Burial Crypt Research Articles

Мавзолеи представителей мамлюкской элиты, связанных с историей Золотой Орды

Purpose: To introduce into scientific circulation information and photographic records of the mausoleums of representatives of the Mamluk elite who were associated with the history of the Golden Horde. Research materials: Medieval Arabic-language sources, the work of Taqi ad-din al-Makrizi “Kitab al-mawaiz wa-l-itibar fi dhikr al-khitat wa-al-asar” (“Book of teachings and edifications in the story of quarters and monuments”), photographic materials of mausoleums. Results and scientific novelty: This article presents the history of representatives of the Mamluk elite who played a significant role in relations between the Golden Horde and Egypt. This study presents mausoleums that in medieval Arabic writings are presented under the name «qubba» which was characteristic of the Muslim culture of the Middle Ages. The presented mausoleums were built in the 13th–14th centuries. and were intended not only as burial crypts, but also as sites to place kuttabs and public drinking fountains. It has been noted that the burials of the rulers of Egypt were carried out in integral memorial complexes, consisting of a mosque, madrasah, and khanqah. Such Mamluk sultans as al-Mansur Qalawun, an-Nasir Qalawun, Barquq were buried in these. Emirs and nobles built separate funerary complexes for themselves during their lifetimes: for example, the mausoleum of Emir Qusun, the Golden Horde princess Tulbya, etc. Some of the burial complexes are open to the public today while others require serious restoration. It is important to note that the Mamluks used various methods and architectural solutions when creating memorial complexes. The mausoleum remained the most significant element of the architectural ensemble. The mausoleum was either separate or adjacent to the building, but in any case it occupied a large area. The construction of such memorial complexes suggests that the Mamluks, most of whom were Turks, were known as zealous connoisseurs of culture who patronized the development of art and architecture.

Source discrepancies in post-medieval archaeology – a case study of crypt burials at Seili church, Finland

ABSTRACT The island of Seili, in the south-western archipelago of Finland, is famous for its history as a leprosy colony and mental asylum. The island formed a small, hierarchical community run by priests and hospital officials. In this article, we examine the history of the burial crypt in Seili church by comparing information from historical documents and observations made during archaeological fieldwork. The material gathered from these two sources is conflicting, suggesting an interesting history in the use of the burial crypt. It seems that women’s coffins could easily be moved elsewhere from the crypt when new coffins belonging to males were interred. It is argued that identifying the buried individuals would be necessary for a taphonomic study of the mummification processes and ensuring that the information about the crypt is based on facts. However, the identification is difficult due to inconsistent historical records. This underlines the importance of Post-Medieval archaeology in studying sites connected to family histories.

Crypt Burials from the Cloister Church of Riesa (Germany) – Changes of Funerary Customs, Body Treatment, and Attitudes to Death

The cloister church of Riesa (Saxony, Germany) contains two burial crypts which were used from the 17th to 19th century AD by local noble families, namely the barons von Felgenhauer, Hanisch/von Odeleben and von Welck. The crypt beneath the altar originally contained 50 inhumations of which about 30 are still preserved at present, either as coffins and/or mummies, while the northern crypt contained eight interments.
 During the last two centuries, the crypts have experienced major changes which could partly be reconstructed through historical records, photographs and oral history. The aim of the investigations, supported by the parish and the city museum, was to document the current state-of-preservation and to identify the inhumations by combining different types of evidence.
 The coffins were visually inspected and dated by typo-chronological comparisons, and inscriptions were transliterated whenever possible. Material, fabrication, clothing type and dating of the garments were determined during costume analysis. The mummified remains were subjected to a morphological investigation, including X-rays. Different body treatments resulting in natural or artificial mummification could be observed. In selected cases, samples for aDNA analysis were taken to test for kinship between individuals, and stable isotope analysis was performed for the reconstruction of diet, origin and age of weaning. Probable identification could only be achieved for the individuals with contextual information; however, the bioarchaeological analyses are still ongoing.
 The coffin ornamentation and inscriptions as well as the garments show chronological changes as well as individual preferences from the 17th to 19th century, most distinctive in the children burials. Faith in God and hope of resurrection remain constant attitudes to death, but familial affiliation becomes an important factor in early modern noble burials.

