Victims of Violence: Healing Social Ills through Mesopotamian Mortuary Practice
Traces of violence found on human bones are very difficult to interpret. Determination of the cause of death is often based on circumstantial evidence drawn from the way the body is buried. But burials – and bodies – were sometimes manipulated in Mesopotamia for very different purposes. Here we exam...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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| Published: |
University of Chicago Press
2015
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| In: |
Near Eastern archaeology
Year: 2015, Volume: 78, Issue: 4, Pages: 252-262 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Traces of violence found on human bones are very difficult to interpret. Determination of the cause of death is often based on circumstantial evidence drawn from the way the body is buried. But burials – and bodies – were sometimes manipulated in Mesopotamia for very different purposes. Here we examine three examples from the fourth and third millennia b.c.e. where bodies were not only killed, they were cooked, moved, dressed, pulled apart and turned into tools. Such behavior appears transgressive, and yet some of it must have been socially sanctioned, performed in order to satisfy perceived needs. Despite the difficulties in interpreting such remains, one thing is clear: we cannot take the pictures presented by the dead at face value. |
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| ISSN: | 2325-5404 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Near Eastern archaeology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.5615/neareastarch.78.4.0252 |