Archaeology of Death Quiz + Midterm

Cultural Relativism 

No projecting our cultural categories, know that all cultures are logical and rational in their own terms. 

Cultural Context 

How what you’re looking at relates to other aspects of that cultural system. Interpret something as part of a larger cultural whole. 

Death as a biological fact, but also a culturally constructed category

1.)   Physical or biological death is NOT the same thing as Social death - (Concept of “Mate” (Ma-tay) which refers to people who are dead biologically but also people who are really sick/elderly and some biologically living people.

2.)   Death is not the only alternative to life - (Living dead being seen as horror, they do not fit into categories of living or dead the way they should, and are seen to be scary.)

3.)   Death is a process, not an event (no clear moment of death.) -  Living to dead in a moment, not true for all cultures, as some cultures see death is seen as a process a beginning or an endpoint.

4.)   Death is NOT the end - (not “dead and gone”) they have been removed from the living world. You don’t expect them to reemerge; however, other cultures do expect them to reemerge into the world of the living. (Kayapo) Brazil, they believe the dead ancestors comeback as a birds and watch them.

5.)   Degrees of Death - different degrees or stages within the process of dying (Ex: Berawan Boreno)

6.)   “Good” vs “Bad” death – Concept seen with other cultures, Good death could be someone recognizing their impending demise or calling family and friend around, divvying up property. Bad death could be considered things like suicide, etc.

Redesigning for Urban Death: From Flameless Cremation to Digital Afterlives article summary:

New innovative eco-friendly option of cremation, which uses water instead of fire, is a simple process that doesn’t harm the environment. We have a refusal to confront and acknowledge death from head-on, hence why we have separate burial grounds from living (house) grounds. There’s a lack of space underground, meaning we can only hold bodies for so long, which means sooner or later, we really need to start confronting death.

Connecting Models

Focus on Funeral behavior, not psychological reactions to death. Linking beliefs to practices, general abstract frameworks based on study of many cultures (so useful cross-culturally.) Good at explaining the “weird.”

Robert Hertz (8) 

1.) believed that death is a process, and you don’t instantly become dead. (intermediary period) EX: The second burial.

2.) Conditions of the body linked to the state of the spirit: “fate of the corpse model the fate of the soul.” Borneo Examples: until the body reaches a permanent state (dry bones), spirit of the deceased can’t enter the final world of the dead. As a corpse rots to dry bones, the soul slowly transforms into its final spirit form.

3.) The spirit/ghost of the dead is in a very dangerous position in this transitional, intermediary period. Spirit can be confused, sad, lonely, and jealous in its painful limbo. The spirit can become spiteful and want to hurt the family. The spirit must be fed, appeased, and can’t yet sustain itself like spirits of the fully dead. (Liminal Period)

4.) Death is a “tear” in the fabric of society, a loss to the social collective. Roles lost to society, relationships severed by death, which creates a tear within the family. Reduces survivors (he believed that this tear was a social, psychological amputation to loved ones), transforms them to mourners, widows, etc. (Social Role)

5.) Scale of the funerary ceremony will reflect the scale of the “tear” in the fabric of society (extent of the loss to society)

a.) this explains why the scale of funerals vary

b.) death ways express social status

different for people of different social standing

 

6.) Funerary ceremonies mirror other major ceremonies in structure, resembling birth, initiation, and marriage ceremonies. (parallel structure) Mirror new transitions to new phases in life, (one stage living – belong to a new category of the dead)

a.) Exclusion ------- integration

b.) individual’s status

 

7.) Reunion of Bones – graves are organized in a way that symbolizes the living order. Society is a dead parallel society of living.

(Sandung buildings reflect the importance of bones to one’s family.) EX: how people are treated in death will reflect the livings social order, societies in which kinship is strong. Societies where you have important social units that are more important than the family (clans, lineages, descent groups, larger social units.) In these societies, people are given their social identities.

Where kinship is strong = collective burial. “In life one house, in death one grave.” Family crib, members of a family kept together in death.

 

8.) Sacrifice – a ritual where things must disappear from this world to pass into the next. (EX: Viking funeral pyres, “killed” broken grave goods, Asia burning ghost money, some traditions of cremation.) Idea of sacrifice being part of deathways sacrificing material so it can end up in the death world.

