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Historical accounts of mortuary display during the 19th-century and evidence from archaeological investigations at historic cemeteries can contribute substantially to our understanding of related chronological and social-status issues. An inadequate understanding of mortuary practice in Texas circa 1821 to 1870 frustrates assessment of site chronology and status-related interpretations. While there are numerous studies of individual cemeteries, there is, as of yet, no synthesis of historical and archaeological data pertaining to mortuary practices in early Texas. In response to this deficiency, this thesis provides a synthesis of mortuary practices and the availability of related paraphernalia in Texas circa 1821-1870. Data from numerous cemeteries are compiled to establish a chronology for mortuary practices and to develop a seriation of select burial furnishings as an aid in assessing status-related variation in mortuary display. Results of the study, as gleaned from archival and archaeological data, indicate that mortuary display in mid-19th-century Texas is not so much a proxy of wealth, as it is a measure of popular cultural trends and economic contexts. These findings are used to reassess cemetery chronologies and status indices, including several interments at Matagorda Cemetery (1835-present), which serve as case studies.

Historical accounts of mortuary display during the 19th-century and evidence from archaeological investigations at historic cemeteries can contribute substantially to our understanding of related chronological and social-status issues. An inadequate understanding of mortuary practice in Texas circa 1821 to 1870 frustrates assessment of site chronology and status-related interpretations. While there are numerous studies of individual cemeteries, there is, as of yet, no synthesis of historical and archaeological data pertaining to mortuary practices in early Texas. In response to this deficiency, this thesis provides a synthesis of mortuary practices and the availability of related paraphernalia in Texas circa 1821-1870. Data from numerous cemeteries are compiled to establish a chronology for mortuary practices and to develop a seriation of select burial furnishings as an aid in assessing status-related variation in mortuary display. Results of the study, as gleaned from archival and archaeological data, indicate that mortuary display in mid-19th-century Texas is not so much a proxy of wealth, as it is a measure of popular cultural trends and economic contexts. These findings are used to reassess cemetery chronologies and status indices, including several interments at Matagorda Cemetery (1835-present), which serve as case studies.

The overarching theme of the book is differential treatment in death, which is examined at the site-specific, settlement, regional and national level. More specifically, the symbolism of conversion-period grave good deposition, the impact of the church, and aspects of identity, burial diversity and biocultural approaches to cemetery analysis are discussed.

This thesis compares burial practices of Beaker-using communities in Britain and provides a corpus of British Beaker burials. Chronologically, this study covers the period from around the 25th until the 18th century BC, from the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Beakers were a new feature in late British prehistory and were probably introduced through small-scale migration and cultural transfer. Together with the pottery, a new style of funerary practices was introduced, that was comparable to continental practices at that time and strictly distinguished between male and female individuals. The standard continental practice, e.g. in Bohemia, was that men were buried with their head to the north, lying on their left side, thus facing east. Women were also facing east, but were buried on the right side and were consequently orientated to the south. This particular pattern can be found in southern Britain but is less strict in its application. This peculiar finding has attracted much scholarly interest since its discovery. Therefore, the research of Beaker funerary practices has a long tradition and still forms a core area of research. This study considers two main questions: does the data confirm established opinions on Beaker burial practices, including a distinct regional division of burial traditions, e.g. in terms of body orientation between northern and southern Britain, and is it possible to identify which area of continental Europe exerted the greatest influence on developments in Britain? In order to be able to structurally compare these burials, a database containing 311 entries has been compiled from the published literature. All available data on the skeletons has been integrated, including orientation, position, and limb position. Additionally, data on grave construction and artefacts has been collected. This data has been analysed quantitatively and qualitatively, both comparatively and statistically. Through the collected data, this thesis argues that the general image of Beaker burial practices is still valid. However, certain generalisations require revision, for example the orientations of individuals. Chronologically, early Beaker burials follow strict standards, while during the course of Beaker currency these standards become less strictly adhered to. Possible regions of the origin of British Beaker burial practices are usually connected with the Lower Rhine area. The study agrees that this area had strong influences in northern Britain, but argues that southern Britain, on grounds of orientations and positions of the bodies, had more varied influences with a stronger input from central Europe.

