Dawenkou culture cemetery at the southern Gangshang site in Tengzhou, Shandong

Archaeologists have generally avoided the issue of emotion in archaeological interpretation, with the result that even death and burial remain emotionless landscapes in the past. In this chapter, I take the perspective that emotions, whilst built upon a biological foundation, are historically and culturally contingent phenomena experienced through the senses and the embodied self. Imbued with sentiment, funerary ritual, and material culture—those behaviours, spaces, and objects most closely associated with death—present archaeologists with the opportunity to explore how emotion was experienced through spatial relationships and the treatment and disposition of the corpse. Burial practices during the Late Moche period in Peru (AD 600–800), which shifted from extramural inhumation to in-house ‘bench’ burial, are explored as a case study. These changes are interpreted as reflecting (1) loss of confidence in traditional Moche ideology governing burial practices and beliefs in the afterlife; (2) a shift from burial as public spectacle to private event; and (3) emphasis upon long-term personal interaction with the deceased through daily engagement.

ABSTRACTBefore Korea opened its ports in 1876, funerary customs and burial practices were strongly influenced by Confucianism and geomancy. Wailing was systematized, and the sacred nature of ancestral bones allowed only for earth burial, preferably in spots that were selected for their geomantic energy. Japan, extending its influence in Korea steadily up to full annexation in 1910, intensely challenged Korean burial practices in an attempt to align them with Japanese procedures. In the name of modernization, public cemeteries and cremation were introduced, while private graveyards were forcefully removed. This article attempts to trace these changes and evaluate their impact in Modern Korea. First, the situation at the advent of Modern Korea will be outlined to understand the problems during that period. Next, Japanese changes to funerary practice in Korea will be reviewed, and then reactions to these changes will be analyzed through the diary left by Yun Ch’i-ho (1864–1945), a famous intellectual and controversial figure in Modern Korean history, who, after a life struggling between Confucianism and Christianity, Korean nationalism and Japanese collaboration, left behind 50 years’ worth of diary entries that bear witness of the end of the Korean Empire and the entire colonial period. It serves as source to understand how Japanese colonial policy concerning burial practice influenced the mind-set and actions of the Korean elite.

Corona virus-19 is a disease of the respiratory system that has to date claimed the lives of 5684 Kenyans. The Luhya community had detailed funeral rites and practices that brought together many people performing different activities. Death was not caused by microorganisms but by the evil eye’, curses, witchcraft, and others. The World Health Organization's guidelines for handling deaths are clearly stipulated. Mourning went on for days to bring some kind of closure, bring families and friends closer, and allow remembrance of the departed, who are now a thing of the past. The COVID-19 disease had significant effects on the burial rites and practices of most communities. The paper attempts to find out how COVID-19 affected the funeral rites and practices of the community. Adopting qualitative methods in data gathering, analysis, and interpretation, the researcher sought to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Luhya funeral rites and practices. Key informant interviews were the methods of data collection. The aim of this tool was to unravel the dire experiences of the family members of the departed. The respondents were purposefully selected. Data analysis was done thematically. The preliminary codes were generated, swapped, demarcated, and named. The final report was produced. The results show that COVID-19 changed the funeral rites and practices of the Abatura people of the larger Luhyia. From the ailing process, to the announcement of the dead, to who made the announcement, to the mourning period, to the preparation of the body for burial, the burial site, positioning in the grave, burial programs, and the entire interment process. These results show that the changes have caused psychological distress. It is recommended that relevant authorities put in place measures to safeguard funeral activities, as they have effects on people's physical and mental wellbeing. Furthermore, community focal persons should be consulted in the making of such guidelines on funerals so that they positively embrace the guidelines. Community members should also be sensitized to the importance of embracing change for their own good.