Berewan Examples:

Berewan Funerary Jar → Dangerous intermediary period where the spirit is dependent on the living to finish the process.

The corpse is scary to the Berewan - because it is seen as a tear in the fabric of society, the living is socially contaminated by death (your own status changes), and the Intermediary period is dangerous (the corpse can be re-animated, ghost might menace the living)

Potter Fields

Burial Places where people are buried anonymously (people who were institutionalized - mental hospitals, prisons, etc.) Someone who was a tear in the fabric of society.

Socio - Psychological function of death ways in any culture 

Social, emotional, and legal roles the dead need to be adjusted, re-allocating to the living) 

a.) Disaggregation - removal of deceased from society (physically and socially)

b.) re-establishment of social order

Both periods of adjustment for dead and living loved ones

EX: “The king is dead, long live the king.”

2ndary death ways (EX: reading of the will)

Intermediary Period 

position between neither being alive nor fully dead (involves the spirit.) Length of time it takes the body to fully decay. (In the case of the Berawan tribe, this process takes 8-12 months.)

Alive world of living -> Intermediary period -> Spirit world of dead

Secondary Burial Activity

after initial mortuary treatment, the corpse recovered and burial. Associated with an individual becoming truly dead, which often involves the spirit entering the afterlife. All of the bones might be there, but they are NOT in the proper position.

Primary Burial

The first original burial skeleton is intact, all of the bones are in proper position.

Bundle Burial 

a secondary type of burial, the society had an intermediary period, and believed that death was a process. 

Tiwah Sandung

A big ceremony attended by all relatives that marks the return of the deceased soul. They believe that the soul of the dead will return to the village from a heavenly waiting room. The soul has to be given food, sacrafices, and money to spend in the afterlife. The family will clean the bones of the dead and the priests chant to transport the soul to the family home in the heavenly “prosperous village.” After the relatives clean the bones, they put them in a Sandung.

Sandung

Built deliberately to resemble a traditional Dayak house, a small house for the bones of the dead. Can be thought of as a physicial expression of the Kaharingnan concept of family.

Ossuaries 

Collective burial place (often secondary burial of many bodies) Sandung is an example of an Ossuarie

Arnold Van Gennep 

French Sociologist was very influenced by Hert’s ideas and especially the intermediary period

• focused on separation from one state (or social category) and incorporation into another. This shift is marked by ceremonies, which he called “rites of passage” 

• Between separation and incorporation is a period of time - the liminal period. (Liminal was his turnaround word for an intermediary period) transitional period between the old status and the new status. (Def: transitional phase between more permanent statuses) 

EXAMPLE: joining a frat/sorority in between non-greek and becoming Greek, there is a middle period where you’re a pledge. United States Marines, there’s a time period in between when you’re training and you’re labeled as a “boot” in boot camp. Marriage, there is a time in between being single and getting married, where you are a Fiancé before finally being fully married. *FINISHING THE IN BETWEEN EACH STAGE ARE THE “TIWAH” WHICH IS THE RITE OF PASSAGE. 

Rites of Passage

Exhibit cultural diversity. Rites of passage are what propel and move people to change to a new status. Many involve a person moving to symbolize the movement to a new status. (walking down the aisle, down a stage, etc.)

Van Gennep (6) Characteristics of Liminal Periods:

1.) Transitional - ceremonies (rites of passage) that “move” the individual along. EX: It is the surviving relatives who make a loved ones journey to the prosperous village possible. (Schiller 2007:13. Does NOT depend on how the person behaved while alive)

2.) In Between Normal Social Rules - Neither here nor there, “betwixt and between” (EX: Hert’z intermediary period may combine some elements of old and new status, individual dead person in the jar still needing food and still has characteristics of the living even though dead.) You’re treated as alive even though you’re dead (still being fed, etc.)