Middle Kingdom tombs from the North Asasif cemetery: field seasons 2018/2019 and 2020

The early Middle Kingdom mortuary complexes of Khety and Meru continued to be the main research target of the Polish Archaeological Mission to North Asasif in the two winter seasons of 2018/2019 and 2020. The rubble dump on the eastern side of Khety’s forecourt, left over from the 1922/1923 season, was now explored, leading to the discovery of hundreds of objects—fragments of wooden statues and models, cartonnages and coffins, shabti figurines and pottery—shedding light on the Middle Kingdom burial assemblages as well as the later usurpation of the tomb, mainly in the Third Intermediate Period. Conservation objectives included treatment of the decorated burial crypt and sarcophagus in the tomb of Meru and stabilization and cleaning of the plaster decoration in the mortuary cult chapel of Khety. The season in 2018/2019 was also devoted to a reconnaissance of the underground structures and protection of tomb MMA 507. Specialists studies of finds from the excavations, both recent and earlier, were continued.

Burial Crypts and Vaults in Britain and Ireland: a Biographical Approach

The range of post-medieval burial structures found in Britain and Ireland defined by Julian Litten in 1985 are reviewed in the light of more recent discoveries. The degree of variability within each of these – lined burial shafts, small family vaults, large family vaults, and communal crypts – can now be evaluated. Using the biography of objects approach for the first time on mortuary data, the changing agency of coffins over their use-lives is considered, with varying degree of visibility during the stages between construction and final deposition. The biography of vaults is indicated through a selection of burial structures, revealing patterns of use over time. Issues of space management, in some cases with considerable overcrowding and movement of coffins, is seen to be problem only with communal crypts. Shafts and vaults were predominantly for few generations, apart from some elite family where the same space could be used over several centuries.

Metabolomics and metagenomics analysis of 18th century archaeological silk

The aim of this study was to characterise the microbial and metabolite diversity in samples of biodeteriorated 18th century silk from the burial crypts of the Church of St Francis of Assisi in Kraków (Poland). Highthroughput Illumina sequencing, surface-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry on a silver nanoparticle enhanced target (109Ag SALDI), and laser ablation-remote-electrospray ionisation-selected reaction monitoring-ambient mass spectrometry imaging (LARESI MSI) were employed. The use of high throughput Illumina sequencing helped obtain a broader picture of microbiocenosis compared to earlier studies. The 109Ag SALDI method enabled the qualitative analysis of the entire chemical compound profile of silk. A few hundred metabolites, including peptides, amino acids, urea and organic acids dominated by N-(3-oxododecanoyl)-L-homoserine, decanoylcholine, formiminoalanine and hexacosatrienoic acid were detected in archaeological silk, whereas about 100 metabolites, mainly represented by polymers, were detected in contemporary and restored silk. The novel ambient MS imaging method LARESI MSI, used for the first time for the archaeological silk biodeterioration analysis, allowed the direct detection and mapping of selected amino acids, historical dyes and dihydroxybenzoic acid (decomposition product of tannins) on the silk samples. Based on our results, the suitability of the tested methods should also be considered for other historical objects.

Burial crypts in solid rock – a geophysical case study of a small church with a unique polychrome in Szydłów (S Poland)

Lesser Poland (Malopolska) is a historic region of Poland. The presented case study was undertaken in the All Saints’ Church in the town of Szydlow, in which conservation and restoration works were carried out to preserve Gothic wall paintings by identifying and eliminating the causes of their degradation, and these efforts were supported by geophysical surveying. The conducted studies constitute a step not only to determine the age of the construction of the Szydlow temple, but also to improve knowledge of medieval architecture and mural paintings in Lesser Poland. The geophysical research with application of GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) helped to locate previously unknown structures under the temple floor. This survey indicated four, possibly connected, structural objects clearly visible in GPR profiles. Carried out works confirmed that anomalies visible on radargrams mark two crypts. This discovery of the hidden construction elements emphasizes and strengthens the earlier suppositions of the unique character of this temple.

