The Beginning is the End

For my last blog post for my Anthropology course I'd like to look at Fayum Portraits. These portraits are actually mummy portraits, and were incorporated in their wrappings. They were meant to represent the individual in the sarcophagus, and have been described by the Smithsonian as "the first modernist paintings."

These portraits strike me as individual, and expressive. They reminded me of an issue that came up during our field work in local cemeteries. Some cemeteries have banned photos and video screens from being incorporated into headstones. This ties into the idea of memory. To what degree do we want to remember a person? Names and ages are automatically culturally acceptable, but a representation of them is too realistic for some people. The photos and tv screens don't allow for people to distance themselves from death. However, representations of people associated with their burial locations have been happening around the world for thousands of years, as seen by the Fayum portraits. The big difference between the Fayum portraits and modern photos or t.v. screens is that Fayum portraits were not public. They were for the individual's private use in the afterlife. I personally think that photos and t.v. screens are new and innovative ways to commemorate the dead. Funerary art and representations are in the process of incorporating technology to preserve the memory of the deceased.   

Fig. 1 Examples of Fayum Portraits

Lost Burials: Herculaneum and L'Anse aux Meadows

Graves tell archaeologists all sorts of things about a population and their culture. But what happens when there are no graves or skeletons?


In Herculaneum, a town wiped out by Mt. Vesuvius in 79 C.E. , there were very few skeletons found until the 1980s. The theory was that everyone had escaped the town before the eruption. When hundreds of skeletons were found in the boat sheds by the water (Fig. 1), the theory was obviously obsolete. 

"Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" as one of my anthropology professors from last year would say. In other words, just because there is no evidence now, it does not follow that there was none at one point. In the Pompeii example, just because the excavators didn't find skeletons, it did not mean that there were none. They just weren't looking in the right places.

This idea can also be applied to L'Anse aux Meadows, a Viking site in Newfoundland, where no skeletons have been found (Fig. 2). When I visited the site I was told that the Vikings had abandoned their settlement and returned home because there were no burials found. This always seemed too easy an answer for me. 

What if we are looking in the wrong area as in Herculaneum? They could have been buried outside of the settlement or in an area we never considered. I don't know if the excavations included land penetrating sonar, but that could help identify unknown structures. What if the remains simply didn't preserve? What if they were buried in a way that didn't leave any archaeological remains in the first place? I don't know if there was any evidence of Viking burials at sea or cremation, but in a place like Newfoundland where the land can be frozen in the winter, couldn't it be a possibility? Also, many rich Viking graves preserved in the ground have the skeletons in boats; maybe this originated from a previous practice of sea burials. While I acknowledge I am speculating, I find it highly unlikely that none of the Vikings died while they were in Newfoundland.


Fig. 1


Fig. 2
                                                                

Forgotten Cemeteries

In class this week we watched a film about an abandoned cemetery in Priceville, Ontario. The cemetery was for the black pioneers who lived in the area in the 1820s. The community decided to restore the cemetery, and they recovered four gravestones from a stone pile in the town. The committee in charge of the restoration decided to bring the ground level in the cemetery to its original level in an attempt to find more headstones. The process was controversial as some people did not want to disturb the dead.

The cemetery reminded me of one that I have heard of in Kamloops, which is located in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. There is a Chinese cemetery for people who settled in Kamloops after the Railway was built (Image 1). This cemetery is maintained and recognized by the community. However, there are numerous unmarked graves of Chinese workers under the railway tracks that span the country. What makes the people buried in the cemetery different from the ones buried under the railway tracks? 

The timing of the graves in the cemetery are at a time when formal burials could take place. The land is consecrated, and a designated cemetery. However, I feel like the workers buried under the railway tracks deserve recognition as well. 
 Some efforts have been made:

"Ninety-five years later, the first official recognition of the

Chinese Railway Workers was on June 16, 1980. In

1982, a bronze plaque was installed at the Yale museum.

In Vancouver, a Chinese Railway Workers bronze plaque

was installed in 1988. A 12-metre high memorial was

built in Toronto and unveiled in 1989. In Winnipeg, a

bronze sculpture was erected in 1998. The latest tribute

to the Chinese Railway Workers was the documentary

“Canadian Steel, Chinese Grit” produced in 1998.

In May 2005, the Canadian Pacific Railway named the

Cheng Interchange in Kamloops in honour of Chinese

railway workers, in November 2005, the Province of B.C.

issued a proclamation declaring November 1-7 as

“Pioneer Chinese Railway Workers’ Week”, and on the

29th of November, the Heroes of Confederation project

was adopted into the City Centre Plan/Kamloops Official

Community Plan."

                   - Heroes of Conferation

 
The Heroes of Confederation want a museum to be established in Kamloops to formally acknowledge the workers. It would provide information to future generations, and it would include a library.

The theme shared between the two cemeteries is recovering memories. In Priceville the cemetery had been disregarded, and it is now too late to recover any more gravestones. In Kamloops, there is still a chance to preserve what is known about the workers through the museum. However, the longer it is delayed the harder it will be to find out later on. 

