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.

Fish-head pendants are one of the characteristic Gotlandic Late Iron Age artefacts. This object has been rather neglected and mainly considered as an insignificant embellishment, normally worn as a neck-collar and seen as an artefact include in the typical Gotlandic set of female jewellery. The fact that the fish-head pendant has a very long life span, which stretches from grave-finds in the Early Vendel Age to hoards in Viking Age as well as secondary usage as brooches in the Early Middle Ages, makes the artefact an excellent starting point for discussions on social practices and change through material culture. It's shown in this study that, contrary to previous beliefs, the normal usages for fish-head pendants is as solitary pendants and not as neck-collars. Neck-collars is shown to have an intricate relation to inhumations for young individuals, whereas solitary pendants are found in cremation deposits for adult individuals, something that relates to a fixed social practice mainly in the period 700-900 AD and that develops from the cremation funeral practice. This particular social practice relates to aspects of attraction and protection and continues in to the 10th century outside of funeral structures, which is shown by the composition of hoard-finds from the 10th century, but is totally absent when the pendants is given a secondary usage as brooches in the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th century. Hence the material also gives the possibility to discuss the division among pre-historic periods. This paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 gives the prerequisites. Chapter 2 provides a theoretical framework; concerning aspects such as agency, structuralism, social structures, change and material culture. Chapter 3 discusses questions of chronology and typology. In chapter 4 fish- head pendants and their practices of usage and social practices are discussed in the grave-material from the period 600-1000 AD. Chapter 5 concerns hoards and amber-pendants during the 10th to 12th century, and finally chapter 6 discusses the effects and reasons seen in the social practices defined in chapters 4 and 5, as well as the implication of social practices on pre-historic periods. The material is further presented in four catalogues, chapters 10-13.

This Social Constructionist study originated from the researcher’s exposure to a significant loss and her unanswered questions about other cultures’ experience of grief. Literature is scarce from a social constructionist framework that focuses on the cultural experiences on death and bereavement from a South African perspective. The researcher’s aim was to provide three culturally diverse South African women constructed as ‘bereaved’ the opportunity to tell their stories of the death of a loved one and their bereavement thereof. The three diverse cultures were Tswana, Islamic Muslim and Afrikaans. A qualitative research method was employed. Unstructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with each of the three participants and the method used to analyze the collected data was thematic content analysis. The study allowed rich and valuable information about death and bereavement from three culturally diverse women to emerge. The themes of ‘mourning procedures and practices’, ‘bereavement behaviour’ ‘socio-political context’ and ‘private and public display of grief’ were identified as valuable areas for clinical practice and future research. Lay people, schools and the work environment too, will gain a better understanding of cultural differences on death and bereavement. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

En analysant le matériel provenant d’une région montagneuse qui s’étend au nord de l’Iran, nous étudions les sociétés locales de l’âge du Fer (fin du IIe - fin du Ier millénaire avant J.C.). Bien que l’on ait déjà noté les particularités de la culture matérielle de l’Iran septentrional par, il n’existe guère d’études synthétiques sur la culture matérielle, sa chronologie, et les représentations des sociétés qu’elles permettentNous utilisons des données anciennes, les unes publiées les autres inédites, et des données nouvelles : nous avons étudié les unes et les autres en Iran et au Japon. Quatre sujets sont traités : l’élaboration de la chronologie, la diversité régionale des céramiques, l’évolution des pratiques, et la distribution des sites.En nous fondant sur les résultats de ces analyses et sur le cadre méthodologique et les hypothèses de travail de l’ethnologie, de l’ethnoarchéologie et de la sociologie, nous tentons d’interpréter les céramiques particulières et les pratiques funéraires, qui sont considérés comme représentatifs de la culture matérielle de l’Iran septentrional, comme l’organisation sociale qui a permis d’organiser les relations entre les populations qui menaient une vie dispersée et fluide selon des conditions géographiques variées. On observe que l’organisation sociale n’a pas structuré la société locale de manière stable. Dans la deuxième moitié de l’âge du Fer, on peut considérer qu’avec la pénétration du nouvel ordre symbolique, la société locale qui vivait dans des conditions naturelles variées, les modes d’occupation ont évolué, ainsi que les traditions techniques. En même temps, avec l’évolution des pratiques funéraires vers la simplicité, les pratiques autour du bâtiment collectif se sont propagées dans l’espace de la région. Dans l’Iran septentrional, l’âge du Fer correspond historiquement à l’époque de ces évolutions structurelles des sociétés locales. / Analyzing the material from a mountainous region of northern Iran, we investigate the image of a local society during the Iron Age (Late 2nd - late 1st millennium B.C.). Although the peculiarities of the material culture of that region have been recognized since long, there are not enough comprehensive studies on the material culture, chronology, and precise representations of the societies.For this purpose, we deal with old data, some published other unpublished, as well as new material including a lot of unpublished ones that we have studied in Iran and Japan. Four main topics are treated: chronology, change and regional diversity of pottery, evolution of practices, and distribution of sites. Based on the results of these analyses and on the methodological framework and working hypotheses deriving from the results of ethnology, ethno-archaeology and sociology, we try to interpret the peculiar ceramics and the funerary practices, which are considered as representative of the material culture of Northern Iran, as well as the social organization which permitted to maintain the relationship between the populations who fluidly and dispersed lived in that area which presents various geographic conditions. Finally, one concludes that the social organization did not structure in local society in a stable manner.In the second half of the Iron Age, we can consider that, with the penetration of the new symbolic order, the local society which lived under varied natural conditions, modes of occupation and habitation and technical traditions have changed. During the same period, with the evolution of funeral practices towards simplicity, practices in public spaces and buildings extended over the region. In northern Iran, the Iron Age historically corresponds to the time of these structural changes in local society.