Secondary Burial Practices in the Middle Neolithic: Causes and Consequences

The article discusses the increasing evidence that burial traditions in the Neol ithic are more varied than is otten acknowledged, and focuses especially on the evidence of cremations as a continuous practice throughout the period. This variation should not be seen primarily as a result of competing cosmologies, but rather as different ways of expressing a main body of thought, depending on the cultural context and the need of the community members. Rituals are seen as events where structure is not only displayed, but also created and negotiated in a dialogue with the participants. Rituals therefore have the potential to both hinder and facil itate the changes that take place internally or externally. Evidence of secondary burial practices is given special attention, in particular regarding the mortuary houses of eastern middle Sweden in the late Middle Neolithic, since rituals linked to this tradition have been shown to involve a wider community and to emphasize on group unity over individualism. They also grant the participants a feeling ofcontrol over death, and through this the structuration of society. By acknowledging mortuary variation, which has often been overlooked as exceptions and curiosities, we are given additional insights into prehistoric strategies and mentaliities.

Study on the burial practice of tomb M13 of the Yangshao culture at Baligang site in Dengzhou City

The multidisciplinary research on the Yangshao period (4200–2900 BCE) tomb M13, a joint secondary burial at the Baligang site of the Yangshao culture in Dengzhou City, Henan Province showed that there were in total 126 individuals buried in this grave. Their death crossed at least 200 years; among them, at least five individuals were from three maternal lineages, and the descent system of this group was patrilineal. There were also 138 pig mandibles buried in M13, which had been dated and shows that they were collected across over 400 years. Based on the statistics the death population at Baligang site, it is estimated that the human bones found from M13 went through a secondary burial process during which they were probably regarded as “ceremonial objects.” The joint secondary burials as M13 is seen as a result of some reburying ceremonies held at the Baligang site.

ARSITEKTUR RELIGI PESTA TIWAH DAYAK NGAJU SEBAGAI DAYA TARIK WISATA BUDAYA DI KALIMANTAN TENGAH

Title: The Religious Architecture of Tiwah Feast among Dayak Ngaju as Cultural Tourism Attractions in Central Kalimantan The belief to a transcendent space among Dayak Ngaju people, especially for Kaharingan believers in Central Kalimantan, leads to the Tiwah Feast, a secondary funeral ceremony to transmit the soul of the dead to a celestial realm called The Lewu Tatau. The Tiwah Feast manifests in many meaningfulness of sacred symbols. There are certain rules in the implementation, particularly on the physical symbols and its religious architectures. This article emphasize the uniqueness of the symbols on the religious architecture of Tiwah Feast, which has the potential to become tourist attraction in the development of cultural tourism products. Using qualitative methods, data obtained through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and documentation, in two different locations, in Tumbang Koling and Ramang Village. Sacred symbols on its religious architecture include Sapundu and Sandong. A sapundu manifests in the form of a human or animal figure, regarding to the personification of the ancestral spirit. It shows the way for the soul towards Lewu Tatau. Meanwhile, Sandong is a secondary burial coffin to put the ancestral bones. The construction and architecture should concern on foundation, size, height, carvings, and ornaments. This local wisdom is potential to be developed as a cultural tourism attraction. However, the sacredness of the Tiwah Feast must be maintained and preserved from cultural commercialization and commodification issues.

A Prohibition on Digging Up the Bones of the Dead (1813)

In 1813, the Bishop of Cebu, Joaquín Encabo de la Virgen de Sopetrán, issued an edict prohibiting the exhumation of the dead, written primarily in the local language of Cebuano Visayan. This document from the archives of the Roman Catholic parish of Patrocinio de Maria in Boljoon, a town in the Philippine province of Cebu, suggests that inhabitants of the diocese were digging up the bones of the dead in order to hold rituals for a secondary burial along traditional, non-Christian lines. Ino Manalo discusses the edict in light of the emphasis placed by Spanish colonialism on urbanism and literacy, and outlines the ways in which it provides evidence of the persistence of traditional beliefs and practices centuries after the introduction of Christianity to the Visayas.

Landscape, Feasting, and Ancestors in the Burial Tradition of Mycenaean Rhodes

The number and character of the Mycenaean cemeteries found on Rhodes have allowed a thorough analysis of its burial tradition. The chamber tombs and their contents seem to have been canonical Mycenaean according to the Greek mainland examples, but recent research has highlighted significant regional idiosyncrasies. There is a symbolic interrelation between the tombs’ orientation and the surrounding landscape, which was a regional phenomenon. Furthermore, within the cemeteries the secondary burials appear to be very common and often the dominant practice. In this context the offerings in the tombs are of particular interest since they diverge from others in mainland Greece. The preference for drinking and eating vessels reveals a symbolic role attributed to feasting in relation to the afterlife beliefs. This can be combined with the role of the landscape and the secondary burial tradition within the Rhodian funerary framework. Feasting seems to be symbolically linked through ritual acts in the process of turning the deceased to an anonymous ancestor. The current analysis will trace the messages transmitted through this practice for the afterlife beliefs as much as for the sociopolitical conditions of this period on the island. Hence, a better understanding of the idiosyncratic funerary tradition and the development of the regional character of Mycenaean Rhodes will be demonstrated.

THE GRAVE ASSEMBLAGE OF THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD FROM THE KURGAN CEMETERY NEAR THE VILLAGE OF KUCHUGURY

В статье вводится в научный оборот комплекс погребальных сооружений, обнаруженных в ходе археологических раскопок в 1984-1985 гг. под одной из насыпей курганной группы в 2,1 км от Азовского побережья (в 1,2 км к ЮВ от пос. Кучугуры). Незначительное количество неопределенных кальцинированных костей не позволяет интерпретировать один из объектов (погребение 1) как кремацию на месте. Остальные (3) представляли собой впущенные в материковую глину погребальные камеры с входными ямами трапециевидной формы. Объекты представляют собой единый культурно-хронологический комплекс захоронений. Бытование комплекса может быть датировано в пределах эллинистической эпохи - III-II вв. до н. э. Рассмотренные материалы, в частности, набор палестрита, обряд обол Харона , комплекс культовых терракотовых статуэток, реконструируют типичные для обширной античной ойкумены эллинские традиции. Отсутствие следов осквернения могил и предметов вооружения свидетельствует о стабильной, не омраченной военной тревогой жизни боспорских греков. The paper introduces into scientific discourse an assemblage of funerary constructions discovered by archaeological excavations under one of the mounds of a kurgan group located 2.1 km from the coast of the Sea of Azov (1.2 km southeast of the village of Kuchugury) in 1984-1985. Indeterminate calcined bones that are few in number do not make it possible to interpret one of the finds (burial 1) as cremation in situ. The remainder three burials are secondary burial chambers with trapezoidal entry pits made in native clay. These burials form part of a single cultural and chronological assemblage of graves. The assemblage can be dated to the Hellenistic Period, i.e. the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. The examined materials, in particular, a set of palaestrite, the Charons obol rite, an assemblage of cult terracotta statuettes reconstruct Hellenistic traditions typical for the vast Ancient Greek oecumene. Absence of grave desecration signs and weaponry is an evidence of Bosporan Greeks stable life not shadowed by military concerns.