Ce projet de recherche se propose d'analyser l'exceptionnel patrimoine archéologique de l'ancienne Volcei (l'actuelle cité de Buccino, dans la province de Salerne, Italie) dont les vestiges, découverts dans les années 1980 durant la reconstruction de la ville après le grand tremblement de terre qui frappa la Campanie et la Basilicate, montrent une fréquentation ininterrompue du site du VIIIème siècle avant J.C. au IIème siècle après J.C.. L'arc chronologique pris en compte s'étendra du VIIIème au Vème siècle avant J.C.Le travail consistera d'abord à étudier les vestiges découverts en contexte funéraire dans les structures d'habitat puis en suivant de manière diachronique les développements et les évolutions de la culture dite "nord-lucanienne", à chercher à mettre en évidente les dynamiques de contact entre les "indigènes" et les populations allogènes, ainsi que les processus fondamentaux qui ont conduit à la formation du peuple lucanien. / After the destructive earthquake that took place in 1980 in many localities of the Irpinia and the Basilicata, even the territory of the city of Buccino (Campania) former center of the ancient city of Volcei, was involved in the construction of new residentialblocs. During the reconstruction, the excavations of the Archeological Superintendence of Campania brought to light, all around of the hill on which the town is settled, about 270 burials dated from the mid VII and the III century BC. The study of the grave goods and burial practices as well as the analysis of the topography of the two necropolis area - in Braida and Santo Stefano localities - allowed us to get some important informations about the burials spatial organization, funeraryrituals, the material culture and about changes of the burial ritual after the arrival of the new population, of the Osco-Sabellian origin, in the delicate passage between V and IV century BC.

This thesis examines the character of Middle Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age (3600-1200 BC) funerary and ritual practices in Wales. This was based on the analysis of chronological (radiocarbon determinations and artefactual evidence), contextual (monument types, burial types, deposit types) and osteological (demographic and pyre technology) data from a comprehensive dataset of excavated human bone deposits from funerary and ritual monuments. Funerary rites in the Middle Neolithic (c. 3600-2900 BC) sometimes involved the deposition of single inhumation or cremation burials in inconspicuous pit graves. After a hiatus in the Late Neolithic (c. 2900-2400 BC), formal burials re-appeared in the Chalcolithic (c. 2500-2200 BC) with Beaker burials. However, formal burials remained relatively rare until the Early Bronze Age (c. 2200-1700 BC) when burial mounds, which often contained multiple burials, became the dominant type of funerary monument. Burial rites for this period most commonly involved the cremation of the dead. Whilst adult males were over-represented in inhumations, no age- or gender-based differences were identified in cremation burials. Patterns in grave good associations suggest that perceived age- and-gender-based identities were sometimes expressed through the selection of objects to be placed in the graves. The tradition of cremation burials carried on into the Middle Bonze Age (c. 1700-1200 BC), although formal burials became less common. Circular enclosures (henges, timber circles, stone circles, pit circles), several of which were associated with cremated human bone deposits, represented the most persistent tradition of ritual monuments, with new structures built from the end of the fourth millennium BC to the middle of the second millennium BC in Wales.

The Late Bronze Age on the island of Crete saw a period of strong administrative and religious control by the palace at Knossos, which also controlled a vast trade network with the rest of the eastern Mediterranean. After the collapse of the palace of Knossos, the Final Palatial period (1490 - 1320 BCE), was a time of sociopolitical transition and change, witnessing an explosion in number and variety of mortuary practices used, even within the same cemetery. In this thesis I analyze Final Palatial burial practices in a more systematic method than has been previously attempted, in order to gain a better understanding of how the Minoans chose to use the mortuary sphere as a platform for constructing and negotiating their social and political identities in the dynamic socio-political climate of the Final Palatial period.