New Morbid Terminology: Promession
Remember Terminator 2, before our robot friend Arnold became a governor? In T2, the Terminator returns as the ‘good guy’, and our heroes are faced with a new enemy, a […]
Category Archives: Funeral Practices
Changing Funerary Trends: Now and Then
Death is a universal phenomenon. Everybody dies. And to quote Ricky Gervais “usually at the end of their lives and just the once, and forever“. The way that people deal […]
A Hole in the Head II: Trepanation in Peru
Trepanation is one of the more interesting osteological finds, and it has fascinated the archaeological world since the mid-19th century when Ephraim Squier discovered a trepanned skull in Cuzco, Peru. Trepanation […]
The Prince is Actually a Female (and other gender misconceptions)
About a month ago, archaeologists found a sealed rock cut tomb in Tarquinia. At the front door before they even opened the tomb, they found jars and vases indicating that […]
Slaves as grave gifts for the Vikings
Grave goods and burial gifts consist of any item given to the dead at burial or taken by the deceased into their grave. It may be an offering to the […]
Morbid Terminology: Coffin vs. Casket
There are many different types of containers that the deceased were buried in, often chosen based on the cultural norms of the group, the context of the death or burial, […]
On Food and Funerals in the Middle Neolithic
I’ve talked before about the close relationship between food and funerals, specifically in relationship to what Anthony Bourdain has taught me about the importance of food within cultures. The food […]
Taphonomic Analysis of Neolithic Seated Burials
Taphonomy is the study of how organisms decay and become altered following their death. Understanding how this process manifests in human burials during the excavation is extremely important, and can […]
Interdisciplinary Insight into Incan Child Sacrifice
The hot news today is the recent PNAS publication of the results of an extensive interdisciplinary study to learn more about Incan child sacrifice. For a decade and a half, […]
Preserving the Face of Death: Death Masks
Earlier this week, a historic artifact went up for auction at Bonhams, one of the world’s largest auctioneers in fine art and antiques. The piece had been estimated to sell […]
Bones Don't Lie 