The territory of Zhetysu is distinguished by a unique concentration of monuments of the Saka time of the I millennium BC. The funeral rite is one of the key elements of the culture of any ethnic group. Funeral and memorial complexes of the Saka time on the territory of Zhetysu are relatively well studied today. Despite significant achievements in recent decades, the cultural and chronological aspects of the Saka cultures are little developed, where the design features of funeral monuments play an important role. The purpose of our research is to determine the local features and trace the genesis in the burial practice of the Saka on the territory of Zhetysu. From a methodological point of view, the article contains, first of all, traditional archaeological research methods: mapping, planographic and stratigraphic observations, classification of clothing com- plexes, the method of analogies, formal typological analysis, elements and methods of statistics, the retrospective method. In the classical Saka time (V–IV centuries BC), the Zhetysu region was localized in terms of a funeral and memorial rite. There are changes in the funeral rite and inventory in general. Studying the design features of the mounds, we came to the conclusion about the local originality of the burial traditions of local tribes. The previously unpublished design features of the so-called “colored” mounds were noted. Key words: South-Eastern Zhetysu, Shelek-Talgar interfluve, early nomads, kurgan, construction, genesis.

222 PHOENIX this final chapter with the bold suggestion that by commodifying the joke, the Romans invented the “joke” as we know it today. This book’s intriguing topic and accessible style will attract a wide audience. Beard’s ability to draw together a wide array of ancient and modern references in her discussions is impressive. Although it does not arrive (or even seek to arrive) at any definitive conclusions, Laughter in Ancient Rome succeeds in leading sympathetic readers on a stimulating journey through Roman “laughterhood” (x). University of Tasmania Jayne Knight The Bioarchaeology of Classical Kamarina: Life and Death in Greek Sicily. By Carrie L. Sulosky Weaver. Gainesville: University Press of Florida (Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives). 2015. Pp. 336, 61 figs., 5 tables. The study of ancient Greek cemeteries demonstrates an interesting paradox: a synthesis of an examination of material cultural and funerary rituals with an analysis of the human skeletal remains is rare, since the focus is typically on either the materialritualistic context or on the scientific study of the physical remains. It is only recently that there has been some closing of the academic gap between classical archaeology and biological anthropology, as attested by the growing body of bioarchaeological publications on the Mediterranean classical world.1 This book by Sulosky Weaver is an important addition to these studies as it brings together socio-cultural and biological data in an attempt to answer questions regarding life in the past. The author studies the human skeletal remains and the associated cultural and funerary context of the fifth- to third-century b.c.e. Greek colony of Kamarina in Sicily, following years of excavation at the necropolis of Passo Marinaro. The study of literary sources, material assemblages, and funerary rituals is combined with observations drawn from the study of the human remains, thus providing a holistic reconstruction of a turbulent and dynamic era as experienced by the Greek diaspora. The book comprises six chapters and is enriched by a glossary, figures, and tables. Chapters One and Two set the context for the population under study. Chapter One, “Death and Burial in the Greek World,” is a thorough review of the cultural aspects of death rituals and burial practices in the Greek world, both the mainland as well as the colonies. Chapter Two, “Kamarina,” narrows the focus to the site of Kamarina, presenting specifics of its geography, history, and relevant archaeological research throughout the years with an emphasis on research conducted on the cemeteries. Chapter Three, “Demographic Attributes,” presents data derived from the macroscopic analysis of the human skeletal remains. The 272 individuals under study were fragmentarily preserved, and although this is a significant bias in any sample, the author makes the best of the available material in pursuing the determination of sex, estimation of age, stature, and recording of non-metric traits. This section also includes a thorough analysis of the demographic profile of the population, offering as well a possible explanation of the patterns observed. Chapter Four, “State of Health,” provides a detailed 1 For example, D. C. Haggis and C. M. Antonaccio (eds.), Classical Archaeology in Context: Theory and Practice in Excavation in the Greek World (Berlin 2015). BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 223 analysis of the observed pathological cases. As a bioarchaeologist, I found this section in particular to be truly balanced, lucid in its presentation, and, most importantly, clear in explaining health and disease patterns to non-specialists in the study of human skeletal remains. The case of the Kamarinean plague, which is here meticulously documented, presents additional information in the form of the new biological evidence. The author provides a good overview of the current research on malaria, porotic lesions on the cranium, and thalassemia genotypes in past Mediterranean populations, a topic that has been greatly influenced by the pioneering work of Lawrence J. Angel.2 It is notable that current studies in bioarchaeology are benefiting from the use of complex approaches involving multiple parameters of analysis, as well as innovative techniques such as Geographical Information Systems3 and paleohistological analysis.4 It should also be noted that, unlike most publications, the author presents the raw data (both in the...

