Mortuary archaeology (Other Keyword)
151-175 (217 Records)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The transition from Middle to Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600 – 1300 BC) in the Carpathian Basin encompassed a broad range of changes in material culture, settlement, and societal organization. While the narratives have somewhat shifted from the traditional model that primarily associated these changes with the arrival of the Tumulus culture population, and...
New Multi-disciplinary Studies Re-shape our Understanding of Neolithic Peopling and Biocultural Adaptations in Western Liguria (Northwestern Italy) (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Recent Advances in the Prehistory of Liguria and Neighboring Regions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Beginning in the mid-1800s, about 200 burials and an undefined number of scattered human remains have been reported from several caves and rock shelters in western Liguria. The skeletal series, excavated following the methodology of the time, were considered likely/probably/possibly "Neolithic" or "Middle Neolithic",...
Non-metric Traits and the Influence of Cranial Modifications: A Case Study from the South-Central Andes (2018)
Non-metric cranial traits and craniometric scoring are often used as a quicker and cheaper alternative to genetic markers when analyzing biological distance within and between populations. However, in populations with intentional artificial cranial modifications, the only option is scoring non-metric cranial traits since the craniometrics are too heavily affected by the modifications. Studies have shown that although non-metrics are the best alternative, some traits cause a bias that can differ...
Of Fire and Stone: Cremation and Secondary Burial Practices at Noomparrua Nkosesia, a Pastoral Neolithic Site in Southwest Kenya (2019)
This is an abstract from the "African Archaeology throughout the Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The spread of food production in East Africa c. 5000-1000 BP involved peoples with diverse subsistence patterns, material culture repertoires and identities. Pastoral Neolithic burial traditions include monumental pillar sites in northern Kenya, cremations in rockshelters in the southern highlands of Kenya and northern Tanzania, and widespread...
Old Tomb, New Ancestors: Investigating the Role of a Preceramic Burial in Huarás Community Formation (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Cooperative Bodies: Bioarchaeology and Non-ranked Societies" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The social and physical history of a place often plays a crucial role in people’s decisions regarding where to establish a community. In the ancient Andes, burial monuments offered powerful connections to landscape and shaped community identity by demonstrating claims to a shared ancestry and legitimizing access to ancestral...
One More for the Road: Beer, Sacrifice and Commemoration in Ancient Nubian Burials of the Classic Kerma Period (2017)
The funerary equipment of the Classic Kerma elite community included sets of ceramic vessels accompanying the primary deceased and sacrificed individuals. Stacks of beakers were placed in communal areas of graves, suggesting that the vessels were intended for group use in the afterlife. Graves with extraordinary organic preservation include woven giraffe-hair implements placed near the vessels. In comparison with ethnographic examples, these tools are beer strainers. Two graves also had vessels...
Oneota Burial Practices: A Case Study from the Dixon Site (13WD8) (2018)
Past populations that are associated with the Oneota archaeological tradition appear to have practiced a variety of burial practices. This paper serves as a presentation of another case study that contributes to our knowledge base of Oneota burial practices. Contexts for human skeletal remains recovered from Oneota sites range from scattered isolated elements to primary burials (both extended and flexed) oriented in various directions, both within constructed mounds and other non-mound features....
Osteological Analysis of Two Contemporary Tombs from the San Giuliano Necropolis (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper will describe and compare the skeletal remains recovered from two small Etruscan chamber tombs from the San Giuliano archeological complex in the Marturanum Park in the Lazio region of Italy. Both tombs, G13-001 and G12-060, are dated to the sixth century...
Paleogenetic and Paleopathological Studies at Pachacamac: Methodological Issues and Preliminary Results (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Ancient DNA (aDNA) analysis can be a useful tool for sex determination, general mitochondrial lineage (haplogroup), and disease diagnosis in human remains. However, non-endogenous DNA contamination of archaeological material is a recurrent problematic, since excavation, handling, and storage usually don’t fit with the precautions recommended for aDNA...
Pastoral Neolithic Mortuary Site Sedimentology at Noomparrua Nkosesia, Kenya (2018)
Mobile pastoralism was the earliest form of food production in eastern Africa. The spread of pastoralism in Kenya c. 5000-1200 BP involved peoples with diverse subsistence patterns and material culture repertoires. However, little is known about the social landscapes and mortuary practices in southern Kenya. The mosaic of Pastoral Neolithic burial traditions across Kenya is diverse, ranging from monumental pillar sites to the north to cairns and rockshelter cremations to the south. In 2016,...
The Patient Work of Patient History: The Creation of Medical Records for Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Interments at the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia Burial Ground (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Bones and Burials in Philadelphia: The Arch Street Project’s Multidisciplinary Research" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As of Fall 2018, the remains of approximately 500 individuals have been recovered from a disturbed burial ground site at 218 Arch Street in the historic "Old City" district of Philadelphia. These are a fraction of the larger interred population. The Arch Street Project’s historical research team...
Perceptions of Disability and Care in Early Islamic Central Asia (2021)
This is an abstract from the "Identity, Interpretation, and Innovation: The Worlds of Islamic Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, we apply an index of care approach to a case study of an individual with progressive pseudorheumatoid dysplasia from an early Islamic cemetery at the site of Tashbulak in southeastern Uzbekistan. Joint degeneration and progressive impingement of nerves would have severely limited individual TBK...
Photogrammetric Documentation of Burials at the Archaeological Site of El Palmar, Mexico (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The application of photogrammetry has been a growing interest in archaeological research. Among different archaeological contexts, burials highlight the effectiveness of photogrammetric for fieldwork. This poster aims to represent how the combination of photogrammetry, total station, and GIS document mortuary contexts in the most efficient manner, not only...
