Book Review, Th.X. Schuhmacher, Antiquity 2017, 1393f. (original) (raw)
2024
This fourth "Supplementary Bibliography," like the first three. is supplementary to the bibliography of my own book, The Ancient Roman Afterlife: Di Manes, Belief, and the Cult of the Dead (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2020), but, also like the first three, is not limited to the subject of my book and covers death broadly in a range of cultures and periods. The focus is on the premodern, but I have included some books with a modern focus on the grounds that they might be relevant to earlier periods and ideas or they might make an interesting comparison. I personally attended the 2023 Society of Biblical Literature Conference in San Antonio, and so about half the items on this list are drawn from the conference's book exhibit, mostly quite recent titles having to do with Judeo-Christian theological issues, though even the items from the SBL conference are not limited to Christianity as a topic. To give the list a broader scope, I have also included some older works and, as on previous lists, works with a more archaeological focus. I have not seen all the works on my list, so their appearance on the list is not an endorsement.
Fülöp, K. & Váczi, G.: Late Bronze Age Cremation Burials: A Complex Event with Few Remains
The process of Late Bronze Age cremation rite burials may appear at first glance – due to incineration – to be a type of find that is extremely short on data. However, an analysis of the cremated human remains and the small amount of ceramic and metal grave goods from the perspectives of the history of the event and object biography can contain enough information to provide a basis for determining the roles and functions of the objects found in the cremation/burial process.
The study of death and burial in prehistoric populations is fundamental to understanding the human past. In recent years increasing attention has been given to methods and techniques to understand important aspects of funerary ritual such as body treatment, and concepts of death and decay of the human body. The Frenchdeveloped methodological approach archaeothanatology aims to understand how the dead body was treated, and which factors influenced the final condition and position of the skeletal remains. A core part of the approach is assessing the anatomical articulation of the joints of the skeleton. Sequences of the relative order in which the joints of the body naturally disarticulate are used to reconstruct body position and condition upon interment. These disarticulation sequences are largely based on observations of archaeological skeletons, in which distinguishing the effects of different variables is highly challenging. Experimental studies (actualistic taphonomy) allow observation of disarticulation and bone movement under controlled conditions. This paper discusses the actualistic experimental study of a willed donated human body to examine the process of decomposition and skeletal disarticulation under controlled conditions. The results support earlier indications that burial environment and variations in body position can greatly affect patterns of disarticulation and bone displacement. Furthermore, the process of disarticulation observed in this study was complex, involving multiple instances of displacement of bones out of anatomical position prior to loss of the connective tissues, as well as cases of disarticulation followed by 're-articulation'. This demonstrates that sequences based largely on archaeological data may not capture the entire process. Further actualistic studies are needed to better understand the effects of different variables on disarticulation and final bone position. Such studies provide the opportunity to refine and improve the existing framework used to assess body treatment. Understanding body treatment in the past contributes to the wider conceptualization of human death and burial.
Berns, Christof 2013, "The tomb as a node of public representation: intramural burials in Roman imperial Asia Minor", in: Henry, O. (ed), Le mort dans la ville: pratiques, contextes et impacts des inhumations intra-muros en Anatolie, du début de l'Âge du Bronze à l'époque romaine, pp. 231-242.
Burials and Human Remains. Chapter 46B: 427 - 433.
Mazar, A. and Panitz Cohen, N. Tel Rehov A Bronze and Iron Age City in the Beth-Shean Valley, 2021
In the first section of this chapter (46A), seven pit burials from Iron Age IIB/C were described. In four of these, the bones were too crumbled to be studied. The skeletal remains from the three other burials were studied and are presented in this chapter. In addition, this chapter includes a report on the skeletal remains of three individuals found in non-burial contexts, one in Area C from Iron Age IIA and two I from Iron Age IIB.
Miscellanea Hadriatica et Mediterranea, 2017
Living through the Dead, Burial and Commemoration in the Classical World, book published in 2011, is the result of international conference regarding the necropolises and burial customs from Antiquity to the seventeenth century, which took place at the University of Sheffield. Nine articles on 209 pages dealing with the wider territory of Mediterranean and Black Sea were published in English language. Apart from the reports which were presented during that conference (Gray, Graham, Pearce, Russel), a number of articles were written specifically for this publication (Bommas, Low, Lepetz and Van Andringa) under the editorship of Maureen Carroll and Jane Rempel.
Dead and Burial in the Ancient World with Archaeological tips
One of the most quoted statements in the bible as regards dead and burial is “… and was gathered to his people” (Genesis 25:8, Matthew 17:5). Be it as it may, the dead and burial of the dead is an issue faced in our contemporary society due to its root - the Bible.