Burial Monument Research Articles

Provenancing antiquarian museum collections using multi-isotope analysis.

Many of the most significant archaeological sites in Europe were excavated by antiquarians over one hundred years ago. Modern museum collections therefore frequently contain human remains that were recovered during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here we apply multi-isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr, δ 18O, δ 13C, δ 15N) and 14C dating to evaluate the provenance of human remains within a collection that is thought to have been recovered from one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain. Excavated in 1910, the site of Coldrum in Kent is a megalithic burial monument that may be one of the earliest sites associated with the transition to farming in Britain. The interpretation of this site is therefore key to understanding how agriculture began. Using isotope analysis we show that although the human skeletal collections attributed to Coldrum do contain some of the earliest dated Neolithic human remains in Britain, they also contain the remains of individuals of fifth to seventh centuries AD date. We evaluate subsistence and mobility patterns of early Neolithic populations and provide new information about the origins of those individuals in the collection that date to the fifth to seventh centuries AD. We demonstrate the utility of employing isotope analysis to provide direct and independent information about the provenance of human remains in museum collections.

Research works on the burial monument of the time of Jochi Ulus in the Ulytau district

On the territory of the Ulytau district there are many cities, settlements, mausoleums and burials reflecting the material culture of the Ulus of Jochi era. Burial monuments are one of such legacies. The subject of this article is the burial place in the Jochi Khan complex. The paper presents the research results of this monument. The cultural identity of the burial, revealed during archaeological excavations, was identified by comparative methods of studying the external structure and burial traditions. Numismatic examination of the found coin allowed to establish the date of minting and the date of its introduction into circulation. At the same time, an anthropological description was made on the skeleton of the buried woman, and it turned out that she was a woman aged 20–25 years. The time of her life was determined by the radiocarbon dating method and included in the list of monuments dating back to the middle of the 14th century. The absence of any pathological changes in anthropological features and the solemn burial ceremony with clothes suggested that the buried person had a high social status. In addition, opinions were expressed concerning the spiritual values and household rituals of the local population, considering the peculiarities of the funeral tradition. In particular, in the period from the middle of the 14th to the 15th centuries, the foundations were formed related to the predominance of Muslim signs in the tradition of human burial and the preservation of traditions associated with the Tengrian beliefs of the local population.

The Ceramics Production of the Cis-Ural Srubnaya Culture: A Case Study of the Kurgan Cemetery I Near Tverdilovo Village

The article analyzes the ceramics of the Timber culture, recovered from a kurgan cemetery near the village of Tverdilovo (excavated in 2017 in the Western Orenburg region). Under embankment of kurgan 1, 30 vessels were found in 21 burials, made in a narrow chronological interval. When considering these vessels according to one methodological system, which includes morphological and technical and technological analysis, the peculiarities of the production of pottery were highlighted both for a single group of the population and for the region as a whole. The analysis of the technological traditions of ceramics production from the Tverditovo kurgan cemetery shows that the population that left these ceramics was not homogeneous. There are two different traditions even at the stage of selection of plastic soft raw materials: one of them used silty clay for making dishes, the other applied natural clay. So, it is difficult to explain an isolated case of using sludge and low-grade ferrum clay. Using comparative analysis we can assume that the nearest burial monument according to its ceramics products is the Bogolubovskiy kurgan cemetery where we also can find silty and natural clay and the receipt of molding mass as “clay+ chamotte+ organic materials”. Pottery traditions of the population that left the presented vessels were heterogeneous, which is recorded both in terms of morphological and technological characteristics. A similar picture is typical for other settlement and burial sites in the Orenburg Cis-Urals. The monument was dominated by the pottery traditions of the Timber culture with a slight influence of the Alakul elements.

Consanguineous unions in the archaeology and mythology of the Neolithic passage-tomb at Newgrange, Ireland

A recent genetic study has revealed that the adult male buried in the most elaborate recess of the Neolithic passage-tomb at Newgrange was the child of a first-degree incestuous union, suggesting that the complex was built as a burial monument for an

Tradition and Innovation: The Samādhi of Naraharināth Yogī in Mṛgasthalī (Nepal) in Historical Context

Abstract In 2003 Naraharināth Yogī passed away at the Gorakhnāth Maṭha in Mṛgasthalī, a forested hill across from the sacred Paśupatināth temple in Kathmandu. Naraharināth was a prominent figure among the Nāth (sometimes called Kānphaṭā) Yogīs, a predominantly Śaiva ascetic movement in India and Nepal. Three years after his demise a memorial was inaugurated for him above the place where he was interred. The commemorative space, which has been expanding over the years, incorporates traditional features but is innovative in its layout. In this article I will trace the development of this single burial monument (samādhi) and compare it to the structures of other Nāth burials.