3.) Ambiguous Behavior/Liminal Behavior - Paradoxical behavior, behavior not socially acceptable at other times. Described as “Liminal” behavior

4.) Dangerous Time Period - individual outside customary social rules

5.) Strange Symbolisms - Most of these symbolisms are only understood by those who have already been moved to the next stage. (EX: The boys who dressed themselves up as ghosts before becoming adults)

6.) The Time of Communication of the Sacred - spiritual instruction, key cultural values are revealed. Communication of the special knowledge of a new category is revealed (EX: character or strength tests, initiation ceremonies.) Native American vision quest: wander alone and look to spirits for guidance. May be marked materially or bodily with special objects, adornment. (May be marked by engagement rings, wedding rings, material objects, etc.)

Victor Turner (3)

1.) Journey - (often across water) - death is a voyage 

2. ) Sex - “The boys charge, using the coffin as a battering ram to penetrate this female barrier.” 

3. Rebirth - Dead “reborn” into next world (womb → tomb → womb) skeleton in fetal position when buried in the ground. The idea of death as a rebirth. 

Looting and Museum collecting shared:

• Little interest in human remains

• Treating Graves/tombs as a source of pretty objects

• Not using graves to answer Anthropological Questions

Where does and archaeologist encounter death?

1. Cemeteries

2. Near/under house floors

3. Mortuary Monuments (EX: burial mounds)

4. Middens (where people throw out their remains - refuse heaps)

4 Reasons why archaeologists have an interest in studying graves: 

1.) Material deliberately placed in the ground (intentionality of people from the past) 

2.) Very direct link to past belief systems (religion, worldview.) Graves are the result and product of ritual behavior 

3.) Bodies provide info on the biological aspects of the prehistoric population (health, life, history of populations) EX: bioarchaeology 

4.) Contain individuals (allows study of the individual). EX: the study of an individual of the past, the study of “personhood.”

5.) MOST IMPORTANT: THE DEAD DON’T BURY THEMSELVES - they get put into the ground by living people, every grave is the result of funerary/mortuary activities by living people.

o   Example: The archaeologist observes the grave/tomb burial and the grave goods, which then leads them to consider the death ways practiced by the living. The Death ways are what happened in the past.

o   Death ways – all funerary practices & activities, death ways are the social dimensions of the past. Burying a social persona. Death ways can also reveal symbolic dimensions like past belief systems, religion.

Modern Archaeology 

• Uses Graves as clues 

• ask What death ways generated this particular material pattern (grave) 

Contemporary Archaeologists questions

1.) What order was stuff put in the grave?

2.) By whom? What social groups, what kind of labor involved, how many people?

3.) How does the treatment of the dead express symbolic, social aspects?

4.) What role did burial rites play in a living society? (What role did the funeral itself play in the living society)

Excavation

• Systematic and careful, record all spatial positions, associations, and relationships

• Expose and record things

• Goal: extract as much information as possible (soil types, etc.)

Cutting Edge Approaches: 

What Soil Micromorphology can tell you: (soil and characteristics, and layering that fill a grave)

-       Season of burial?

-       The weather during the funeral

-       Unpreserved grave goods

 

Archaeo-entomology:

-       Season of Death?

-       Length of Funeral?

 

Gut Contents:

-       Intestinal Contents (soil sample of where the intestines used to be before they decayed)

 

Preservation (generally correlated with rainfall):

-       Level of decay or preservation that you are going to find

-       An area with more rainfall, the faster the material will probably decay.

-       Areas with less rainfall there is better preservation

What improves preservation? 

1.     Inhibit decomposition

2.     Anything that discourages bacterial, microbial, fungal, and scavenger activities

3.     Very dry areas (Dry caves, deserts, etc.)

4.     Very wet (waterlogged sites) – preserved brain tissue

5.     Anaerobic (low oxygen) conditions (EX, bog bodies)

Difference between Good Preservation and Bad Preservation

Good Preservation - Bone, tissue, anything soft organic (organs, brain, etc.)

Bad Preservation - No bone, bone (meal)

Differential Preservation

The idea that some things preserve better than others. (Example Bog Bodies) Some bog bodies are buried with just leather, hats, belts, etc. Leather preserves better than other materials. (Wool and Leather preserve, LINEAN clothing does NOT preserve.)

Case of the headless bodies 

assumed that bodies wee witches or criminals, but the bodies actually were just slumped as they started to decay and started to fall apart causing there heads to not be in anatomical position. 

What can Decay Analysis provide information on?