KINSHIP AND COMMUNITY IN THE NORTHERN SOUTHWEST: CHACO AND BEYOND

Archaeogenomic studies of a burial crypt in Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, have demonstrated the presence of an elite matrilineal descent group that spanned most of the 300+ years the great house was occupied, confirming, among other things, the deep antiquity of matrilineal ideologies among the Ancestral Pueblos of the northern Southwest. This article explores the sociopolitical implications of matrilineal descent, matrilocal residence, and Iroquois-Crow alliance structures among the Ancestral Pueblos of Chaco and elsewhere. It argues that matrilineal ideologies helped shape community forms and intercommunity relations throughout the Pueblo Southwest. It argues further that kinship provides insights into Chaco's eleventh-century expansion that dispersed “outlier” great houses over much of the southeastern Colorado Plateau. The article concludes with a call for archaeologists and cultural historians to pay more attention to kinship, the principal idiom of social, economic, and political relations in nonstate societies.

Georadar surveys of the flooring in the St. Francis of Assisi basilica in Krakow

Basilica of St. Francisco of Assisi together with the buildings of the Franciscan convent constitute one of the most important points on the map of medieval Krakow. However, their architectural transformations are still not well recognized. In 2015, the opportunity to expand this knowledge occured. Within the basilica itself, along with the adjacent chapels, a comprehensive, non-invasive, georadar floor examination was held. Its effect, apart from confirming the location of known tombs and burial crypts, was the discovery of completely unknown underground rooms. Using small-hole drills, the rooms were recognized as burial crypts. Currently, their diagnosis is conducted by archaeological methods. The presented case study was also an occasion to describe explicitly the methodological bases of crypt identification practice, using connection between some specific construction details characteristic for ancient European architecture and the corresponding GPR manifestations (diagnostic features).

Great House origins and population stability at Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico: The isotopic evidence

One of the truly remarkable developments in the prehistory of North America was the construction of more than a dozen Great Houses—imposing multi-storied structures that were qualitatively different from the usual small, irregular, single-story homes—in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico from the early AD 800 to the 1100s. Beginning no later than AD 1000, scores of similar large pueblos, often referred to as Chacoan outliers, were erected throughout much of the southern Colorado Plateau in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. A small number of these outliers were connected by formal roads and many others participated in a broad network of exchange and ritual. The largest and most unusual of the Chaco Great Houses and one of the earliest to be built was Pueblo Bonito situated in the heart of the Canyon. Some of the most intriguing aspects of Pueblo Bonito are two clusters of human burials, almost certainly elites, found within its sandstone walls. We present here isotopic proveniencing data (strontium, lead, and oxygen) that situate these burials in a new and unexpected perspective. Our results suggest that almost all individuals interred in Pueblo Bonito had been born in Chaco Canyon or in nearby parts of the southern San Juan Basin. All of these individuals, moreover, likely belonged to the elite component of Bonito society, given their placement in special burial crypts within the walls of the pueblo. These conclusions suggest that the origin of Chaco Canyon Great Houses and the hierarchical society that organized their construction was more likely a product of local sociocultural dynamics than a result of migration of a group of new people into the Canyon from the northern San Juan Basin.

Draft Genome Sequence of an Oceanobacillus sp. Strain Isolated from Soil in a Burial Crypt.

We present the draft genome of an Oceanobacillus sp. strain isolated from spores found in soil samples from a burial crypt of the Cathedral of Sant'Antonio Abate in Castelsardo, Italy. The data obtained indicated the closest relation of the strain with Oceanobacillus caeni.

A European Mitochondrial Haplotype Identified in Ancient Phoenician Remains from Carthage, North Africa.

While Phoenician culture and trade networks had a significant impact on Western civilizations, we know little about the Phoenicians themselves. In 1994, a Punic burial crypt was discovered on Byrsa Hill, near the entry to the National Museum of Carthage in Tunisia. Inside this crypt were the remains of a young man along with a range of burial goods, all dating to the late 6th century BCE. Here we describe the complete mitochondrial genome recovered from the Young Man of Byrsa and identify that he carried a rare European haplogroup, likely linking his maternal ancestry to Phoenician influenced locations somewhere on the North Mediterranean coast, the islands of the Mediterranean or the Iberian Peninsula. This result not only provides the first direct ancient DNA evidence of a Phoenician individual but the earliest evidence of a European mitochondrial haplogroup, U5b2c1, in North Africa.