Раскопки склепов на могильнике Шестаково-II и вопросы хронологии шестаковской культуры

The article publishes and investigates the materials of the excavations of 1976 and 1980 at the Shestakovo-II burial mound in the Chebulinsky district of the Kemerovo region. The burial monument is located in the Achinsko-Mariinsky forest-steppe on the second floodplain terrace of the Kia River near the village of Shestakovo, next to other archaeological sites investigated (the Shestakovo-I settlement, the Shestakovo-II settlement and the Shestakovo i burial mound), which belong to the final stage of the early Iron Age and form a single archaeological cultural and chronological complex Excavation materials are systematized at the level of elements of burial structures, memorial funeral rite, burial method and burial equipment. A comparative analysis of published materials with sources from neighboring territories and the valley of the middle reaches of the Kii River is carried out. It is concluded that the published sources are close to the excavation materials of the objects of the third and fourth stages of the Shestakovo i burial mound, which is a reference site for the Shestakovo archaeological culture of the transitional Tagaro-Tashtyk time in the Achinsk-Mariinsky forest-steppe in 1979. Based on the statement that the Tesin archaeological culture of the 3rd century BC is the middle of the 3rd century in the steppes of the Middle Yenisei is a synchronous Shestakov archaeological culture of the Achinsk- Mariinsky forest-steppe and, taking into account the observations made by various authors about the late creation of similar processes in this region, we model a cultural and chronological development scheme. This suggests that the Shestakov archaeological culture could have function from the 2nd century BC to the 4th century. This model and the analogies given to the materials from the Shestakovo II burial mound allow us to date this monument to the 3rd — 4th centuries and attribute it to the final stage of the development of the Shestakovo archaeological culture. Key words: Achinsk-Mariinsky forest-steppe, finale of the early Iron Age, Shestakovo-II burial ground, Shestakovo archaeological culture

Rock Art and Trade Networks: From Scandinavia to the Italian Alps

AbstractThis article uses rock art to explore potential bonds between Scandinavia and Italy, starting in the second half of the third millennium BCE with the enigmatic Mjeltehaugen burial monument in coastal western Norway and its striking rock art images, and ending in the first millennium BCE with ship motifs in inland Val Camonica, Italy. While the carved dagger on the Mjeltehaugen slab is unique in its Nordic setting, such weapon depictions are frequently seen on the Continent, e.g. in South Tyrol, and more often in later Nordic rock art. Strong evidence of trade relations between the Italian Alps and Scandinavia is found c. 1500–1100 BCE when the importation of copper from South Tyrol coincided with two-way transmission of luxury items, and again in a different form, c. 1000–700 BCE when strong similarities in burial traditions between the two areas may be seen as evidence of direct cultural connections or a shared cultural koiné. In order to understand the social fabric of these relations and how they unfolded through time, the authors discuss several different models of interaction. It is hypothesised that rock art practices played a role in establishing and maintaining durable social relations, through what we consider to be a two-way transmission of symbolic concepts and iconography during seasonal meetings related to trade and travel.

The Iron Age Urnfield Tradition of Southwestern Jutland, Denmark

This study examines two urnfields, their development, burial rituals, grave goods and the cremated remains in a renewed analysis of the Danish Urnfield Tradition. The osteological investigation reveals a very high proportion of children´s graves in these communal burial sites. Individual expression and demonstration of status are muted in burial rituals adhering to strict norms, although differences between age categories show through variations in the size of a burial monument. The use of CT scans and a detailed analysis of all artefacts provide evidence of the ritualized breaking of urns and the retrieval of bones from graves. Such retrieval of bones together with the layout and development of urnfields demonstrate the importance placed on the ancestors in the Early Pre-Roman Iron Age. The inconspicuous burials, together with the incorporation of all age categories, suggest that the focus of these burial communities is on a relational rather than individual identity.

