Royal Court Tombs, Burial Rituals and Practices in the Middle Elamite Period

Abstract

Received Dec 2015 Received in revised Feb 2016 Published in March 2016 Archeologically, burial rituals and practices provide valuable information for the remaking of various life styles in the ancient communities. Such practices and rites are social ceremonies, varying in accordance to the social rank of the deceased. In the present article, the royal court burial rites of the Middle Elamite period and the related ceremonies would be revised. The objective of the research is to re-create the royal court burial rituals of the aforesaid era. To the date, excavations in Susa, Haft Tepe, and Chogha Zanbil have provided evidences of the royal court burial ceremonies. Archeological and linguistic documents are compared and analyzed in the present study. In this period, burial types span from plain ones to burial in earthenware, jar burial, coffin burial and vaulted tomb burial; however, the current paper is centred mainly around the royal court method dedicated to the king, royal family and the court. The excavated evidence prove that ceremonies were held at the burial of the rulers. The practice in question demonstrates deep rooted belief in the immaterial world during the Middle Elamite period where corpses were buried in brick-built vaulted tombs.