Mortuary Archaeolgy

Only five Mesolithic burial sites are known from the Middle Elbe-Saale region. The paper gives an overview of the grave finds and summarises the history of their discovery. The results of the previous and new osteological, DNA and isotope analyses are presented. Based on the new data, the diet is discussed in comparison to other Mesolithic hunter-gatherer-fishers living along coasts, rivers and lakes. New AMS-dates for the Mesolithic burials of Bad Dürrenberg, Bottendorf and Unseburg are reported. The long disputed age of the inhumations Bottendorf I, II and III could finally be clarified.

The purpose of this article is to present a complex analysis of recently recognised funeral structures discovered in Trzciniec Cultural Circle barrows. These features are rectangular and stones are typically situated in the corners, in the middle of the sides, or along the walls, creating unique structures with clearly delineated interior spaces. However, the function of these features is not well understood. This feature form is fragile and slight, which makes them difficult to record using traditional excavation methods. The majority of these features have been discovered over the last decade now that new documentation and exploration tools are available to archaeologists. These constructions are only known from barrow cemeteries and the remains of in situ cremation were also documented in their context. Their occurrence confirms the variety and complexity of funeral rites of the Trzciniec Cultural Circle community. To date, eight structures of this type are known. Four (Barrow 1/...

In this article, it will be attempted to elaborate on a differentiation between the dead
and the ancestors from a theoretical point of view, and, upon this basis, with regard to royal contexts of the 2nd millennium BC in ancient Syria. The main questions to be discussed in this respect are the following: when does a dead person become an ancestor? And how is this reflected in funerary rituals and grave contexts? And finally, can we detect the difference archaeologically?

Mortuary practices for the Taos Valley in the Northern Rio Grande are presented in a diachronic perspective. Assessment focuses on the pithouse to pueblo transition, emphasizing the distinct difference in mortuary practices between these periods. Identification of broader patterns in mortuary practices may be significant in identifying migratory groups, religious systems, ritual, and group identity since mortuary ritual tends to be conservative. The mortuary practices are weighed against other sub-regions of the southwest in order to elucidate comparison between the regions, including diachronic differences. The paper will also highlight challenges to regional and diachronic comparisons.

"The purpose of this thesis is to explore southern California early Middle period gifting and reciprocal exchange networks and the underlying motivations responsible for the creation, maintenance, and possible rejection of social relationships. Geospatial patterns in the distribution of early Middle period stone beads, an important stylistic variant imbued with social meaning, coupled with the uneven distribution of stone beads and other symbolic artifacts in mortuary contexts suggest stone beads communicated important information about social identity. A fine-grained talc-schist chemical sourcing protocol is developed using Laser Ablation Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass-Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) that identifies soapstone source locations used in the production of stone beads (Sierra Pelona) and other artifacts (Catalina) while the source(s) of chlorite schist and chlorite talc schist used to craft the majority of early Middle period beads remains unknown. A theoretical model of mutual interdependence, adapted from systems theory approaches to the study of southern California hunter-gatherers and the more recent Interdependence Hypothesis is merged with the power and force model to explain underlying motivations for the creation and maintenance of obligatory gifting and reciprocal exchange relationships that reveals important information regarding social interaction among small-scale groups as well as factors that led to the emergence of large-scale complex hunter-gatherer societies. The model is applied to the ethnographic Cahuilla representing a large scale mutual interdependence network regulated by the institution of ceremonialism and compared to the early Middle period mutual interdependence stone bead obligatory gifting and reciprocal exchange network, a possible remnant of the Early period Olivella Grooved Rectangular Bead (OGR) sphere of influence, that connected the Los Angeles area to the southern Channel
Islands, San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, lower Mojave River, and Coachella Valley. By the Late period the stone bead exchange network, which had previously operated parallel to the Santa Barbara Channel shell bead exchange network, was absorbed by it.
"

This article presents a recently recognized type of Trzciniec Cultural Circe (TCC) funerary structure, which over the last decade has been excavated in the cemeteries of Bukivna, Nieciecz Włościańska, and has also been identified during the study of archival material from Komariv. These constructions are characterized by the placement of stones in the corners and along the sides of a rectangular plan. Due to the lack of skeletal remains, these structures are sometimes interpreted as symbolic graves (cenotaphs). Based on multidisciplinary methods, including radiocarbon, geochemical and geological analyzes, excavation, as well as study of archival documentation, the authors can state these features occurred in different enclaves of the TCC and were an important component of the funeral rite during the classical stage of the development of this cultural formation. Their form, structure, location, and inventory also indicate that these unique features probably played an important and universal role in the varied and multidimensional TCC funeral ceremonies.