Reconstructing burial activities by understanding how things decompose in the grave.

1.) Spatial relationships in the grave

2.) Season of the burial

3.) Clothing on the body

4.) Timing of burial sequence (Sequence in which objects, including the body, were placed into the grave.)

5.) Whether the grave was re-opened.

Taphonomy

The study of how things decay/preserve in the ground

Sequence of joint decay 

1.)   Fingers, toes, cervical vertebrae

2.)   Intermediate: elbow, thoracic vertebrae

3.)   LAST: hip, lumbar vertebrae (the biggest and strongest muscle attachments)

A cadaver is not static (EX: as the body decays, soil fills some space before others.)

Right hand remains articulated but the left hand’s finger bones have separated, a product of the way the body decayed

Wall Effect

Bones appear packed and precariously balanced (Corpse must have been in coffin or shroud.)

Wide Space Burial Effect

Skeleton spreads out, bones disarticulated and move outside the original space of the body. The body decayed in an empty space, not surrounded by soil. (Open tomb, large coffin, etc.)

2ndry empty spaces 

evidence for perishable grave goods. (The body was placed over grave good (bag or basket?), when this decayed, rib cage fell out and not in.)

The difference between male/female burials.

Wrapped – shoulders and feet are in (83% of wrapped burials were males)

Coffin -  (55% of coffin burials were female, coffin is a more expensive option of burial treatment) females have “wealthier” burial treatment (difference not visible in grave goods.)

Colonialist History of Archaeology

Treating the dead of non-Western populations as scientific specimens, instead of as somebody’s loved one/ancestors.

Doing so does/did violence to indigenous peoples, a continuing legacy.

1.)   Western Revulsion of “disturbing the dead, “desecrating” graves not extended to non-Western peoples. (why? – Racist notions that non-Western people didn’t have valid sensibilities. They felt no concern, privileging Western constructions of history (written), ignoring non-Western ways of interaction with the past ancestry

 2.) Excavation of dead is a deeply colonial endeavor. (De-historicizing and de-humanizing non-Western peoples.)

a.)   Western science used to justify this cultural violence “science” reflect Western concerns and agendas of Westerners (particularly those of archaeologists in universities and museums.

b.)   Part of Colonial extraction patterns (cultural resources; grave contents as resources

c.)   Often exploited power differentials in which descendent peoples couldn’t object

Part of wider grappling with stances/legacy of academic and Western Colonialism

(Permitting: archaeology only done in legal ways  working with communities)

 

Current American position = horror of death + display/investigation of archaeological dead is “disrespectful”

Examples:   An American Archaeologist working in Peru announces that her project won’t disturb the dead and other projects shouldn’t either because investigating the dead is disrespectful

Who owns the archaeological dead in the U.S.?

Debate between the excavation of Native American graves, and museum skeletal collections

• Not just about bones, also sacred objects or places

• And about who has the right to present the past

NAGPRA

Native American Grave Reparation Act

-  Cornerstone of the current archaeological treatment of prehistoric remains in the US

-       “Protects” native graves where federal funding is involved (most states follow)

-       Gives federally recognized tribes authority over unmarked graves

-       Prohibits the selling of Native American remains (skeletal material)

-       Repatriation (return) of human remains to tribes of “demonstrable descent”

-       Return of unaffiliated remains found on tribal lands (returned to tribal authority of the given area)

-       Return of “inappropriately acquired” sacred or funerary or communal property (looted material)

the “Protection” under NAGPRA 

·      Gives Native American tribes authority over human remains excavated on federal (& state) lands.

·      Does not apply to remains on private land

·      Says graves must be “mitigated”, documented, and when removed, done scientifically.

·      Does not have a “do not touch or remove” rule

When/How/Why do archaeologists encounter the dead?

-       Acknowledging and repairing a shameful past

-       Avoiding excavating non-Western burials, situations where they are likely to be encountered

-       Rethinking presentation (not using images of the Native American dead)

-       Role for healing archaeology, countering colonial notions and interactions

Future of Archaeology

-       Acknowledging and avoiding shameful past practices (a less colonial archaeology)

-       Archaeology uniquely suited: can reveal “hidden histories”

-       Community-oriented archaeology where descendant peoples set aside agendas, are primary voices

-       The process is vital: discussion, debate, argument, uncomfortableness important goal of the project

-       Projects that humanize the dead

-       Projects that recognize the dead matter to the living.

