Terminology at the service of the characterisation of funerary practices: the Pactols thesaurus—abridged version

Abstract

The reorganization of the Pactols thesaurus aims in particular to update the categories and lexicon according to recent archaeological findings and methods. Anthropologists and archaeologists of funerary and mortuary practices have revised, between 2019 and 2021, the 140 concepts in the “Death” section. Two iterative approaches have been adopted. One specifies the meaning of the concept, its heading, its definition and any rejected labels. The other repositions the concept with relevant ones in other categories (structures, grave goods, funerary practices) with its dependent and associated terms. Beyond the updating of the thesaurus itself, this revision has enabled an essential discussion of the notions relating to funerary practices and their interaction in different spatiotemporal scales and archaeological contexts. This article presents, through selected examples, how the approach adopted contributes to a better characterization of funerary practices in Late Antiquity.