Planigrafia cmentarzyska i elementy obrządku pogrzebowego / The arrangement of graves and elements of the funeral rite

Vikingetidens gravskik i Danmark – Spor af begravelsesritualer i jordfæstegrave

This research explores how Muslim funeral and burial rituals in Egypt are shaped by gender stereotypes and socio-cultural norms that predispose masculinity and femininity. It examines the experience of research participants in the context of these gendered rituals and how it affects their participation in them. I adopt a qualitative methodology using personal narrative and auto-ethnography. Analysing physical and emotional experiences, I assess how the regulation of female bodies impacts women participants’ understanding of their bodies. Gender stereotypes, such as the association of women with irrationality, are scrutinised in regards to how they influence ritual and ceremonial practices – such as sex segregation – and in turn affect the emotional experiences of participant women. Furthermore, I address the performativity of masculinity imposed by the ceremonies and assert that Muslim burial and funeral rituals are a norm, a form of power demarcated by gender stereotypes. The gendered nature of the rituals shapes our experiences as males and females, rendering it unequal.

The cemetery at Malbork-Wielbark, Pomeranian voivodship, northern Poland, was in use from phase A1 of the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age (end of the 3rd/beginning of the 2nd century AD) to the early Migration Period (phase D1 – beginning of the 5th century AD). To date over 2,000 cremation and inhumation burials have been excavated at this site, yielding at least 3,500 glass beads. They appear mainly in inhumation graves from the early and late Roman Period and the early phase of the Migration Period (phases C1b–C3–D1), and at that time they were deposited in about 40 % of the graves in this cemetery. They are rarely found in cremation graves, and when they do appear it is usually in assemblages of later date. The number of beads in cremation graves throughout the lifespan of the necropolis was usually limited to just one or no more than a few. There is no clear correlation between the presence of glass beads in graves (cremation and inhumation) and the ‘quality’ of the grave goods, and therefore the status of the deceased. Beads (in varying numbers) appear sometimes in poor burials of various date, where they constitute the only (or almost only) grave goods. In theory, graves with more burial goods should contain a correspondingly greater number of beads, but there are many exceptions to this rule. Extensive, multi-element necklaces were one of the characteristic features of dress during the so-called “Wielbark Baroque” (phase B2/C1–C1a). In Malbork-Wielbark, such prestigious necklaces, with numerous glass beads, appear mainly in richly furnished burials from phase C of the Roman Period. In some really rich graves, however, the presence of beads seems to be reduced to a symbolic minimum. Anthropological analyses could be performed for 25 bead-bearing burials of the 41 excavated during 2008–2018. The results seem to suggest no relationship between the age of the individual, the type of burial rite and the variation in the number of beads in the grave. However, it is interesting that a relatively large proportion of the graves with a greater range of glass ornaments and items of dress were burials representing the infans I and infans II age groups. The selected beads were subjected to various laboratory analyses, examining both the morphology of the materials, based on surface observation with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and their chemical composition. The chemical composition of all beads submitted for analysis was determined using the Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) technique. This analysis was performed for each colour in the case of multicoloured beads. A total of 43 glasses were analysed, including 18 single-colour beads and 25 analyses of variously coloured glasses taken from eight multicoloured beads. Additionally, some samples were analysed using an energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) microanalysis system fitted with SEM, and for some the chemical composition was determined by wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WD-XRF). The obtained results showed that all analysed samples represent soda-lime-silica glass (SLS glass), the majority of these samples having been made using a natural soda (natron). Due to the low content of Mg and K, they are referred to as LMLK glass. This means that, taking into account the results of the analysis, the majority of the analysed beads are consistent with glass beads produced in the Roman tradition. Only five of the 43 glass samples represent types of soda-lime-silica glass using plant ash as the flux. Due to the high content of Mg and K they are referred to as HMHK glasses. The individual glasses used in each bead came not from one but from various glass-melting factories. There is virtually no correlation between the type/ variety of glass and the dating of the graves in which the beads were deposited.