Post-Mortem Manipulation, Movement, and Memory in Copper Age Iberia (2017)
Post-mortem manipulation of human remains played a critical role in mortuary practices in Copper Age Iberia (c. 3250-2200 BC). During this period in Spain and Portugal, individuals were buried communally in tholos-type tombs, as well as natural or artificial caves and rock shelters. Evidence from across Iberia suggests that mortuary practices included the manipulation and movement of previously interred bodies, either in order to clear space for new individuals, or to facilitate secondary...
Postmortem Rituals: Skeletal Manipulation of a Late Antiquity Burial in Portugal (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Freixo Archaeology Project was initiated in 2015 to investigate the nature of Roman Imperial occupation in the Iberian Peninsula with an interest in the symbolic and ideological reuse of sacred space. Freixo is located within the Municipality of Redondo in southeastern Portugal, where a sixteenth-century Christian church overlays an ancient Roman...
Precolumbian Mortuary Practices in Antigua (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A series of burials were excavated from one of the longest inhabited precolumbian sites in the Caribbean, Indian Creek located in Antigua. Research on mortuary practices throughout the Caribbean remain sparse, with varied excavation strategies and limited documentation further complicating our understanding. Our research design integrated geoarchaeological...
Preliminary Findings from the Cemetery at the Medieval Ilibalyk Site in Southeast Kazakhstan (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Ilibalyk (Usharal) site in southeastern Kazakhstan is the location of an ongoing excavation of a medieval (13th-14th centuries CE) Christian cemetery and settlement. Ilibalyk was located along the trans-continental trade networks often called the Silk Roads. Many trade goods from across Eurasia have been found in association with burials at Ilibalyk....
Preliminary Study of Dental Health among Coastal Population at the Site of the Santo Domingo Cemetery in Huarmey, Peru (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent archaeological excavations at the prehispanic cemetery of Santo Domingo in Huarmey (Peru) suggests that it was associated with the settlement of El Campanario. Based on the ceramic styles recovered at the site, the cemetery was likely utilized during the second half of the Middle Horizon (AD 800–1000) and the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1400). In...
Preparing Their Deaths: Examining Variation in Co-occurrence of Cremation and Inhumation in Early Medieval England (2016)
The practice of cremation and inhumation can occur within the same cemetery during the same time period. This co-mingling of burial forms is found throughout Western history from Mesolithic and Neolithic Europe to Ancient Rome and Greece through the Early Medieval Europe and today. Despite its wide chronological and geographic extent, data-driven study of co-occurrence of burial treatments is limited for a number of reasons; the most problematic being the disciplinary perception that cremation...
Processing Personhood: Mortuary Activity from the Middle to Late Woodland in the Lower Illinois River Valley (2018)
While archaeological engagement with the body as a locus of embodied agency has proliferated in recent years, this study is the first to rigorously apply theories of personhood to the lengthy burial rituals documented within interment facilities of Woodland burial mounds from the North American Midcontinent. This study aims to explore conceptions of the body, dividuality, embodiment, and personhood through the analysis of skeletal material from the Middle Woodland Gibson Mounds Site (n=19) and...
The "Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur" Regional "Human Bone Library": A Tool for Anthropological Research and for the Preservation of Human Remains (2018)
Following an evaluation between 2004-2006, it appeared that more than 200 anthropological series had been assembled following excavations led in Provence Alpes Côtes d’Azur (PACA) region. These extremely scattered series had not all been subjected to a precise inventory, were disparately curated or even lost. Therefore, most of these collections were not or no longer accessible to scientists. Faced with this question concerning the heritage preservation, different regional actors invested in...
Radiocarbon Dates from the Necropolis of Ancón, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Necropolis of Ancón, Peru represents one of the largest pre-contact cemeteries in the Andes, with more than 3,000 burials and tens of thousands of associated grave goods excavated from the site. Despite more than a century of archaeological research at the Necropolis, not a single C-14 date from the burial ground has ever been published. In this...
The Ramada Mortuary Tradition: At the Crossroads of Nasca and Wari in the Vitor Valley, Southern Peru (2018)
In this paper, we discuss the mortuary tradition affiliated with the Ramada communities that inhabited the Vitor Valley of Southern Peru around 550 CE. Our field excavations in 2012 and 2015 revealed a long-standing tradition of mortuary treatment that persisted even after the arrival of the Wari in the area. While many components of this tradition appear to have originated locally, other components closely parallel Nazca populations, including patterns of trauma, funerary ritual and the...
Reading the chisel’s chippings: Changing religious attitudes about death and eighteenth-century New England gravestones (2016)
The eighteenth century was a dynamic period of religious change, particularly in New England, as the Calvinistic influence of the Puritan settlers waned and new denominations emerged. This was also a time of rapidly changing funerary ritual, when the inscriptions on grave markers shifted from emphases on marking the remains of the decedent to commemorating them, and gravestone motifs became more diverse. This study examines the ways that religious attitudes towards death change, using a database...
Reassessing Demography of the Bronze Age Tomb at Tell Abraq (UAE): Using Multiple Bone Elements from a Commingled Context (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A circular stone tomb at the site of Tell Abraq (UAE) on the southern coast of the Arabian Gulf was used as a mortuary feature for approximately 200 years (2200-2000BC) during the Bronze Age. Both adults and children were buried in the 6 meter wide tomb, causing significant admixture or commingling of the remains. This research reassessed the demography of the...