The aim of this study is to analyse the popular perception of the walking dead – ‘revenants’ – in medieval England, using both written and archaeological sources. The opening chapter defines the methodology for conducting an interdisciplinary investigation into literary and material ‘texts’. Chapter two investigates the strategies used by the Church to prescribe the rules for a ‘good’ death performance. This will include a brief overview of the evolution of the Western funerary rite from the Roman period to the fifteenth century. The third chapter examines the specific codicological placement of the revenant narratives in William of Newburgh’s Historia Rerum Anglicarum (c.1198), and explores the theological, political and cultural contexts which prompted their transcription and circulation. This examination of the ‘social logic’ of the walking dead will include a critical analysis of the ‘Buckingham Ghost’ narrative. Motifs of pestilence and the spreading of social/physical disorder, so evident in the William’s Historia, are investigated in chapter four. The percipients’ negotiation of religious doctrine, humoural theory, and the traditions of ‘folk’ medicine will be used to explicate why some revenants were considered contagious. The relationship between the somatic experience of the revenant attack and the ‘nightmare’ is also given consideration in this chapter. The final section of this study involves an exploration of the material strategies used to allay the walking dead. I contend that it is indeed possible to draw intertextual analogies between the written sources and unusual/deviant burial practices. The way in which medico-magical knowledge (discussed in chapter four) was utilised to protect the living from the pestilential dead is given special consideration. The aim of chapter five, then, is to analyse the evidence for the fear of the errant corpse in mortuary and landscape contexts. In short, I argue that smaller (unwritten) traditions could be improvised within the prevailing habitus of the local community to form idiosyncratic patterns, or ‘rhetorics’, of apotropaic response.

O sítio Hatahara, município de Iranduba/AM, vem sendo estudado desde 1999 e já foi alvo de diversos trabalhos acadêmicos (Machado, 2005; Neves e Petersen, 2006; Tamanaha, 2006; Rebellato, 2007; Lima, 2008 e outros). Esse sítio é excepcional por diversas razões: tamanho, conteúdo, número de ocupações, montículos construídos e principalmente estado de conservação do material orgânico (humano, animal e vegetal). Nesse trabalho optou-se por fazer uma análise mais aprofundada dos sepultamentos pertencentes à fase Paredão (séculos VII a XII) oriundos desse sítio. O objetivo sendo o de obter mais informações sobre as escolhas das comunidades pretéritas, os gestos funerários e o contexto no qual eles se inseriam. Os dados adquiridos através da perspectiva da arqueologia da morte e pela tafonomia estão sendo comparados aos trabalhos já produzidos sobre esse local. Como resultado percebe-se um padrão funerário complexo com variações significativas e estruturas polivalentes (funerárias e habitacionais). Além disso, percebeu-se que a conservação dos materiais orgânicos estão intimamente relacionados a certas variáveis ambientais e culturais que permitem envisajar que mais sítios arqueológicos nessas condições possam ser descobertos na Amazônia. / The Hatahara site, in Iranduba, State of Amazonas, has been studied since 1999 and was at the heart of many papers (Machado, 2005; Neves e Petersen, 2006; Tamanaha, 2006; Rebellato, 2007; Lima, 2008 and others). This site is exceptional for several raisons: size, content, number of occupations, earth mounds and mainly state of conservation of organic material (human, animal and vegetal). For this project it was decided that a more thorough analyses should be conducted on the burials belonging to the Paredão phase (7th to 13th century) found in this site. The main purpose was to obtain information on the life of past societies, funerary rituals and the context in which they were inserted. The data acquired through the perspective of the archaeology of death and taphonomy are being compared to the work already produced about this site. As a result we noticed a complex funerary pattern with meaningful variations and multi-purpose structures (funerary and habitation). Furthermore, it was observed that the preservation of organic materials was closely related to certain environmental and cultural variables that allow us to expect that more archaeological sites having these conditions may be discovered.