In 2019, a joint archaeological expedition of the Scientific and Production Center for Tourism and Local Lore, the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted rescue excavations of the single kurgan Uchkent IV, located in the reconstruction zone of the Grozny-Baku oil pipeline in the Kumtorkala district of the Republic of Dagestan. An outer stone crescent-shaped pavement, a stone sketch around and above burial 1 surrounded by a cromlech, and two burials in stone tombs (burials 1 and 2) were identified under the mound embankment. The funeral rite and the burial equipment preserved after the robbery allow us to attribute the main burial 1 and the time of the construction of the kurgan to the Middle Bronze Age. Intake burial 2 also refers to the Middle Bronze Age, but the almost complete absence of burial equipment does not allow to clarify its chronology. Kurgan Uchkent IV has close parallels with the Taular-gol kurgans in Caspian Dagestan, with which it is possible to form one chronological and cultural group associated with the Sulak (Prisulak) culture. The revealed details of the kurgan architecture and funeral rite, expressed in a combination of solar (cromlech) and lunar pavements around the central burial in a tomb surrounded by a dense stone coating that imitated a round embankment, are of particular interest. The oldest similar, stone and earthen, pavements in the Caucasus date back to the Eneolithic, they are found in the burial mounds of the Maykop cultural and historical community of the Early Bronze Age, as well as in the barrows of the Middle Bronze Age. It can be assumed that solar-lunar constructions are due to religious ideas about life and death, reflecting some cosmogonic binary representations of the carriers of this sometimes occurring ritual (archaic myths about the Sun and the Moon).

Previous articleNext article No AccessDiscussion and CriticismMore on Burial Customs as an Archaeological SourceTadeusz MalinowskiTadeusz Malinowski Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Current Anthropology Volume 24, Number 4Aug. - Oct., 1983 Sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/203043 Views: 5Total views on this site Copyright 1983 The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological ResearchPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

(C.) Gates From cremation to inhumation: burial practices at Ialysos and Kameiros during the Mid-Archaic period, ca. 625–525 B.C. (Institute of Archaeology, University of California, occasional paper, 11.) Los Angeles: University of California, Institute of Archaeology. 1983. Pp. [iv] + 91, 2 text figs, 11 plans. $9.00.

What effects do archaeological discoveries, and in particular some of the new archaeological discoveries, have on research into ancient history and culture, and especially on the research into [ancient] intellectual culture that all of us present today are concerned about? This is a subject that very much deserves to be studied. Archaeological discoveries have a very substantial effect on research into history. I believe everyone recognizes this fact today. This is probably a matter of common knowledge. However, very few people give any thought to its effect on research into intellectual culture. People do not attach sufficient importance to this. Very few people realize that it has such an effect. Why is that? I believe that one of the reasons is that the archaeology of earlier times did not emphasize research into intellectual culture. For a very long period of time we were, in particular, influenced by Britain's Gordon Childe. As we all know, Childe was, in a certain sense, a Marxist. For instance, we can see in his books, such as What Happened in History and others, that he was basically a Marxist. However, we also note that he brought with him the influence of the Danish school of thought in early archaeology. The Danish school of thought started out by operating museums, and its founder was the person who invented such terms as "Stone Age," "Bronze Age," and "Iron Age." They operated museums and displayed objects but did little explaining. Nor was it possible in those times to talk about ideology and culture. That is why Childe's books brought that kind of an influence. We all know that for a long time in the former Soviet Union, the archaeological research institutes were not called "archaeological institutes," nor did they use the term "archaeology." Their institutes were called "institutes of material culture." What is "material culture?" This term is unclear, because the things discovered by archaeology cannot be defined simply as "material culture." How can one call all the things dug up by archaeology "material culture?" I myself have never looked at the matter that way. That is why I wrote that pamphlet "Dong Zhou yu Qin dai wenming" (Eastern Zhou and Qin Dynasty Civilization), and especially put in that particular statement. Many people have since quoted that statement, and fortunately everyone seems to think it is all right. What I meant to say is that the things discovered by archaeology are, of course, material things, but many of them also reflect spiritual things. Actually, the reason is simple. A tomb, for example, always has to do with certain funerary ceremonies and certain rites, and all of these reflect things of the spirit. A bronze vessel, or a pottery vessel—such things reflect the society and the customs and habits of those times. If you are only looking at it from the material side, then the effects of this [other] sort of archaeology are worth considering. This is my view of the matter, and I hope everyone will comment on it. So, today I would like to talk about the influence of archaeological culture on things of the spirit.

