ARCHAEOLOGY OF DEATH AND
BURIAL
“WHAT LIES BENEATH’
Burials have been described as containing
more information per cubic meter than any
other archaeological features
CONTENTS
• TYPES OF ANCIENT BURIALS
• BURIAL REMAINS AS EVIDENCE
• EXAMPLE 1 ISRAEL WOMEN; INTERPRETATION OF
BODY AND GRAVE GOODS
• EXAMPLE 2 TOMB OF THE RICH ATHENIAN LADY;
GRAVE GOODS AND SKELETAL EVIDENCE
• EXAMPLE 3 ROMAN BURIALS ;ARCHITECTURE
AND INSCRIPTIONS-NAEVOLA TYCHE
• STUDENT EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Dealing with the Dead
• Burial: general term for disposal of human remains
• Tomb: remains placed in some type of structure. The word tomb
derives from ancient Greek and was first employed by Homer to
describe a tumulus or mound raised over a body
• Inhumation: grave burial; disposed of intact
– Extended vs. Flexed; Coffin, Shroud
• Cremation: remains burned, then disposed of
– Loose or Contained, grave or scattered
• Bundle: remains dismembered, defleshed, wrapped
– May represent secondary treatment
• Ossuary: mass burial
– numerous cremated or dismembered remains buried together
• Cemetery: collection of individual burials of any type
• Exposure: remains left in open (“sky-burial”)
• Grave Offerings: any artifacts or other objects intentionally buried
with human remains (“burial furniture”, “grave goods”, etc.)
• SUGGEST A REASON WHY BURIAL PRACTICES WITHIN A CULTURE
CHANGE OVER TIME???????????????
WHY ARE BURIAL REMAINS
IMPORTANT AS EVIDENCE?
Skeletons
Health, disease,
Tomb
GENDER ROLES
Art &Architecture
INHERITANCE
PATTERNS
Craft skills,
Burial
remains as
evidence
Tomb goods
Economy,
SPECIALIZATION
Social classes
Status, Power
LOCAL/IMPORTED
PRODUCTS
Values and beliefs
about life and
death
PROBLEMS OF EVIDENCE
PURPOSE
Were they meant as a
votive offering to the
gods or were they
needed in the afterlife?
Can the burial
under study be
taken as
representative of
the population as
a whole
Grave
goods
Were the goods specific
funerary ware or were they
in general circulation.?
INTERPRETATION
Do the grave goods
reflect the deceased life
or merely tributes to the
deceased from the
attending mourners?
OWNERSHIP
Did they belong to the
deceased or to the
mourners.?
IMAGES OF AN AFTERLIFE
ANCIENT GREECE/ROME
• While philosopher Socrates accepted
death calmly, in general the Greeks feared
death. The journey after death was to a
land known as Hades, ruled by a god
named Hades. The first part of the
journey required crossing the river Styx by
being buried with a coin for the boatman
Charon. Next, Cereberus, the threeheaded guard dog, would have to be
appeased with honeycake. The
Underworld offered punishment for the
bad and pleasure for the good. On the
one hand, the Elysian Fields, a sunny and
green paradise, was the home to those
who had a led a good life. Others were
condemned to a torture
•
•
•
ANCIENT
EGYPT
Most important for full participation in the afterlife was the need for an
individual's identity to be preserved. Consequently, the body had to remain intact
and receive regular offerings of food and drink.
The final step in the transition to the afterlife was the judgment in the Hall of
Maat (the god of justice) by Horus (the god of the sky) and Thoth (scribe of the
dead) by comparing THE HEART (the conscience) and a feather. The ritual was
known as the Weighing of the Heart. Heavy hearts were swallowed by a creature
with a crocodile head who was called the Devourer of Souls. The good people
were led to the Happy Fields, where they joined Osiris, god of the underworld.
Many spells and rituals were designed to ensure a favorable judgment and were
written in the papyrus or linen "Book of the Dead."
Regardless of their wealth, however, they all expected the afterlife to be an
idealized version of their earthly existence.
TIBETAN
• Shaman must guide
souls to the right
path. The Tibetan
Book of the Dead
(also called the
Bardo Thodoöl)
guides the dying by
asking them to
accept death. The
body will
supposedly pass by
various false
demons on its
journey back to life.
12,000 YEAR OLD NATUFIAN
BURIAL
At Hilazon Tachtit, a team led by archaeologist
Leore Grosman of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem has found the remains of at least
25 people, most in collective burials. But one
was treated differently. A woman, about 45
years old when she died and whose pelvis and
spine were deformed, was buried separately,
accompanied by a menagerie of animal
remains. Among her grave goods were tail
bones from wild cattle, a wing bone from a
golden eagle, the shells of 50 tortoises, and a
large foot from another person.
