Mortuary Evidence Research Articles

Gender and the Performance of Death Rituals in Classical Athens 480–332 BCE

Abstract Death rituals play a significant role in maintaining the cultural system of different societies by providing a specific form of behaviour in response to death. To that end, the significant role of women as patrons of culture can be identified by studying their role in the performance of death rituals. Classical Athens provides a good case study as women performed most phases of the mortuary treatment, and their role is recognised in both the textual and material evidence. This gives us the opportunity to diverge from the ‘typical male perspective’-approach to the mortuary evidence, which focuses on the socio-political and economic dimensions, and shed light on the agency of women. The female agency was responsible for the continuity of some ancient rituals despite the laws made to restrict them. Moreover, relatively wealthier women were indirect agents influencing the Athenian public life by using excessive death rituals to reallocate power in society after the loss of powerful individuals.

Preliminary site report of a stone jar burial in the Lao People's Democratic Republic

For nearly a century, questions have remained as to the purpose and age of the Plain of Jars in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Scholars have generally argued that these megaliths served a mortuary function, either as symbolic monuments or receptacles for the dead. However, due to a paucity of mortuary evidence associated with the jars, it has been difficult to conclusively argue either way. Aside from small amounts of cremated human bone fragments found within a limited number of jars, to date no substantive human burials have been found inside a stone jar across this vast megalithic landscape. Additionally, the stone jars are thought to date to the Southeast Asian Iron Age, between ca. 500 BCE-500 CE, with ritual activity continuing into the 13th century CE. This paper provides the first substantial evidence that the jars were used to contain the deceased for either primary or secondary burials during the 9th to 12th century CE.

A case study of multiple individuals with a supernumerary vertebra and sacralization in the prehistoric Rio Muerto Tiwanaku cemetery (AD 700-900), Moquegua, Peru

This paper presents a rare cluster of 16 Tiwanaku colonists (AD 700-1000) buried in the Rio Muerto cemeteries M70B and M43A (Moquegua Valley, Peru) who have a supernumerary sixth lumbar (L6) vertebra in their complete spine. While some nonhuman primates have an extra lumbar vertebra for quadrupedal flexibility, an additional lumbar vertebra in humans is considered a rare trait and associated with a Hox gene mutation. More than half of adolescent and older individuals in the study population were observed to have this trait (M70B: 14 of 26; M43A: 2 of 3). Almost all these people also have full or partial L6 sacralization. At least three other Tiwanaku colonists within the Moquegua Valley have been noted with this trait, as well as one case from the Tiwanaku heartland site of Lukurmata, Bolivia. Finding this many people with this rare condition concentrated in one archaeological site suggests a shared connection, such as a congenital condition. We discuss the distribution of this trait at the Rio Muerto site, and how this may represent a subgroup of a migrant community within the larger Tiwanaku population. We also consider mortuary evidence and previously published strontium indications of migration, potential shared descent, community connections, and studies of intermarriage within this region.

NOBODY PUTS GRANDMA IN THE CORNER: PLACEMAKING AT EARLY CLASSIC CHAN CHICH, BELIZE

Mortuary evidence of the Early Classic period (AD 250–600) at the Chan Chich acropolis suggests the consolidation of power by the local ruling elite. Located in the northeastern corner of the Upper Plaza, Burial CC-B20 contained the exceptionally well-preserved remains of an elderly adult female within a stone-lined crypt (Crypt 2; cal AD 257–387). The excellent skeletal preservation allowed a comprehensive osteobiography; cranial modification, stable isotopes, and pathological changes to the vertebrae and long bones tell a story of a long and active life. The Early Classic was a transformational era at the city. During the Preclassic period, the Chan Chich rulers consolidated power by manipulating the built environment to create a political place in the Upper Plaza. In the Early Classic, they constructed a vaulted crypt in the Upper Plaza, partially dismantling a Late Preclassic platform in the process. Crypt 1 contained multiple male individuals and markers of rulership, including spondylus shell earflares and a jade bib-helmet pendant. In contrast, the coeval Burial CCB-20 lacked artifacts, but the construction of the crypt was labor-intensive. The interment of the woman in Burial CCB-20 marks a change in the location and body treatment of the ruling lineage interred in this exclusive location. Osteological data are interpreted in concert with contextual information to gain insight into local ideas concerning power and gender, as well as into elite life at Early Classic Chan Chich.

Burial 61 at El Perú-Waka's Structure M13-1

Structure M13-1 is a public monumental building in the heart of ancient El Perú-Waka’, Petén, Guatemala, and is the location of Burial 61, an entombed Late Classic (seventh-century) ruler. In this report, we discuss mortuary evidence that we believe permits identification of the interred as the historically known queen, Lady K'abel.