Régészként egy-egy feltáráson – amennyiben az egykor élt emberek maradványai egyáltalán valamikor, valamiért földbe kerültek – kizárólag az ún. temetkezési ciklus (vagy a ciklus egy bizonyos állomásának) materializálódott lenyomatát látjuk, mely az egykori valóságnak csak egy adott időpillanatban kimerevített képeként értelmezhető.
Az eredeti történet azonban ennél jóval összetettebb: folyamatos válaszreakciók, döntések és szimbolikus lépések összetett sorozata, melynek kezdőpontja egy adott közösség tagjának vagy tagjainak halála, végpontja pedig – az eredeti szándékok szerint – talán soha nem tárható fel. Az eseménysorok rekonstrukciójához, ezáltal az egykori valóság jobb megértéséhez a hagyományos rétegtani megfigyelések értelmezésén túl számos más elemzésre is szükség van. Ha valóban meg szeretnénk érteni a „halottak élettörténetét” (és ezáltal az élő közösségek kognitív miliőjét is), akkor a szokásosnál is fokozottabb figyelmet kell szentelnünk a terepen megfigyelhető jelenségek minél pontosabb dokumentálására, mintavételezésére, és – amennyiben lehetőségünk van rá – a szubjektív megfigyeléseken túl kutatásainkat a lehető legtöbb természettudományos vizsgálattal is ki kell egészítenünk. Mindehhez azonban először is világos kérdésekre, a világos kérdések megfogalmazásához pedig világos terminológiára van szükség.

***

From the death of terminology to the terminology of death. Notes on the concept of burial and the nomenclature of the funerary cycle

Almost all contemporary language – including Hungarian – expresses the practice of burial by a word that refers in some way to placing the body into the earth. But if we reconsider it, burying the corpse is far from the only way to ‘eliminate’ the physical remains of the deceased. As archaeologists – if the human remains had been put into the ground at some point, for some reason – we only see the materialized imprint of the funerary cycle (or a particular stage of the cycle), that can only be interpreted as a particular moment of the past, frozen in time. The original story, however, is much more complex: the funerary ritual is a multifaceted series of ongoing responses, decisions and symbolic acts, the starting point of which is the death of a community member, while the end point of it – in sense of the original intentions – may never be identified. In order to reconstruct scenarios and to gain a better understanding of the past reality, we need deeper analysis than the traditional interpretation of tratigraphical observations.
If we truly want to understand the ‘life story of the dead’ (and thus the cognitive milieu of the living communities as well), we not only need to accurately focus on documentation and sampling on the field and carry out as many scientific analysis as possible. First, we need to set clear questions and to do so, we need clear terms.

Analysis of Taos Valley mortuary practices (A.D. 1200-1320) revealed distinct methods for burying the deceased. This paper explores variation between Northern Rio Grande Classic Period mortuary practices and Taos Valley Coalition Period practices, addressing issues of mortuary ritual continuity and change during this period of social upheaval. Since mortuary ritual is conservative, alterations are rare and migrating groups would probably have continued these important traditions in their new communities. Additionally, this study discusses the efficacy of mortuary practices and ritual in the Northern Rio Grande as a means to identify immigrants.

"No abstract as such, but this blurb at the head of the chapter:

"Peter Ramsden is an anthropological archaeologist whose primary research has been focussed on the culture of the Huron of Ontario.  In the spirit of the new developments in archaeological interpretation, he takes on here the task of making sense of death practices of the Huron.  He finds, on introspection, that understanding the structure of Huron death and dying helps him to understand his own culture's attitude toward death.  In this chapter, Ramsden proposes an analytical model of the relation between life/death and living/dying that may have very wide application."

There is no "References Cited" section in this pdf, since they were all together at the end of the book.

Note:  David and Dorothy Counts were kind enough to allow me to participate in this conference they organized at McMaster, and to contribute this chapter to the resulting book.  It might be useful to point out that the book was intended as much for professionals who deal with those who are grieving, as for academic audiences.  Writing this paper required me to dive into a whole world of academic and clinical literature that I knew absolutely nothing about.  The conference was quite a life-changing experience, and I have always been grateful to Dave and Dorothy for including me."