DEVIANT BURIALS
• the Natufians were the first people to routinely bury
their dead close to or within their living sites. The
burials occur both alone and in groups, and in many
instances, human body-parts were removed either at
the time of burial or after decomposition had set in .
Some of the burials were accompanied by a variety of
grave inclusions comprising ornaments, bone and
stone tools and occasionally complete animals or their
body-parts. Although these traditions are reflected in
many Natufian graves, the combined characteristics of
the grave in Structure A place it well outside of the
norm of Natufian burials
INTERPRETATION
• The team, which reports its findings online today in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, notes that tortoises, cow tails, and eagle
wings play a role in the ritualistic practices of many shamans today and
that many societies ascribe special powers to physically disabled people.
• A woman, about 45 years old when she died and whose pelvis and spine
were deformed, was buried separately, accompanied by a menagerie of
animal remains. Among her grave goods were tail bones from wild cattle,
a wing bone from a golden eagle, the shells of 50 tortoises, and a large
foot from another person.
• At the time of burial, more than 10 large stones were placed directly on
the head, pelvis, and arms of the elderly woman whose body was laid on
its side. The legs were spread apart and folded inward at the knee.
The special treatment of the body and use of stones to keep it in a certain
position suggests the woman held a unique position in the community,
likely some sort of a shaman, the researchers said.
ROLE OF THE SHAMAN IN SOCIETY
• The shaman's primary role is to mediate between the human and
the spirit worlds . Shamans act as messengers, healers, and
magicians, and serve both the community and its members.
Although shaman graves are highly variable, and thus, there are no
standard criteria to identify a shaman in the archaeological record,
a number of generalizations about shamans can be surmised from
cross-cultural research
• : (a) shamans are associated with spiritual, magical, and healing
powers;
• (b) shamans engage the help of spirits in animal form;
• (c) shamans are keepers of specialized knowledge;
• (d) shamans are ascribed high status within their communities; and
• (e) the status of shamans is reflected in their special treatment at
death—their burials often contain artifacts reflecting their role in
life (i.e., remains of particular animals and contents of healing kits)
• The inside of the tortoises were likely eaten as
part of a feast surrounding the interment of
the deceased. High representation of limb
bones indicates that most tortoise remains
were thrown into the grave along with the
shells after consumption.
The collection of 50 living tortoises at the time
of burial would have required a significant
investment, as these are solitary animals
Athens began its history as a Neolithic hill fort on the area of the Acropolis. The area
of the Agora was used as a cemetery for both cremation and inhumation burials. It
was not until the 6th century that public buildings and monuments were constructed
over the cemeteries
Athenian sumptuary laws and social custom tended to minimize grave goods for
most of the Archaic and Classical periods. The trend was to memorialize by markers
and stelae. The Iron Age however sees a phenomenom of rich female graves
unmatched by equally rich male graves
TOMB OF THE RICH ATHENIAN LADY
This grave was excavated by the American School of
Classical Studies at ATHENS in 1967. The site is
located on the north slope of the Areopagus near
the Mycaenaean cemetery and the Ancient road
which led from the Piraeus Gate to the Classical
Agora
After examining the contents, especially style and
decoration of the pottery, archaeologists were able
to conclude that the person was buried around
850BC, Geometric Period.
Historians know that prior to the 9th century most
people were cremated but during the Geometric
period inhumation was practiced as well. Both
methods were used in different cemeteries around
Athens and the type of burial may have been a
matter of family tradition or personal preference.
COMPONENTS
The burial site consisted of two
parts
The Pyre trench where the body
laid to rest on the bier was
cremated
The urn hole into which the urn
containing the cremated remains
of the body and the grave goods
were placed
GRAVE GOODS
What conclusions can
you draw about the
status of this woman in
her society????????
Inside the burial urn were the cremated
bones, identified as female, age
undetermined, 3 iron and bronze pins, a pair
of bronze fibulae, 3 gold rings, a pair of gold
earrings, a necklace consisting of 3 strands
of faience and glass( made in Syria), 2 ivory
stamp seals from Rhodes an ivory plaque
THE GRANARIES
• Initially the granaries suggested
a link with agriculture/property
and therefore membership of
the highest class. The Chest
symbolized her dowry.
