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The Archaeology of Death
... It was based on an article published in Revista Clio Série Arqueológica, a periodical of the Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil [58], which dealt with the issue of the funerary archaeological heritage. These major themes or areas of archaeology were discussed [1][2][3][4], achieving little repercussion in the case of Brazil. Here, some authors sought to synthesize this plurality of the study of funerary practices within archaeology [5,6]. ...
... Between the 1970s and 1980s, systematic investigations of burials were carried out using social and biological data that were statistically treated [1]. During this period, the texts of the main Anglo-Saxon representatives of mortuary studies were published [4,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. ...
... This has led to studies and analyses of a wide variety of archaeological evidence in detail by means of standardized systems [1], thereby providing useful resources for intensive analytical studies of human skulls. Studies conducted under the archaeological perspective are directly related to at least two different disciplines, i.e., physical anthropology and gross anatomy in medicine [2]. ...
... These may indicate pathologies from general infection of bones or trauma from a certain cause. Studies of bone structure have led to an understanding of nutritional conditions in the past [2][3][4]. Analytical information of human skulls allows the interpretation of the lifestyle of a dead person. ...
This research was aimed at developing metadata that meets international standards for the purpose of managing digital data and images of Thai human skulls for medical studies. The research was conducted by applying the Metadata Lifecycle Model of the Metadata Architecture and Application Team. The model comprises four steps: requirement assessment and content analysis, identification of metadata requirements, metadata schema development, and metadata service and evaluation. The research outcome was a metadata schema composed of four modules, seven data element sets, and 29 pieces of data, each of which had six sets of property descriptions. Metadata evaluation conducted by three specialists in the field of anatomy and forensic medicine and three experts in the field of information science and metadata through free retrieval based on the Continuum of Metadata Quality in four aspects revealed that the experts were satisfied with the quality of metadata at a very high level: 100% for completeness, accuracy, and accessibility, and 94% for conformance to expectations. The developed metadata contain details that can be used to describe the characteristics of human skulls, with consideration taken in the development of the language used, retrieval, access, data exchange, and sharing. Thus, this novel metadata schema can be of use in management of digital data and images of human skulls for the purposes of medical studies, i.e., human anatomy and forensic anthropology.
... El primero corresponde al reconocimiento de la persona social del fallecido por parte del grupo, es decir, su sexo, edad, estatus social, afiliación social y la obligación por parte de los vivos de recordar al fallecido (para más de-talle véase Binford, 1971), ya que no todas las muertes afectan de la misma forma a una sociedad, así como no todos los muertos significan lo mismo para quienes los sobreviven (Hertz, 1960en Binford, 1971. Segundo, el involucramiento de valores sociales y sistema de creencias, toda vez que la muerte y sus rituales reflejan valores sociales y al mismo tiempo son una importante fuerza en su formación (Chapman, R., Kinnes, I. y Randsborg, 1981), lo que permite a los deudos aceptar culturalmente la muerte a través de una serie de actos simbólicos (para más detalle véase Nilsson y Tarlow, 2013). Tercero, los roles sociales de vivos y muertos, los que son puestos a prueba, ya que no cualquier persona puede llevar a cabo alguna o todas las partes de los rituales a los fallecidos. ...
... Tercero, los roles sociales de vivos y muertos, los que son puestos a prueba, ya que no cualquier persona puede llevar a cabo alguna o todas las partes de los rituales a los fallecidos. Así, los ritos funerarios recrean a la sociedad misma, formando una red de procesos que involucran tanto a los supervivientes como a los fallecidos, los que incluso pueden alcanzar posiciones a las que no podrían aspirar estando vivos (Binford, 1971;Chapman et al., 1981;Metcalf y Huntington, 1991;Fahlander y Oestigaard, 2008). El último aspecto es el reconocimiento del medio que habita la sociedad, resignificándolo como un espacio mítico, donde los fallecidos encuentran morada luego de su paso a la vida espiritual (Binford, 1971). ...
The arrival of Spanish conquerors and the imposition of Catholic doctrine produced profound changes in the cosmovisions of America's indigenous cultures. Focusing on the discovery of the San José de la Mocha Mission in Concepción, this article reflects on the impact of the Catholic faith on Mapuche culture through the analysis of pre-Hispanic funerary patterns found in the southern-central region of Chile. As a result, this study identifies two situations: on one hand, contexts where territorial and spiritual domination is manifest through the arbitrariness of a homogenizing treatment of death; and, on the other hand, the emergence of a funerary syncretism in the area to the south of the limit of Spanish dominion, where Mapuche funerary rites, although incorporating foreign elements, exhibit a continuity with traditional practices.
... Ésta -entendida como un campo de estudio de carácter inter y, con frecuencia, transdisciplinario-comprende el análisis de los restos humanos procedentes de contextos arqueológicos, orientado a lograr una mayor comprensión de los modos de vida, simbolismo, organización social, mecanismos adaptativos, relaciones ecológicas y evolución de las poblaciones humanas del pasado (Buikstra, 1977(Buikstra, , 2006Larsen, 1987Larsen, , 1997. Entre sus contribuciones a este campo pueden mencionarse: a) la introducción de la perspectiva tafonómica en el estudio de restos humanos arqueológicos (Mendonça et al., 1984(Mendonça et al., -1985; b) la organización y coordinación de un evento que propició el desarrollo de diversas líneas de investigación bioarqueológica en el país: el curso "Anatomía Funcional y Reconstrucción de Estilos de Vida", dictado en 1989 por el arqueólogo y antropólogo biólogo brasileño Walter Alves Neves (Instituto de Biociencias, Universidad de San Pablo, Brasil); dicho curso, llevado a cabo en el Museo Etnográfico "Juan Bautista Ambrosetti" (FFyL, UBA) (Mendonça et al., 2012), implicó la llegada al país no sólo de una perspectiva novedosa aplicada al estudio de restos humanos arqueológicos, sino también de un conjunto actualizado de fuentes bibliográficas -un bien escaso y, por lo tanto, sumamente valioso en la era anterior a Internet-que benefició tanto a los participantes como a quienes tuvimos acceso a él en los años inmediatamente posteriores; c) la introducción y aplicación, junto con Asunción Bordach, de la perspectiva teórica denominada "arqueología de la muerte" (Chapman et al., 1981) y del análisis cuantitativo del comportamiento biosocial (e.g., Mendonça et al., 1993); d) la realización, entre 1996 y 2000, de cuatro ediciones de la Escuela de Bioarqueología de Campo, una innovadora instancia de enseñanza-aprendizaje acerca de aspectos teóricos y prácticos de la investigación bioarqueológica, desarrollada en ámbitos académicos y naturales de las provincias de Córdoba, Jujuy y Catamarca y de la que participaron estudiantes de diversas partes del país. ...
