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.

No description available.

Ce travail s’intègre à deux projets syro-américains au Nord de la Syrie : le projet de fouille à Tell Mozan / Urkesh (G. Buccellati et M. Kelly Buccellati) et le projet de fouille à Tell Hamoukar (C. Reichel et S. al-Kintar). Il s’agit de deux fouilles programmées en coopération avec la Direction Générale des Antiquités et des Musées de Syrie (DGAM). Nous souhaitions, à travers cette étude archéothanatologique, réintégrer les données anthropologiques dans les analyses de population au même titre que les données archéologiques, pour approfondir les connaissances préétablies, en développant une approche multidisciplinaire sur des données inédites. Une telle recherche se révélait essentielle pour compléter cette mosaïque de connaissances des diverses sociétés anciennes qui ont occupé la Haute Mésopotamie du Chalcolithique à l’âge du Bronze moyen (3700-1600 av. J.-C.) laissant derrière elles des évidences précieuses. / This disseration deals with two Syrian-American excavation projects in the north of Syria: the one at TellMozan / Urkesh (G. Buccellati Buccellati and Kelly) and the project at Tell Hamoukar (C. Reichel and S. al-Kintar).These two excavations are planned in the cooperation with the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums ofSyria (DGAM). We aim, through this archeothanatological study to reintegrate the anthropological data in the globalarcheological analysis of the population as well, in order to deepen our pre-established knowledge in the same timeof developing a multidisciplinary approach on such unpublished data. Such research is essential to complete thisrevealed knowledge mosaic of various ancient societies that occupied Upper Mesopotamia from Chalcolithic to theMiddle Bronze Age (3700-1600 BC.) leaving behind valuable evidences.

The burial type referred to as bundle burials was a rare occurrence during the Neolithic era and little research has been done on the topic. Three graves from the Ajvide/Jakobs site at Eksta parish, Gotland have been identified as this specific type of burial. There are several potential explanations to why this type of burial would potentially occasionally be implemented or why the excavated remains would be found in this types of positions. The purpose of this thesis is to present and search for different explanations to this phenomenon. Furthermore, the main purpose of the study is to explore how taphonomic research can potentially deepen our knowledge regarding rituals and practices of the past, particularly within the field of mortuary archaeology. / Paketgravar under den neolitiska perioden är en ovanlig förekomst och lite forskning har gjorts om ämnet. Totalt tre paketgravar har identifierats vid Ajvide /Jakobs, Eksta socken på Gotland. Det finns många möjliga förklaringar till varför denna typ av begravning potentiellt skulle kunna praktiserats eller varför benelementen skulle kunna påträffats i dessa typer av positioner. Syftet med denna uppsats är att presentera och undersöka olika möjliga förklaringar till detta ovanliga gravskick. Vidare är syftet med studien även att utforska hur tafonomisk forskning potentiellt kan fördjupa vår kunskap om ritualer från det förflutna, framförallt inom gravarkeologi.

The purpose of this thesis is to assess the mortuary program at Morton Shell Mound (16IB3) using osteological and spatial analyses. Because of the fragmented and commingled nature of the remains, the analysis of mortuary practices includes quantitative assessment of the elements, examination of bone fracture patterns, and distributional analyses of the fragments. The collection includes 15,714 fragments with a total of 93 individuals represented. The elements exhibit primarily late-stage postmortem fractures, and are randomly distributed throughout the mound. These data indicate a complex mortuary program that that may have been used for longer than 900 years. Morton has the variability of burial styles, few grave offerings, and communal burials characteristic of Middle and Late Woodland mortuary practices. The compatibility of the methods used, and their applicability to fragmented remains, makes them advantageous tools in the quantification of commingled collections both in bioarchaeological and modern forensic investigations.

No description available.