Yasmina Wicks. Profiling Death. Neo-Elamite Mortuary Practices, Afterlife Beliefs, and Entanglements with Ancestors

Comprehensively researched and illustrated, this book stems from research carried out during the author’s doctoral dissertation “Alas, Short Is the Joy of Life!” Elamite Funerary Practice in the First Half of the First Millennium BCE, completed in 2017 at the University of Sydney, Australia. It is divided in four parts: Part 1 offers a background to the Elamite history and material culture of the first millennium BC; Part 2 focuses on the mortuary evidence systematically arranged along (i) ge...

Late Formative Shamans of the Ecuadorian Coast: Architectural, Mortuary, and Artifactual Evidence from Salango in the Middle and Late Engoroy Phases (600–100 BC)

A Middle and Late Engoroy (600–100 BC) shamanic sanctuary at Salango, on Ecuador’s central coast, provides information at multiple interpretative levels on early north Andean ritual practices. Architectural settings included ceremonial floors, houses, and platforms. Two shamans were buried there, and their functions were understood to continue even after their death and burial. Shamanic identity was embodied in tusk-shaped pendants. There were significant changes in shamanic paraphernalia, practices, and settings. The ceremonial structures were ultimately configured as equivalents of shamans. While partly comparable with Early Formative Valdivia customs, Late Formative shamanism at Salango finds notable parallels in the ritual, iconography, and architecture of the Peruvian Andes and coast.

Textiles y poblaciones del Holoceno temprano: cordeles, mallas y artefactos plumarios en contextos funerarios de Antofagasta de la Sierra, Puna meridional argentina

Este trabajo se enfoca en el análisis de un conjunto de artefactos textiles que conforman el acompañamiento de contextos funerarios detectados en el sitio Peñas de las Trampas 1.1, un alero rocoso ubicado a 3582 msnm en Antofagasta de la Sierra (Catamarca), Puna meridional, República Argentina. Las condiciones climáticas de frío y extrema sequedad propiciaron un grado excepcional de preservación de diversos restos arqueológicos de origen orgánico. Las tecnofacturas bajo análisis fueron elaboradas con diferentes materias primas de origen vegetal y animal, las cuales proceden de dos estructuras funerarias situadas en el interior del mencionado alero y se ubican temporalmente dentro del rango ca. 8440-8000 AP, por lo que constituyen las evidencias mortuorias más antiguas de este sector de la Puna argentina. El estudio de las piezas incluyó un abordaje estructural-técnico y formal-funcional y la identificación taxonómica de las fibras de origen vegetal y de las plumas utilizadas para su confección. Igualmente, se presentan algunos resultados obtenidos a partir de estudios de caracterización química elemental (PIXE) aplicados en elementos de cordelería vegetal que presentaban una alteración de su color original. Entre los resultados obtenidos se destaca una alta selectividad en el uso de un recurso vegetal (Acrocomia aculeata) procedente de un área distante unos 600 km, aproximadamente. Lo anterior, sumado a una serie de rasgos técnicos, estructurales y formales presentados por la muestra, permite trazar vínculos con tradiciones textiles indígenas del área oriental y zonas ribereñas como el Gran Chaco. Asimismo, la notable calidad técnica registrada en la mayor parte de los atributos constructivos testimonia una tradición textil cuyo conocimiento en el manejo de las fibras parece remontarse mucho más atrás en el tiempo de lo hasta ahora pensado.

Familiarity breeds remembrance: on the reiterative power of cemeteries

ABSTRACT Based on mortuary evidence from the Norwegian Viking Age (AD 750–1050), this article seeks to present an argument for cemeteries as key components of social memory and collective experience. Rather than focusing on cemeteries as arenas for ritual and funerary drama, it is proposed that cemeteries can also be seen as lived landscapes that are featured as landmarks in people’s everyday lives. This interpretation does not detract from cemeteries as potent ritual places, but instead recognizes that they can carry multiple levels of meaning. Aspects such as accessibility, opportunities for regular interaction with the sites, and cemeteries as active and regularly used components of a landscape will be addressed.

Professor Geikie’s 1880 paper, ‘Rock-weathering, as illustrated in Edinburgh Churchyards’, inProceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. 10, pages 518–532: Contribution to weathering and cross-disciplinary necrogeography within physical geography

This Classics Revisited paper examines the contribution of Geikie’s seminal paper, presented to The Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1880, to physical geography as part of geomorphology, weathering, and necrogeography. From this standpoint, physical geography is approached as interdisciplinary, housing geomorphology and cross-disciplinary and applied research in the areas of climate and the environment affecting urban settings. Mortuary evidence is specifically addressed here, as Geikie presented observations and discussion of older churchyards situated in Edinburgh, Scotland. His emphasis permitted a focus on rock-air interactions of funerary remains carved from calcareous materials, sandstones and flagstones, and granites. The former (marbles and limestones) represent the main content of the paper, with an emphasis on superficial solution, internal disintegration, and curvature and fracture affecting calcareous rocks. Geikie’s areas of research interest are still prevalent in the literature today and can be construed as a pioneering work, representing a formative part of rock weathering affected by both climatic and environmental geomorphology in an urban setting.