... Se trata de una disciplina fuertemente desarrollada en el campo de la Arqueozoología, aunque desde los años 90 ha ido adquiriendo importancia para entender los yacimientos arqueológicos funerarios (Duday et al., 1990;Roksandic, 2002, Duday, 2006. La Arqueología de la Muerte, nombre con el que se ha designado el estudio específico de estos contextos, reúne distintos campos de conocimiento para interpretar los diferentes aspectos que interactúan en la muerte desde una perspectiva tanto biológica como social (Chapman et al., 1981;Vicent, 1985). ...
... Combining these radiocarbon dates with geographic location data (longitude and latitude) for all burials allows examination of their spatio-temporal distribution patterns at various scales of analysis, from individual cemeteries and the mortuary traditions documented within them, through microregions to the entire Cis-Baikal region. That many elements of mortuary practices, including those of HG, are systematically linked to various aspects of socio-economic systems is a well-documented fact in the archaeological and anthropological literature (e.g., Beck, 1995;Binford, 1971;Carr, 1995;Chapman et al., 1981;Klaus et al., 2017;Rakita et al., 2005;Parker Pearson, 2000;Saxe, 1970;Tainter, 1978). Moreover, while such mortuary characteristics as grave architecture, grave goods and body treatment have played an important role in the development of relative dating techniques for archaeology and in addressing a variety of questions about past cultures (including matters of culture change and social differentiation), these applications have been essentially limited to farming, peasant, herding, and early state settings. ...
Hunter-gatherer archaeology typically focusses on the details of subsistence strategies and material culture and, in the case of cemeteries, on various aspects of mortuary practices, beliefs, and social differentiation. This paper aims to look rather at patterns of change over time and space in how past hunter-gatherer cemeteries were used from Late Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age (~8600–3500 cal BP) in the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. The approach is based on a Kernel Density Estimate methodology applied to 560 radiocarbon dates obtained for individual burials from 65 cemeteries and representing 5 distinct mortuary traditions. This enables a number of different types of analysis to be performed at different scales: (1) It is possible to examine the overall tempo of burial events at each cemetery or a group of cemeteries; (2) Within each cemetery the spatial patterns of the sequence of graves and burials can be analyzed further; (3) It is possible to compare the different cemetery-specific chronologies within the microregional or regional context; and (4) Although tentatively at this time, the spatiotemporal pattern of cemetery use over the whole region can be visualised. The spatiotemporal analysis of individual cemeteries shows that each one had its own pattern, some very distinct and clear in their characteristics, which relate to the role the cemetery played for the local group, and within the microregional or regional population. On the regional scale some broader patterns such as shifts in frequency of burial events between microregions within mortuary traditions are visible. However, at this scale the existing sampling biases require caution in assessment of the results and future fieldwork will help improve the analysis and insights. On the other hand, many of the individual cemeteries have been excavated in full and such comprehensive datasets already provide a range of entirely new and important insights into cemetery use by the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal.
... A partir dos enfoques fundadores dos estudos mortuários em Arqueologia, as práticas funerárias realizadas pelos vivos sobre os seus mortos no passado teriam sido determinadas por muitos fatores ambientais, sociais, econômicos, políticos e ideológicos (Binford, 1972;Brown, 1971;Chapman et al., 1981;O'Shea, 1984;Pearson, 1982;Saxe, 1971;Ucko, 1969). O perfil do morto dentro da população (idade, sexo, posição social vertical ou horizontal, proveniência geográfica, parentesco biológico ou social etc.) condicionava, em parte, o modo de tratar o corpo do falecido e o tipo de prática funerária correspondente em cada caso. ...
Este artigo apresenta uma interpretação das práticas funerárias e pós-funerárias do sítio arqueológico Toca do Enoque, situado no Parque Nacional Serra das Confusões (Piauí, Brasil). As escavações arqueológicas possibilitaram a descoberta de três sepultamentos no local. Através de uma releitura dos contextos funerários escavados no sítio, foi possível propor a versão presumida dos processos de formação de cada depósito mortuário por meio de uma abordagem tafonômica. Dois sepultamentos eram individuais, o primeiro do tipo primário e não perturbado, enquanto o terceiro apresentou perturbações pós-deposicionais naturais e culturais. Ademais, o segundo sepultamento, uma 'tumba de uso contínuo' (ongoing tomb use) continha dez indivíduos e características complexas de formação, uso e reuso do depósito mortuário. As datações indiretas dos sepultamentos situam o uso funerário do abrigo por povos indígenas caçadores-coletores pré-ceramistas durante o Holoceno médio (c. 6.000-5.000 anos antes do presente). Palavras-chave: Tafonomia funerária. Práticas funerárias. Pós-funerárias. Toca do Enoque. Holoceno médio. Nordeste do Brasil.
... Some scholars contend that mortuary ceremonies (including related ceremonies) were public occasions when shared social meaning and memory were constructed, and these mortuary practices provided venues to reinforce social order and to promote group and communitywide cohesion and identity (Carr 2005a). Archaeologists have argued that lavish ritual performances are staged in particular to establish or reassert political stability (Brown 1971;Chapman et al. 1981;Huntington and Metcalf 1979). Differences in burial practices could also reflect cultural differences in multiethnic communities, membership in particular social groups, or whether individuals have negotiated rites of passage and have been accepted as full members of a social group before death (Whittlesey 1978). ...
