Funerary Contexts Research Articles

Flautas, banhas e caxiris

Quando pensamos em cenas cotidianas, como o preparo de alimentos, a construção de habitações, a caça e a pesca, o preparo de contextos funerários, há uma grande quantidade de materiais que não se preservam no registro arqueológico. Alguns exemplos são: palhas, têxteis, gorduras, banhas, couros, insetos, resinas, entre outros. Esses elementos estão na “cena”, mas são esquecidos, uma vez que não são encontrados. Pesquisas que buscam pensar na reconstituição dos espaços, dos materiais, dos gestos no presente, têm nos ajudado a pensar, de uma maneira holística, sobre as tecnologias, seus materiais e vestígios. Partindo de um olhar atento para os gestos utilizados na atualidade e para tecnologias conhecidas etnograficamente em ornamentos, tratamento de carnes, gestos culinários, artefatos em osso, entre outros, procuramos explorar o potencial para estudos de tecnologias perecíveis buscando relações com vestígios encontrados em contextos arqueológicos brasileiros. Sabendo que as tecnologias perecíveis foram utilizadas no passado, nós, enquanto arqueóloga/e/os, devemos refletir sobre métodos de coleta, análise e interpretação dos vestígios que permitiriam uma visão mais holística e cultural das interações entre plantas, animais e humanos no passado.

Adornos corporais em materiais orgânicos nos enterramentos pré-históricos do Nordeste no Brasil

Os adornos corporais são considerados elementos materiais que marcaram a existência do simbolismo e da cognição dos primeiros indivíduos do gênero Homo e são concomitantes a outras manifestações simbólicas, que, por vezes, não deixaram marcas visíveis no registro arqueológico. Dados etnográficos demonstram que tais adornos, em sua maioria, são produzidos em materiais leves e orgânicos. A deposição funerária permite um melhor acondicionamento desses materiais, assim como uma melhor contextualização arqueológica. Esta pesquisa teve por objetivo analisar os adornos confeccionados em materiais orgânicos e identificados em contexto funerário pré-histórico em 10 sítios no Nordeste do Brasil. Os dados permitiram inferir que os grupos que habitaram essa região utilizavam-se de diversas tipologias adornais, confeccionadas em distintas matérias-primas (ossos, dentes, conchas, palhas, sementes). Esses registros estão inseridos em cronologia a partir de 10.000 anos B.P, com maior concentração e diversificação entre 2000 e 1000 anos B.P.

Sounds of Etruria: aural characteristics of the Tomba dell'Orco, Tarquinia

This article presents the results of an archaeoacoustic analysis conducted inside the three chambers of the fourth-century BC Etruscan painted tomb of Tomba dell'Orco at Tarquinia. Using digital sound samples and an acoustic recording protocol, the study demonstrates how, in some areas of the tomb, low-frequency sounds, such as drumming and chanting, produce lengthy reverberation times. These effects may have been associated with the natural rumble of thunder, which played a significant role in Etruscan society, as indicated in secondary literary sources and material culture. The study provides a more comprehensive understanding of the Etruscan tomb space, while identifying new avenues of research in pre-Roman and other ancient Mediterranean funerary contexts.

An Excerpt from the Book of the Twelve Caverns in the Tomb of Petosiris (Tuna el-Gebel)مقتطفات من كتاب "الكهوف الاثنا عشر في مقبرة با-دي-أوزير (تونة الجبل)"

The Book of the Twelve Caverns is a litany of the deities who dwelled in these regions of the ancient Egyptian underworld. This cosmographic composition, which is among the Books of the Netherworld, helped the deceased traverse the caverns of the Duat and receive diverse benefits when it was used in a funerary context. It has been attested on a variety of media (papyri, mummy wrappings, etc.). One of these sources is a depiction from the tomb of Petosiris—high priest of Thoth in Hermopolis—located at Tuna el-Gebel in Middle Egypt. This article will focus on the main features of this pars pro toto example, the adaptation of the book to this specific context, as well as the model used, which marked the history of the transmission of the composition: the Osireion of Abydos.

