The Archaeology of Egyptian Non-Royal Burial Customs in New Kingdom Egypt and Its Empire

This Element provides a new evaluation of burial customs in New Kingdom Egypt, from about 1550 to 1077 BC, with an emphasis on burials of the wider population. It also covers the regions then under Egyptian control: the Southern Levant and the area of Nubia as far as the Fourth Cataract. The inclusion of foreign countries provides insights not only into the interaction between the centre of the empire and its conquered regions, but also concerning what is typically Egyptian and to what extent the conquered regions were culturally influenced. It can be shown that burials in Lower Nubia closely follow those in Egypt. In the southern Levant, by contrast, cemeteries of the period often yield numerous Egyptian objects, but burial customs in general do not follow those in Egypt.

Balancing sustainable development and cultural heritage preservation: luxury burial legacies in Singapore

PurposeThe paper aims to provide up-to-date analysis on how a country like Singapore, with a rich tangible and intangible cultural heritage associated with burial customs, approaches heritage preservation while ensuring modernisation and sustainable growth.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an exploratory analysis of the association between cultural heritage preservation, particularly the one associated with elaborate burials, and the need for modernisation in Singapore. It mainly uses desk research tools, fieldwork and interviews with death services providers to build a set of conclusions. It employs a historical review approach and uses comparative analyses with other countries in the Asian region to substantiate the arguments.FindingsThe paper provides insights about how, since its independence, Singapore has switched to pragmatic models of growth and development which imply maximising the limited space available, often at the cost of precious cultural heritage. The rapid development has had a significant impact on the country's burial customs and legacies, particularly on elaborate graves and tombs, which traditionally use a considerable amount of space. The analysis concludes that Singapore is in the constant challenge of exploring alternative ways of handling death and its ramifications.Originality/valueThis paper presents a new outlook on the relationship between the preservation of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage associated with death practices and a sustainable approach to modernisation in the context of Singapore.

BURIALS OF THE EARLY BRONZE AGE IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS OF THE SOUTH-EAST OF AZERBAIJAN

The paper deals with the results of excavations carried out in recent years in the Early Bronze Age kurgans in the mountainous part of the south-eastern region of Azerbaijan. It has been determined that there are several types of burial customs of this period in these small kurgans located on the Komani plateau between Kurekchi and Arvana villages of Yardimly district, on the Azerbaijan - Iran border. Although the Early Bronze Age Telmankend kurgans were excavated in the foothills of the region in the 1960s, such monuments were not excavated or even registered in the highlands. at these grave monuments, which were first discovered by us in the summer pastures in 2014, archaeological excavations began in 2018, and four kurgans were excavated here. Komani kurgans, built at an altitude of 2000 m above sea level, are important in terms of studying the burial customs of the Early Bronze Age semi-nomadic cattle-breeding population. Excavations of Komani kurgans have revealed that the high mountainous area of the south-eastern region of Azerbaijan had been used by the cattle-breeding population since the Early Bronze Age, where they were engaged in seasonal farming and carried out their burials. The lack of grave goods during the burial is explained by their temporary residence in the summer pastures. Undoubtedly, the presence of short-term settlements of cattle-breeding tribes near the kurgans is no exception. Building of Early Bronze Age Komani kurgans in the afore-said area from the chronological viewpoint is distinguished due to their small size. As for the later stages of the Bronze Age, dozens of big kurgans can be found here. However, no archeological excavations have been carried out in any of them so far. Similar burial customs and materials of Komani kurgans are mostly found in the Early Bronze Age monuments of Nakhchivan. Similar burials can be found in other coeval grave monuments of Azerbaijan and in the north-eastern provinces of Iran.

The First Seal Hunter Families on Gotland - On the Mesolithic Occupation in the Stora Förvar Cave

The article presents some results of a joint interdisciplinary researchproject, The Stora Förvar Cave and Gotlands peopling, faunal history and subsistence economy/diet development from the Boreal to the Subatlantic, initiated by Christian Lindqvist in 1991. Its objectives include investigations of a number of crucial issues in a long-term perspective, such as the initial settlement, the early faunal history, the early subsistence economy and diet, but also the character of the Mesolithic-Neolithic shift on Gotland, by means of human and zooosteological, carbon isotope and ancient DNA analyses. The article presents and discusses artefact, osteological, and 13C and 14C data and interpretations concerning the duration and character of the Mesolithic occupation —temporary kill/butchering site, seasonal hunting station, semi-sedentary base camp or burial cave —as well as osteobiographical data on the identified human individuals and their burial customs.

Sídliště a pohřebiště kultury nálevkovitých pohárů v Dambořicích, okr. Hodonín. Příspěvek k poznání pohřebišť s pohřby v natažené poloze / A Funnel Beaker settlement and cemetery in Dambořice, South Moravia. A contribution to knowledge of cemeteries with burials in an extended position

The main subject of the article is evidence of settlement and burial activities from the beginning of the Early Eneolithic from Dambořice belonging to the Funnel Beaker culture. From the perspective of the current chronology, this is the early phase of the Baalberg stage of the Moravian – Lower Austrian group of this particular culture. To date, ten settlement features with a representative assemblage of pottery and six graves with burials in an extended position without grave goods have been investigated. The site is another example of only recently recorded burial customs of a local Funnel Beaker group and, simultaneously, an opportunity to present this phenomenon of the Early Eneolithic in Moravia in a broader context. The article includes an evaluation of anthropological material and a presentation of the radiocarbon dates that were acquired from the bones.

Multi-isotopic study of diet and mobility in the northeastern Nile Delta

The origin of the Hyksos dynasty (c. 1638–1530 BCE) is thought to be rooted in the Near East given the architectural features and burial customs present at the site of Tell el-Dabca, identified as the capital of Hyksos rule in the Eastern Delta of Egypt. We expand previous 87Sr/86Sr research on the site’s cemetery assemblage using a multi-isotopic methodology: oxygen (δ18O) and carbon (δ13Ccarb) stable isotopes from the carbonate portion of tooth enamel (n = 75), along with collagen (δ13Ccoll, δ15N) analysis of dentine and bone (n = 31). Pairing δ18O with previous 87Sr/86Sr data identifies 60% of the cohort as non-locals (45/75). Although there were a greater proportion of non-local females (24/30, 80%) compared to males (10/20, 50%), there were no significant differences between the sexes in δ13Ccarb or δ18Ocarb values. There were no spatial patterns regarding the three cemetery sites, nor any observable patterns regarding where non-locals were interred in the largest excavated cemetery, Area A/II. Both first-generation immigrants and individuals from the northeastern Nile Delta were buried following elite Asiatic burial customs, suggesting continuation of foreign burial culture. All collagen showed poor preservation; δ13Ccoll and δ15N analysis were not possible. δ13Ccarb showed no significant difference between locals and non-local diet, although non-locals at Tell el-Dabca did eat a broader variety of foods as a group, suggested by a wider δ13Ccarb range (− 13.5 to − 9.6‰ in non-locals compared to locals’ − 12.1 to − 10.3‰). If there is a difference in food culture between immigrants and native Egyptians, it was not observable using isotopic analyses.