La población no adulta del asentamiento de la Edad del Cobre de Valencina de la Concepción (Sevilla): una aproximación demográfica, contextual y sociológica

A partir de la revisión de estudios previos y de la aportación de datos inéditos se realiza un análisis de la población no adulta del asentamiento de la Edad del Cobre de Valencina de la Concepción (Sevilla). En total se examinan 39 sujetos no adultos inhumados en contenedores funerarios de distinto tipo y repartidos a lo largo de la amplia cronología de este asentamiento. Como resultado se constata la alta variabilidad de la proporción de este segmento de la población en las estructuras funerarias de Valencina así como la existencia de indicios de un tratamiento diferenciado para el mismo. Como parte de la discusión se examina la asociación de estos individuos con tipos de contenedores funerarios, individuos adultos y ajuares, valorándose su significación demográfica y social.

REUSE OF BURIAL SITES DURING THE LATE HOLOCENE: EVIDENCE FROM MULTIPLE HUMAN BURIALS AT THE RÍO BOTE 1 ROCKSHELTER, UPPER SANTA CRUZ RIVER BASIN (SOUTHERN PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA)

The first systematic research on the funerary record at the Río Bote 1 (RB1) rockshelter, located next to the Bote River, a tributary of the Santa Cruz River in southern Patagonia, has revealed at least three human burial events dating to the very early Late Holocene and one dating to the middle Late Holocene. The RB1 site appears to have been used for both subsistence and inhumation activities. All of the burials uncovered postdate the deposition of a prominent volcanic ash layer. Technological information indicates that RB1 was used by groups that were also using spaces to the west and south. Mortuary evidence indicates connections with groups living in areas extending from the Última Esperanza region to the Pali Aike volcanic field, at least at the beginning of the Late Holocene. The selection of the same place for multiple burials may explain why so few human burials are known in southern Patagonia from the beginning of the Late Holocene and earlier periods, as it is possible that sites like RB1 are yet to be discovered.

8 The “Poxed” and the “Pure”: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Community and Marginalization Relative to Infection with Acquired Syphilis in Post‐Medieval London

ABSTRACTThis research evaluates mortuary evidence from post‐medieval burials (N = 823), including 5 with evidence of acquired syphilis, e.g., “the pox,” from four London cemeteries to determine if the strong social stigma and community exclusion associated with this disease during life continued in death. Mortuary context of skeletons evidencing syphilis was assessed against those without, but no evidence of non‐normative burial was detected. However, this may be less reflective of the effects of stigma than pervasive poverty, an intense pressure to efficiently bury large numbers of dead during the high mortality early industrial era, and social pressure to have a normative burial.

The Development of Social Complexity in Early Egypt. A View from the Perspective of the Settlements and Material Culture of the Nile Valley

The cemeteries of the southern Egyptian Nile Valley have for a long time taken up a major role in the reconstruction of the emergence of social complexity during the 5th and 4th millennia and of the early territorial state of Pharaonic Egypt. Whilst this data is very substantial and highly important, it has overshadowed other archaeological information that is equally significant and that actually challenges certain interpretations deriving only from mortuary data. This paper aims at considering archaeological evidence primarily derived from a number of settlements and from material culture of the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and until the Early Dynastic Periods to better balance and contextualise the mortuary evidence of these periods. It will discuss and interpret these on the background of current scholarship on material culture, interregional exchange and social complexity and will especially seek to answer questions concerning the socio-economic context of institutionalised leadership and its potential links to early kingship. The paper will also address the high degree of variability in archaeological data and thereby contribute to a growing scholarly consensus that Egypt’s path to civilisation and statehood followed a number of different, often unrelated, trajectories within a regionally variable cultural system in the Egyptian Nile Valley.