An underlying assumption of many analyses of burial rituals of the Roman period is that certain elements of the deceased’s identity are communicated by relatives who perform the burial ritual. This may often be true for elite burials, especially those with stone monuments and inscriptions, but for the far more numerous, ‘simple’ cremation graves the meaning of the grave goods (if present) is open to debate. Many archaeologists acknowledge that we do not understand most of the ideas communicated in burial ritual, but the basic assumption that identity is expressed there is not often questioned. This paper aims to explore expressions of identity (the presence or absence of identity markers) in the burial grounds of the Dutch eastern river area, which roughly corresponds to the civitas of the Batavi, by focusing on certain groups of material culture, mainly brooches. It will be important to compare cemeteries of rural communities to those of central places, as well as explain the nature of the mortuary rituals studied. In the province of Germania Inferior cremation was the dominant rite in the Late Iron Age well into the Roman period, inhumation graves being very rare before the late 3rd c. Here we will consider the 1st-c. A.D. cemetery at Nijmegen–Museum Kamstraat, the late 1st-c. cemetery at Nijmegen–Onder Hees, and some 1st- to 3rd-c. cemeteries of rural communities, which consist exclusively of cremation graves. Brooches are widely recognised as being markers of identity. 1 The choice of what brooch to wear is partly conditioned by the bearers’ identities, in which aspects of gender, profession, wealth, age or religion can play a role. I will show that brooches, so numerous in settlements of the east river area, are conspicuously few in most funerary contexts, and argue that the absence of individual identity markers in the mortuary rituals is a hint of a strong group identity shared by rural communities; at the same time, some variability exists within different cemeteries, and in the town of Nijmegen identity markers are present far more often. The many phases of the cremation ritual, and common assumptions about brooches For a better understanding of the contexts in which brooches and other grave goods are deposited, it is necessary to consider the mortuary ritual. One can see the burial ritual as a rite of passage. 2 The ritual is performed in several steps, in which the individual is transformed from the living individual into a member of the group of ancestors. 3 First, the descendants take their leave from the individual they knew. Second, his or her individuality is destroyed, mostly by burning the human remains. Third, the remains are collected and buried. This is part of the process of turning the former individual into a member of

Høj Stene – en monumental skibssætning ved Gudenåen

The flotation of deposits from two recently excavated Kalenderberg Group cremation graves in DevínZáhrady (SW Slovakia) yielded a plethora of archaeozoological and archaeobotanical remains, including small, otherwise overlooked, ecofacts. The results of our analysis in the context of contemporary data show that animals clearly constituted an unambiguous part of funerary ritual activities. Pig, fish, red deer, cattle and caprines were all exploited at Devín-Záhrady. These animals represented both food and symbolic offerings, with a preference for pig and fish. Cattle, red deer, pig and caprines astragali found in grave 2 were all associated with one of the urns. The age of perinatal piglets was used to indicate the season when the funerals took place. Plant macro-remains are much less common than bone remains and are not associated with the burial. The results of the analysis change what is known about the array, quantity and way animal and plant offerings from Kalenderberg Group cremation graves were prepared for the burial ritual. Their study also permitted residual and intrusive materials to be detected, allowed reconstruction of the deposit’s formation processes and establishment of the connections (or absence of connections) between these ecofacts to the funeral and/or burial ritual.

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.

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely of disease or infirmity. (WHO, 1948) When everyone falls sick, they are cured by western medicine and folk medicine. Only when he is healthy, his mind will be in a state of happiness. Therefore, health is an essential factor for a man to live. Dawei ethnic group still uses their traditional folk medicine. There is a belief in spirit for curing. Then, there are some traditions that other ethnic groups do not perform in funerary rite. The aim of the research is to reveal how they maintain their traditional custom in illness, cure, death and burial. The objectives of the research are to explore how they cure with what folk medicines and how they perform funeral rites handed down one generation after another. Functional theory was used to write the paper. In this research method as qualitative research method, individual depth interview, focus group discussion and key informant interview were used.

The paper is devoted to the burial artefacts and funeral ritual of ancient Slavs in the basin of the Tysa and Danube. This was a whole set of actions related to the tribute to ancestors and care of them in the afterlife. It included a traditional ritual from the biological death of a decedent till its burial in a tomb as well as ritual acts performed afterwards in memoriam of the decedent. As follows from archeological sources, by the middle of the first millennium A.D. Slavs had formed a traditional burial ritual with the body being burned. This ritual underwent considerable changes due to the Slav expansion to the Balkans and Central Europe. Due to the cultural basis of the newly inhabited territories and the burial ritual of the local population, the traditional Slavic ritual was losing old details and acquiring new ones, resulting in a transition from cremation to inhumation. Traditional body-burning burial rite can be barrowless (ground-based) or barrow-type. Barrowless burials with body burning in the Tysa-Danube basin are studied rather narrowly, with only a minimal amount of them being known. Their characteristic feature was that after the cremation the relics in the form of calcinated bones were left in shallow pits or in clay urns without any external sings. Depending on the place of the cremation relics being left, the barrowless cremation burials are divided into urn-type and urnless (pit-type). The first were characterised by the post-cremation relics being placed in clay urns or in their bottom parts. Urnless burials were ended up by placement of the post-cremation relics in small pits with the depth of 0,25 to 0,6 m. Another large group of burial artefacts is represented by barrow-type burial mounds with body burning. They were different in size, occupying on the average the area from 1 to 5 ha where from 20 to 90 barrows could be located. Depending on the place and way of the post-cremation relics being placed under the mound, the following variations are distinguished: urn-type, pit-type, long horizon-type, and wooden coffin-type. The majority of the known burial artefacts in the Tysa-Danube basin belong to the inhumation type. Depending on the character of the burial structure, the inhumation rite burial grounds are divided into barrow-type and ground-type (hole-type). Burials of the first type were characterised by placing the decedent’s body in an outstretched position on the back under a ground mound. The second large group of necropoles are ground-type, ending up in the decedent’s body being placed in holes that had been dug in the ground. In most cases they are of rectangular shape with sizes ranging from 1,7 to 2,1 m (length) and 0,6 to 1,1 m (width). Кеy words: ancient Slavs, burial artefacts, funeral ritual, Tysa-Danube basin.

