Death Rituals, Social Order and the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World: 'Death Shall Have No Dominion'

Cover
Half-title
Frontispiece
Title page
Copyright information
Epigraph
Table of contents
List of illustrations
List of tables
List of contributors
Preface
1 ‘The Unanswered Question’: Investigating Early Conceptualisations of Death
	Introduction
	Cognitive Archaeology
	The Place of Religion in the Study of Early Responses to Death
	Encountering Death: The Material Evidence
	Intimations of Mortality: Before Homo Sapiens
	Mortality and the Foundations of Human Society: Sedentism, the Collective, and the House
	Constructing the Ancestors
	Materiality and Memory
	Hierarchy and the Social Order
	Intimations of Immortality: Glimpsing other Worlds
	Bibliography
Part I Intimations of Mortality
	2 Non-Human Animal Responses towards the Dead and Death: A Comparative Approach...
		Introduction
			Innate Mechanisms
			Necro-Socio-Sexuality
			Relationship Quality
				Dead Infants
				Dead Adults
			Environmental Explanations
			Death Versus Dead
			Mal-Adaptive Investigation?
			Knowledge of Death
			Adaptive Denial of Death
		Conclusions
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
	3 Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Mortuary Behaviours and the Origins of Ritual Burial
		Introduction
		Types of Mortuary Activity
		Structured Abandonment
		The Sima de Los Huesos
		The Peştera cu Oase Model
		The Emergence of Formal Burial
		Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		References
	4 Upper Palaeolithic Mortuary Practices: Reflection of Ethnic Affiliation...
		Introduction
		Methods
		Results
			Chronology
			Grave Goods Associated with Gravettian Burials
			Social Inequality
		Discussion and Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		References
Part II Mortality and the Foundations of Human Society: Sedentism and the Collective
	5 Gathering of the Dead? The Early Neolithic Sanctuaries of Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey
		Introduction
		Taking an Inventory: The Enclosures of Göbekli Tepe
		Places of Cult, Gathering, and Feasting
		The Emergence of a Cultic Community
		Deities and Ancestors?
		Death Shall Have No Dominion
		Conclusion
		References
	6 Death and Architecture: The Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Burials at WF16, Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan
		Introduction
		PPNA and PPNB Mortuary Practices
		WF16: A PPNA Site in Southern Jordan
		PPNA Mortuary Practices at WF16
			Spatial and Stratigraphic Considerations
			Primary and Foundation Burials
			Secondary Burials
			Removal of Body Parts from the Primary Burials
			Display and Relationships of Skulls and Structures
			Midden Burials
			‘Decoration’ of Skulls and Other Bones
			Grave Goods
		Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		References
	7 Corporealities of Death in the Central Andes (ca. 9000–2000 BC)
		‘Domestic’ Bodies on the Peruvian Central Coast
		The Chinchorro Burial Areas: Societies of Bodies as Effigies
		The North: Centrality, Figurines, and Ancestrality
		Synthesis
		Conclusions
		References
	8 Mediating the Dominion of Death in Prehistoric Malta
		Introduction
		Geographical Background
		Time and Generational Memory
			The Life Rituals
			The Death Rituals
		Level of Participation?
		Conclusions
		Acknowledgements
		References
	9 House Societies and Founding Ancestors in Early Neolithic Britain
		Introduction
		The ‘Short Chronology’ of Funerary Activity at Hazleton North
		From Halls and Houses to House Societies
		Founding the House
		Acknowledgements
		References
Part III Constructing the Ancestors
	10 Constructing Ancestors in Sub-Saharan Africa
		Introduction
		Ancestor Concepts in Sub-Saharan Africa
		‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Death
		Middens and ‘Pot’ Children
		Constructing Ancestors
			Burial
			Desiccation
			Exposure
			Transformative States
			Secondary Treatment
			Curation
		Ancestors and the Living
		Conclusions
		References
	11 Different Kinds of Dead: Presencing Andean Expired Beings
		Andean Death: Temporalities and Transformations
		Recuay Culture
			Burial Places: Keeping and Embodying the Dead
			Mimetic Effigies
			Optimising Ancestral Presences
		Concluding Points
		References
	12 Putting Death in Its Place: The Idea of the Cemetery
		References
	13 Becoming Mycenaean?
		A Symbiosis of Funerary and Wider Socio-Political Developments?