Идентификация остатков погребальной пищи в глиняных лепных сосудах методами газовой хроматографии и масс-спектрометрии

The study of food products lipid residues found on external and internal surfaces of ancient clay or ceramic vessels, also their identification by chemical methods can provide valuable information about these vessels using and the food preferences of ancient people.Burial ground Shekshovo is a burial monument in Suzdal Opole, where in the course of archeological works, mound burial mounds with destroyed and undisturbed burials were detected. The samples extracts from ground filling 6 ceramic molded vessels from the burials of the XI century were investigated by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The various sterols were found by chromato-mass-spectrometric study of the fat residues. The main sterols was cholesterol, with insignificant admixtures of β-sitosterol and squalene. Monocarboxylic fatty acids (FAs) with carbon chain from 12 to 18, including lauric and myristic acids, as well as monocarboxylic acids odd-chain FAs and branch-chain FAs were detected in the studied extracts. The presence of cholesterol, lauric and myristic, as well as the high content of palmitic and stearic acids in extracts of soil samples from vessels, indicates the presence of animal fat in the remains of burial food. As result of comparison fatty acid profiles of soil extracts from archaeological vessels with literature data about fatty acids content of various fats, It was suggested that the remains of the burial food of three samples were contained the fat of ruminants (cattle, sheep or goats), the other three samples were contained animal fat single-chamber stomach (pigs or horses).

East Anglian early Neolithic monument burial linked to contemporary Megaliths

In the fourth millennium BCE a cultural phenomenon of monumental burial structures spread along the Atlantic façade. Megalithic burials have been targeted for aDNA analyses, but a gap remains in East Anglia, where Neolithic structures were generally earthen or timber. An early Neolithic (3762–3648 cal. BCE) burial monument at the site of Trumpington Meadows, Cambridgeshire, UK, contained the partially articulated remains of at least three individuals. To determine whether this monument fits a pattern present in megalithic burials regarding sex bias, kinship, diet and relationship to modern populations, teeth and ribs were analysed for DNA and carbon and nitrogen isotopic values, respectively. Whole ancient genomes were sequenced from two individuals to a mean genomic coverage of 1.6 and 1.2X and genotypes imputed. Results show that they were brothers from a small population genetically and isotopically similar to previously published British Neolithic individuals, with a level of genome-wide homozygosity consistent with a small island population sourced from continental Europe, but bearing no signs of recent inbreeding. The first Neolithic whole genomes from a monumental burial in East Anglia confirm that this region was connected with the larger pattern of Neolithic megaliths in the British Isles and the Atlantic façade.

Negotiating memory: funerary commemoration as social change in emancipation-era Barbados

ABSTRACTAnglican church commemoration in Barbados is traditionally viewed as reflecting a wholly white, British history; however, beginning in the late eighteenth century, these spaces were circumvented as places of memory for the freed black community. As abolition and emancipation triggered greater integration of previously racially segregated groups on the island, funerary monuments provided the opportunity to negotiate memory, social structure, and community relationships, subverting dominant power hierarchies and tensions stimulated by race, religion, and marginalization. This paper will reconstruct narratives and counter-narratives in burial practice and monument use against the backdrop of abolition and emancipation to contribute to historical and archaeological understandings of historical processes of colonization and decolonization, relevant to Barbados and other colonies dependent on slave labour.

High precision laser scanning assisting in the service of historical and art historical research. The burial monument of Queen Gertrude (13th century)

One of the most important and controversial burial sites of medieval Hungary is the grave of Queen Gertrude of Meran with its decorated burial monument at the Cistercian Abbey of Pilis. The circumstances of the assassination of the queen is a highly debated event in Hungarian history described in a large number of local and foreign contemporary documents. Archaeological excavations have revealed the fragments of her burial monument with high artistic qualities (human figures, architectural elements, inscriptions, decorated patterns). Over the last three decades, art historical research has discussed the foreign artistic influences of the monument and proposed several reconstructions based on the drawings and photos of the excavated fragments. A full-size sculpted model has also been created on the basis of one of these hypothetical reconstructions.This paper will present the results of a new research project to create the first virtual reconstruction of the burial monument. The fragments of the monument and its previously sculpted physical model were captured by a terrestrial laser scanner and an optical 3D scanner, and consequently, point clouds and meshes were created. Using high-resolution data in CAD environment, a 3D virtual reconstruction model was built showing a possible form of the burial monument. In order to offer a new virtual reconstruction for different research approaches (art historical studies, archaeological interpretations and comparative studies with other monuments) a complex method was required to handle the huge amount of digital data. A database was built from the scanned fragments enabling to manage them easily. High precision 3D models of the fragments allowed to capture their precise geometry and perform the metrical analysis of the fragments, which may provide a basis for alternative reconstruction attempts. By using 3D technology, the results and conclusions derived from the fragments have been made more accessible than through traditional methods. Thus, scholars can use spectacular 3D visualizations in their research and examine many properties of the artifacts. The results are also available for a wider audience, as it has been demonstrated in an exhibition to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the death of Queen Gertrude. The paper demonstrates some of the advantages that 3D technology provides for scholarly research over conventional methods and introduces a method for integrated archaeological, historical and art historical examinations using state of the art technologies.

