation involved a shift in elite identity from one primarily associated with imported finished goods from distant powerful centers and control of prestige goods networks, to an identity primarily associated with locally produced, distinctively Tarascan, goods and control of tributary, military, political, and ideological networks.
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Halcrow, Siân, Nancy Tayles, Raelene Inglis, and Charles Higham. "Newborn twins from prehistoric mainland Southeast Asia: birth, death and personhood." Antiquity 86, no. 333 (September 2012): 838–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00047955.
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Double infant burials in unusually high numbers occurred at Khok Phanom Di during a phase associated with immigration and some evidence of early agricultural practices. A study of their stratigraphic context and relative ages led to the interpretation that these were twins. Through an exploration of the medical and anthropological literature of twins, and in conjunction with their mortuary context, the authors conclude that these babies died of natural causes at, or soon after, birth.
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Frie, Adrienne C. "Parts and Wholes: The Role of Animals in the Performance of Dolenjska Hallstatt Funerary Rites." Arts 9, no. 2 (April 26, 2020): 53. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/arts9020053.
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There is a rich iconographic tradition demonstrating the importance of animals in ritual in the Dolenjska Hallstatt archaeological culture of Early Iron Age Slovenia (800–300 bce). However, the role of animals in mortuary practice is not well represented iconographically, though faunal remains in graves indicate that their inclusion was an integral part of funerary performance. Here, animal bones from burials are compared to images of animal sacrifice, focusing on the ritual distinctions between the deposition of whole animal bodies versus animal parts. It is proposed that human–animal relationships were a key component of funerary animal sacrifice in these multispecies communities. The deposition of whole horses may have been due to a personal relationship with the deceased human. In turn, the sacrifice of an animal and division of its parts may have been essential for the management of group ties with the loss of a community member. Particular elements such as teeth, horns, and claws may have served as amulets—perhaps indicating that these were personal items that had to be placed in the grave with the deceased or that the deceased needed continued protection or other symbolic aid.
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Bacvarov, Krum. "Early Neolithic jar burials in southeast Europe: a comparative approach." Documenta Praehistorica 33 (December 31, 2006): 101–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.4312/dp.33.11.
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A typical product of early farming symbolism, jar burial, appeared in the beginning of southeast European Neolithization. Early jar burial development in south-east Europe displays two distinct chronological levels: an early Neolithic core area in the Struma and Vardar valleys and the western Rhodope, and later, late/final Neolithic and/or early Chalcolithic – depending on local terminology – manifestations ‘scattered’ in various places in the study area. It is the early chronological level of jar burial distribution that will be considered here in relation to the first expressions of these mortuary practices in Central Anatolia, in order to throw some light on the specifics of their origins and variability.
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Plohl, Manuela. "Tipologija ukopa na nekropoli "Vrt Relja" u Zadru." Miscellanea Hadriatica et Mediterranea 5, no. 1 (January 7, 2019): 65–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.15291/misc.2746.
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Four hundred and six graves from different periods dating from the Iron Age to the Late Middle Ages have been unearthed in the excavations of the archaeological site of Vrt Relja from January 2005 to June 2006. Differences in mortuary practices implied typological analysis of burials that is presented in this paper. Graves were analyzed typologically and statistically with an intention of attesting long-term burying in this part of the necropolis. Typology enables better understanding of dating of burials, and at the same time some new questions were posed while the paper was written related to abandoning grave area at the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and returning to the same place in the High and Late Middle Ages.
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Lemmers, Simone A. M., David Gonçalves, Eugénia Cunha, Ana R. Vassalo, and Jo Appleby. "Burned Fleshed or Dry? The Potential of Bioerosion to Determine the Pre-Burning Condition of Human Remains." Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 27, no. 4 (February 26, 2020): 972–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10816-020-09446-x.
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Abstract The practice of cremation is often interpreted as an alternative to inhumation, taking place shortly after an individual’s death. However, cremation could be a final stage in complex mortuary practices, with previous steps that are obscured due to the heating process. This project reports on experimental scoping research on a set of experimentally heated femoral fragments from modern and archaeological collections of the University of Coimbra. Sixteen recent femur samples from eight individuals, as well as five femur samples from an archaeological skeleton from the medieval-modern cemetery found at the Hospital de Santo António (Porto), were included in this research. Samples presented five different conditions: unburnt, and burnt at maximum temperatures of 300 °C, 500 °C, 700 °C and 900 °C. Each sample was prepared to allow observation using binocular transmitted light microscopes with ×10, ×25 and ×40 magnifications. Results indicated that, if burial led to bioerosion, this will remain visible despite burning, as could be in cases where cremation was used as a funerary practice following inhumation. From this, we conclude that the observation of bioerosion lesions in histological thin sections of cremated bone can be used to interpret potential pre-cremation treatment of the body, with application possibilities for both archaeological and forensic contexts. However, the effect on bioerosion of substances such as bacterial- or enzymatic-based products often used to accelerate decomposition should be investigated.
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Isbell, William H. "Mortuary Preferences: A Wari Culture Case Study from Middle Horizon Peru." Latin American Antiquity 15, no. 1 (March 2004): 3–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4141562.
