New Morbid Terminology: Coffin Birth
Since I’m currently in the process of preparing to defend my dissertation (yay!), I’m going to be re-posting some of my favorite past articles! Recently, Caitlin Doughty of “Ask a […]
Tag Archives: journal article
The Feast of Men: Cannibalism in Fiji
Interpreting cannibalism is complex due to our own Western assumptions about the practice, a lack of attention to context of the acts, and the diverse reasons for its occurrence. Cannibalism […]
Tracking Violence Through Time in the Eastern Adriatic
Trauma is one method of examining how changes in political, economic or social systems are felt in the people who lived during these eras. Cultural and environmental shifts can change […]
Environmental Change = Mortuary Change?
Last week I posted on the recent discovery that a mass burial from medieval London can actually be attributed to a volcano rather than plague. I discussed the importance of […]
Diverse Data to Determine Pre-Dynastic Diet
A new article by Gamza and Irish (2012) from the Journal of Osteoarchaeology combines all the potential evidence of diet from the Predynastic site of Hierkonpolis in Egypt to determine […]
Choice of Wood in Cremation Pyres
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 […]
Coin in the Mouth or Shoe on the Coffin
In order to cross the river Styx, the deceased need to pay the ferryman Charon. Only after this are they welcome into the afterlife. During the burial, the living place […]
Commemorating the Dead in Mesopotamia
Burial is more than a way of disposing a body, it is intimately tied to group identity, individual identity, social customs and cultural beliefs. Funerals are a period of renegotiation […]
Bones Don't Lie 