The Life and Times of a Chambered Tomb: The Results of Survey and Excavation at Blasthill Chambered Tomb, Kintyre, Western Scotland

Clyde cairns are a distinctive form of early Neolithic burial monument found in western Scotland. However, there have been no detailed investigations of these sites for many decades. Knowledge of early Neolithic monumentality in this region remains limited and reliant on parallels with better-known sequences in southern Britain and in Ireland. New research questions have recently arisen which explore the date of the construction of megalithic sites as well as the use and reuse of monuments over time. With these research questions in mind, this article presents the results of excavations at Blasthill chambered tomb in southern Kintyre, focusing on the use of this monument over a two thousand-year period. Excavations have suggested that this monument saw several key phases of construction and elaboration as well as more minor adjustments and depositions from the early Neolithic through into the Bronze Age. Both the architecture and material culture deposited within the monument suggest fluctuating relations with surrounding communities, most notably others in western Scotland and eastern Ireland.

Labour, industry and production in megalithic period (South Indian Iron Age): Nomadic, semi settled group or settled group?

There are above 1933 Megalithic Iron Age sites across south India; they include burial sites, habitation sites, habitation cum burial sites, Iron Age painting sites, isolated iron smelting localities near a habitation or burial. With the approach of economic archeology and sociotechnic perspective analyzing ceramics, metallurgy, burial monument (builder) and subsistent evidence (considering them as industries) that are found in the Megalithic burials as grave furnishers (The Material Archives Preserved in the Burial Monuments) from the background of Labour, Production and Industry that has economic imprints can be discussed on whether the Megalithic folks were nomadic, semi-settled or settled. This paper is an attempt to make a rough computation on the quantity of output that this culture might have in micro or in macro scale. This helps in understanding two aspects; one: whether they were nomadic, semisettled or settled at one location; two: diffusion versus indigenous development.

Dates, Diet, and Dismemberment: Evidence from the Coldrum Megalithic Monument, Kent

We present radiocarbon dates, stable isotope data, and osteological analysis of the remains of a minimum of 17 individuals deposited in the western part of the burial chamber at Coldrum, Kent. This is one of the Medway group of megalithic monuments – sites with shared architectural motifs and no very close parallels elsewhere in Britain – whose location has been seen as important in terms of the origins of Neolithic material culture and practices in Britain. The osteological analysis identified the largest assemblage of cut-marked human bone yet reported from a British early Neolithic chambered tomb; these modifications were probably undertaken as part of burial practices. The stable isotope dataset shows very enrichedδ15N values, the causes of which are not entirely clear, but could include consumption of freshwater fish resources. Bayesian statistical modelling of the radiocarbon dates demonstrates that Coldrum is an early example of a British Neolithic burial monument, though the tomb was perhaps not part of the earliest Neolithic evidence in the Greater Thames Estuary. The site was probably initiated after the first appearance of other early Neolithic regional phenomena including an inhumation burial, early Neolithic pottery and a characteristic early Neolithic post-and-slot structure, and perhaps of Neolithic flint extraction in the Sussex mines. Coldrum is the only site in the Medway monument group to have samples which have been radiocarbon dated, and is important both for regional studies of the early Neolithic and wider narratives of the processes, timing, and tempo of Neolithisation across Britain

Diagnostic investigations and statistical validation of EDXRF mapping of the burial monument of Pope Sixtus IV by Antonio Pollaiolo (1493) in the Vatican

It has become a common practice to include diagnostics and archaeometric studies during a masterpiece restoration. The advantages and limits of this approach are now topic of discussion in the community of researchers that is growing up quickly. The bronze burial monument of Pope Sixtus IV (1471–84) by Antonio del Pollaiolo, now in the Treasure Museum in the Vatican was intended to be located at the center of a chapel, this explains its apparent asymmetry: lack of height and large base. The restoration of the burial monument started in May 2007, it was carried out by first fulfilling a series of non-invasive analyses using a transportable EDXRF to map the composition of the alloy and evaluate the diagnostic capabilities for deterioration processes of the bronze surface. As a consequence of the first non-invasive diagnostic campaign, a second campaign of micro invasive tests was planned and carried out. The samples were analysed with SEM-EDS and XRF techniques. In this article some of the results of the EDXRF tests will be shown together with the procedures set up to maximize the diagnostic information obtained and minimize the need of microsampling from the artefact. The results and the statistical analysis of data show that a straightforward planning of the measurements can give several, sometimes unexpected, results in the definition of the state of conservation of the monument and also from an archaeometric point of view. With a high amount of data, the use of statistical analysis is necessary, for example in our case, the analysis of the variance confirmed the hypothesis of the use of different alloys for the elements of the panels.

