O Mosteiro da Luz, monumento declarado \"Patrimônio Cultural da Humanidade\" pela Organização das Nações Unidas para a Educação, a Ciência e a Cultura (UNESCO), tombado pelo Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (IPHAN) e pelo Conselho de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico, Artístico e Arquitetônico do Estado de São Paulo (CONDEPHAAT), está localizado na cidade de São Paulo e abriga as monjas Concepcionistas da Imaculada Conceição, sendo uma ala ocupada pelo Museu de Arte Sacra. Este edifício apresenta área de cemitério em seu interior que tem grande importância histórica e arqueológica. Assim, as sepulturas, provavelmente com os corpos das monjas falecidas que viveram no Mosteiro na época da fundação, em 1774, constituem objetos de estudos científicos aprovados pelo IPHAN. Um amplo projeto arqueológico no Mosteiro da Luz foi realizado por uma equipe multidisciplinar do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia (MAE) da Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Foram escavadas 6 sepulturas de parede que apresentaram 11 indivíduos do sexo feminino, pertencentes à Ordem das Concepcionistas, com idades variadas, de origem caucasiana, falecidas entre os anos de 1774 e 1822. Dois dos indivíduos estavam mumificados, outros parcialmente mumificados e degradados com cupim e outros esqueletizados com bioturbação por cupim. Além desses resultados, o trabalho demonstrou que escavações arqueológicas em áreas urbanas requerem cuidados especiais devido a problemas decorrentes desse ambiente, que afetam, sob vários aspectos, os estudos de natureza puramente técnica, de arqueologia funerária e da edificação. Desta forma, serve como exemplo e aprendizado a futuros profissionais. / The \"Mosteiro da Luz\" (Monastery of Light) is a monument declared \"Cultural Heritage of Humanity\" by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO) is listed by Institute of National Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) and Council for the Defense of the Historical, Artistic and Architectural state of São Paulo (CONDEPHAAT). It is located in the city of São Paulo and it houses the Conception of the Immaculate Conception nuns. A wing is occupied by the Museum of Sacred Art. This building has an interior area of cemetery that has great historical and archaeological importance. Then, the graves probably with the bodies of deceased nuns who have lived in the monastery at the time of the founding, in 1774, are objects of scientific studies approved by IPHAN. An extensive archaeological project at the Monastery of Light was conducted by a multidisciplinary from Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology (MAE), University of São Paulo (USP). As results were excavated 6 graves wall that showed 11 females, belonging to the Order of the Conception, with varying ages of Caucasian origin, died between the years 1774 and 1822. Were excavated Two individuals were mummified, others partially mummified and degraded with termite and other skeletonized with bioturbation by termites. This work demonstrated that archaeological excavations in urban areas require special care due to problems arising from this environment, affecting in many ways, studies of a purely technical nature, of a funerary archeology and of edification. Thus, it serves as an example to learning for future professionals.

Missing from the discussion surrounding the use of coinage in select burials within southern Italian Greek necropoleis in the fourth and third centuries BCE is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient conception of the ritualistic function of coinage. It is through a chronological survey of epigraphical evidence for temple finances that we can trace the concurrent developments of the recognition of a fiduciary value to money, on one hand, and the acceptance of a ritualistic function to coinage on the other. Both occur simultaneously in Magna Graecia where the earliest coins in burial have been found. The case study of Metaponto, an archaeological site around the Lucanian Apennines, reveals a correspondence between an Oscan assemblage of funerary equipment and the presence of coinage. One tomb in particular contains an old coin’s ceramic impression, a clear representation of a value above that of its monetary model. Indigenous Italian agency ought therefore be considered when explaining, not just the ritualistic deposition of bronze coinage in Italy, but also a broader recognition of the sacred and fiduciary value to coinage which led to its deposition. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / When did humans start conceptualising the abstract notion of value which underpins modern paper money? The time of Socrates’ death was one of economic transition, when coins were first integrated into funerary rituals, used as religious dedicatory offerings, and minted in a new metal, bronze. These concurrent developments stemmed from the need for Greeks, using silver, to exchange with indigenous Italians who used bronze. This created a symbolic value for the bronze coins which was manifested in the contemporaneous acceptance of coinage in religious rituals. The case study of Metaponto, a Greek city founded in southern Italy, demonstrates the indigenous Italian impetus to include coinage in funerary assemblages, and by extension, their involvement in redefining the economic conception of money. A ceramic impression of an older coin found in one of these burials, is similar to paper money in that it represents a value abstracted from its silver model.

The research focuses on the use of animals in ritual deposits. It is based in the analysis of the faunal remains recovered from the internal funerary and ritual structures carved in the clay, in the site of the Early Bronze Age of Can Roqueta II (Sabadell, Barcelona). The results show that children, women and men were buried together in a very similar ceremony and accompanied by animals. Sheep and goats, cows, pigs and dogs are the best-represented, although carnivores and birds are also documented. While many of these animals were offered as a meal to accompany the deceased on his journey, the dogs, which were not consumed, were probably sacrificed as guides of the soul. The research aims to show that animal sacrifice is a universal response to death, with slight differences that probably reflect cultural and social adjustments. / La investigación se centra en la utilización de los animales en depósitos rituales. Se basa en el análisis de los restos faunísticos recuperados del interior de estructuras funerarias y rituales excavadas en la arcilla del asentamiento de la edad del bronce inicial de Can Roqueta II (Sabadell, Barcelona). Los resultados muestran que niños, mujeres y hombres eran enterrados de forma muy similar y acompañados de animales sacrificados. Ovejas y cabras, vacas, cerdos y perros son los mejor representados, aunque también se documentan carnívoros y varias especies de aves. Mientras que muchos de estos animales se ofrecían como comida de acompañamiento al difunto en su viaje, los perros, que no se consumían, se sacrificaban probablemente como guías de las almas. La investigación propone mostrar que el sacrificio animal es una respuesta universal a la muerte, con leves diferencias que responden seguramente a adaptaciones culturales y sociales.