In Victorian and Edwardian England, the grieving process involved numerous mortuary practices but the final and longest lasting of these is the stone monument placed over the grave or an engraving on an existing monument. However, comparison of burial records to monument records in rural Cambridgeshire, England would indicate that not all individuals received such a monument at their passing. This study explores the root of this variation through one of the most psychologically difficult deaths to navigate: that of a child. In this study, I compare those children who did not receive a stone monument to those that did as a function of the family’s socioeconomic class, the year of death, as well as the child’s age, gender, and place in the birth order at time of death. With a database of 11,578 individuals between the ages of 3 and 25 from 114 parishes in Cambridgeshire, this study is the largest of its kind and thus permits the exploration of interactions between these different factors. Using logistic regression modeling, I illustrate that the decision to erect a stone monument is demonstrably related to the child’s lived experience and the role they played in their household and community. Although rate of commemoration is not commonly explored in historical cemetery studies, this measurement offers valuable insight on the following themes: the emergence of adolescence and the ‘New Woman’, the drop in child fertility and mortality, the rise of the lower class over time, the role of girls within the household, the shift from conceptualizing children as economically useful to economically useless but emotionally priceless over time, the impact of major events like the agricultural depression and the First World War, and the impact that primogeniture had on the likelihood of commemoration. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The death of a child evokes pain and loss that is, in part, reconciled through the grieving process. For Victorian and Edwardian parents in rural Cambridgeshire, England, this process involved burying their child in a local churchyard or cemetery and, in some cases, erecting a stone monument over the grave or having the child’s name carved on an existing monument. But comparison of burial and monument inscription records would indicate that only some children received this relatively expensive and permanent marker at their passing. This study explores differences in commemorative decision-making as a product of the child’s age at death, gender, the socioeconomic class of the family, the year they passed away, and the family structure. While the stone monument is unsurprisingly more common among children of the higher socioeconomic classes, I found that social change, such as shifts in gendered expectations, were also expressed in commemorative practice.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar comparativamente as parcelas operacionais das práticas mortuárias entre sociedades pescadoras-coletoras que viveram no litoral centronorte de São Paulo entre em 5040 a 1381BP. Foram estudados os dados mortuários dos sítios Piaçaguera, Tenório, Mar Virado e Buracão. Entre a Baixada Santista e o litoral norte, um significativo número de sepultamentos foi escavado por arqueólogos da Universidade de São Paulo entre em 1962 a 2004. Foram formuladas 57 variáveis culturais e biológicas distribuídas entre 203 inumações. O Capítulo 1 apresenta as estratégias teóricas gerais e específicas em arqueologia das práticas mortuárias. As características estruturais e ambientais dos sítios arqueológicos foram esboçadas no Capítulo 2. O Capítulo 3 inclui as terminologias e classificações para a descrição dos sepultamentos e seus conteúdos. Nos Capítulos 4 e 5 são comparados os dados mortuários e descritos os contextos arqueológicos dos sepultamentos: corpo, acompanhamentos funerários e outras associações. No Capítulo 6 é apresentada uma síntese sobre a distribuição dos sexos e grupos etários entre os sítios e sobre as modificações diversas nos esqueletos, patológicas ou não. Apresentamos uma síntese das variações e similaridades no interior de instâncias específicas das práticas mortuárias entre os sítios e seus reflexos quanto as dinâmicas socioculturais envolvidas, carreadas intencionalmente ao sistema de símbolos mortuários pelas sociedades dos vivos / The objective of this work is to analyze the operational portions of the mortuary practices comparatively among fisher-gatherer societies that lived in the coast center-north of Sao Paulo (5040 to 1381BP). Between the Santos and the northern coast, a significant number of burials was excavated by archeologists of the University of Sao Paulo enters in 1962 to 2004. They were studied the mortuary data of the archaeological sites Piaçaguera, Tenorio, Mar Virado and Buracao: 57 cultural and biological variables were formulated distributed among 203 inhumations. The Chapter 1 presents the general and specific theoretical strategies in Archaeology of the Mortuary Practices. The structural and environmental characteristics of the archeological sites were sketched in the Chapter 2. The Chapter 3 includes the terminologies and classifications for the description of the burials and their contents. In the Chapters 4 and 5 the mortuary data are compared and described the archeological contexts of the burials: body, attendances mortuaries and other associations. In the Chapter 6 a synthesis is presented on the distribution of the sexes and age groups among the sites and about the several pathological or non-patologic modifications in the skeletons. We presented the synthesis of the variations and similarities inside specific instances of the mortuary practices between the four groups and their reflexes the the involved sociocultural dynamics, carted intentionally to the system of mortuary symbols by the societies