Antiochos's Hierothesion at Nemrud Dag Revisited: Adjusting the Date in the Light of Astronomical Evidence

The world heritage site of the hierothesion of Antiochos I, King of Commagene, at Mount Nemrud (Turkey) certainly constitutes one of the most fascinating historical enigmas in human culture. The monument includes the famous lion “horoscope” which has often been used in various attempts to interpret and date the ruins, with controversial results. After performing on-site observations, during the summer solstice of 2009, we propose that Antiochos’s monument reflects the situation of the skies at special moments of the year 49 b.c., when possibly construction of the monument would have been begun. This alternative, more substantiated than the traditional explanation, is formulated in the present paper by considering not only the lion slab but also the orientation of the eastern and western terraces of the hierothesion, and the inscriptions on the monument. The small Kingdom of Commagene nestled between the upper course of the river Euphrates and the mountains of Anti-Taurus in the south-east of Anatolia. Despite its tiny size, Commagene played a significant role in the history of the Middle East during the late Hellenistic and early Roman periods, as a buffer state between the powerful Seleucid (later Roman) and Parthian Empires. The dynasty of Commagene was founded by King Ptolemaios (c. 163 b.c.), a member of the Orontid family of Armenian satraps and kings with Persian roots, and ended when Antiochos IV Epiphanes was deposed by Emperor Vespasian in 72 a.d. Antiochos I Theos (c. 69–36 b.c.) was arguably the most important of its kings, ruling for more than 30 years in one of the most challenging periods in the history of the region. He was contemporaneous with Triganes the Great of Armenia, Mithradates II and Orodes II of Parthia, the last petty Seleucid kings, Herod the Great, and Lucullus, Pompey, Crassus, Caesar and Antonius from the Roman side. Antiochos was the son of Mithradates I Kallinikos, an Orontid, and of Laodice Thea Philadelphos, daughter of the last Seleucid king of any importance, Antiochos VIII Grypus. Consequently, Antiochos was able to claim both an Iranian and a Hellenistic ancestry, which was reflected in his political behaviour, always balanced between East and West, and, most importantly, in the new cult he was going to establish in his kingdom. The most outstanding example of this new cult was Antiochos’s burial monument on the summit of the highest peak of Commagene, Nemrud Dag (see Figure 1) at a height of 2150 m. Earlier local inscriptions in Luwian speak about Kings Suppiluliuma and Hattusili (c. 800 b.c.), lords of Kummaha (Assyrian Kummuh, undoubtedly the original name of Commagene), who rendered worship to a sacred mountain named Hurtula, possibly Nemrud Dag. Mountain cult was very frequent JHA, xli (2010)

Aksumstelen. Et monuments skiftende betydninger

This article deals with the various meanings associated with the Aksum stela which was taken from Ethiopia to Rome in 1937 and returned in 2005. It discusses its original meaning as a burial monument, its role in Mussolini’s propaganda, and the new meaning it has acquired after having been returned to Ethiopia and Aksum.

Two Orcadian cist burials: excavations at Midskaill, Egilsay, and Linga Fiold, Sandwick

Two cists representing common forms of Bronze Age burial monument were excavated in 1992 in Orkney. A short flat cist at Midskaill, on the island of Egilsay, was previously unrecorded and it contained coarse pottery sherds and 'cramp' (vitrified cremation slag). No human bone was found. The second cist, located within a mound at Linga Fiold, Sandwick, on Mainland Orkney, contained human bone and cramp. The Linga Fiold mound is one of a recorded and partially excavated group (RCAHMS 1946, no 713). The work was carried out with funding from Historic

The Excavation of a Beaker Burial Monument at Ravenstone, Buckinghamshire, in 1978

This paper records the excavation of a ploughed-out round barrow (ring-ditch) at Ravenstone, Buckinghamshire (SP 8535 4895). The circular ditch (12.0 m diameter) was broken by four narrow causeways. Two graves were located at the centre of the monument. The primary grave was apparently a cenotaph, for although a coffin, an antler spatula and a flint fabricator were discovered, no skeletal material was found. The secondary grave contained the crouched inhumation of a woman, accompanied by grave goods. Finds from both graves suggest leather-working. A four-post structure (3.60 m square) may have existed on the site prior to the barrow's construction. A substantial quantity of worked flint came from the excavated area, and small pits contained flints of late Neolithic and pottery of Iron Age date. The excavation records are housed at the Buckinghamshire County Museum, as CAS 2555 in the Sites and Monuments Record, and the finds as L.301.