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: mortuary archaeology
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 […]
Everybody look at me cause I’m sailing on a boat!
The Lonely Island’s rendition of “I’m on a Boat” reveals not only the modern guy’s enthusiasm for getting the chance to ride on a boat, but also the prestige associated […]
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 […]
Finding the Dead
You may think that finding human remains is a fairly easy task. When looking at cemeteries like Highgate, which is quite expansive and covered with a variety of elaborate markers […]
Bones Don't Lie 