(Example: restorative justice archaeology)

Tulsa Race Massacre 

May 31^st - June 1, white mobs destroy Greenwood, a black section of Tulsa

-       As many as 300 residents killed, 9,000 out of 11,000 left homeless

-       No official investigations, nobody brought justice

-       As often in , massacres, dead “disposed of” secretly, anonymously (lack of victims) makes it easier to argue later that it never happened to minimize the scale.

-       Some eyewitness accounts of “mass graves”

Components of Restorative Justice Archaeology

1.)   Multivocal

2.)   Dialogical – moving along through dialogue through descendants, city authorities

3.)   Deeply Historic – guide to what you’re doing archaeologically

4.)   Informal – meetings, discussions, collecting stories, telling stories, etc.

5.)   Visionary – outcome of the project

The African Burial Ground New York City

·      Began in the early 1990s, contract archaeology discovers 400+ graves at the site of future federal buildings.

·      Controversy – known to be an early African-American burial ground, but no plans to memorialize the site, to rebury remains, no seeking experts, voices from African- American community.

·      Protests

Prof. Michael Blakely (Howard University) asked to be the head of the project

Assembled a team of Black scholars and Howard students

Project addresses 3 Questions:

1.)   Who was buried there and what were their backgrounds?

2.)   Changes in going from African to African American identity?

3.)   What was life like, and how did people resist enslavement

What did the study reveal?

-  Slavery central part of life (economically, demographically) in New York for 200 years (7000 enslaved people arrive in NY from 1700-1776)

-  1650s: cemetery established near pond, in area of Black land ownership (Big Manuel0

-  Cemetery closed 1793, may have had 15,000 burials, covered by landfill, built over.

-  Cobble outlining of grave common in Africa Diaspora

-   Diverse populations: enslaved Africans (mostly from West Africa), enslaved people from Caribbean, Southern Colonies, and local.

-   Simple treatment

-   Some dead are buried in their daily work clothes, with whatever was in their pockets

Aspects of African Heritage

• Teeth filed into different shapes

• Burial beads around the waist (African style of dress)

  Wealth Objects:

  -    Decorative cuff links (only found in 6 graves)

  -   Coins

   

  Overall:

  -   Uniformity in death ways (despite diverse origins) shows a close-knit community

African Burial Ground Project 

• Uniformity in deathways (despite diverse origins) 

• Distinct death ways show ties to African Heritage, draw on diverse traditions in cultural remembrance.

• Suggests a common African American identity arising from shared background (of Africa and conditions of slavery) 

Black Cemeteries as place markers

-       Centers for social memory, community cohesion

-       Graves of enslaved people and their descendants were often unmarked, in unofficial cemeteries, and were razed by development projects.

-       Their destruction part of erasing African Americans from history

-       Racialized violence against black landscapes of memory and the present collective memory

-              Goal of cemetery projects: Create places for memorial and commemoration (give voice to the silent and to repeople our past in a way that reflects the realities of those who lived through it.

-              Recover the identities and lived experiences of marginalized people

-              Change how American history is being told and experienced.

Leonard Woolley 

English archaeologist who discovered the “Death Pits” at Ur 

• 16 royal tombs

• 2700-2350 BC 

Reconstructing a Royal Death Pit Funeral

1.)   Construction of the death pit - (digging of the burial pit, 40 x 50 x 65 feet deep) Creation of the tomb chamber. Building of the tomb chamber (principal body on coffin, add grave goods). Tomb chamber grave goods would consist of plates, bowls, pots, gold, silver, highly decorated items, many death pits had silver models. 3-5 human sacrifices male and female, “closest personal attendants”, also adding the king or queen to the tomb

2.)   Procession of people into the pit – members of the court, soldiers, servants, musicians, ox drawn chariots and carts. Bringing in the grave goods, wooden chests or chariot cart, at least one or more cauldrons, vessels, or weapons, etc. Followed by a ceremony (music, harpist) feast with knives, cups, cauldrons, wine vessels, and sheep remains. The party came to an end with human sacrifices (10-70 per Death Pit). Woolley assumed the sacrifices had either been strangled or had drunk poison. Not all individuals sacrificed within death pits were killed that way. Animals were also killed and their bodies would be arranged. In one particular tomb, 6 soldiers, 4 harpists, and 64 women were sacrificed.