The proposed paper aims to present a preliminary framework for an ongoing research within the scope of a Doctoral Thesis regarding the mortuary practices in Mediaeval/Modern Portugal.
The assumption that Christian burial practices are completely standardized has often been contradicted by bioarcheologists on-field, however, most observations and results are kept on site-specific level and confined to grey literature.
Differences have been observed in other areas such as Art History and History. They can pertain to differences in the representation of deceased women in funerary art – with different positions and goods, while expressions of piety have been noted for both genders.
Historical documentary sources show women as active members, financing the construction of religious buildings, and carefully stipulating their own funeral rites with astounding detail, from what will be worn, the offerings to be bestowed and the number of days of mourning. Some scholars studying testaments and pious donations have already pointed out differences related to gender: in the choice of the burial place – beside the husband or back with their own family line, and the increase likelihood to wish to be buried wearing religious attire, often from mendicant orders.
The bodies themselves have been mostly kept out of the discussion where Christian Portuguese Medieval and Modern burials are concerned. As such, we aim to explore a bioarcheological perspective based on anthropological field reports, to outline differences in mortuary practice between female and male adults, and children in Portugal from burial sites instituted after 1297.
In the present paper we aim to present the preliminary framework of our ongoing study, a theoretical state of the art and the methodology to be employed throughout our research. We believe that comprehensive statistical inter-site comparisons will underline possible trends not visible at intra-site level or highlight the geographical or chronological specificity of these trends.

Ancient men’s daily lives are unquestionably imbued with the presence of the divine and their relation to godhood permeates every aspect of their existence. Although, their perceptions undoubtedly change and vary from region to region and from one period to the other, nevertheless the same perceptions are the very birth places of gods, which influence the creation of ancient men’s material culture. This is especially true for human and animal depositions on the doorstep between the living and the netherworld, which arguably are expressions of a non-verbal communication between humanity and the perceived divinity. In such a dialogue, buried individuals bear agencies of social actors who manipulate and dispose of the remains, while less common practices, as skull or complete animal burials, hint to specific and quite characteristic individualised, emic perceptions of the divine.
Skull burials have always spiked interests among scholars, since they clearly indicate violence, quite possibly sacrifice as well. Their disposal within burial grounds underscores the funerary nature, but also expresses the need of the living to nuance through specific agencies their relations to divinity. The same can be said about complete animal burials, as a case can be made for the fact that some animals are more equal to humans than other humans. Their presence within burial grounds of humans, in individual grave-pits and sometimes with grave goods, which based on their quality and contextual positioning reminds us of human burials, support a strong argument in this sense. Moreover, further hint at the possibility of sacrifice and the above expressed need of nuanced expressions of emic relations to the divine.
During the Neolithic and Copper Age a gradual stabilisation and normalisation of funerary landscapes and habits is recognised in the Eastern Carpathian Basin, culminating with an unparalleled homogeneity during the Middle Copper Age with an almost instantaneous destabilisation of these aspects during the following period. The analysis against this stable, funerary, baseline data of more than three dozen burial grounds with either human skull or complete animal skeleton burials, by highlighting regional and temporal aspects of body treatment practices and drawing upon anthropologic and ethnographic parallels, allows for a phenomenology of godhood.

Tubular pottery comprises certain peculiar artifacts that were produced by late Holocene complex hunter-gatherer societies in southeastern South America for unknown purposes. Some authors have related them to mortuary behaviour which has also been suggested by historical sources, while others have considered domestic use. In this paper, the technical, compositional and functional properties of these artifacts are explored in order to contrast both hypotheses, given an example of how technical analysis allows the identification of special pottery within archeological contexts. This analysis includes a study of the fabrics involved using low and high magnification, thin sections, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy, Mössbauer Spectroscopy, Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and fatty acid profiles. The results show that these tubular artifacts are not fit structurally for utilitarian purposes and show no evidence of domestic use. Based on these results...

The Early Bronze Age cemetery on the east slope of mound of Megiddo was located outside the city wall. The tombs all date to the Early Bronze Age IB. One of them is the largest Bronze Age tomb ever excavated in Canaan; I speculate that its plan may derive from early monumental Egyptian tomb architecture. I also suggest that the apsidal structure located amidst the tombs may be a mortuary temple.

A minimum of 79 Saxon individuals (infant to elderly adult) from several site along the East Kent Access Road route, were analysed. notable observations include weapon trauma, major fractures and dislocations including a case where the femoral head had exited medially through the acetabular wall, the damaged joint fusing in a flexed position. DISH was noted in one older male.