Project Location: The project area is located in an area formerly
containing the Ballona Lagoon, a prehistoric wetland
complex in west Los Angeles that is known collectively as the
Ballona in Los Angeles County. This area is today bounded
roughly by Playa del Rey to the west, Marina del Rey to the
north, the Ballona Escarpment (a high bluff ) and Del Rey
Hills/Manchester Bluffs to the south, and Interstate 405 to
the east. It is located approximately 0.5 km east of the Pacific
Ocean near an area referred to as Santa Monica Bay along
this section of the coast, 1.3 km west of the Baldwin Hills,
and 1.6–2.6 km north of Los Angeles International Airport.
Ballona Creek, a drainage that is now channelized, crosses
the project area; Centinela Creek, a spring-fed drainage, once
ran along the southern portion of the project area along the
base of the Ballona Escarpment.
Project Description: Statistical Research, Inc. (SRI), conducted
research, including testing, evaluation to determine
eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic
Places (NRHP), and data recovery at eight sites in the Ballona
(CA-LAN-54/H, CA-LAN-62/H, CA-LAN-193/H,
CA-LAN-211/H, CA-LAN-1932/H, CA-LAN-2676/H,
CA-LAN-2768/H, and CA-LAN-2769/H) (hereafter, the
prefix CA- and the suffix /H will be omitted). Of these sites,
five were recommended eligible for listing in the NRHP:
LAN-54, LAN-62, LAN-193, LAN-211, and LAN-2768.
Data recovery was conducted on these five sites (Altschul
1991; Altschul et al. 1991; Altschul et al. 1998; Altschul et
al. 1999; Altschul et al. 2003; Keller and Altschul 2002; Van
Galder et al. 2006; Vargas and Altschul 2001; Vargas et al.
2005). Research designs and plans of work were developed
and implemented after review by regulatory agencies. In addition,
related research in the Ballona included a paleoenvironmental
study of the area (Homburg et al. 2014). This
study presents the results of the analysis of seven classes of
material culture and six classes of subsistence-related data.
Project Summary: This Playa Vista Archaeological and
Historical Project (PVAHP), which began in 1991, was one
of the largest and most complex cultural resources project
in the history of the Los Angeles Basin. Designed around
human adaptation to a dynamic wetlands environment, the
archaeological component of the PVAHP is presented in 5
volumes. This volume, which represents the culmination of
more than 25 years of research, synthesizes data presented
in the first four volumes into inferences about the Ballona
region’s paleoenvironment, human occupation, and cultural
evolution region over the past 8,500 years. Because of the
presence of a large and complex Mission period occupation
and use of multiple sites in the project area, several chapters
in this volume focus on the ethnohistoric and early
historical period in the Ballona, unraveling the complex
webs of interaction between and among native inhabitants
and Spanish colonists. The results of mortuary analysis of a
Gabrielino/Tongva burial area at CA-LAN-62 is presented.
Additionally, important research on glass bead trade and
distribution from the heartland of Spanish colonialism in
central Mexico, to the frontier in Alta California and into
the hands of Native Californians is thoroughly presented.
This volume concludes with a synthetic chapter that summarizes
the various research questions posed on the project
over the past quarter century, offers insight into new
interpretations for the pre-Hispanic and historical-period
occupation and use of the Ballona region, and links this
work to larger perspectives.
... Combining these radiocarbon dates with geographic location data (longitude and latitude) for all burials allows examination of their spatio-temporal distribution patterns at various scales of analysis, from individual cemeteries and the mortuary traditions documented within them, through microregions to the entire Cis-Baikal region. That many elements of mortuary practices, including those of HG, are systematically linked to various aspects of socio-economic systems is a well-documented fact in the archaeological and anthropological literature (e.g., Beck, 1995;Binford, 1971;Carr, 1995;Chapman et al., 1981;Klaus et al., 2017;Rakita et al., 2005;Parker Pearson, 2000;Saxe, 1970;Tainter, 1978). Moreover, while such mortuary characteristics as grave architecture, grave goods and body treatment have played an important role in the development of relative dating techniques for archaeology and in addressing a variety of questions about past cultures (including matters of culture change and social differentiation), these applications have been essentially limited to farming, peasant, herding, and early state settings. ...
Hunter-gatherer archaeology typically focusses on the details of subsistence strategies and material culture and, in the case of cemeteries, on various aspects of mortuary practices, beliefs, and social differentiation. This paper aims to look rather at patterns of change over time and space in how past hunter-gatherer cemeteries were used from Late Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age (~8600–3500 cal. BP) in the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. The approach is based on a Kernel Density methodology applied to 560 radiocarbon dates obtained for individual burials from 65 cemeteries and representing 5 distinct mortuary traditions. This enables a number of different types of analysis to be performed at different scales: (1) It is possible to examine the overall tempo of burial events at each cemetery or a group of cemeteries; (2) Within each cemetery the spatial patterns of the sequence of graves and burials can be analyzed further; (3) It is possible to compare the different cemetery-specific chronologies within the micro-region or regional context; and (4) Although tentatively at this time, the spatiotemporal pattern of cemetery use over the whole region and can be visualised. The spatio-temporal analysis of individual cemeteries shows that each one had its own pattern, some very distinct and clear in their characteristics, which relate to the role the cemetery played within the microregional or regional population. On the regional scale some broader patterns such as shifts in frequency of burial events between microregions within mortuary traditions are visible. However, at this scale the existing sampling biases require caution in assessment of the results and future fieldwork will help improve the analysis and insights. On the other hand, many of the individual cemeteries have been excavated in full and such comprehensive datasets already provide a range of entirely new and important insights into cemetery use by the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal.
