The proposed thesis design is a necropolis (city of the dead) in the form of a vertical park structure through which alternative methods of burial are investigated. The question of an architectural expression of consciousness to overcome cultural norms and challenge perceptions is researched through the theoretical exploration of the following: the cycle of life; the physical and meta-physical between; and collective dwelling. Through exploring ways of sensitively infusing urban environments with an awareness and acknowledgement of death, life is celebrated by exposing death through a physical manifestation of the whole cycle of life, which will transcend several generations of urban dwellers. In populating the between, these antimonument memorials would become accepted over time and a meta-physical awareness would be created to produce a new culture of urban life. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Architecture / unrestricted

The early medieval burial ground in Prague-Lahovice is so far the largest village necropolis and is for the time being unprecedented in Bohemia. The submitted work will be devoted to a comprehensive analysis of this burial complex, which was located near the confluence of the Vltava and Berounka. The main basis for the elaboration of the overall analysis will be electronic records of funerary units, which will be linked to the overall plan of the Lahovice burial ground and will provide the main graphical background. The work will also be devoted to specifying the internal chronology of the burial ground and its spatial distribution. Attention will also be paid to the burial rite, the demography of the buried population and the evaluation of its settlement environment in the Early Middle Ages. Finally, the importance of the early medieval burial ground in Prague-Lahovice will be evaluated in the context of the development of the Prague basin in the Early Middle Ages. Keywords Prague-Lahovice - early medieval - burial ground - analysis

Previous research on the funerary practices of the Viking Age has found evidence to suggest that people were sometimes executed for the purpose of following others into death. There are several well-known examples of this practice from around Scandinavia, including graves from Birka, Bollstanäs, and Gerdrup, where men appear to have been executed using brutal methods. Written sources such as Ibn Fadlān's travelogue and Sigurdskvädet, however, often place an emphasis on the killing of women during funerary rites – a practice that is inconsistent with the archaeological evidence. Where women have been suggested to have been executed as part of a funerary ritual, their skeletons often show no evidence for violence. This study was therefore conceived in order to critically compare the archaeological and textual evidence with a view to establishing the potential reasons for this discrepancy. By applying a theoretical framework that focused on the funeral as a ‘mortuary drama,’ the study has identified different potential causes for the absence of skeletal injuries on female individuals. It is possible, for example, that while women were killed they were often subjected to other types of fatal violence that do not leave injuries on the bone. It is also possible that women who were executed were more often cremated, rather than buried. Finally, it is possible that both men and women could be killed as part of these rites, and that the identity and the gender of the victim was of less symbolic importance than the act itself. The study shows that although the graves are scattered over vast geographical areas, they appear to have some certain commonalities, nevertheless the graves are interpreted differently. Variations, when comparing graves and the historical sources, appear natural, as Viking culture as well as their graves carry great variations. This study has shown that the types of fatal violence described in historical sources differ from the archaeological evidence presented in modern excavations.

This paper is a case study of the Viking Age ship burial from Oseberg, Norway. The aim of this paper is to use the concept of persona developed within rhetoric’s, and to investigate if it is possible to apply it on archaeological materials such as the Oseberg burial. The concept of persona as developed by Birgitte Mral is to identify strategies used by individuals to change their personality in order to enable themselves as a part of the public sphere. It is argued here that applying persona is a complement method to use in archeological research with a focus on gender. Although gender theory has previously been implemented on the Oseberg find, the history of its interpretations is still deeply influenced by the original interpretations put forward after the excavation in 1904. Therefore, a discussion based on analogies is conducted to evaluate the use of persona in gender archaeology in relation to other archeological interpretations of the Oseberg burial. The case study has introduced persona in an archeological context and used persona as a method and theoretical framework to gain new perspectives on how archaeologists can study the people in a grave rather than larger cultural events. The analysis based on analogies showed how persona can be used as a reflective tool as well as a theoretical framework.

