Burial Practices (burial + practice)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences66%

Selected Abstracts

Review article: What's new in early medieval burial archaeology?

EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE, Issue 1 2002
Tania M. Dickinson
Books reviewed in this article: John Hines, Karen Hřilund Nielsen and Frank Siegmund (eds), The Pace of Change. Studies in Early,Medieval Chronology. Catherine E. Karkov, Kelley M. Wickham,Crowley and Bailey K. Young (eds), Spaces of the Living and the Dead: An Archaeological Dialogue. Sam Lucy, The Early Anglo,Saxon Cemeteries of East Yorkshire. An Analysis and Reinterpretation. Elizabeth O'Brien, Post,Roman Britain to Anglo,Saxon England: Burial Practices Reviewed. Nick Stoodley, The Spindle and the Spear. A Critical Enquiry into the Construction and Meaning of Gender in the Early Anglo,Saxon Burial Rite. [source]

Diet and mobility in Early Medieval Bavaria: A study of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Susanne Hakenbeck
Abstract This study investigates patterns of mobility in Early Medieval Bavaria through a combined study of diet and associated burial practice. Carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios were analyzed in human bone samples from the Late Roman cemetery of Klettham and from the Early Medieval cemeteries of Altenerding and Straubing-Bajuwarenstrasse. For dietary comparison, samples of faunal bone from one Late Roman and three Early Medieval settlement sites were also analyzed. The results indicate that the average diet was in keeping with a landlocked environment and fairly limited availability of freshwater or marine resources. The diet appears not to have changed significantly from the Late Roman to the Early Medieval period. However, in the population of Altenerding, there were significant differences in the diet of men and women, supporting a hypothesis of greater mobility among women. Furthermore, the isotopic evidence from dietary outliers is supported by "foreign" grave goods and practices, such as artificial skull modification. These results reveal the potential of carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis for questions regarding migration and mobility. Am J Phys Anthropol 143:235,249, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Mortuary patterns in burial caves on Mangaia, Cook Islands

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2003
S. C. Antón
Abstract The behavioural, cultural, and political implications of archaeological human remains in non-mortuary, possibly culinary, contexts requires that we understand the range of mortuary practices in a particular region. Although several rockshelter sites on Mangaia, Cook Islands have yielded burned, fragmentary human bones in earth ovens that seem to support archaeological models and ethnohistoric accounts of ritual sacrifice and cannibalism, the absence of data on the range of Mangaian mortuary patterns obscures these interpretations. We describe burial patterns based on 40 above-ground interments representing at least 92 individuals in caves of Mangaia, Cook Islands, in order to begin to develop an island-wide perspective on mortuary patterns. Sampling both pre- and post-European contact sites we found that multiple interments dominate probable pre-contact burials (73%, 19 of 26) and single interments dominate post-contact contexts (80%, eight of ten burials), probably reflecting the influence of Christianity on mortuary ritual. Subadults were more frequent in all post-contact contexts suggesting alternative burial places, probably church cemeteries, for adults. Burial cave remains are broadly consistent with ethnohistoric accounts of interment in caves, however, they also illustrate additional burial practices and differences between time periods, such as primary body position and the role of multiple-individual interments, which are not discussed ethnohistorically. The mortuary practices in Mangaian burial caves differ from burials associated with marae and seem completely unrelated to the presence of highly fragmentary and burnt human remains in pre-contact rockshelter middens elsewhere on the island. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Constructing Identities in Early Iron Age Thessaly: The Case of the Halos Tumuli

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 3 2002
Ioannis Georganas
This paper examines the Early Iron Age tumulus,cemetery of Halos in south,eastern Thessaly, with its unique cremation pyre,cairn combination. As there are no parallels for such combination of burial practices either in Thessaly or in any other area of the Greek world, it has usually been suggested that the tumuli were erected by people foreign to Thessaly, most probably of a northern origin. This paper presents evidence suggesting a local custom closely related to the desire to create a new identity. [source]

Later Prehistory in South-East Scotland: A Critical Review

OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 4 2001
D.W. Harding
This paper reviews the progress of research over the past twenty years, with particular reference to enclosed and unenclosed settlement, agricultural patterns, domestic structural types and burial practices of the Iron Age in the south-eastern Borders. The concept of a ,trend towards enclosure' in the first millennium BC is reviewed and rejected, not least on the grounds of evidence from excavation for the dating sequences of major enclosed sites. In consequence a new overview of the later prehistoric settlement of the region is now possible, consistent with the accumulating archaeological and environmental data. [source]

Death, Burial, and the Study of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism

RELIGION COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 1 2009
Mark Rowe
This article approaches mortuary practices as a window into the current state of Japanese Buddhism. Despite widespread scholarly awareness of the intimate connection between Buddhism and death throughout much of Japanese history, to date little work has been done to explore the profound significance of changing burial practices on all of the major sects today. Making the argument that ,funerary Buddhism' (s,shiki Bukky,) is important to both think about and think with, this article provides an overview of funerary culture in Japan and reflects upon what contemporary changes to that culture tell us about Japanese Buddhism. [source]