... The funerary practices and mortuary rituals that were used on dead members of given communities were determined by the multiple environmental, social, economic, political and ideological factors of the group itself. The treatment of the body (its preparation and placement within the funerary structure) and its populational profile (age, sex, vertical or horizontal status, geographic provenance, biological or social kinship, etc.), were decisions regulated by the group to which the individual belonged and express a variety of cultural, social and/ or religious beliefs (Binford 1972;Brown 1971;Chapman et al. 1981;Goldstein 1981;O'Shea 1984;Parker Pearson 1982;Saxe 1971;Ucko 1969). ...
The discovery of funerary deposits with atypical and complex characteristics requires the use of an archaeothanatological approach to better interpret the mortuary practices. This approach comprises the processes of deposit formation and the reconstruction of the funerary cycle. Simultaneously, to best describe and classify some types of mortuary deposits—when traditional categories of classification are insufficient—it is necessary to incorporate complementary analytical categories, such as ongoing tomb use, body reduction process, funerary, extra or post-funerary formation processes, or corporeal relics. We present the case study of Burial 2 at Toca do Enoque, located within a Middle Holocene archaeological funerary site from Northeastern Brazil, whose remarkable features required such an approach and analytical categories towards a step-by-step reconstruction for a proper understanding of the funerary practices. Here, we highlight the funerary and post-funerary cycle of the mortuary deposit including the simultaneous and successive disposal of several bodies within a context of ongoing tomb use, with various phases of use and reuse, tomb re-opening, intentional anthropic disturbance, body-manipulation, commingled human remains formed by a body reduction process, and redundant human bones displayed as corporeal relics.
... Due to the relative contextual integrity of mortuary data (O'Shea 1984), it is possible to discuss some of the issues concerning a wide array of the dynamics of that vanished social system and to present some testable propositions based on a sound empirical footing. Today, archaeological study of mortuary data covers a broad spectrum of topics (Binford 1971;Alexander 1979;Bloch 1971;Brown 1981;Chapman 1977;Chapman et al. 1981;Eschlimann 1985;Hodson 1979;Humphreys and King 1981;Orton and Hodson 1981;O'Shea 1981O'Shea , 1984O'Shea , 1987O'Shea , 1989Pearson 1984;Sheppard 1979;Tainter 1975;Thomas 1978Thomas , 1980. According to O'Shea (in press), the promise of in-depth analysis of past social systems, which was anticipated from the renewed archaeological study of funerary contexts in the 1970s, has in a certain sense faded; and the narrowness of current research goals threatens to undermine the archaeological usefulness of numerous mortuary studies. ...
The research presented in this paper aims to study the transfer of patterns of social behaviours into mortuary contexts. It is an attempt to bring to light nested levels and conflicting aspects of human social actions during the relatively short time represented in the Houlouf archaeological record. Different parameters of mortua~ evidence are considered at different levels of structuration using competing or alternative models to make sense of the diversity, variability and patterns observed. The studied cemetery appears to have emerged during a period of tension between competing peer-polities and to have been used for the inhumation of a small elite fragment of the whole society. This elite was composed of four groups interpreted as 'descent groups'. Individuals belonging to this elite were divided into three main ranked occupational categories, and they were probably buried by a craft specialist; a blacksmith acting as undertaker and gravedigger. Rdsumd Les recherches pr~sent~}es dans cet article visent ~. analyser la faqon dont certains aspects des comportements humains sont transf6r~s dans les contextes mortuaires. I1 s'agit de mettre en lumi~re l'imbrication des multiples niveaux du systbme social, ses aspects con-flictuels qui se manifestent darts le traitement et l'enterrement des morts pendant une s6quence temporelle relativement courte de l'occupation de Houlouf. Different parambtres arch~ologiques du programme mortuaire sont ~tudi~s et 6valu6s ~ diff6rent niveaux d'argu-mentation afin de comprendre et d'expliquer le sens de la diversit6, de la variabilit~ et des configurations des vestiges observ~es dans le cimetibre. I1 apparait ainsi que le cimeti~re 6tudi~ a 6t6 mis en place au cours d'une p~riode particuli~rement marqu6e par des tensions entre polities en competition dans la plaine tchadienne. Ce cimetibre &ait r6serv6 ~t l'enter-rement d'une fraction de la population, l'~lite. Cette ~lite se composait de quatre groupes consid6r6s comme 'groupes de descendance' dont les membres 6taient r~partis en trois principales categories de r61es. Le rituel fun~raire et l'inhumation &aient vraisemblament exdcut6s par un forgeron-fossoyeur.
... In der prähistorischen Archäologie ist der Quellenwert von Gräbern für sozialarchäologische Fragestellungen nahezu unbestritten, bei der konkreten Bewertung und Einordnung von Funden und Befunden nichtsdestotrotz aber immer wieder Gegenstand der Diskussion (Tainter 1978 ;Chapman et al. 1981). Bestattungen mit aufwändiger Grabarchitektur und reicher Ausstattung werden gemeinhin als Ruhestätten für Individuen von hohem, auf besonderen politischen, ökonomischen oder religiösen Funktionen beruhendem Status betrachtet. ...
... It is possible that, within cultures, there are differences in the extent and nature of corpse interaction in mortuary practices, especially for cultures with multiple religious traditions, or funerals in select groups such as high status individuals and the wealthy (see for example, Chapman et al., 1981;Parkes et al., 1997). Likewise, it is likely that the nature of mortuary practices change over time within a single culture (e.g., see Laderman, 1996;Walter, 2005). ...
Comparing mortuary rituals across 57 representative cultures extracted from the Human Relations Area Files, this paper demonstrates that kin of the deceased engage in behaviours to prepare the deceased for disposal that entail close and often prolonged contact with the contaminating corpse. At first glance, such practices are costly and lack obvious payoffs. Building on prior functionalist approaches, we present an explanation of corpse treatment that takes account of the unique adaptive challenges entailed by the death of a loved one. We propose that intimate contact with the corpse provides the bereaved with extensive veridical cues of death, thereby facilitating acceleration of a grieving process that serves to recategorize the deceased as no longer a relationship partner, opening the door to relationship replacement and a return to social functioning. The benefits of exposure to such cues are tempered by the costs of exposure to cues of disease risk, a balance that in part explains the relative rarity of highly invasive mortuary practices that exacerbate the latter factor. We conclude by discussing implications of our model for contemporary mortuary practices in the developed world.
