1/8/15Archeological Approach to DeathI. Misconceptions*a. Dig up skeletonsb. Time consumingII. Before 1800a. Tomb Focus of lootingb. If treasure hunter, want to find graves because they are valuablec. Want to explore tombs holds intact things, not shattered or half destroyedd. Archeology (1800-1960) – tombs targeted for museum pieces becausethey are the most intact and restored itemsi. Looting and museum collecting shared1. Little interest in human remains because you cant sell it so they just toss it back2. Treating graves as sources of pretty objects3. Not using graves to answer anthro questions, they were just looking for objectsIII. Where:a. Cemeteriesb. Near/Under Housesc. Mortuary monuments (burial mounds)d. Middens – trashy (refuse heapsi. Many infants turn up in the garbageIV. Why:a. Village of 250 peopleb. 5 yearsV. What special about graves?a. Material deliberately placed in groundsb. In every culture, graves are direct links in beliefs (religion, worldview)c. Archeologist see the product of ritual behavior (funerals)d. Bodies provide info on biological aspects of prehistoric population (health, life history) – Bioarchaeologye. Graves contain individuals – allows the study of the individual in archeology – “Personhood” (what makes up a person in society?)VI. The Dead Don’t Bury Themselvesa. Graves result of funerary/mortuary activities of living peoplei. Deathways – mortuary practices that go on that involve any kind of treatment of corpse, all funeral rituals and customs, construction of burial place1. Archaeologists look at material differences of deathwaysincluding social dimensions and belief systems to find out what happened in the past2. The grave burial is the outcome of deathwaysii. Every grave an “outcome” or expression of deathwaysiii. Goal: Use graves as clues to reconstruct deathwaysiv. Allows insights into past social organization, beliefsv. Focus attention on deathways, not objectsVII. Looting 19th-Centrury Archaeologya. Object oriented – graves just sources of objectsVIII. ModernIX. Secondary Buriala. Body buried of placed somewhere else to let everything decay then someone buries bones in another placeb. Intermediary Period – Corpse Jar has remains till bones are only lefti. The deathway that created this was intermediary because the death had a processX. Contemporary Achaeology questionsa. What order was stuff put in grave?b. By who? What social groups, labor involved?c. How treatment of dead express symbolic, social aspects?d. What role did burial rites play in living society?XI. Excavationa. Systematic, carefulb. Record all spatial positions, associations, and relationshipsc. Expose and record things in its original or modified position “in situ” (context)d. Goal: Extract as much info as possiblei. Specialists1. Someone who studies the remains for themselves to interpret the trama or cathologies of the bone2. Cutting Edgea. Soil micromorphology – studies microscopic remains tell the season of burial, weather during funeral, if there are unpreserved grave goods?b. Archaeo-Entomollogy – insects that tell the season of death, how many generations there are, the length of the funeral from how long was the body exposed to magets or fliesc. Gut Contents – even if theres no guts, take soil sample and look at micro food remains to seeXII. Preservationa. Correlates to rainfallb. Body will decay at different rates depending on the amount of rainfallc. All soft tissue disappearsd. Bones are very durablee. Teeth are durable (will survive even after the bones have decayedf. Presevations improved by any factors that:i. Inhibit decompositionii. Discourage bacterial, microfungal, and scavengarsg. Very dry Deserti. Tiron Basin from Chinaii. Egypt – put body in ground and mummy automatically came out through timeh. Very dry Cavesi. Boliviaii. Chachapoya mummiesi. Very Weti. Water-logged sites like swamps, bottom of lakes, pondsii. Materials are preserved very well such as organic materialiii. Windover Pond. FLiv. In ancient privies (bathrooms) because at bottom is wet depositsv. Anaerobic low oxygen conditions meaning many micros can’t grow1. Ex. Peat bogsj. Bog Bodies – high in tanic acid, they shrink, bone frame weakens, flattened, shriveled skin, organs inside are preserved, can take finger prints (very detailed assemblage of preserved bodies)k. Brain Tissuei. In Turkey, brain boiled in skull 4000 years agoii. Very Cold1. Body remained frozen2. Otzi the Icemanl. Good Preservationi. Bone, tissue, soft organic organs…m. Bad Preservationi. No bone, bone “meal” (bone powder left from the bone)n. Differential Preservationi. Some things preserve better than othersii. Bog Bodies: buried nakediii. Wool and leather can be preservediv. Linen can not be preservedv. Andean Costal Desert1. Mummy burial with organs/skin inside a wooden cup/tray/goard/basket2. Better preservationvi. Andean Highlands1. Just the skeleton for the funeral tradition2. Lots of rain so poorer preservation occurso. In middle where the arrow is between deathways and what the archeologist