Funerals During the Second Iron age: A Newly Discovered Sepulchral Ensemble Reveals Practices in Western Switzerland (Pré-Du-Stand, Geneva)

During preventive archaeological excavations at the site of Pre-du-Stand in Geneva (Switzerland) in 2015 and 2016, four cremations dating to the middle La Tene period (La Tene C2/200-150 BC) were found. This discovery sheds light on Second Iron Age societies, which remain poorly understood to this day. Analysis based on existing anthropological knowledge and funerary artefacts suggest these structures represent a female grave, two warrior graves, and a deposit of charcoal and burned human bones. On the Swiss Plateau, the beginning of the Second Iron Age (LTA2-LTC2/425-150 BC) is characterised by inhumation necropolises. Cremation, meanwhile, disappears until 150 BC, when it makes a comeback. The recent discoveries made at Pre-du-Stand push back the appearance of cremations to the La Tene C2 period around 200 BC, and bear witness to the presence of two male tombs, a rare occurrence in the funerary context for this period.

The unwritten history of medical treatment: Evidence for ritual-healers and their activities in the pre-literate past

ObjectiveTo reveal the presence and activities of healers from funerary contexts. MaterialsEthnohistoric and ethnographic textual descriptions and the bioarchaeological record. MethodsA synthesis of human remains, grave contexts, and funerary objects. ConclusionsThe capacity to act as a “healer” forms part of the social identity of a diverse range of uniquely specialized individuals cross-culturally who also perform a variety of other roles associated with transcendent ideologies, beliefs, and religion. They are ambivalent, capable of doing both good and ill. They defend the health and well-being of the individual and the community but, using the same knowledge, are also implicated in attacks on individuals and groups within and outside their communities. This ambivalence, combined with a lack of defined institutional organization and the great diversity of medico-religious healers in the recent ethnographic past and historically, makes the identification of such individuals in the archaeological record controversial, but they are present. SignificanceNot only are healers identifiable in the archaeological record, but their practices disproportionately influence it, acting as a powerful complement to historical sources for the development of medicine and medical knowledge. LimitationsPublished literature is of variable detail, which means that healing practices and healers are under-appreciated and under-represented in reconstructions of past societies. Suggestions for Further ResearchApplication of archaeothanatological approaches to recording and synthesis of the funerary context with the remains of the deceased can be used to identify objects and practices used in healing that have been more recently superseded by scientific approaches to health.

The cultural roles of perforated fish vertebrae in prehistoric and historic Europe

AbstractThis paper provides a new synthesis of perforated fish vertebrae in prehistoric and historic Europe, with a particular focus on Poland, within the broader context of Central and Eastern Europe. The earliest examples of such artefacts in Europe date from the Upper Palaeolithic, but compared to other ‘beads’ manufactured from animal bone, perforated fish vertebrae are rare. This paper examines the diachronic trends in the range of species that have been chosen for such objects, as well as their depositional contexts. Despite the wide range of freshwater and marine species exploited by people, only the vertebrae of a few species—especially pike and catfish—were selected for use as beads. There is a general shift from their deposition in funerary contexts in prehistoric European societies to their association as low‐status objects associated with Christian private devotion in the post‐conversion period. However, this may not reflect continuity in the use of fish vertebrae, with a shift in their symbolism after the conversion to Christianity, given the substantial chronological gaps in the archaeological record. This synthesis nonetheless provides a solid foundation for contextualising future archaeological finds of such artefacts.

6 Urban Commerce in the Jovel Valley of Highland Chiapas

ABSTRACTThe Late Classic and Early Postclassic civic centers of Moxviquil and Cerro Ecatepec/CV‐38, located in the Jovel Valley of highland Chiapas, supported a number of institutions that provide evidence for a low level of commercialization. These include a possible periodic marketplace in the Main Plaza of Moxviquil, indirect evidence of merchant activity, and the use of widely circulating formal currencies, media of exchange, and imported luxury goods. However, many imported commodities were not equally consumed at all sites in the valley, and many widely‐circulating currency items were ultimately deposited in elite funerary contexts.[Maya, Chiapas, marketplace, currency, exchange]

How Does Diet Influence Our Lives? Evaluating the Relationship between Isotopic Signatures and Mortality Patterns in Italian Roman Imperial and Medieval Periods.

