Mortuary archaeology (Other Keyword)
226-250 (294 Records)
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...
Reconfiguring Normative Funeral Rite in European Prehistory: Second Thoughts on Secondary Manipulation of Human Remains (2018)
Mortuary variability in European prehistory has long been perceived through the lens of Christian worldview from which the discipline of archaeology originally developed. Expectations rooted in this conceptual perspective inevitably shaped the ways that the archaeological record was approached and interpreted. As a case study we consider the Central European Bronze Age, on which we can deconstruct the traditional ‘textbook’ understanding of ancient funerary traditions. During this period,...
Reconsideration of the Relationship between Complex Societies and Dolmen in Northern Part of Korea and Manchuria (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Dolmen is one of the principal mortuary programs in the Korean Bronze Age (ca. between 1000 and 300 B. C.). A number of dolmens have been discovered almost everywhere in the Korean peninsula as well as Manchuria, China. A great amount of research has been conducted by Korean and Japanese archaeologists concerning this style of burial. Some scholars became...
Reconstructing Funerary Practices from a Heavily Looted Tomb: A Case from the Upper Nepeña Drainage, Ancash, Peru (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Prehispanic open sepulcher collective funerary contexts are ubiquitous in the landscape of the Andean highlands. Their study has mostly focused on their architecture and setting, including their role in ancestor worship. Even though some still contain significant material and human remains, very few of these monuments have been thoroughly excavated, mainly...
Reconstructing Mortuary Rites through Micro-CT Forensic Taphonomy at Ancient Aksum, Ethiopia (50-400 AD) (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper uses micro-CT and funerary taphonomy to reconstruct ancient Aksumite burials (50-400 AD). Aksum, in northern Ethiopia, was the capital of an ancient polity that spread across the northern Horn of Africa and became a major power in the Indian Ocean trade. The most notable remains of the ancient capital are its towering funerary stelae and...
Refining the Chronology of Mortuary Deposits at La Consentida, Oaxaca, Mexico (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Checking the Pulse II, Current Research in Oaxaca Part 1" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this paper, we present a refinement of the human burial sequence at the Early Formative Period (2000–1000 BC) site of La Consentida, in Oaxaca, Mexico. Previously, the chronology of mortuary spaces at La Consentida has been supported by nine radiocarbon dates (2020–1510 cal BC) from secure contexts, including charcoal,...
Relatedness and Social Organization at the Ray Site (11BR104): Biological Distance Analysis of a Middle Woodland Ridge Top Cemetery (2015)
A considerable number of biodistance studies have been conducted on archaeological populations from the Lower Illinois Valley. Many of these have included groups of remains dating to the Middle Woodland Period (50BCE to 400CE), a period which has in the past gained attention for the elaboration of burial mound complexes, intensification of horticulture, as well as proliferation of "exotic" and intricately crafted artifacts. In the Lower Illinois Valley, this period is also characterized by the...
Remembering Valdivia through a Unique Manteño Burial at Buen Suceso (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Finding Community in the Past and Present through the 2022 PARCC Field School at Buen Suceso, Ecuador" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Burials have long been considered primary sources of information regarding social ranking and inequality, social understandings of ancestors, conceptions of death, diverse representations of identity and agency, and emotional expressions of mourning and loss (see Baitzel 2018; Buikstra...
Representation and Distribution of Fragmented Elements from Human Skeletons in Umm an-Nar Tombs: Impact of Secondary Mortuary Practices (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Umm an-Nar (2700–2000 BCE) skeletons in the United Arab Emirates remain challenging to investigate due to secondary mortuary practices resulting in commingling, fragmentation, and cremation. Tombs contain multiple chambers, but little work has been done to examine whether certain skeletal elements may have been intentionally moved into particular chambers...
Returning Home: Zooarchaeological and Bioarchaeological Insights on Nasca Domestic Foodways and Local Mortuary Traditions at Cocahuischo, Peru (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Excavations between 2010 and 2012 at the Nasca site of Cocahuischo (300-700 CE) recorded domestic and mortuary activities of a large local community composed of 130 house structures, patio preparation spaces and dozens of cist tombs. Employing zooarchaeological and bioarchaeological techniques to the human, vertebrate and invertebrate remains from...
Review on Archaeological Studies of Sogdian Tombs in China (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Populations of Early Medieval China: Developing Anthropological Approaches to Historical Archaeology in China" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation will examine Chinese scholars’ archaeological studies toward sinicized Sogdian tombs and relevant discoveries in China during the past 20 years and try to seek its logic, in the meantime, and also its disadvantage and possible breakthrough in the future.