... This thesis presents a combination of archaeological and skeletal biological data, building on current thoughts on the interaction between mortuary remains and social systems (cf. Binford 1971; Chapman and Randsborg 1981; Beck 1995; Carr 1995). In the past 30 years there has been great change in mortuary analysis, with the development of new theories and methodological toolkits. ...
A bioarchaeological analysis was performed on the skeletons from Cameron's Point Mound C, a Middle Woodland burial mound dated to AD 100 +/-55. The mound is located on the north shore of Rice Lake, near Peterborough, Ontario. Past analysis performed in the late 1960s seemed to indicate that the clear bipartite burial pattern of sub-floor semi-articulated and articulated pit burials and disarticulated fill burials was due to rank differences. The goal of this analysis was to reexamine this hypothesis through analysis of the representativeness of the mound series, age/sex compositions, evidence of mortuary processing, and biological structure in order to examine Cameron's Point group membership and test for possible rank differences in the fill and sub-floor burials. A reconstruction of a possible mortuary program whose end-stage could result in this type of patterning was performed, ultimately discounting the rank hypothesis, and increasing the understanding of Middle Woodland mortuary practices.
... One of the aims of this thesis is to identify possible familial relationships within the reveal more about what the living perform for their dead (e.g.: Agarwal and Glencross, 2011;Murphy, 2008;Knudson and Stojanowski, 2008;Chapman et al., 1981;Humphreys and King, 1981;and Roberts et al., 1989). This information is fascinating, but it reveals more about the living than the dead themselves (Pearson, 2011). ...
Skeletal variants are often used by biological anthropologists in the study of human variation. Some skeletal variants are affected by environmental factors, especially those related to physical activities whereas others are genetic in origin. Such genetic variants have long been used to support the hypotheses on the history and divergence of human populations suggesting that some population groups can be genetically distinguished. However, when genetic traits occur in higher than expected frequency, such skeletal variants can be interpreted as possible indicators of relatedness. This study reviews the frequency of 126 cranial and postcranial skeletal variants within the Medieval Poulton Chapel, St. Owen’s Church and Norton Priory Collections, U.K. These traits were examined to determine; 1) the prevalence, 2) whether there are significant differences between the sexes and/or by age category and, 3) if there are mechanical differences between the samples, with means for distinguishing between rural and urban populations and/or by social segregation. Finally, the spatial distributions of skeletal variants within the burial ground of Poulton Chapel were explored to determine possible familiar relationships.
This thesis has demonstrated the frequency and variance of 126 skeletal variants and, significant differences were reported between the sexes and by age-at-death for each site, however, the skeletal variants presenting such differences differed between the three sites. Some significant differences were apparent for skeletal variants influenced by mechanical/physical activity for each sample although the results are not definitive in establishing occupational divides between the rural Poulton Chapel and the urban St. Owen’s Church Collections, or as a social divide to the monastic Norton Priory Collection. Interestingly, Poulton Chapel and Norton Priory share 60 skeletal variants while St. Owen’s Church only shares seven traits with Norton Priory and just three with the Poulton Chapel sample. This suggests a likely geographical north-south divide between these three sites. Unfortunately, the burial spatial analysis at Poulton Chapel is inconclusive. However, the value of the vertebral skeletal variants as a proxy for determining familiar relationships should be raised and used for future research.
... Cabe resaltar la cercanía de otros megalitos no funerarios (Osaba et al., 1971). Este fenómeno está presente en diversas zonas del continente europeo (Chapman et al., 1981). Unas son estructuras no funerarias (menhires, alineamientos y crómlech) y otras son de tipo funerario (paradolmenes y dolmenes). ...
This article focuses on the study of the ceiling of the corridor of the Dolmen of Cubillejo de Lara, Burgos, Spain. The process of computerisation has contributed to a better comprehension of what may or may not have been possible for its original architecture. During the study, previously lost information regarding petroglyphs within the corridor was recovered, which has been very important in understanding the structural solution of this structure in the past. This has been the fruit of interdisciplinary work, where the diagnosis of the state of the stone has played a fundamental role, assisted by techniques such as orthophotogrammetry, three-dimensional (3D) modelling and geographic information system (GIS), to recognise how the process of degradation has shaped the current condition of the corridor as part of the construction, in such a way as to be capable to reconstruct its possible original form through its current state. The result has been contrasted with other concurrent dolmens existent in the area, which has confirmed the validity of virtual reconstructions to confront hypotheses sustained for decades without further evidence to back them.
... Literalmente "piedra grande". Este fenómeno está presente en diversas zonas del continente europeo (Chapman et al., 1981). Unas son estructuras no funerarias (menhires, alineamientos y crómlech) y otras son de tipo funerario (paradolmenes y dolmenes). ...
This article focuses on the study of the ceiling of the corridor of the Dolmen of Cubillejo de Lara, Burgos, Spain. The process of computerisation has contributed to a better comprehension of what may or may not have been possible for its original architecture. During the study, previously lost information regarding petroglyphs within the corridor was recovered, which has been very important in understanding the structural solution of this structure in the past. This has been the fruit of interdisciplinary work, where the diagnosis of the state of the stone has played a fundamental role, assisted by techniques such as orthophotogrammetry, three-dimensional (3D) modelling and geographic information system (GIS), to recognise how the process of degradation has shaped the current condition of the corridor as part of the construction, in such a way as to be capable to reconstruct its possible original form through its current state. The result has been contrasted with other concurrent dolmens existent in the area, which has confirmed the validity of virtual reconstructions to confront hypotheses sustained for decades without further evidence to back them.