The design of the cemetery is based on the findings of the project Projective Space, which analyzes the memories of individuals of their spatial experiences that evoked emotions. Spatial collage as a method of creating an environment which, due to its ambiguity, allows individual interpretation by an individual person and evokes memories, is applied to the design of a cemetery for human composting. After the complete transformation of human remains into fertile land, the grave becomes useless. The dead lose their posthumous address. From a cultural point of view, however, the ritual of burial and the symbolic, mental value of the cemetery play an important role for the relatives in coping with the loss of their beloved. The design works with the culturally conditioned idea of the cemetery as an image of the world. With the disappearance of tombstones and urns, we abandon the concept of a cemetery - the city of the dead and reinterpret it as a cemetery - a landscape made of the dead. Remains in the form of fertile soil become material for modeling of the biodiverse terrain of the cultural landscape, a place that resonates with life.

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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.

This paper explores/investigates the circumstances around the unusual level of preservation of organic materials within certain mounds in Jutland, Denmark, as well as the scientific benefits of these findings. These mounds contain coffins made from oak-logs and within them mummies of different degree of preservation have been found. Five mounds have been selected to represent the find category: Borum Eshøj, Trindhøj, Storhøj in Egtved, Skrydstrupand Muldbjerg. These five have all become staples in their own right within Scandinavian Bronze Age Archaeology. Within this paper different interpretations of how these oak-log coffins and their contents have remained in their current state of preservation while other similar graves have not will be explored. In addition, different areas of research that have benefited from these findings will be highlighted. / I den här uppsatsen kommer förhållandena kring den ovaligt höga bevaringsgraden av organisikt material i en specifik typ av gravhögar från Jylland i Danmark utforskas. Dessa gravhögar innehåller kistor gjorda av ekstockar och inuti dem hittas mumier som bevarats till olika grader. Fem gravhögar har valts ut för att representera fyndkategorin: Borum Eshøj, Trindhøj, Storhøj i Egtved, Skrydstrup and Muldbjerg. Dessa fem har alla kommit att bli grundstenar i Skandinavisk bronsålders arkeologi. Den här uppsatsen kommer utforska olika tolkningar av hur dessa ekkistor och deras innehållhar bevarats när andra liknande gravar inte har det. Utöver det kommer olika forskningsområden som dragit nytta av dessa fynd att lyftas fram.

The continued spread of Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Wats.) throughout the southern and midwestern United States is a result of herbicide-resistant populations. Besides being the most troublesome weed specie in several agronomic crops, Palmer amaranth is also host to economically important pests such as tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris Palisot de Beauvois). Pesticide application methodology that maximizes efficacy while reducing selection pressure is needed to combat herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth. Pulse width modulation (PWM) sprayers are used for pesticide application with the goal of maintaining product efficacy while mitigating spray drift. Additionally, alternative off-season weed management practices such as flooding could be adopted to optimize soil seedbank depletion. Therefore, evaluation of spray droplet size and flooding period on Palmer amaranth control and seed germination was conducted. The objectives of this research were to: (1) evaluate the influence of spray droplet size on lactofen and acifluorfen efficacy on Palmer amaranth using a PWM sprayer, (2) develop prediction models to determine spray droplet size that provides the greatest level of Palmer amaranth control, (3) evaluate the impact of flooding period and seed burial depth on Palmer amaranth seed germination in different soil textures, and (4) analyze the impact of nitrogen fertilizer application rate on the attractiveness of Palmer amaranth to tarnished plant bug. Results show that spray droplet size does not affect lactofen efficacy on Palmer amaranth, thus, coarser spray droplets are recommended to increase spray drift mitigation efforts. In contrast, acifluorfen applied with 300 μm (medium) spray droplets provided the greatest Palmer amaranth control. Furthermore, prediction models indicated that greater model accuracy was obtained when adopting a location-specific weed management approach. Flooding periods of 3, 4, and 5 months reduced Palmer amaranth seed germination across burial depths and soil textures. Therefore, fall-winter flooding may be adopted as an effective practice for soil seedbank depletion. Results also demonstrated that nitrogen fertilizer application rate does not consistently impact Palmer amaranth attractiveness to tarnished plant bug.

This study was conducted in an attempt to determine whether certain burial practices are unique to the people of Southern Appalachia. Eight individuals were interviewed, including a minister and a funeral director. As a result of the research, it was found that, although a strong sense of community and religion still prevails, making certain burial rituals distinctive to the people of Southern Appalachia, they are slowly eroding due to the growing presence of the modern American funeral industry. Qualitative research methods were used to analyze a segment of the Southern Appalachian population, with literature reviews of related material and in-depth interviews conducted with subjects in Grainger, Hamblen and Hancock Counties of East Tennessee.