		The Development of Mycenaean Burial Practices
			Funerary Architecture
			Association and Collective Burial
			Secondary Treatments of Funerary Contexts
			The Development of the Funerary Landscape
			The Roles of Material Culture in Funerary Contexts
		The Living, the Dead, and the Ancestors
		Leadership and Elite Status
		Death, Immortality, and the Divine
		Burial Practices, Society, and Structure
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
Part IV Death, Hierarchy, and the Social Order
	14 Life and Death in Late Prehistoric to Early Historic Mesopotamia
		Introduction
		The Living and the Dead: Literary Sources
		Death and the Royal Cemetery at Ur
		Woolley’s Excavation Notes
			Reanalysis of Woolley’s Notes: Summary of Tomb Evidence
		Summary
			Other Examples
		Conclusion
		Acknowledgements
		References
	15 The Big Sleep: Early Maya Mortuary Practice
		Acknowledgements
		References
	16 De-Paradoxisation of Paradoxes by Referring to Death as...
		I
		II
		III
		IV
		V
		VI
		VII
		VIII
		IX
		X
		XI
		XII
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
	17 Death and Mortuary Rituals in Mainland Southeast Asia: From Hunter-Gatherers to the God Kings of Angkor
		Introduction
		Hunter-Gatherers
		The Neolithic
		The Bronze Age
		The Iron Age
		The Maritime Silk Road
		Chenla: From Elite Leader to Living God
		Angkor, City of the God Kings
		Conclusions
		Acknowledgements
		References
Part V Materiality and Memory
	18 How Did the Mycenaeans Remember? Death, Matter, and Memory in the Early Mycenaean World
		I
		II
		III
		IV
		V
		Notes
		References
	19 Eternal Glory: The Origins of Eastern Jade Burial and Its Far-Reaching Influence
		A Few Observations
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
	20 Eventful Deaths – Eventful Lives? Bronze Age Mortuary Practices...
		Introduction
		Ancestral Landscapes
		The Middle Bronze Age of the Southern Urals
			Vivid Interpretations of the Sintashta Culture
			Sintashta Metal Production – Debating the Evidence
			Deposition of Metal Objects in Sintashta Cemeteries
		Recent Research at the Stepnoye Settlement-Cemetery Complex
			Funerary Practices at Stepnoye
			Funerary Practices at Solntse II
		Conclusion: Connecting Practices in Life and Death
		Acknowledgements
		References
Part VI Intimations of Immortality: Glimpsing Other Worlds
	21 Northern Iroquoian Deathways and the Re-imagination of Community
		Introduction
		Thinking through Deathways
		Ritual Practice and Redemptive Hegemony
		Rites of Passage, Cosmologies, and Biographies
		Homology and Hegemony
		Seventeenth-century Wendat Deathways
			Body and Biography
			Rites of Passage
			Community Biography and World Renewal
		A Long-Term Perspective
		Conclusions
		Acknowledgements
		References
	22 Locating a Sense of Immortality in Early Egyptian Cemeteries
		Introduction
		Experiential Immortality
		Early Egyptian Burials
		Persistent Places
		Abydos: Re-Orientating Collective Experiences of Time and Space
		Conclusion
		Notes
		References
	23 Buddhist and Non-Buddhist Mortuary Traditions...
		Introduction
			Buddhism and Death
		Buddhist History and Archaeology
		The Buddha’s Death
		Stūpa in the Textual Sources
		Brahmanical Mortuary Traditions
		Stūpas and Proto-Historical Burial Sites
		The Relic Cult and the Presence of the Buddha
		Case Study: Sanchi Survey Project
		Stūpa Typologies
		Hilltops: Practical, Economic, and Ritual Associations
		Hilltop Stūpas: ‘Seeing’ the Buddha
		The Fortified Hilltop: Surveillance and Defence
		Conclusion: Stu.pas and Buddhist Geographies
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		Bibliography
	24 Killing Mummies: On Inka Epistemology and Imperial Power
		The Inka Intellectual Project: Materiality, Immateriality, and Performance
		Life and Other States of Being
		The Landscape: An Epistemic Theatre
		Returning to the Material and Immaterial
		Discussion and Summary
		Acknowledgements
		Notes
		References
Part VII Responses and Reactions: Concluding Thoughts
	25 ‘Death Shall Have No Dominion’: A Response
		1
		2
		3
		Notes
		References
	26 Comments: Death Shall Have No Dominion
		I. The Theme – and Some Basic Questions
		II. What Have We Learned about Death and Immortality and Their Influence on Social Life?
		III. Where Can We Go from Here?
		Notes
		References
	27 The Muse of Archaeology
		Notes
Index