Examining social and cultural differentiation in early Bronze Age China using stable isotope analysis and mortuary patterning of human remains at Xin’anzhuang, Yinxu

The site known as Yinxu (present-day Anyang, Henan, China) is believed to be the last capital of China’s first historical dynasty, Shang (ca. 1600–1046 BC). We use stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis of human bone collagen to reconstruct the dietary practices of 59 humans from the site Xin’anzhuang (XAZ), a residential neighborhood in Yinxu. By comparing the reconstructed diets with other archaeological and mortuary evidence, the study reveals that the XAZ inhabitants had a varied diet and that their dietary patterns correlate with certain mortuary practices (e.g., burial orientation, burial goods, etc.). This complex internal social stratification suggests that XAZ consisted of an agglomeration of people of different socio-cultural affiliations, confirming the hypothesis that Yinxu was a vibrant and diverse cultural center in early Bronze Age China.

Immigrants at the Mississippian polity of Cahokia: strontium isotope evidence for population movement

Archaeologists have long debated the role of regional interaction in the 11th to 14th centuries at the Mississippian polity of Cahokia. Architectural styles, exotic materials, and cultural objects provide indirect evidence for cultural interaction and ethnic and social diversity; however, identifying the movement of individuals (rather than materials) is key to our growing understanding of the population history that enabled the formation of this unique polity. This study is the first to use strontium isotope analysis (87Sr/86Sr) of human tooth enamel to identify immigrants at Cahokia. Modern and archaeological fauna were used to establish a baseline “local” range of strontium isotope ratios for the American Bottom region surrounding Cahokia. Teeth from individuals interred in diverse mortuary locations, including mounds, within this region were analyzed and compared to the local strontium isotope range to identify individuals of non-local origin. One-third of all individuals analyzed were identified as non-local, and the range and variability of their strontium ratios suggests multiple places of origin. The correlation of isotopic data with available biological and mortuary evidence allows us to examine the role of migration in the history of this Mississippian polity.

Bodies Transformed: Negotiations of Identity in Chalcolithic Cyprus

This paper focuses on how the human body, and the dead body in particular, was used to create social categories and identities in prehistoric Cyprus. Specifically, it explores how a particular condition, such as death, was integrated into social processes, and how the treatment of dead bodies both created and reinforced social categories and identities. The material the paper focuses on is the mortuary evidence from Chalcolithic Cyprus (3800–2300 BC). In particular, it argues that the extensive, intentional manipulation of dead bodies and human remains visible in Cypriot Chalcolithic cemeteries was aimed at integrating the individual to communal, collective wholes on the occasion of death and during the time period that followed.

Death and Burial in the Age of the Cypriot City-Kingdoms: Social Complexity Based on the Mortuary Evidence

The major tenet of this paper is that mortuary behavior is a vehicle of social and political change leading to a heightened awareness of identity at death. Through shifting portrayals of identity and changes in the mortuary record, it is possible to highlight developments in the sociopolitical landscape over time and between regions. Employing a rigorous methodological approach, new analytical techniques—specifically, spatial and temporal analysis using GIS—and applying carefully constructed theoretical perspectives, this approach can bring a much-needed nuance to age-old questions about the complexities of the island's sociopolitical development during the Iron Age, 1100–312 B.C. The focus of this paper lies on the extensive yet complex mortuary remains of the Iron Age. Questions of to whom the burial record speaks, and how, are central to our grasp of social complexity, power interactions, and regional development of the Iron Age political territories. Detailed studies of Amathus and Salamis explore the...

OXYGEN AND CARBON ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF HUMAN DENTAL ENAMEL FROM THE CARIBBEAN: IMPLICATIONS FOR INVESTIGATING INDIVIDUAL ORIGINS

This study explores the potential of carbon and oxygen isotope data from human enamel carbonate (n = 50) to contribute to mobility studies in the Caribbean. Most oxygen and carbon isotope results display limited variation, with substantial overlap between islands. However, a few individuals from El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba possess relatively low δ18O and high δ13C. Two of these individuals were previously identified as possible non-Antillean immigrants on the basis of strontium isotopes, and bioarchaeological and mortuary evidence. The carbon and oxygen isotope results provide additional evidence supporting the proposed non-local origins of these individuals and contribute to explorations of their potential natal origins.

Swords and Swordsmanship in the Aegean Bronze Age

Warfare and combat are often considered to have played central roles in the characterization of elite identities and the social evolution of Aegean Bronze Age polities of Crete and the Greek mainland. Iconography and mortuary practice provide insights into how warrior identity and violence were materially celebrated. To understand better the systemic and reflexive impact of warfare on social structures, consideration of the technical aspects of combat practice is important. The actual weapons, particularly swords and spears, that warriors used to participate in wars survive in large quantities. Practical functions of these weapons can be determined with the help of metric and use-wear analysis and experimental archaeology; these efforts provide insights into the manner in which combat was conducted, a picture that is enhanced by iconographic, literary, and mortuary evidence. By focusing on swords and swordsmanship, this article seeks to use the material culture of war to illuminate the dynamic relationship between war and society in the Aegean Bronze Age.