• The standard approach was to
assume that they served as an
indirect expression of family(
male) status rather than as
evidence of powerful women
with autonomy and property
• Susan Langdon offers an
alternate gendered possibility of
a religious or cult association
A GENDERED INTERPRETATION
• Demeter was the female god of agricultural
and human fertility and saw the involvement
of priestesses in ritual offerings. Langdon
suggests that the RAL may have been an
important priestess of the cult
“Exacerbation of grain supply problems matched by rising population could be a
cause and symptom of the emphasis on grain surplus. Elevated to a critical role by a
heavy dependence on grain, the cult that oversaw agricultural fertility would have
given women from leading families the position of wealth and public status to
warrant seal use and exceptional burial display.”
Susan Langdon
Views of Wealth, a Wealth of Views; Grave Goods in Iron Age Attica
The “Rich Athenian Lady” Was Pregnant
The Anthropology of a Geometric Tomb Reconsidered!!!! 2004
• Recent reexamination of the cremated remains in
the celebrated tomb of the “rich Athenian lady”
brought to light the presence of a fetus four to
eight weeks short of full term and established
that the adult female died during pregnancy or
premature childbirth
• The discovery of a fetus together with the adult
female fundamentally changes the interpretation
of this tomb and highlights the importance of
skeletal evidence in the study of demography and
social structure
FOETAL REMAINS
FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION
LISTON AND PAPADOPOULOS
• “once the physical anthropology of tomb H
16:6 was known, the lavish grave goods
deposited took on a new meaning. Indeed, the
“wealth”of the so-called rich Athenian lady
may have been a result of the fact that she
died in pregnancy or childbirth rather than an
undistorted gauge of her material wealth or
status, or that of her immediate family, in life.”
FUNERARY ARCHITECTURE
“Tombs may function as symbols of power, but
one should not isolate them completely from a
more personal world of emotion and
sentiment” Valerie Hope
Before the Roman colony was established,
Pompeians buried their dead in simple
stone or brick cists (caskets or containers),
but after 80 BC cremation became the
norm and wealthier Pompeians started to
build more monumental tombs,
sometimes including an upper storey that
featured statues of the deceased between
columns. One particularly elaborate tomb
built for a woman named Naevoleia Tyche
boasts relief sculptures showing the good
works performed by her husband, a
freedman, as well as a ship representing
trade, the source of her wealth. Another
tomb features a wall-painting showing the
family silver
THE NECROPLIS AT THE NUCERIAN
GATE
•
The Tomb of Naevoleia
Tyche, Pompeii has a
portico giving access to an
upper mortuary chapel,
which contained, besides
the cinerary urns, statues
of deities and portraits or
busts of the deceased
members of the family ;
while surmounting the
tomb is the sarcophagus
with sculptured relief and
inscription tablet. The walls
have coloured reliefs in
stucco, as in the Tomb of
the Pancratii on the Via
Latina, Rome. There was
often a subterranean
chamber for the sarcophagi
and niches in the walls for
cinerary urns
Tomb inscriptions
ILS 6373. Naevoleia L.l. Tyche for herself and C. Munatius Faustus,
Augustalis and paganus [countryman?], for whom the city council by
public consent decreed a bisellium [honorific seat] on account of
her/his merits. Naevoleia Tyche made this monument during her
lifetime for her own freedmen and freedwomen and those of C.
Munatius Faustus.
Front of the tomb of Naevoleia Tyche, with the inscription. The scene
below the epitaph presumably represents the family's business
activities. The figure above is probably a funerary mask, something
which would normally be associated with aristocrats rather than exslaves like these.
Another scene from the tomb. It probably represents the family's involvement in
overseas trade, although some people have claimed that it symbolizes the voyage to
the after-life
.
To the gods of the afterlife:
Claudia Helice
erected this for Lucius
Avillus Dionysius,
trainer of the Red Team,
her most worthy spouse.
Condoctor- translation is debatable. Dionysius
was either the Jockey, owner, breeder or trainer
of the horses.
WHAT DO YOU THINK??????????????
30CM
ROMAN DEATH AND BURIAL
Bronze, glass, quartz, silver, amber, bone, ceramics, shell from a tomb at the
Nuceria Gate, Pompeii. These objects, found beside burial urns, were meant
to accompany the dead on their journey to the Underworld.
Using the computer lab, students in their groups will have 2 periods to research
and create a power point on one of the following Burial Sites. Students must
concentrate on not only skeletal evidence but the grave goods and nature of
the burial. Students are to close the power point with the explanation of what
the site suggests about the individual and their society.
•Royal graves at Ur ( Sumerian 3,000BC)
Necropolis of Banditaccia
•Sutton Hoo ( Anglo Saxon 7TH CENTURY AD)
( Etruscan 7th-6th century BC
•Varna Necropolis ( Viking4,500-2,500BC)
•Vani Graves
( Russian 5TH-1ST CENTURY BC)
•Qinshihuang's tomb ( Chinese 3RD CENTURY BC)