RT Article
T1 Embodiments of Death: The Funerary Sequence and Commemoration in the Bronze Age Levant
JF Bulletin of ASOR
IS 377
SP 219
OP 248
A1 Cradic, Melissa S.
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1577306775
AB This article presents an archaeological model for Levantine funerary rituals performed in the context of commingling inhumations. Using the case study of a masonry-constructed chamber tomb from Middle Bronze Age Tel Megiddo (Israel), the funerary sequence is reconstructed in three main phases: (1) pre-interment; (2) interment; and (3) post-interment. The sequential performance of funerary rituals in this shared burial space resulted in a high degree of skeletal fragmentation as previously interred corpses were moved aside to accommodate subsequent inhumations. However, rather than merely representing a functional aspect of burial, the repositioning of deceased bodies constituted a ritually meaningful practice that involved continuous physical interactions between the living and the dead. Drawing on theories of embodiment and methods of burial taphonomy, this article argues that mourners' close encounters with deceased bodies played a major role in transforming the status of the dead after burial. Ritualized fragmentation and intermingling of human skeletal remains were integral components of becoming an ancestor.
K1 Bronze Age
K1 Death
K1 Funerals
K1 Memorials
K1 Tombs
K1 Tel Megiddo
K1 ancestor veneration
K1 archaeology of the Levant
K1 burial taphonomy
K1 Commemoration
K1 deathways
K1 Embodiment
K1 MORTUARY RITUAL
K1 Personhood
DO 10.5615/bullamerschoorie.377.0219