Cultivating Corpses: A Comparative Approach to Disembodied Mortuary Remains

Anders Kaliff,Terje Oestigaard

doi:10.37718/csa.2004.05

Anders Kaliff, Terje Oestigaard

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.37718/csa.2004.05

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Abstract

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.

Highlights

Disembodied remains of corpses are often found in the archaeological record but seldom interpreted and understood
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
Iron Age funerary remains with contemporary mortuary treatments in Nepal, we aim to explore structural similarities in death rituals, and how knowledge production of both the past and the present takes place in a contemporary archaeological discourse

Summary

Cultivating Corpses

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". Iron Age funerary remains with contemporary mortuary treatments in Nepal, we aim to explore structural similarities in death rituals, and how knowledge production of both the past and the present takes place in a contemporary archaeological discourse. It clearly shows the impact from our own cultural environment: a grave is a grave only if it is the container for the dead body It is not self-evident that stone-settings and other "grave forms", from the Scandinavian Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age, primarily had a function that is even similar to what we associate with the word "grave" today

There are several features in Scandinavian cemeteries from the Late Bronze

Anders Kaliff ck Terje Oesiigaard

COSMOS AND COPULATION

KNOWLEDGE IN THE MAKING

THE DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF THE COSMOS