Ritual Deposits within the Eastern Pyramidal Structure at Group D, Xunantuntich – Belize (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Between the 2012-2016 field seasons, the Mopan Valley Preclassic Project conducted investigations of an eastern pyramidal structure (Str D-6) at Group D, Xunantunich. Group D is a sacbe terminus architectural group which is connected to Xunantunich’s main plaza. The location of the sacbe suggests that Group D was part of an important ritual circuit. Over 5...
Ritual violence or simply ritual? Evaluating the evidence for child sacrifice in Late Formative Period Peru (2017)
Highland mortuary practices during the Andean Late Formative Period (900–500 BC) in Ancash, Peru are poorly understood, in part because burials from this period are rarely encountered. Excavations conducted in 2009 at the archaeological site of Hualcayán uncovered a primary interment of a juvenile aged 5-6 years at time of death, dated in the range 806–540 calBC. The individual was buried with a necklace strung with bone and shell beads and bone spoons. Bioarchaeological analyses indicate the...
The Role of Radiographer as a Member of the Arch Street Project Team (2018)
The value of a radiographic examination of skeletal remains is unquestionable. Over the past several decades, technical innovations have resulted in more compact equipment making it easier to set up radiography in the field. Digital imaging receptors have replaced film and software has enabled post-processing image manipulation, further simplifying the logistics and efficiency of field imaging studies. Radiography systems are designed to minimize radiation dose in living patients leading to a...
Sacrifice and the Skeleton: Mortuary Archaeology at Los Guachimontones (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This presentation examines the mortuary practices in excavated burials at Late Formative and Early Classic (300 BCE–400 CE) Los Guachimontones in Jalisco, Mexico. This site, with features such as shaft tombs and circular public architecture, is exemplary of the unusual regional cultural tradition of ancient West Mexico. An analysis of the mortuary remains...
Sacrifices, Retainers, or Disposal? The Social Roles of Ychsma Children from Funeral Contexts at the Site of Pachacamac (2024)
This is an abstract from the "Ritual Violence and Human Sacrifice in the Ancient Andes: New Directions in the Field" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The excavation of numerous subadult burials from late prehispanic contexts at Pachacamac led us to question the archaeological and anthropological criteria used to identify human sacrifice. Identifying this practice requires a robust conceptual framework and analytical approach, and this is...
Salvage Excavations of a Painted Maya Tomb at Ayiin Winik, Northwestern Belize (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In 2023, the Belize Estates Archaeological Survey Team (BEAST) field assessed recently acquired LiDAR data. This effort included documenting a previously unknown large ceremonial center, Ayiin Winik, located between the La Lucha Escarpment and the Rio Bravo in northwestern Belize. Exploration of the site identified a rare double ball court, a parapet-lined...
Saving Sacred Places in Perpetuity: Research Report of Ongoing Archaeological Investigations at Vicksburg National Cemetery, Vicksburg, Mississippi (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Our national cemeteries are some of the most significant cultural properties in the United States and either by design or circumstance often exemplify our complex and at times conflicting multicultural heritage. The National Park Service manages 14 national cemeteries that are integral to the historic character, uniqueness, and solemn nature of both the...
The second voyage of Odysseus: Tale of the traveling warrior of Bronze Age Europe (2016)
Elites and the deconstruction of elite-centered perspectives of past societies have long been at the focus of archaeological approaches. In European Bronze Age research there is a revitalized interest in reconnecting diverse regions and understanding them as parts of an abstract pan-European ideological system - the warrior ethos. The primary theoretical vehicle employed in this endeavor, institutional analysis of synchronic societies, draws our attention to social and political structures...
Serving Alcoholic Beverages to the Ancestors in Neolithic China (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Drinking Beer in a Blissful Mood: A Global Archaeology of Beer" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. China has a long history of alcoholic production and consumption, and the earliest evidence of fermented beverages has been recovered from pottery vessels about 9,000 years ago. Many drinking vessels have been found in mortuary contexts, suggesting that alcohol was closely related to ancestral worship ritual. In this talk I...
Shaped, Molded, and Buried: Differential Access to Ceramics in Early Bronze Age I Bab adh-Dhra’, Jordan (2024)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New ways of looking at old evidence can help develop a better understanding of the relationship between early urbanism and social differentiation in the ancient Near East. In the Southern Levant during the Early Bronze Age I (c. 3700-3000 BCE), the site of Bab adh-Dhra’ was a center for mortuary activities for EBA communities. Bab adh-Dhra’ is an important...
Shells at Death – The Use of Shells in Neolithic Mortuary Contexts (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Culturing the Body: Prehistoric Perspectives on Identity and Sociality" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Shells constituted a cultural resource for human groups throughout history. As such, they were used and incorporated in different aspects of life – and death. In this study we examine the use of shells in mortuary contexts, focusing on the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) cultic/mortuary site of Kfar HaHoresh....