3.)   Refilling of the tomb – A long, drawn-out process with additional ceremonies involving elaborate rites. When the pit partially filled in (only dome of chamber was visible.) In the ceremonies fires were lit, more feats, libations to dead down a drain (psychoduct – drain or opening where you could be outside of the tomb and still interact with the dead inside of the tomb), and more offerings. Each death pit would usually have 2-3 episodes of offerings for the top half of the death pits

4.)   Building of a shrine over the top of the death pit – the death pit was already all the way built,

Queen Puabi (Buried in Death Pit 800)

-              Wearing a ton of jewelry (1 bead = 12 person days to make)

-              10 gold rings

-              Buried with symbols of royalty: royal scepter, human sacrifices

-              Wine strainers, bowls made of silver

-              Bracelets (also on other given sacrafices)

-              She was buried with the earliest known board game

-              Men always had weapons

-              Nearly all sacrifices had small drinking cup, knife

What does the “Ram - in-the- Thicket” stand for

Symbolism of leadership and rulership of society 

Standard of Ur (Peace side vs. War side)

War side – soldiers marching off to war, king trampling down his enemies

Peace side – people bringing tributes and taxes to the rulers/temples, the rulers dressed very informally

The Commoner Cemetery at Ur

• Same location as royal tombs (Area also used as midden/trash pit)

• Who’s in, who’s not? (Who’s being buried in the cemeteries besides kings and queens?)

• Woolley encountered 6,000 graves

• Ur population of 10,000 (About 5% of the population died every year – 500 people per year)

Commoner Burial Patterns 

·      Mostly Single burials in pits

·      A few coffins or chambers

·      Body flexed on its side

·      Males – head to SW

·      Females – head to NW

Commoner Grave Goods

1.)   ½ graves (‘ack grave goods” (preservation?)

2.)   Most common: Small conical Bowl

3.)   Commoners not treated equally

There were some rich commoners (Meskalamdug)

·      Items of adornment – pins, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, brim (metal band used to hold the headrest in place), spears/weapons.

·      Personal – combs/brushes, cosmetic cases, small knives, whetstones (sharpens knives), Vessels, bowls

Grave good “packages” for commoners:

Females:	Males:
-       More jewelry -       Hair ornaments -       No Weapons	-       Brims -       No Hair items -       At least one axe or dagger

What are NOT grave goods 

-       work-related stuff

-       ordinary tools

-      furniture

-       art, statues, etc.

-       religious items

Ordinary work (occupation) was not relevant at death and neither was religion

Grave goods - history and use:

1.)   Made for the grave or actually used? - (created to be grave goods, or were they used during the persons lifetime) Archaeologists can figure this out by looking for wear patterns.

2.)   Vessels = containers – vessels are not the offerings, but hold the offerings.

a.)   Take soil samples from tombs and do a microscopic analysis. (Puabi’s tomb where they found traces of bread, dates, fish, chickpeas, pig, sheep, apples, and beer.)

3.)   Lot of grave goods - (food remains + cauldrons + cups, bowls & knives) = funerary feasting

4.)   Other feast clues – “banquet scenes” of Sumerian art (drinking beer through straws)

Textual Evidence for funeral feats `

• Clay table

• Standard Burial fee = 7 jars of beer, 420 loaves of bread, 120 quarts of barley

•. Some to priest and the gravediggers as payment

•. Some places in the grave

•. Remainder consumed at the funeral

Arrangement of bodies replicates a banquet “tableau mort” 

·      An image created with the dead; the use of the dead to stage a scene.

·      The deceased was meant to be seen as participating in a royal banquet.

·      Why is this considered a proper send–off for the dead ruler?

How the dead dressed

A.) Most non-container grave goods are clothing, jewelry, items of adornment (stuff worn on the person)

B.)  Extreme range in how dead dressed – would have been a very visual aspect of the funeral.