Early procurement of scarlet macaws and the emergence of social complexity in Chaco Canyon, NM

High-precision accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) (14)C dates of scarlet macaw (Ara macao) skeletal remains provide the first direct evidence from Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico that these Neotropical birds were procured from Mesoamerica by Pueblo people as early as ∼ A.D. 900-975. Chaco was a prominent prehistoric Pueblo center with a dense concentration of multistoried great houses constructed from the 9th through early 12th centuries. At the best known great house of Pueblo Bonito, unusual burial crypts and significant quantities of exotic and symbolically important materials, including scarlet macaws, turquoise, marine shell, and cacao, suggest societal complexity unprecedented elsewhere in the Puebloan world. Scarlet macaws are known markers of social and political status among the Pueblos. New AMS (14)C-dated scarlet macaw remains from Pueblo Bonito demonstrate that these birds were acquired persistently from Mesoamerica between A.D. 900 and 1150. Most of the macaws date before the hypothesized apogeal Chacoan period (A.D. 1040-1110) to which they are commonly attributed. The 10th century acquisition of these birds is consistent with the hypothesis that more formalized status hierarchies developed with significant connections to Mesoamerica before the post-A.D. 1040 architectural florescence in Chaco Canyon.

The Anthropoid Coffins at Farleigh Hungerford Castle, Somerset

Farleigh Hungerford Castle consists of the ruins of a fortified manorial house of the Hungerford family, major landowners in Wiltshire and Somerset from the 14th to the 17th centuries; within the curtain are a chapel, with an attached chantry chapel, and a chantry priest's house. Below the chantry chapel is the 17th-century burial vault of the Hungerfords, which contains eight lead coffins of anthropoid form, four of which are depicted with faces. This article, prompted by the first detailed photographic record of the coffins, outlines the family history in order to identify which of the Hungerfords are buried in the chapel, describes (for the first time) the burial crypt and the coffins, and suggests the identities of the bodies which they contain. The striking coffin type is surveyed by Julian Litten in the succeeding article.

Comparison of seismic reflection and ground‐penetrating radar imaging at the controlled archaeological test site, Champaign, Illinois

AbstractShallow seismic reflection and ground‐penetrating radar images were collected at a replicated burial mound in the Controlled Archaeological Test Site (CATS) in Champaign, Illinois. The CATS mound contains a pig burial within a wood‐lined crypt at a depth of 1.6–2.4 m. Seismic reflection data were collected from two different energy sources: a small (0.5 kg) hammer for an impulsive source, and a vibrator for a frequency swept source. Seismic data were collected at densely spaced points (5 cm) along a line of 48 geophone receivers. These data were stacked in a common mid‐point gather, band‐pass filtered, and processed with frequency–wavenumber migration. The seismic image produced by the hammer source was dominated by bodywaves at 120 Hz, whereas the vibrator source image was dominated by surface waves at 70 Hz. Both seismic sources revealed clear reflections from the burial crypt, and placed the top of the crypt at the correct depth with a seismic velocity of 120 m s−1. The bottom of the crypt was poorly defined by the seismic data owing to multiple reflections within the crypt. The vibrator source also revealed a high‐frequency (360 Hz) reflector at 2.7 m depth within the mound, perhaps due to a resonant cavity within the pig's body. Single channel ground‐penetrating radar data were processed with the same approach, including band‐pass filtering and migration. The radar data reveal clear reflections from the burial crypt. Extremely fast radar velocities (260 mm ns−1) are required in the upper portion of the burial mound to place the top of the crypt at its correct depth. The bottom of the crypt was well defined by ground‐penetrating radar, and was located accurately with respect to the top of the crypt with a moderate radar velocity (170 mm ns−1). The application of both seismic reflection and ground‐penetrating radar to the same site may be beneficial for improved understanding of their abilities for shallow subsurface imaging. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.