The present research investigates the relationship between dietary habits and mortality patterns in the Roman Imperial and Medieval periods. The reconstructions of population dynamics and subsistence strategies provide a fascinating source of information for understanding our history. This is particularly true given that the changes in social, economic, political, and religious aspects related to the transition from the Roman period to the Middle Ages have been widely discussed. We analyzed the isotopic and mortality patterns of 616 individuals from 18 archeological sites (the Medieval Latium sites of Colonna, Santa Severa, Allumiere, Cencelle, and 14 Medieval and Imperial funerary contexts from Rome) to compile a survivorship analysis. A semi-parametric approach was applied, suggesting variations in mortality patterns between sexes in the Roman period. Nitrogen isotopic signatures influenced mortality in both periods, showing a quadratic and a linear effect for Roman Imperial and Medieval populations, respectively. No influence of carbon isotopic signatures has been detected for Roman Imperial populations. Conversely, increased mortality risk for rising carbon isotopic values was observed in Medieval samples.

Fossilized fashion and social sparkle. Dutch Bronze Age bracelets in context

This contribution deals with the bronze bracelets found in the Netherlands that are datable between the Late Neolithic and the Middle Iron Age (n=176). We study their context (hoards, funerary contexts, settlements and stray finds), and we relate the specifics of their form and decoration to regional and supraregional traditions. First, we study their role as social signifiers (in reconstructions) of prehistoric identities across those scales, discussing how particular Bronze Age ‘costumes’ or ‘ornament sets’ may have been kept from graves and deposited in alternate ways. Then, we study later prehistoric arm-rings for their potential to indicate the scale, orientation and longevity of supraregional contact networks into which the later prehistoric communities of the Netherlands were integrated.

Placas metálicas decorativas de cinturones halladas en contextos funerarios tardoantiguos de las provincias de Granada y Málaga

This study focuses on the study of a series of metal plates classified as clothing elements that were found in late ancient antique funerary contexts in the province of Granada and Malaga. In the investigation following necropolis ate analysed: Las Delicias (Granada,) La Calera and Villanueva del Rosario (Málaga). This study is constructed from a typological perspective, but comparisons will also be made with other decorative metallic elements from the peninsular territory and outside of it. Chronologically, these decorative plates that would be part of the belts have been ascribed to the 5th century AD, because at other sites they are associated with funerary contexts from this chronology. However, it is worth noting that some were found together with materials of later chronology, with a datation that oscillates between the 6th and 7th centuries AD. Finally, it is worth mentioning that in this study two belt clips found in one of the necropolis will be included, and that their decorative pattern is tipologically similar to some of the aforementioned plates.

The tradition of pottery painting in the Upper Silesian-Lesser Polish regional group of the Lusatian culture in the Early Iron Age. The example of the cemetery at Dobrzeń Mały, Opole district.

Abstract The idea of covering pottery with polychrome ornaments adopted from the Greek art of the Late Geometric period spread to almost every corner of Early Iron Age Europe, including some areas in present-day Poland. Painted pottery was manufactured in Middle Silesia and southern Greater Poland. Finds of painted vessels are recorded also in Upper Silesia, and a smaller number still, in Lesser Poland. The presented paper addresses painted pottery identified with the Upper Silesian-Lesser Polish regional group of the Lusatian culture from settlement and funerary contexts (cremation and bi-ritual cemeteries). A closer look is taken at the previously unpublished finds of polychrome vessels from the cemetery at Dobrzeń Mały investigated during the 1970s. Their collection is now displayed and preserved in the Museum of Opole Silesia in Opole.