Concepts From textual sources

1.)   Hi-li – “looking good” washed, dressed, perfumed (EX: Urnamma, son of Ninsuna, was carried in attractiveness”- from Death of Urnamma” epic)

2.)   Me – divine powers, can be embodied in clothes, adornment. She assumed her “me” or “she” was garbed in me. (EX: “Inanna’s Descent to the Underworld”) – She put on al of her jewelry and nice clothing to take on her journey at the netherworld. The gatekeeper makes her take all of her nice stuff and clothing off, so she enters the netherworld powerless.

EX: nakedness = powerlessness

Elite:	Commoners
-       Powerful -       Jewels -       Dressed	-       Weak -       No jewels -       naked

-       This explains the choice of grave goods (intentionality)

-       In Sumerian Society, clothing expresses social rank – most grave goods (items of adornment/clothing) are therefor symbolic of power.

Using Sumerian text sources 

Sumerian notions of death – The Individual is divided into two:

1.) Body ->  divided into the corpse and the soul

All souls (commoners, kings, wicked, the good) go to the same afterlife.

 

2.)   Soul of the dead go to the Netherworld (kur)

Said to be three levels in order to get to the Netherworld.

Netherworld ruled by Ereshkigal her consort Nergal and their infernal court

3.)    Netherworld is dark, they eat mold and dust, dismal. Hardship (souls exist like “wretched birds”)

To the land of no return, the area of Ereskigal, on the road where traveling is one-way only; to the house where those who arrive are deprived of light, where mold is their food, dust is their bread, they dwell in darkness, they never see light. They are dressed like birds, with garments of feathers, while over the door and the door bolts, dust has settled.

Journey – “Aradu”  Soul must make a journey across barren desert which had dangerous demons that could attack the soul, until the soul got to the river of Hubar. In order to cross the river of Hubar, they had to get a ride in the boat from the infernal boat keeper named “Urshanabi.” Once crossed the river you reached Ereshtigal in the Netherworld.

Demons – Bull-man, lion-humanoid,

Lamastu – head of the lion, feet of an eagle

Pazuz – the most feared demon of the underworld.

What you would need to help you make the journey into the afterlife (Death Pit afterlife)

·      Weapons and provisions

·      Transport: carts, transport, boats

·      Luggage (chests)

·      Weapons and guards

·      Food

·      Personal items (toiletries, cosmetics, tweezers)

·      Musicians

·      Board Games

(All of these items are stored in Death Pits) \

·      death pit grave goods (provisions and travel gear), all with the purpose of getting the dead to the Netherworld.

·      Grave goods have a temporary role/purpose.

·      Why were commoner graves in cemetery were re-opened. Once the soul had safely gotten to the Netherworld, the family would reopen the graves and retrieve the temporarily used gravegoods.

How the dead (of the death pit) depend on the living 

1.)   Proper Burial (with rites) – placement in the ground to start the journey, travelling stuff useful for the journey (as grave goods)

2.)   Survivors had great obligations to the dead and deceased (BEREWAN WOULD UNDERSTAND)

EX: “Divide Bread” ceremony (end of every lunar month); a family gathering and feast. Must say the names of the dead aloud or else they could be forgotten. They might come back as evil ghosts to haunt the living.

Sumerian Death Ways Summary

A.) Must be body in ground to start soul on journey – relation between disposition of corpse and fate of soul (#2)

B.)  Journey (aradu) – intermediary period, Liminal (being alive and not 100% fully dead), and transitional. Dangerous to the deceased and living. Turner #1 – voyage symbolism.

Why did death pits have human sacrafice?

·      Woolley: loyal retainers to serve in the afterlife.

·      Guards for the dead ruler on journey to the Netherworld

·      Rulers “high maintenance:” Puabi needs ladies–in – waiting during aradu

·      Souls as gifts for Nergal (bribes to buy a better existence in the Netherworld)

The Death of King Ur-nammu Text 

• “Ur-Namma presented gifts to the rulers of the Netherworld

• A lordly golden scepter, sword, and shield, a chariot sparkling with gold, faultless oxes, a chest with golden handle,

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• After the king had presented properly the offerings of the Netherworld, Nergal seated Ur-Namma on dais and set up a dwelling place for him in the Netherworld.