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AbstractMortuary practices reveal a great deal about the social organization of prehistoric cultures and their landscape of places. However, tombs are favored targets for looters, making it difficult to determine original burial practices. Very little was known about Wari burial during the Middle Horizon (A.D. 500–1000), even though Wari was an imperial, early Bronze Age culture with a spectacular urban capital in highland Peru. Excavations at the secondary Wari city of Conchopata produced remains of more than 200 individuals, from disturbed and undisturbed contexts. These burials as well as information from other sites permit an initial description of ideal patterns of Wari mortuary behavior. The forms abstracted reveal graves ranging from poor and ordinary citizens to royal potentates, supporting inferences of hierarchical political organization. It is also clear that the living accessed graves of important people frequently, implying some form of ancestor worship. However, unlike the later Inkas, Wari ancestors were venerated in their tombs, located deep within residential compounds and palaces.
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Mickleburgh, Hayley L., Liv Nilsson Stutz, and Harry Fokkens. "Virtual Archaeology of Death and Burial: A Procedure for Integrating 3D Visualization and Analysis in Archaeothanatology." Open Archaeology 7, no. 1 (January 1, 2021): 540–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/opar-2020-0152.
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Abstract The reconstruction of past mortuary rituals and practices increasingly incorporates analysis of the taphonomic history of the grave and buried body, using the framework provided by archaeothanatology. Archaeothanatological analysis relies on interpretation of the three-dimensional (3D) relationship of bones within the grave and traditionally depends on elaborate written descriptions and two-dimensional (2D) images of the remains during excavation to capture this spatial information. With the rapid development of inexpensive 3D tools, digital replicas (3D models) are now commonly available to preserve 3D information on human burials during excavation. A procedure developed using a test case to enhance archaeothanatological analysis and improve post-excavation analysis of human burials is described. Beyond preservation of static spatial information, 3D visualization techniques can be used in archaeothanatology to reconstruct the spatial displacement of bones over time, from deposition of the body to excavation of the skeletonized remains. The purpose of the procedure is to produce 3D simulations to visualize and test archaeothanatological hypotheses, thereby augmenting traditional archaeothanatological analysis. We illustrate our approach with the reconstruction of mortuary practices and burial taphonomy of a Bell Beaker burial from the site of Oostwoud-Tuithoorn, West-Frisia, the Netherlands. This case study was selected as the test case because of its relatively complete context information. The test case shows the potential for application of the procedure to older 2D field documentation, even when the amount and detail of documentation is less than ideal.
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Kador, Thomas, Lara M. Cassidy, Jonny Geber, Robert Hensey, Pádraig Meehan, and Sam Moore. "Rites of Passage: Mortuary Practice, Population Dynamics, and Chronology at the Carrowkeel Passage Tomb Complex, Co. Sligo, Ireland." Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 84 (December 2018): 225–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2018.16.
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The first detailed investigation of the human remains from the Carrowkeel passage tomb complex since their excavation in 1911 has revealed several new and important insights about life, death, and mortuary practice in Neolithic Ireland. Osteological analysis provides the first conclusive proof for the occurrence of dismemberment of the dead at Irish passage tombs, practised contemporarily with cremation as one of a suite of funerary treatments. The research also highlights changes in burial tradition at the complex over the course of the Neolithic. Providing a chronology for these changes allows them to be linked to wider trends in monument construction, which may relate to changes in both land use and climate during the period. Multi-isotope analysis hints at the presence of non-local individuals among the interred and the possible existence of different food sourcing areas at the onset of the later Neolithic period. Preliminary results from ancient DNA sequencing of six individuals from Carrowkeel provide evidence for the genetic ancestry of Irish Neolithic populations, demonstrating their Anatolian origins and links along the Atlantic façade.
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Rothstein, Karla. "The New Civic–Sacred: Designing for Life and Death in the Modern Metropolis." Design Issues 34, no. 1 (January 2018): 29–41. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/desi_a_00474.
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The environmental and social imperatives of twenty-first century cities require a rethinking of mortuary practices. Cemeteries across the globe are nearing capacity, and the number of deaths annually in the United States is increasing as the post-World War II generation ages. Despite their depletive and harmful environmental effects, casketed burial, cremation, and embalming have informed perceptions and policies, truncating access to alternatives. Although today's increasingly secular urban populations, for whom the health of the planet is paramount, are disconnected from “traditional” funerary rites, the importance of transitional mortal ritual endures. Through two design projects—one in an existing Victorian cemetery in Bristol, England, and the other augmenting iconic public infrastructure in New York City—this article argues for the potential of new disposition methods and enhanced public space. Countering the conventional dissociation of cemeteries from daily life, these new spaces of remembrance connect with the vitality of the city to promote intergenerational associations to family, culture, and environmental stewardship.
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Tõrv, Mari, and John Meadows. "Radiocarbon Dates and Stable Isotope Data from the Early Bronze Age Burials in Riigiküla I and Kivisaare Settlement Sites, Estonia." Radiocarbon 57, no. 4 (2015): 645–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.2458/azu_rc.57.18459.