Scavi e ricerche nella necropoli di Tuvixeddu (Cagliari) tra Ottocento e Novecento: fonti d’archivio e bibliografiche a confronto

In the context of the General Agreement signed between the Department of History, Cultural Heritage and Territory of the University of Cagliari and the Superintendence ABAP for the metropolitan city of Cagliari and the provinces of Oristano and Sud Sardegna, which provides for the analysis of the documentation of excavations conducted since the 19th century in the Punic-Roman necropolis of Tuvixeddu, the systematic analysis of the archival documentation and the published data was resumed in order to reconstruct funerary contexts and rituals. The main interventions concerning the discovery and investigation of Punic chamber burials are presented here.

The Tiwanaku Tradition within the Tambo Valley, Southern Coast of Peru: Interpretation of Burial Contexts from La Pampilla 1

The collapse of the Tiwanaku state around AD 1000 resulted in dramatic changes in the areas of its former colonies such as the Moquegua Valley, which featured the largest Tiwanaku communities outside the Altiplano. The inhabitants of these former colonies were forced to relocate to the areas north of Moquegua, including the Tambo River estuary (Arequipa Department, Province of Islay). This relocation has been confirmed at La Pampilla 1, where a large graveyard featuring funerary contexts of the postcollapse communities of Tiwanaku-Timulaca was found, with a calibrated14C date between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries AD. In this article we discuss the results of excavations and analyses conducted at the La Pampilla 1 graveyard, the first systematically researched Tiwanaku site in the Tambo Valley: these findings confirm the existence of a relatively large, terminal-phase Tiwanaku population, represented by Tumilaca funerary contexts.

Lost and Found: The Ilkhanid Tiles of the Pir-i Bakran Mausoleum (Linjan, Isfahan)

ABSTRACT The mausoleum of Pir-i Bakran (1298–1313) is an exceptional Ilkhanid monument, which exemplifies different types of architectural decoration. These rich and exuberant revetments have been subject to extensive research: scholarly concern with the mausoleum focused on the distinctions between the monument's numerous constructive and decorative phases and its stuccos, wall paintings, and applied stuccos. However, the mausoleum was originally also decorated with tiles in lustre, moulded and glazed, Lajvardina and glazed media, which were removed from the mausoleum at an early stage. This paper dedicates its attention to this less well-studied aspect of the monument: art history research and work in museum collections support the suggestion that tiles (in lustre, moulded and glazed, Lajvardina and glazed media) in museum collections, may originate from the Pir-i Bakran mausoleum. Some of these tiles comprise animate elements (birds, such as cranes and phoenixes), which require an explanation of their meaning within the religious and funerary structure contexts. The Pir-i Bakran mausoleum appears to be one of the most southerly, though not the most remote, monuments with revetments containing animate imagery and lustre tile decoration. The research provides a new insight into the circulation of ideas and artistic exchange within the Iranian plateau.

Beyond cremation: Theorising fire in funerary contexts

When one thinks about the role and uses of fire in relation to mortuary archaeology, evidence concerning the practice of cremation understandably dominates the literature. However, a growing body of research is demonstrating how fire, its products and its effects were employed by people in the past for many different forms of interaction between the living and the dead. Fire can be employed for the desiccation, fumigation, purification, fragmentation, and manipulation of human remains or the funerary context as part of very different stages of the mortuary process. This paper will describe the development of approaches to fire in mortuary archaeology and suggest how we might theorise fire as an active participant in funerary ritual. Using examples from European and Mediterranean prehistory, it will be argued that fire is specifically selected for use in funerary practices for its ability to elaborate or extend the ritual process, to facilitate engagement with the corpse, and to create new materialities and immaterialities of interaction between the living and the dead. It will be demonstrated that fire is fundamentally transformatory, not only in terms of its action and effects on the body, grave assemblage or funerary monument, but also in terms of how it creates space for funerary ritual change. One can only conclude from the multimodality of fire – the simultaneous availability of different yet contextually relevant functional and conceptual discourses – that it is a multipurpose tool, with a range of applications in the mortuary sphere.