This thesis explores the imagery of funerary ritual that expresses the commemoration of both the living and the dead in the art of the marble cinerary memorials of the early Empire. This group of objects includes decorated marble artefacts associated with cremation burial between the Augustan period and the reign of Antoninus Pius: ash chests (or cineraria); ash altars and grave altars (with or without ash cavities); as well as round urns and vase-shaped urns. The iconography chosen for cinerary memorials by individuals in the early Empire reflects those individuals’ concerns to remember families and friends and in turn to be remembered. This research approaches the analysis of funerary iconography holistically as embedded in its contemporary culture, as opposed to the focus on the art of various sub-cultures of Roman society, seen in recent scholarship. Items with adequate ancient provenance are used to create a sample dataset that represents individuals that belong to a middle to high income-group of society, individuals that are united through their ability to pay and commission these memorials, rather than by class. The epigraphic material, studied alongside the tomb analysis, indicates that this socio-economic group included people of different legal statuses: slaves, freed-people, non-elites and known-elites. Thus we are able to examine how artistic motifs, and also imperial iconography and culture, were received by a cross-section of society. The use of semiotics allows symbols to be analysed in conjunction with other methods such as examining narration and abstraction. This theoretical framework results in the extraction of meaning from seemingly generic motifs and connects this interpretation with contemporaneous cultural norms. Using these methods and the sample dataset, the memorial typology is examined as indicative of a focal point for funerary cult, through the connection between the object as a replacement altar for ritual, and as a house or shrine for the commemoration of the dead. The iconography associated with the memorials therefore relates to both the ritual context (garlands and other ritualistic motifs) and to the object as a small building (the architectonic façade and doors; garden and vegetative iconography). It also relates to the commemoration of the dead (portraiture and honorific iconography) and in particular to the idea of the spirit or manes of the deceased as being immortalised through the memorial (underworld and mythological iconography). All elements, then, point to the focus of the object in funerary ritual which enables the living to honour the spirit of the deceased and acts as a memento of family and friends, bringing together both the living and the dead in art and inscription.

O sítio Hatahara, município de Iranduba/AM, vem sendo estudado desde 1999 e já foi alvo de diversos trabalhos acadêmicos (Machado, 2005; Neves e Petersen, 2006; Tamanaha, 2006; Rebellato, 2007; Lima, 2008 e outros). Esse sítio é excepcional por diversas razões: tamanho, conteúdo, número de ocupações, montículos construídos e principalmente estado de conservação do material orgânico (humano, animal e vegetal). Nesse trabalho optou-se por fazer uma análise mais aprofundada dos sepultamentos pertencentes à fase Paredão (séculos VII a XII) oriundos desse sítio. O objetivo sendo o de obter mais informações sobre as escolhas das comunidades pretéritas, os gestos funerários e o contexto no qual eles se inseriam. Os dados adquiridos através da perspectiva da arqueologia da morte e pela tafonomia estão sendo comparados aos trabalhos já produzidos sobre esse local. Como resultado percebe-se um padrão funerário complexo com variações significativas e estruturas polivalentes (funerárias e habitacionais). Além disso, percebeu-se que a conservação dos materiais orgânicos estão intimamente relacionados a certas variáveis ambientais e culturais que permitem envisajar que mais sítios arqueológicos nessas condições possam ser descobertos na Amazônia. / The Hatahara site, in Iranduba, State of Amazonas, has been studied since 1999 and was at the heart of many papers (Machado, 2005; Neves e Petersen, 2006; Tamanaha, 2006; Rebellato, 2007; Lima, 2008 and others). This site is exceptional for several raisons: size, content, number of occupations, earth mounds and mainly state of conservation of organic material (human, animal and vegetal). For this project it was decided that a more thorough analyses should be conducted on the burials belonging to the Paredão phase (7th to 13th century) found in this site. The main purpose was to obtain information on the life of past societies, funerary rituals and the context in which they were inserted. The data acquired through the perspective of the archaeology of death and taphonomy are being compared to the work already produced about this site. As a result we noticed a complex funerary pattern with meaningful variations and multi-purpose structures (funerary and habitation). Furthermore, it was observed that the preservation of organic materials was closely related to certain environmental and cultural variables that allow us to expect that more archaeological sites having these conditions may be discovered.

The aulos was the most important wind instrument in the ancient Greek world. In this thesis, the eight pre-Hellenistic graves in which auloi have been found are investigated with the aim of understanding auloi as grave goods. To achieve this aim, the eight burial assemblages are analysed and compared to each other, but also to the burial assemblages of other graves with musical instruments. In the ensuing discussion, the move from empirical analysis to explanatory reasoning is made, and it is concluded that the auloi found in graves reflect the musical activities of the deceased. Given the composition of the burial assemblages, it is suggested that these activities should be considered as a part of the well-educated background of the deceased, rather than as an indication of professional musicianship. / Musikinstrumentet aulos var det viktigaste blåsinstrumentet i den antika grekiska världen. I den här uppsatsen undersöks de åtta förhellenistiska gravar där auloi har påträffats. Syftet med undersökningen är att förstå auloi i egenskap av gravgåvor. För att uppnå detta syfte analyseras och jämförs de åtta gravarnas sammansättningar av gravgåvor med varandra, men även med sammansättningar från andra samtida gravar med musikinstrument. I den diskussion som följer övergår uppsatsen från empirisk analys till ett förklarande resonemang, vilket leder fram till slutsatsen att de auloi som påträffats i gravar återspeglar de avlidnas musikaliska verksamhet. Med tanke på gravarnas sammansättning föreslås det att denna verksamhet bör betraktas som en del av de avlidnas välutbildade bakgrund, snarare än som en indikation på yrkesverksamhet inom musik.

