Abstract
The lecture provides a basic overview of the theory and methodology of the study of funerary areas, burial contexts and social and symbolic perception of death in prehistoric societies. Through the archaeological evidence of funerary rituals will be presented not only prehistoric people's attitudes toward death and the afterlife but also their culture, social organization, symbolic systems and cosmology. The focus on archaeology of personhood will be targeted mainly on the analysis of age and gender categories. Introductory topics summarize the methodology of field and laboratory research of funerary data in archaeology including application of scientific methods, spatial analysis of burial data and palaeodemography. In the interpretation section of the course an attention is also paid to the social and ritual significance of death and the transformation of human understanding of mortality. We are going to focus on case studies from different periods and locations throughout the world from Palaeolithic to the rise of historical societies. Case studies will further shed light on the social interpretation of burial data and their use in reconstructing social relationships, and will present significant discoveries. The end of the course is devoted to the ethics of the archaeological research of funerary and the political and ethical controversies surrounding human remains. This lecture is designed for audience among archaeologists, anthropologists, historians, and others who have a professional interest in funerary evidence, or general curiosity about past death and burial.
1. Introduction to burial archaeology. Forms of burial in prehistory, hierarchy of burial sites and monuments.
2. Human understanding of death and the beginnings of funerary practices. Death and perception of time, regeneration, reincarnation, immortality. The earliest evidence of funerary behaviour. The question of cannibalism.
3. Basics of field methodology of burial contexts and funerary areas. Survey and excavation methods. Taphonomy, geochemical and geophysical methods.
4. Scientific methods of analysis - Burial contexts and human remains. Paleoanthropology and Palaeopathology.
4.2 Scientific methods of analysis - Burial contexts and human remains. Palaeopathology and Paleoparasitology.
5. Population Processes, DNA and Demography Population processes. Palaeodemography and methods of molecular biology
6. Stable Isotopes & Mobility Studies; Diet reconstruction Methods used for reconstruction of individual mobility and diet.
7. GIS & Spatial analysis of funerary areas: An Introduction
8. Shamanism and burials in the Palaeolithic period.
9. Burial rites as the source for reconstruction of prehistoric society Death at the beginning of agriculture. Genealogy, Power, wealth, Cult of Death; Feasting with ancestors.
10. Age and Gender reconstruction Gender categories, children in pre-industrial societies.
11. Death and monuments in the landscape Burial sites, burial monuments and settlement structure, What is a ritual landscape? Death in the living space. Houses of dead - genesis of barrows. Human sacrifices and ancestral worship. Barrows....
12. Archaeology of violence, warfare, disease, magic and sacrifice
13. Mummies; preservation of soft tissue. Body decoration & face reconstruction Eternity, mumification and natural environment.
14. Ethics of funerary archaeology Political and ethical treatment issues of human remains and their analysis. Scientific sampling, exhibiting human remains, repatriation and reburial.