This paper focuses on socio-hermeneutic study of gender differentiation in Yoruba burial rites. There are many types of oral genres in Yoruba society. These genres have different functions for different occasion. In essence, Ìrèmọ̀jé eré ìṣípà ọdẹ (hunters funeral dirge) and ìsàà ró (women funeral dirge) are used during men and women funeral rites respectively in Yoruba land. Ogun deity is the founder of Ìrèmọ̀jé chant. Ogun was the first hunter with many adherents who were hunters too. Before the death of Ogun, he ordered his adherents to chant Ìrèmọ̀jé during his funeral rites. He also instructed them to do the same during the funeral rites of fellow great hunters, that is, the hunters that were succeeded by viable children. Ìrèmọ̀jé ìsipaọdẹ is specifically for men and not for women. Ìsàà ró is the final burial rite for the aged women in Yoruba land. This burial rite marks the exit of the aged women from this world to the world beyond. In essence, ìsàà ró is a traditional send-forth for the dead. This type of burial rite was popular in Yoruba land in those days but it was more popular among the Oyo-Yoruba than other Yoruba ethnic groups. Ìsàà ró burial rite is often performed by the Alágbaà (chief head of masquerade) from Ọ̀jẹ̀ family (family of masquerades). It is mandatory for the children of the dead to perform this final burial rite for their dead mother because if they fail to do it, things may not be moving well for either the dead in the world beyond or for the children she left behind in this world. The emergence of western civilization has made great changes both negatively and positively on the popularity of Ìrèmọ̀jé and Ìsàà ró burial rites respectively. This paper discovered that there is that of valuable documentation of Iremoje/Isipa (Hunting chants and funeral rites for Men) and Isaaro (The final funeral rites for Women) in spite of the existence of enormous works on Yoruba Verbal arts and oral literature. The implication of this finding reveal that if a study of this type is not promoted, Yoruba traditions and valuable oral renditions would be endangered. This could further prompt Yoruba journeys to extinction as many studies have shown that English dominance of Yoruba is changing the language attitude of Yoruba native speakers oral and written discusses. The Yoruba natives have flair for us of English than the use of Yoruba because of the inherent values of English in Nigeria and the world at large. This paper concludes that, despite the negative effect of western education and foreign religions in the foregoing, the technological advancement on Ìrèmọ̀jé and Ìsàà ró has shown that the future of both genres are bright as long as the Yoruba race exists.

The anthropological analysis was conducted for human remains found at the bi-ritual cemetery of the Upper Silesian-Lesser Poland group of the Lusatian culture in Gogolin-Strzebniów. Osteological materials were discovered in 29 cremation graves and 3 inhumation burials, and remains of 38 individuals were identified. Whenever it was possible, the age and sex of the buried were estimated. The degree of bone burning and the weight of cremated bones from one grave were also determined. Most of the graves were single burials, four contained remains of two individuals and in one grave three individuals were buried. Burials of adults of Maturus age (35–50 years) dominated at the cemetery and these were mostly male individuals. The lower share of female graves may result from the fragmentary examination of the cemetery, but may also ofreflect sex-related differences in the burial rite. At the analysed cemetery a similar number of children aged Infans I (0–6 years) and Infans II (7–14 years) was identified. Usually, at prehistoric necropolises, the burials of younger children dominate. The equal share of these two age categories is sometimes noted at epidemic cemeteries, but in Gogolin it more likely stems from the prevalence of inhumation graves at the cemetery, in which human remains have not survived. Children, both Infans I and Infans II, were buried in single graves or in double burials with adults. All human remains were heavily, evenly burned, the bones were cream-beige in colour, which indicates that the bone temperature was above 800°C, i.e. the temperature in the pyre was 1000–1200°C. The average weight of the burnt bones was 414 g, with significant variations from grave to grave differentiated. The mass of bones from the graves containing the remains of males exceeded the values obtained for female burials. There are also differences in mean and maximum values between younger and older children age classes, which could be explained by the size of the skeleton. The obtained data demonstrate that at the analysed cemetery, as at other contemporary sepulchral sites, only part of human remains were placed in the graves, which probably was an effect of the applied funeral rite. Anthropological investigations allowed for the observation of the distribution of burials at the cemetery. The obtained planigraphic information indicates that there are no provinces grouping individuals of similar age or the same sex.