... Studier av gravar och gravskick har haft en central roll inom arkeologin, i princip så länge den existerat som vetenskaplig disciplin (e.g. Brown 1971;Chapman et al. 1981;Parker Pearson 1999). Det beror i hög grad på att mycket av arkeologins källmaterial framkommit just i gravar. ...
... Burial goods are one of the firmest indicators of social status (Baitzel and Goldstein, 2014;Chapman, 1982;Chapman et al., 1981;Robb et al., 2001). Regrettably, Graves 25 and 38A were looted in antiquity. ...
Este trabalho introduz uma discussão sobre a individualidade nas práticas funerárias pré-históricas. Nos últimos anos o conceito de indivíduo ganhou espaço nas ciências sociais e humanas e os trabalhos realizados até hoje focam, especialmente, nas características coletivas das práticas funerárias e na busca das semelhanças. Portanto, com a finalidade de identificar traços da individualidade nas práticas funerárias pré-históricas foram utilizadas como exemplo as informações publicadas sobre o sítio arqueológico Furna do Estrago. Como resultado verifica-se, preliminarmente, que é possível inferir traços de representação individual em relação aos acompanhamentos e a idade.
Esse artigo analisa a função religiosa nas pedras rúnicas, monumentos erguidos para os vivos e os mortos, os quais passaram cada vez mais a desempenhar um caráter fúnebre, atuando como cenotáfios no século XI, na Suécia. A partir de estudos da Simbologia, da Arqueologia da Morte e dos Estudos Escandinavos, analisamos o simbolismo religioso presente nas pedras rúnicas, corroborando que estes monumentos possuiriam duas características religiosas preponderantes: atuariam como guia para as almas e possuiriam funções apotropaicas.
The southern Levant is probably the most excavated and surveyed part of the world. While many past studies have attempted to use this wealth of information, they usually focused on certain phenomena and, moreover, the data was not systematically quantified. This study presents a new, quantitative, approach to the data. We rely on two datasets: (1) the published results of salvage excavations, carried out mainly in small sites; (2) the excavations published in the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land, which includes mainly central sites. These databases not only cover both large-scale excavations of major sites and salvage excavations in the countryside, but also enable a quantitative analysis which has a potential to transform our understanding of past social and demographic phenomena. To exemplify this potential, we study the proportion of burials within the different sub-sets of the databases. This broad overview reveals some drastic changes over time, including periods from which very few burials were identified (Early Bronze Age II-III, Iron Age, Middle Ages), and others in which burials comprised around half of the finds (Intermediate Bronze Age, Roman period). The paper analyzes these phenomena and highlights the potential of the data to illuminate other questions.
Graves have always been important to archaeology. But what are we met with in a grave? The traces of someone who once was - or has the burial created a new person? Can only the living die and be buried? In this volume old material encounters new perspectives. The focus is not just on the deceased, but also on accompanying artefacts, animals and the survivors. What roles did they play? Here, these and other questions are discussed, with examples from the Stone Age to the present.
Paleopathology has become the quintessential interdisciplinary subject. While disciplines such as medicine and biology are intuitive foundations for paleopathology, and have played key roles in the diagnosis of diseases, social theories are playing an increasingly critical role in the interpretation of pathological lesions. Theories centering on socioeconomic status, the construction of human agency and identity, feminist and gender paradigms, concepts of disability, and the application of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Hypothesis, for instance, contribute to a complex and nuanced understanding of health and disease in the past.
This paper concerns the material culture of Finnish Mesolithic and Neolithic
hunter-gatherer mortuary practices. Although the perishable materials – including
the human remains – are poorly preserved, the graves nevertheless contain large
numbers of objects made of unperishable materials. In this paper, this largely
unpublished material is complied for the first time into a single study. As a grand
narrative, the find material is viewed in the light of change and continuity in the
material culture of death among ancient hunter-gatherers. The general trends in
how certain materials or artefact types were used in mortuary practices are also
explored. In conclusion, it seems that although most of the finds derive from the
graves of the Neolithic Typical Comb Ware Culture (c. 3900–3500 cal BC), the
artefacts are not merely imported exotic raw material, but are also packed with
symbolic overtones.
Archaeological studies of culture contact often presuppose culture change. Contact that did not result in culture change is difficult to identify archaeologically, but it merits our attention for understanding how and why change failed to materialize in the wake of cultural encounter. In this paper, I examine the occurrence of contact without change on the frontier of the south-central Andean Tiwanaku state (AD 400–1100). Tiwanaku settlers who colonized the uninhabited middle Moquegua valley in the seventh century AD shared a mortuary landscape with coastal sojourners at the site of Omo M10, even though their interactions were otherwise limited. Complex regional histories and divergent economic interests explain why contact between highland and coastal groups was confined to mortuary rituals during the initial stage of contact, following a Tiwanaku pattern in Moquegua of ritualizing culture contact. Later generations of Tiwanaku colonists may have reinitiated contact with coastal communities for access to marine resources, and accepting foreigners into their community. This case study presents a framework for identifying culture contact without culture change. It demonstrates the utility of regional histories and careful contextual analysis for hypothesizing the nature and consequences of cultural encounters that did not follow expected trajectories of change.
The Chachapoya culture of northern Peru (AD 800–1470) is often associated with elaborate and visually striking mortuary structures such as anthropomorphic sarcophagi known as purunmachus and burial chullpas, precariously situated within the Andean vertical environment. This study focuses on the archaeological site of La Petaca, an exposed natural rock escarpment that was chosen as a sacred space, housing a series of funerary structures located across the cliff. Natural overhangs were selected as open collective buriaIs; however, a large number of small structures were also built into this vertical environment to serve similarly as communal tombs. An analysis of the spatial dimensions reflected in this mortuary expression allows us to explore the ritual creation of this space by the living to commemorate and honor the dead. By using an innovative method of data retrieval and recording, it appears that individuals were deposited over a period of time, resulting in a gradual accumulation and unintentional commingling of the dead. This decision to both construct and continuously return to small sacred spaces within a challenging physical environment illustrates the importance of cave burials and chullpas within the greater Chachapoya ritual landscape and how the placement of the dead was vital to the creation of group identity.