Le peuplement ancien des régions allant de l’Iran à l’Inde en passant par l’Afghanistan et le Turkménistan est connu majoritairement par des échanges transrégionaux existant probablement dès le Néolithique. Du point de vue funéraire, les éléments accompagnant le défunt sont parmi les plus étudiés. En revanche, il est bien souvent peu fait état de leur contexte, à savoir la tombe et le défunt auquel ce mobilier était dédié. C’est en partant de ces constats qu’il est apparu intéressant d’enquêter sur ces peuplements anciens. À partir d’une étude approfondie des sépultures, cette étude se propose de reconstruire les programmes funéraires qui ont encadré les différentes pratiques mortuaires. Dans un second temps, nous avons cherché à souligner les traits funéraires communs de ces populations ainsi que les divergences. Sur l’ensemble du Balochistan pakistanais, seuls quatre sites ont livré des sépultures attribuables à la période Chalcolithique. Les sites de Miri Qalat et Shahi‐Tump ont livré plus de 200 individus répartis sur deux périodes pour le IVe millénaire. Sur le site de Sohr Damb, à Nal, un total d’une centaine d’individus sont dénombrés pour deux périodes situées au IVe et tout début du IIIe millénaire. Ces trois sites aux données inédites sont le cœur de cette étude. Nous avons rapproché nos conclusions des publications effectuées pour le site de Mehrgarh, où deux ensembles funéraires ont été étudiés, ainsi que des données publiées pour les pays limitrophes. / The old settlements of the areas extending from Iran to India including Afghanistan and Turkmenistanare mainly known through transregional exchanges existing probably as early as Neolithic. From the funerarypoint of view, grave goods are among the most studied items. On the other hand, there is often little mentionof their context, namely the tomb and the deceased to whom those grave goods were dedicated. It was fromthese observations that it became interesting to work on these ancient stands. Based on an in‐depth study ofburials, this work proposes to reconstruct the funeral programs that have framed the various mortuarypractices. In a second step, we sought to highlight the common funeral traits of these populations as well asthe differences. On the whole of the Pakistani Balochistan, only four sites yielded tombs related to theChalcolithic period. The sites of Miri Qalat and Shahi‐Tump, have delivered over 200 individuals spread overtwo periods for the fourth millennium. At the Sohr Damb site, in Nal, about 100 individuals are counted for twoperiods in the fourth and early third millennium. These three sites with unpublished data are the heart of thisstudy. We have compared our findings with publications for the Mehrgarh site, where two cemeteries werestudied, as well as published data for neighboring areas.

Esta tese de doutorado aborda os contextos funerários tradicionais na Amazônia. Mesmo tendo como pontos de partida e final a arqueologia, utilizamos dados da antropologia sociocultural e da etnologia como um todo, tanto para estruturar nossos conceitos teóricos quanto para analisar os dados. Os contextos funerários recentes podem ser uma chave para o passado, mas são principalmente evidência da complexidade do tema e da necessidade de se considerar os indivíduos e suas identidades na hora da morte. Através dos contextos analisados iremos dialogar com algumas hipóteses de ocupação vigentes na Arqueologia Amazônica: como a associação entre alguns tipos de cultura material e falantes dos principais troncos linguísticos da região (Arawak, Tupi, Karib e Jê). Foram trabalhados contextos arqueológicos da região do médio rio Solimões até o estado do Amapá. Os principais elementos analisados foram: os gestos, os contextos, os acompanhamentos, os mortos, a localização dos sepultamentos, etc. Ao final percebemos que ao mesmo tempo em que existem conceitos pan-amazônicos sobre o que seria uma \"boa morte\", existem também sociedades que buscam se diferenciar e possuem códigos próprios, individualizantes. / This dissertation addresses the traditional funerary contexts in the Amazon. Even though archaeology is the starting and ending points of our work, we used data from socio-cultural anthropology and ethnology as whole, to structure our theoretical concepts and to analyze the data. Recent funerary contexts may be a key to the past, but mostly they are evidence of the complexity of this topic and the need to consider individuals and their identities at death. Through the contexts that were analyzed, we will engage with some of the prevailing occupation hypothesis in the Amazon Archaeology, for instance: the association between some types of material culture and speakers of the main languages in this region (Arawak, Tupi, Karib and Jê). Archaeological contexts from the Middle Rio Solimões all the way to the state of Amapá were studied. The major elements taken into consideration were: the gestures, the contexts, the grave furniture, the dead, the location of the burials, etc. At the end we realized that while there are pan-Amazonian concepts of what should be a \"good death\", there are also societies that seek to differentiate themselves and have their own, individualized codes.