Excavation at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire, investigated features identified in a previous evaluation. Area A included ring ditches representing two barrows. Barrow 1.1 held 40 secondary pits, including 34 cremation-related deposits of Middle Bronze Age date, and Barrow 1.2 had five inserted pits, including three cremation graves, one of which dated to the earlier Bronze Age, and was found with an accessory cup. A number of pits, not all associated with cremation burials, contained well-preserved urns of the regional Deverel-Rimbury tradition and occasional sherds from similar vessels, which produced a closely-clustered range of eight radiocarbon dates centred around 1300 BC. Of ten pits in Area C, three were cremation graves, of which one was radiocarbon-dated to the Early Bronze Age and associated with a collared urn, while four contained only pyre debris. Barrow 1.3, in Area E, to the south, enclosed five pits, including one associated with a beaker vessel, and was surrounded by a timber circle. Area F, further to the south-west, included two pits of domestic character with charcoal-rich fills and the remains of pottery vessels, together with the probable remains of a ditched enclosure and two sets of paired postholes. Area H, located to the north-west of Area E, partly revealed a ring ditch (Barrow 1.4), which enclosed two pits with charcoal-rich fills, one with a single Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age potsherd, and the other burnt and worked flint. A further undated pit was situated to the east of Barrow 1.4. The cremation cemetery inserted into Barrow 1.1 represents a substantial addition to the regional record of Middle Bronze Age cremation burials, and demonstrates important affinities with the contemporary cemeteries of the Stour Valley to the west, and sites on Cranborne Chase, to the north-west.

The article considers cremation graves from the site of Podsmreka near Višnja Gora (Slovenia). Based on the analysis of their pottery, it could be shown that the graves can be dated to the Middle Bronze Age period (Br B2/C1) and thus represent one of the oldest cremation burials of the Bronze Age in Slovenia. First, the ceramic finds from the radiocarbon dated settlement contexts are discussed in order to reach a more exact chronological framework for the vessel forms from graves. A synthesis of all Middle Bronze Age graves, both inhumations and cremations, from central and eastern Slovenia allows us to get a better understanding of when the change in burial practices occurred. Surprisingly, the best analogies for the vessels from graves at Podsmreka near Višnja Gora can be found in the northern Carpathian Basin, where we observe a long-standing tradition of cremation burials. The analysis of radiocarbon samples from two graves from Šafárikovo in Slovakia allowed us to verify the absolute chronology of urn amphorae vessels with particular form and decoration, which we can date between the second half of the 16th and the first half of the 15th century BC. Such astonishing correspondences in the pottery between the northern Carpathian Basin and the south-eastern Alpine region seem to indicate that the very area of the Upper Tisza river, and the territory of the Piliny Culture, played a crucial role in the transmission of new burial practices, not only to Slovenia, but also across wider areas along the Sava and Drava rivers on the distribution area of the Virovitica group.

Pri arheološkim istraživanjima na lokalitetu Lobor, Majka Božja Gorska, provedenim 2009. godine, na prostoru na kojem se nalaze ostatci drvene crkve iz 9. stoljeća, otkrivena je posuda s ostatcima spaljenog pokojnika. Posuda je nađena u jami od stupa drvene crkve, kamo je najvjerojatnije upala pri njezinu podizanju. Grobovi s ostatcima spaljenih pokojnika nisu nađeni na lokalitetu, jer je taj prostor korišten kao mjesto ukapanja kroz više stoljeća. U članku će biti prikazani rezultati najnovijih arheoloških istraživanja, a posebno će se analizirati urna kao jedan od dokaza dugog i neprekinutog kontinuiteta pokapanja na tome mjestu.

The discovery of an ornament made from Phyllobius viridicollis beetles in a cremation grave at the Domasław cemetery highlights the diverse use of organic materials in funerary rites. Together with dandelion pollen, the find offers interpretative potential for reconstructing the seasonal timing of the burial.