This thesis discusses aspects of how the Late Neolithic society in southern Sweden changed through the use of metal. Particular focus is on how the different categories of the material culture were utilized in this process – the Late Neolithic flint daggers and objects of stone imitating objects of metal. The presence of metal in the Late Neolithic society is discussed and explicated by the correlation of metal objects to objects imitating metal. Imitations are not perceived as passive copies, but as a continuing dialogue between artefacts. These imitations are viewed as filling a function wherein they help to prepare society to express social and political processes in a different material, as a way to meet and relate to the new world-view that the metal objects implied through their existence. The difference between resharpened and non-resharpened flint daggers is explored through a variety of quantitative and qualitative analyses. There appears to have been two differing rules of deposition of the two types of flint daggers in the Late Neolithic society. Resharpened and non-resharpened flint daggers thus seem to relate to different societal spheres of significance in society. It is suggested that the flint daggers were used in varying forms of ritual body modification practices, as tools for alteration of bodily appearance. These rituals can be termed passage rituals – rituals connected to the individual’s journey through her life-cycle. The resharpening of the dagger blade is then to be understood as a ceremonial resharpening, a ritual remaking of the dagger. During the Late Neolithic, gallery graves, mortuary houses and votive offerings were used to express a connection to an older, ancestral ideology, based on communal rituals. At the same time a new ideology was expressed through the use of individual earth graves and ritual body modification practices. The human body, previously attributed an ancestral role, was now used as a medium of classification, signification and individual expression. The ritual practice works both as a societal regulator and as a way for individuals to express themselves in relation to others. The ritual body modification practices, manifested in different rituals of passage, may have been a way for individuals to relate to the changes in society during the course of the Late Neolithic.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar comparativamente as parcelas operacionais das práticas mortuárias entre sociedades pescadoras-coletoras que viveram no litoral centronorte de São Paulo entre em 5040 a 1381BP. Foram estudados os dados mortuários dos sítios Piaçaguera, Tenório, Mar Virado e Buracão. Entre a Baixada Santista e o litoral norte, um significativo número de sepultamentos foi escavado por arqueólogos da Universidade de São Paulo entre em 1962 a 2004. Foram formuladas 57 variáveis culturais e biológicas distribuídas entre 203 inumações. O Capítulo 1 apresenta as estratégias teóricas gerais e específicas em arqueologia das práticas mortuárias. As características estruturais e ambientais dos sítios arqueológicos foram esboçadas no Capítulo 2. O Capítulo 3 inclui as terminologias e classificações para a descrição dos sepultamentos e seus conteúdos. Nos Capítulos 4 e 5 são comparados os dados mortuários e descritos os contextos arqueológicos dos sepultamentos: corpo, acompanhamentos funerários e outras associações. No Capítulo 6 é apresentada uma síntese sobre a distribuição dos sexos e grupos etários entre os sítios e sobre as modificações diversas nos esqueletos, patológicas ou não. Apresentamos uma síntese das variações e similaridades no interior de instâncias específicas das práticas mortuárias entre os sítios e seus reflexos quanto as dinâmicas socioculturais envolvidas, carreadas intencionalmente ao sistema de símbolos mortuários pelas sociedades dos vivos / The objective of this work is to analyze the operational portions of the mortuary practices comparatively among fisher-gatherer societies that lived in the coast center-north of Sao Paulo (5040 to 1381BP). Between the Santos and the northern coast, a significant number of burials was excavated by archeologists of the University of Sao Paulo enters in 1962 to 2004. They were studied the mortuary data of the archaeological sites Piaçaguera, Tenorio, Mar Virado and Buracao: 57 cultural and biological variables were formulated distributed among 203 inhumations. The Chapter 1 presents the general and specific theoretical strategies in Archaeology of the Mortuary Practices. The structural and environmental characteristics of the archeological sites were sketched in the Chapter 2. The Chapter 3 includes the terminologies and classifications for the description of the burials and their contents. In the Chapters 4 and 5 the mortuary data are compared and described the archeological contexts of the burials: body, attendances mortuaries and other associations. In the Chapter 6 a synthesis is presented on the distribution of the sexes and age groups among the sites and about the several pathological or non-patologic modifications in the skeletons. We presented the synthesis of the variations and similarities inside specific instances of the mortuary practices between the four groups and their reflexes the the involved sociocultural dynamics, carted intentionally to the system of mortuary symbols by the societies