The study aimed at examining the perception and practices of residents as regards the disposal of corpses and carcasses in Ile-Ife, a traditional African city. A total of 192 residents were sampled for questionnaire administration. The study found that the residents were of different of socioeconomic and housing characteristics. On the disposal of the dead, it was found that dumping was the usual method of disposal of carcasses. For disposal of corpses, 77.9% of residents in Ile-Ife would bury their dead around houses. Findings also revealed that 66.8% of the residents preferred burial with coffin while 30.5% said they would prefer burial without coffin. Also, 57.4% of the residents agreed that the dead could be buried around the house, 18.1% were neutral to the proposition and 24.5% disagreed with the proposition. Findings also revealed that most of the residents (78.2%) had no knowledge about the polluting effects of disposal of the dead on the nearby water sources. This study concluded that the disposal of the dead in the study area is not environmentally-friendly and with no health concern.
During the Early Bronze Age I, on the eve of establishing fortified towns on the southeastern Dead Sea Plain, people buried their dead in secondary mortuary rituals in cemeteries at Bab adh-Dhra‵, Fifa, and an-Naqa/es-Safi. While we know nothing of the living communities or their primary mortuary practices, we know the EBA people carefully collected even the smallest bones of their dead and transported them down to this area for burial in shaft or cist tombs. Drawing on ethnographic analogies and recently published skeletal analyses from Bab adh-Dhra‵, I explore potential anxieties attached to the living and dying in these communities.
Archaeological research in the Valley of Oaxaca has shown that the Late/Terminal Formative period (500 B.C.-A.D. 200) was a time of dramatic social change, perhaps culminating in the formation of the first state polity in the Americas (Blanton 1978; Blanton et al. 1982; Flannery and Marcus 1983a; Kowalewski et al. 1989; Winter 1989). This period began about 500 B.C. with the founding of the political center of Monte Albán located on a previously unoccupied ridgetop, 300–400 m above the valley floor where the three arms of the Valley of Oaxaca intersect (Figure 1). The size, architectural complexity, and political importance of the site increased rapidly through the Late/Terminal Formative (Acosta 1965:814–824; Blanton 1978:33–56; Flannery 1983a). While there has been debate on the precise timing of the emergence of a state polity at Monte Albán (e.g., Flannery and Marcus 1983a; Sanders and Nichols 1988), there can be no doubt that the Late/Terminal Formative was a tumultuous period marked by the emergence of many of the features that have traditionaly been used to define the state (Blanton 1978:33–56; Blanton et al. 1982:37–84; Flannery and Marcus 1983a; Kowalewski et al. 1989:85–200; Spencer 1982:12–31).
Mortuary analysis has a long and erratic history in archaeology. Studies of skeletal remains were first motivated by a desire for information on racial affiliation and population movement, while the associated grave goods seemed to offer detailed chronological ordering of artifact types. Much enthusiastic and unsystematic excavation also centered on monuments or site complexes with large quantities of mortuary remains. While archaeological interest has turned away from constructions of sequences and reconstruction of racial types, these complex sites and their archaeological materials, testifying to organized human activity on a large scale, have become key sources of information on broad patterns of social change. Mortuary remains, too, are often highly patterned and are differently so in societies of differing organization, seeming to inform us of social dimensions not readily visible in other archaeological materials. Consequently, we have a current problem (the understanding of social dimensions of nonliterate, prehistoric societies) and a large body of patterned material. The temptation to put two and two together is irresistible.
This paper examines Gotlandic picture stones and their relation to death rituals in Scandinavia from AD 400 to 1100. The stones are shown to mediate, as 'doors', between the living and the dead, and their iconography can be related to a specific form of narrative which may also have been relevant to ship burial on the mainland. The interaction between this tradition of burial and Christianity is discussed.This paper examines Gotlandic picture stones and their relation to death rituals in Scandinavia from AD 400 to 1100. The stones are shown to mediate, as 'doors', between the living and the dead, and their iconography can be related to a specific form of narrative which may also have been relevant to ship burial on the mainland. The interaction between this tradition of burial and Christianity is discussed.Cet article est consacré awe blocs figurés du Gotland et à leurs relations avec les rituels funéraires scandinaves, de 400 à 1100 après J.C. Les blocs sent décrits comme des médiateurs, ou des 'portes' entre le monde des vivants et le domaine de la mort. Leur iconographie peut être mise en rapport avec une forme spécifique de narration, qui peut s'ètre également appliquée aux tombes en forme de bateau du continent. L'interaction entre cette tradition funéraire et le christianisme est discutée.Dieser Artikel untersucht gotländische Bildersteine und deren Bedeutung für Begräbniszeremonien in Skandinavien zwischen 400 AD und 1100 AD. Es wird gezeigt, daß diese Steine als 'Pforten' eine Vermittlerrolle zwischen den Lebenden und den Toten einnahrnen, und daß ihre Ikonographie mit einer spezifischen Überlieferung in Zusammenhang gebracht werden kann, die auch in bezug auf die Bootsbestattungen auf dem Festland von Bedeutung ist. Wechselwirkungen zwischen dieser Bestattungstradition und dem Ouistentum werden diskutiert.
Gillman Mound, on the Adelaide Plains, South Australia, was excavated in 1970 after human remains were discovered during redevelopment. Twenty-two individuals were recovered, along with a further 16 from the Wingfield area. In collaboration with the Kaurna Nation Cultural Heritage Association, these remains were recently analysed and dated. This paper analyses the burial practices in order to identify temporal and spatial continuities and discontinuities, both within the site, and in a more regional context. One of the major issues with burial sites is their interpretation in terms of a temporal scale. The burials at Gillman date to between 1100 and 600 BP. Given that on at least two occasions a single grave was used for the burial of two people, the time frame suggests approximately one burial per generation (or potentially a more episodic use of the site). This points to the existence of multiple places in use for burial at the same time and raises the question of which people were buried at particular places. While some of the burial practices in the mound are congruent with ethnohistoric accounts of Kaurna burials, others point to discontinuities in time or space.