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Four inhumations from Kivisaare and Riigiküla I settlement and burial sites were dated in the course of a project about hunter-gatherer mortuary practices in Estonia, as they were believed to belong to the Stone Age. However, these burials appear to be Early Bronze Age inhumations instead, and thus are discussed separately in the present article. These burials are the first evidence in Estonia of a long-lasting tradition of inhumations without any visible aboveground structures. As the archaeology of the Early Bronze Age in Estonia is poorly known, these four inhumations contribute immensely to our understanding about this time period. Moreover, stable isotope values show that these people had a more terrestrial subsistence strategy than Stone Age hunter-gatherers. Nevertheless, aquatic resources were probably still significant components of their diet, particularly at Kivisaare, and the radiocarbon dates could therefore be subject to significant freshwater reservoir effects. This creates ambiguity in the chronological relationship of these four individuals to burials in stone-cist graves, which are attributed to the Late Bronze Age and which appear to be associated with fully agricultural communities.
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Musgrave, Jonathan. "The Cremated Remains From Tombs II and III at Nea Mihaniona and Tomb Beta At Derveni." Annual of the British School at Athens 85 (November 1990): 301–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0068245400015690.
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Death may be the great leveller, but some families can mark the event more spectacularly than others. In an attempt to set the royal burials at Vergina into some form of mortuary context, the cremated remains from three rich, non-royal 4th-century Macedonian tombs – Nea Mihaniona II and III and Derveni Beta – were studied with an eye on both biology and mortuary practices. This investigation showed that: (i) a neonate cremated and buried with its mother can survive both events remarkably well, with important consequences for the Vergina debate; (ii) the Derveni crater contained two individuals; (iii) the Nea Mihaniona, Derveni Beta, Vergina II antechamber, Vergina III and Phoinikas (report in preparation) cremations form a homogeneous group in terms of fragment size and weight. This sets them midway between (a) their far less substantial Dark Age forebears and (b) the unique whole cremated skeleton from the main chamber of Vergina Tomb II.
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Soós, Bence. "The Late Hallstatt Age Burials of Southern Transdanubia and A Missing Link." Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 71, no. 2 (November 30, 2020): 409–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.1556/072.2020.00011.
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For almost four decades our knowledge about the Late Hallstatt Age in southern Transdanubia has been fundamentally shaped by two significant sites: the burial ground near Beremend and Szentlőrinc. New discoveries in today’s Tolna County, however, lead us to revise some of conclusions drawn based on these sites as well as to realise the complex ways how the burial grounds and the communities using them were integrated into different cultural and social relationships of various scales. One of the main questions is how to interpret the differences and similarities between the two sites. In my view, the recently discovered sites near Alsónyék, Paks and Tolna-Mözs provide new insight how to evaluate the above question and what the mortuary practices of the Middle Iron Age population of southern Transdanubia can tell us about the cultural relations of the region’s communities.
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Li, Liu. "Mortuary Ritual and Social Hierarchy in the Longshan Culture." Early China 21 (1996): 1–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0362502800003394.
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The mortuary data from the Longshan culture provide crucial information for understanding the process of socio-political change from non-stratified to stratified societies in late Neolithic China. This article identifies the variables in Longshan burials that can be correlated with social rank, and then studies four Longshan burial sites (Taosi, Chengzi, Yinjiacheng, and Zhufeng) in two steps. The first step is to classify the evidence for determining burial rank; the second step is to analyze intra-cemetery spatial patterns through time, including the location of graves within a site, the distribution of differently ranked graves and spatial relationships between graves and associated features (houses and pits), the diachronic changes observed in a site, and the depositional practices relating to ritual activities. The results of these analyses suggest that kinship-based Longshan communities were internally and externally stratified in their social structure; that this social stratification was ideologically legitimized by ritual activities that emphasized ancestor worship; and that their society was politically reinforced by an elite exchange network of high status goods at both regional and interregional levels. These social, political, and religious relationships formed the foundation for the development of civilization in prehistoric North China.
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Alexis-Martin, Becky. "Sensing the deathscape: Digital media and death during COVID-19." Journal of Environmental Media 1, no. 2 (August 1, 2020): 11.1–11.8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/jem_00032_1.
Full textAbstract:
Across cultures, death has traditionally encompassed diverse material and ritual assemblages. Funeral practices are a unifying element of death, presenting an opportunity for communal memorialization of the deceased. These practices are environmentally embedded, spanning traditional graveyards and floral memorials, to contemporary green burials and body farms. However, COVID-19 has disrupted socio-environmental practices, due to disease transmission concerns that have manifested new constraints to funerary space. Here, I contemplate the digital deathscape during COVID-19 through three vignettes: the first considers Hart Island mass-burial drone footage and the emergence of a necropticon. The second vignette considers the emergence of domestic deathscapes and their significance to digitally broadcast (DB) funerals. The third vignette, Billy’s funeral, gives interview-based insights into the porous domestic deathscape of a DB funeral guest, Samantha. All three vignettes contemplate the experience of remotely sensing the deathscape and the scenarios that arise when traditionally hidden or ‘in-place’ death rituals arise ‘out-of-place’.