This article seeks to describe the colonial cemetery in the Philippines at the turn of the eighteenth and the nineteenth century in four material dimensions: location, spatial planning, ethnic and social differentiation, and economical importance for the parish. From 1804 onward, colonial attempts to regulate burial practices centered on the spatial relocation of the deceased. Closely correlated with the cholera outbreaks in the Philippines, the growing pressure exerted by colonial authorities on burial practices gave rise to a complex mix of political, social, and ethnic tensions that both reflected the enormous complexity of colonial society and contributed to recompose it.KEYWORDS: CATHOLIC CEMETERIES • NON-CATHOLIC CEMETERIES •BURIAL REGULATIONS • NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILIPPINES • SPANISH COLONIALISM

In Europe, cremation as a burial practice is often associated with the Bronze Age, but examples of cremated human remains are in fact known from the Palaeolithic onwards. Unlike conventional inhumation, cremation destroys most of the evidence we can use to reconstruct the biography of the buried individual. Remarkably, in Ireland, cremation is used for the earliest recorded human burial and grave assemblage (7530–7320 bc) located on the banks of the River Shannon, at Hermitage, County Limerick. While we are unable to reconstruct in any great detail the biography of this individual, we have examined the biography of a polished stone adzehead interred with their remains. To our knowledge, this adze represents the earliest securely dated polished axe or adze in Europe. Microscopic analysis reveals that the adze was commissioned for burial, with a short duration of use indicating its employment in funerary rites. Before its deposition into the grave it was intentionally blunted, effectively ending its use-life: analogous to the death of the individual it accompanied. The microwear traces on this adze thus provide a rare insight into early Mesolithic hunter-gatherer belief systems surrounding death, whereby tools played an integral part in mortuary rites and were seen as fundamental pieces of equipment for a successful afterlife.

Neolithic Burials in the Zelinda River Mouth, Northern Angara: Burial Practices and Radiocarbon Chronology

The insular region of Wallacea has become a focal point for studying Pleistocene human ecological and cultural adaptations in island environments, however, little is understood about early burial traditions during the Pleistocene. Here we investigate maritime interactions and burial practices at Ratu Mali 2, an elevated coastal cave site on the small island of Kisar in the Lesser Sunda Islands of eastern Indonesia dated to 15,500–3700 cal. BP. This multidisciplinary study demonstrates extreme marine dietary adaptations, engagement with an extensive exchange network across open seas, and early mortuary practices. A flexed male and a female, interred in a single grave with abundant shellfish and obsidian at Ratu Mali 2 by 14.7 ka are the oldest known human burials in Wallacea with established funerary rites. These findings highlight the impressive flexibility of our species in marginal environments and provide insight into the earliest known ritualised treatment of the dead in Wallacea.

ABSTRACTThe adoption of a new funerary ritual with all its social and cognitive meanings is of great importance to understanding social transformations of past societies. The first known occurrence of cremation in the territory corresponding to modern Belgium dates back to the Mesolithic period. From the end of the Neolithic onward, the practice of cremation was characterized by periods in which this rite was predominant and periods of contractions, defined by a decrease in the use of this funerary ritual. This paper aims to quantify such phenomenon for the first time by modeling discontinuities in burial practices through kernel density analysis of 1428 radiocarbon (14C) dates from 311 archaeological sites located in Belgium from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages. Despite possible taphonomic and sampling biases, the results highlight the existence of periods with a large uptake of cremation rite followed by periods of contractions; such discontinuities took place in correlation with changes in the socio-economical structure of local communities, as, for example, during the later Middle Bronze Age and at the end of the Roman Period.

Burial practices, resulting from deliberate behaviors and actions, are the focus of a field of social analysis based upon the hypothesis that graves are the result of intentional acts. The archaeoanthropological material from Central Asia is no exception to this rule, as shown in this brief overview. Here, we present some of our results and hypotheses about the funerary practices of the Middle of the Bronze Age at Ulug Depe (Kopet Dagh) and Dzharkutan (northern Bactria). Due to their size and long duration, the settlements and necropolises at both sites provide exceptional evidence for understanding the origins, development, and disappearance of the proto-urban cultures of Central Asia.