The enormously influential volume by Brown (1971) arising out of the Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices symposium clearly established that bioanthropological data are essential in assessing and analyzing the social persona of the deceased (Binford 1971:17). For that volume, individual interments were the unit of analysis and emphasis was placed on within-site variability of both cultural and biological attributes. The role of basic paleodemographic data in mortuary archaeology was thus firmly entrenched by that volume. Human biology is even more prominent in The Archaeology of Death (Chapman, Randsborg, and Kinnes 1981), published a decade after Social Dimensions. Not only were the final two chapters by biological anthropologists, but Chapman and Randsborg’s (1981:19) introduction emphasized that “the exciting changes in the analysis of skeletal materials by physical anthropologists” were among the developments that had “been particularly challenging and potentially most productive about the archaeology of death in the last decade.” The composition of the present volume indicates that the boundary between biological anthropology and archaeology has become even more permeable.
For 25 years it has been generally acknowledged that archaeological remains from cemeteries carry symbolic content, but the methods by which we may identify and interpret these symbols have been greatly contested. Two works set the tone for the 1970s: Lewis Binford’s seminal article, “Mortuary Practices: Their Study and Their Potential,” first offered in 1966 and published in 1971, and Arthur Saxe’s Ph.D. dissertation, Social Dimensions of Mortuary Practices, available since 1970. Both address the potential of mortuary studies for the reconstruction of social organization. This approach is particularly exemplified in the work of Joseph Tainter (1975, 1977a,b, 1978) during this period, and perhaps culminated in the volume The Archaeology of Death, edited by Robert Chapman and others (1981), with contributions by Richard Bradley, James Brown, Jane Buikstra, Lynne Goldstein, and John O’Shea. The Binford-Saxe approach may be encapsulated by the statement: The variability and structure in a society’s treatment of its dead, including that which can be archaeologically recovered, will be isomorphic with the variability and structure of the social dimensions of the society.
Aboriginal burial practices on the Hay Plain are highly variable yet recurrent characteristics of density, exclusivity, boundedness and formalism of burials suggest specific preferences for, and maintenance of, locations for burials. However, these groupings of burials do not fit the criteria developed by Pardoe (1988) for cemeteries.
This is demonstrated in the analysis of burials at two locations: Jeraly (76 burials) and Toogimbie (114 burials) where scattered and grouped burials are found in the same area as a single site described as a cemetery. Comparison of these finds to other burials on the Hay Plain indicates this is a recurrent pattern.
It is argued that burials represent isolated single events (n=76) or multiple events (n=89), a small number (17) of which reflect deliberate maintenance of an area for burials. While cemeteries do exist on the Hay Plain they form a restricted category and making the term more inclusive would simply mask important differences between burial places, all of which form a patterned part of the entire burial repertoire on the Hay Plain.
In the debate that has developed over the theoretical program of mortuary analysis presented by Saxe (1970) and Binford (1971) over 20 years ago, great stress has been laid on limitations to their goal of identifying social factors underlying differences in the material treatment of the dead. Critics often raise objection to the search for features of social organization in the archaeological manifestations of ritually dominated practices (Hodder 1982; Pearson 1982; Shanks and Tilley 1982). Ritual is portrayed as obeying different rules, and hence demanding separate lines of argument. Lost sight of is the long-acknowledged effect that the scale of social complexity has on the range and complexity of ritual (Durkheim 1915). The problem is not with the principle, but with the means for secure and credible articulation of material manifestations of ritual to features of social organization.
The Nilotic Meroitic state, in what is now the Sudan, existed from the late fourth century BC until the mid fourth century AD. It has come to be regarded in recent years as an African segmentary state with a prestige-goods economy, less centralised than, for example, Egypt, with direct control by the ruling family diminished outside the Shendi Reach (central Sudan). Outbound trade from its capital Meroe included ebony, elephants, gold, iron, ivory and ostrich feathers. Trade routes criss-crossed the desert and extended down the Nile river to Greco-Roman Egypt, as well as through Red Sea ports to several Middle Eastern destinations including Egypt. Using the southern and southeastern reaches of the Meroitic state as a case study, I argue that to conceptualise the frontier peripheries of early states as borders is to misunderstand their internal dynamics (movements of people, fluid social networks and regional exchange systems). Each region had its own distinctive form of power relations. Examining how communities in these frontier zones were constituted, inscribed their identities in the landscape and facilitated trade in relation to the core of the Meroitic state in the Shendi Reach draws attention to the fluidity and continual renegotiation of state–pastoral relations.
This dissertation attempts to examine whether the nature of death ritual, burial and memorialisation specifically adapts itself to a maritime context and what such adaptations can tell us about material and metaphorical relationships with the sea. This is done through an assessment of archaeological evidence from the Neolithic period in the Orkney Islands, in the hope of finding a thread of effect on funerary ritual and ritualised space which can be attributed to the cultural impression of engagement with the maritime environment. This study is not intended as a comprehensive examination of Neolithic Orkney, or the Neolithic as a whole, as the material used constitutes a very small sampling of available sets of evidence. Rather, the intent here is to grasp the basic dimensions of the Neolithic space so that elements of the lived landscape might then be examined for potential specificity of funerary ritual in a maritime context, contributing to a coarse-grained map of the maritime deathscape in Orkney. This study is therefore meant to describe wider patterns in the maritime cultural landscape relating specifically to death ritual. It is proposed that the somatic experience of death and the dynamics of death ritual may be specifically shaped by the maritime cultural environment and maritime activity, and that an understanding of these relationships may be best addressed through the construction of a theoretical framework which allows one to query bodies of evidence about various aspects of a possible maritime deathscape. Ultimately it is suggested that the relationship between the maritime environment, mortuary practice, and the cognitive landscape may be best understood within a broader theoretical framework including concepts of ritual behaviour, metaphor, materiality, agency, personhood, and maritime culture.
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