Human Activities, Biostratigraphy and Past Environment Revealed by Small-Mammal Associations at the Chalcolithic Levels of El Portalón de Cueva Mayor (Atapuerca, Spain)

The Chalcolithic levels of El Portalón de Cueva Mayor (Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) offer a good opportunity to test whether the small-mammal contents of different archaeo-stratigraphical units may be useful to characterize them as independent entities. With that purpose, we studied representative samples of small-mammal remains from the two main contexts identified: the Early Chalcolithic (EC) funerary context and the Late Chalcolithic (LC) habitat/stabling context, with the latter comprising three different archaeological units according to their origin, namely prepared floors, activity floors and stabling surfaces or fumiers. Following the distribution of taxa in their respective contexts, we performed several statistical tests to check for significant discrepancies between archaeological units. The exclusive presence of certain taxa, together with the statistical difference in relative taxonomic ratios, points to the integrity and unpolluted condition of the EC context. The interspersed arrangement of the different LC context’s units made them prone to inter-pollution as they are not statistically different. The unexpected presence of Pliomys lenki and Chionomys nivalis in the prepared floors evidences their Upper Pleistocene allochthonous origin. The EC levels of El Portalón contribute the first Holocene records of nine taxa in the Sierra de Atapuerca. An environment dominated by woodland, shrubland and wet meadows, with moderate presence of grassland, inland wetlands and rocky areas, is inferred from the small-mammal association of the EC levels.

Considerations on the Function and Provenance of the Glass in the Plato von Ustinow Collection

The Russian émigré Plato von Ustinow – who settled in Palestine in 1862 and lived there until 1913 – was a keen collector of antiquities. In contrast to other collectors, however, von Ustinow did not purchase the objects from art-dealers. Instead, he appears to have worked with professional archaeologists, but also bought objects from local inhabitants in Jaffa and Jerusalem. His collection includes a substantial number of glass vessels: primarily blown vessels dating to the first- to sixth- or seventh century CE, i.e. the Roman and Early Byzantine era. The von Ustinow collection is comparatively homogeneous, and most of the objects are likely to stem from a relatively limited geographical area, as it closely resembles material from funerary contexts found in modern-day Israel. The collection includes a number of perfume bottles, small jars and kohl-flasks, objects most probably utilised in the preparation of the deceased before burial.

The Perseverance of Archaeology: New Data from a Rescue Investigation at Triq Fejġel in Rabat and its Contribution to the Punic and Roman Maltese Funerary Context

Abstract The Maltese funerary context during the Punic and Roman times is documented from discoveries and archaeological reports primarily from the twentieth century. Notwithstanding, documentation standards in the first half of the last century were such as to provide limited archaeological data to properly understand the context, phasing and ritual. The combination of robust policy-driven archaeological monitoring procedures together with a scientific excavation of reported discoveries is essential to provide fresh archaeological data which must necessarily be published within adequate time frames. This will by no small means contribute to the formulation of a proper national research agenda by identifying lacunae as well as giving rise to new research questions. This study draws attention to the survival of archaeology seen as limited stratigraphic contexts that have persevered through the centuries and the continuous exploitation of the site. It is a case study of the application of a stratigraphic scientific approach to a recent archaeological discovery during archaeological monitoring, providing ample data with regard to funerary reuse and associated practices and rituals together with an in-depth osteological observation of skeletal remains therein discovered.

A sexual division of labour at the start of agriculture? A multi-proxy comparison through grave good stone tool technological and use-wear analysis

This work demonstrates the importance of integrating sexual division of labour into the research of the transition to the Neolithic and its social implications. During the spread of the Neolithic in Europe, when migration led to the dispersal of domesticated plants and animals, novel tasks and tools, appear in the archaeological record. By examining the use-wear traces from over 400 stone tools from funerary contexts of the earliest Neolithic in central Europe we provide insights into what tasks could have been carried out by women and men. The results of this analysis are then examined for statistically significant correlations with the osteological, isotopic and other grave good data, informing on sexed-based differences in diet, mobility and symbolism. Our data demonstrate males were buried with stone tools used for woodwork, and butchery, hunting or interpersonal violence, while women with those for the working of animal skins, expanding the range of tasks known to have been carried out. The results also show variation along an east-west cline from Slovakia to eastern France, suggesting that the sexual division of labour (or at least its representation in death) changed as farming spread westwards.