Esta tese de doutorado aborda os contextos funerários tradicionais na Amazônia. Mesmo tendo como pontos de partida e final a arqueologia, utilizamos dados da antropologia sociocultural e da etnologia como um todo, tanto para estruturar nossos conceitos teóricos quanto para analisar os dados. Os contextos funerários recentes podem ser uma chave para o passado, mas são principalmente evidência da complexidade do tema e da necessidade de se considerar os indivíduos e suas identidades na hora da morte. Através dos contextos analisados iremos dialogar com algumas hipóteses de ocupação vigentes na Arqueologia Amazônica: como a associação entre alguns tipos de cultura material e falantes dos principais troncos linguísticos da região (Arawak, Tupi, Karib e Jê). Foram trabalhados contextos arqueológicos da região do médio rio Solimões até o estado do Amapá. Os principais elementos analisados foram: os gestos, os contextos, os acompanhamentos, os mortos, a localização dos sepultamentos, etc. Ao final percebemos que ao mesmo tempo em que existem conceitos pan-amazônicos sobre o que seria uma \"boa morte\", existem também sociedades que buscam se diferenciar e possuem códigos próprios, individualizantes. / This dissertation addresses the traditional funerary contexts in the Amazon. Even though archaeology is the starting and ending points of our work, we used data from socio-cultural anthropology and ethnology as whole, to structure our theoretical concepts and to analyze the data. Recent funerary contexts may be a key to the past, but mostly they are evidence of the complexity of this topic and the need to consider individuals and their identities at death. Through the contexts that were analyzed, we will engage with some of the prevailing occupation hypothesis in the Amazon Archaeology, for instance: the association between some types of material culture and speakers of the main languages in this region (Arawak, Tupi, Karib and Jê). Archaeological contexts from the Middle Rio Solimões all the way to the state of Amapá were studied. The major elements taken into consideration were: the gestures, the contexts, the grave furniture, the dead, the location of the burials, etc. At the end we realized that while there are pan-Amazonian concepts of what should be a \"good death\", there are also societies that seek to differentiate themselves and have their own, individualized codes.

Cette thèse vise à apporter des connaissances sur le monde des morts dans les tombes à fosse dans la Syrie antique entre le Ier et le VIIIe siècle après J.-C. La cadre géographique concerné englobe la région de l’Orient comprise entre l’Anatolie, la Mésopotamie, l’Arabie, l’Égypte et la Méditerranée. Ce travail cherche à caractériser les lieux d’implantation des espaces funéraires des tombes à fosse, à établir un classement typologique et chronologique de l’architecture funéraire de ce type de tombes et à déterminer les gestes funéraires pratiqués : inhumation ou incinération, dépôt individuel ou pluriel, collectif ou multiple, primaire ou secondaire. Il s’agit aussi d’illustrer l’orientation et la position originelle des corps placés dans les sépultures : disposition du tronc, de la tête, des membres supérieurs et inférieurs. Ce travail vise à observer la localisation des objets déposés dans les sépultures par rapport aux défunts et d’analyser l’ordre dans lequel ils ont été déposés. Au-delà de ces analyses archéologiques et taphonomiques, l’objectif est de savoir s’il existe une évolution ou une variation des pratiques funéraires, selon les zones géographiques ou une période particulière. Il s’agit aussi de vérifier si l’ensemble de la Syrie appartenait à la culture gréco-romaine dans le domaine des pratiques funéraires ou au contraire si la région ou certaines zones géographiques de Syrie, étaient à l’écart de cette culture. / This thesis aims to provide knowledge of the world of the dead in pit graves in antique Syria between the 1st and the 8th century AD. The area under consideration includes the region of the Orient located between Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea. This work tries to characterize the location of pit graves, to establish a typological and chronological classification of the funeral architecture of this type of grave and to determine the funeral rites practiced: inhumation or cremation, individual or group, collective or multiple, primary or secondary burial. It is also a question of illustrating the alignment and the positioning of the bodies placed in the graves: the position of the trunk, the head, the lower and upper limbs. This work furthermore attempts to analyze the location of grave objects and the order in which they were deposited. Beyond these archaeological and taphonomic analyses, the objective is to determine whether there is an evolution or a variation in the funeral practices between different geographical zones or during a particular period. It is also a question of verifying whether the whole of Syria belonged to the Greco-Roman culture in the field of the funeral practices or if, on the contrary, the entire region or only certain geographical zones of Syria, remained apart from this culture.