According to Tyler Mathisen of CNBC news, the hottest growing trend within the ”death care industry”, a $17- billion-a-year business in America, is cremation. Of the 2.5 million people who died in 2011 in North America, 42% of them were cremated. That means that the rate of cremation has doubled over the past decade and a … Continue reading »
There are many things that can happen to a body between death and burial. A good example of this process is Weekend at Bernie’s. Bernie Lomax is murdered within the first twenty minutes of the movie, but he remains an important character as Richard and Larry feign that he is alive in order to continue to … Continue reading »
Today I am off to Ann Arbor today to present on my experience with excavating cinerary urns over the summer to the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology. You can see details about the presentation on their website here. Here is my abstract for the presentation: This presentation will discuss the excavation of cinerary urns … Continue reading »
When we think of bones at cemetery or burial sites, we immediately think of the human remains. However, many prehistoric and early historic graves also contain the bones of animals. These faunal remains may be accidental as part of the backfill, or purposeful as either food or sacrifice. Animals may also be included in the … Continue reading »
The Tophet of Carthage, an infant cremation burial ground, has been a highly debated site for over a thousand years, and only in the past decade has it come under archaeological scrutiny. Historical sources from Jewish and Christian scriptures refer to it as a place of child sacrifice. Kleitarchos, in the 3rd c. BCE, described Carthaginians … Continue reading »
When analyzing cremated remains it is important to be aware of the broader burial and not focus so narrowly on the remains themselves if one wants to be able to understand the funeral process. We can learn a lot about the funeral from the bones themselves when they have been burned. The coloring on the … Continue reading »
Currently I am in Rome doing an archaeological investigation of cremation remains. At this stage however, it means doing the internal excavation of cinerary urns. While I can’t discuss my own work too much at this stage (I’m doing pre-dissertation research and its all quite hush hush), I can discuss some of the issues and … Continue reading »
When classifying burials there are a number of primary categories that they tend to fall into such as inhumation, cremation, bundle burials or mummification. However, the past is not that simple. Burial modes can deviate from the types, or cross the boundaries of a number of them. By placing burials into specific slots, we are … Continue reading »
Earlier this week, an early Bronze Age burial cist containing cremated bones and material dating back 4,000 years was excavated at Dartmoor in Britain. The Bronze Age in Britain was a period dating from 2700 to 700 BCE, and is defined by the use of bronze and copper for tools, as well as the introduction of … Continue reading »
Beginning in 2002, the Kenchreai Cemetery Project has been exploring subterranean chamber tombs that date to the Roman Empire. The site is located on the eastern coast of the Isthmus of Corinth, Greece. The site contains inhumation and cremation human remains, adults and sub-adults, and it is all contained within grand chamber tombs. These tombs … Continue reading »