 Image 1

Memory and Grave Markers

I recently found out that the Taj Mahal (Fig. 1) is actually the burial site of Queen Mumtaz Mahal. I have always been enthralled by the Taj Mahal because of its beauty and monumental size. I find Mausoleums an interesting way of commemorating the dead because they are a statement about memory. The buildings become a more permanent way of remembering the deceased, and can become a testament to an individual's social status and wealth. Other ancient examples are Mausoleums of elites such as Augustus and Halicarnassus (Fig. 2).

In modern societies mausoleums are still used to a small degree, but more conservative monuments such as headstones are put in place. This can be a result of social trends, restrictions in place in cemeteries, and financial means. Grave markers are associated with memory, and they differ depending on who you want to remember you.

For instance, scattering ashes, planting a tree with ashes, and private grave markers are all for individuals wanting to be remembered by their family and friends. More public grave markers and elaborate grave markers (such as sculptures that were seen in the 1800s) create a lasting memory of that person for the community. There are grave markers that have photos and some even have screens for videos that are meant to be viewed by the public. Location is key. Grave markers in cemeteries are displayed to the public, while private grave markers are for friends and family. There are also modern grave markers to state figures. For instance, Lenin wanted to be remembered by Russia, and was embalmed and is still on display in Moscow.

I wouldn't want to be on public display like Lenin or Jeremy Bentham (see my earlier post below), but I think the idea of a monumental grave marker is really interesting in terms of your memory lasting for a long time. In many cases the remains have disappeared but the monuments still stand. 



Image 1



Image 2

Brides of Death

Rites of passage are rituals that mark transitions in an individual's life. In ancient Greece, one of the major transitions for Greek women was to be married. However, what if a young woman or girl passed away before being married? Without a husband, she was married to death, or in other words, Hades.

The custom is based on the Greek myth of Persephone and Hades. The shortened version of the myth goes something like this: when the goddess Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to be his wife in the underworld,  her mother Demeter decided to stop the crops from growing in order to deprave the gods of their sacrifices. The gods were forced to compromise with Demeter, and allowed Persephone to return on the condition she had not eaten any food. She had, and therefore spends half the year with Hades and half with Demeter. Therefore, half of the year bears crops when Persephone is with Demeter, and the result are different seasons.

The young ancient Greek girls were married to Hades just like Persephone was. The custom acknowledges the rite of passage in a young woman's life in ancient Greece that they were not able to be a part of.

What's the proof of this custom? Grave markers showing young girls in wedding outfits. Here are some examples:

Fig. 1

Fig. 2: http://www.agefotostock.com/en/Stock-Images/Rights-Managed/MB-03853593

An Accessory of Death

I read Maia's post titled "Wearing Death," which describes Victorian jewelry that incorporated animals. The examples she gives are gold earrings that have hummingbird heads in the center of them (Fig. 1). At first I found the earrings both amusing and unsettling. After few moments I realized that while Victorian practices seem gaudy to us and too close to death for our comfort zone, we are guilty of the same practice. 

This may not be seen in jewelry or taxidermy, but animal fur and leather are highly used today. For instance, in Eastern Canada where it gets much colder than it does in Victoria, "Canada Goose" jackets (Fig. 2) are very popular. The majority of these jackets have a coyote fur lining around the hood for warmth. While fur is practical in this case, fur can also be used solely as a fashion statement. I thought about my own life and the amount of leather that I am surrounded by. There are couches, car seats, boots, phone cases and many more products that use leather which are common in our daily lives. On top of that, one of my favourite things to collect are old leather-bound antique books. I do not find our modern "accessories of death" (i.e. leather or fur) to be unsettling like the Victorian earrings because I have been socialized that way. Maybe if I had been born in a different time I would be the one wearing those earrings...


(Fig. 1)

 
(Fig. 3)  

P.S. I just wanted to make a disclaimer that I am not supporting the use of fur or leather and I acknowledge that there are ethical concerns surrounding these materials.

Jeremy Bentham: Present but not Voting

I learned in class the other day that Jeremy Bentham requested that his body was preserved and then put on display at the University College in London where he was a professor. Unfortunately, his head did not preserve well, and was replaced with a wax one. However, the real head was placed at his feet until it got stolen one too many times by students. He is in a box with wheels and for special occasions he has been rolled into meetings to be marked on the attendance list as "present but not voting." A 360 degree view of Jeremy can be seen here. 

Fig 1 Jeremy Bentham on display

I stumbled upon Dr. Jenkins' blog while looking for a photo of Jeremy, and her blog is about displaying human remains in museums. Ethical issues always surround displaying human remains, and some examples include Body Worlds and Maori heads. 

Body Worlds is an exhibit that shows various parts of the human body like the nervous system and muscles. Maori heads are preserved heads taken by colonizers from New Zealand and have ended up in a number of museums. I feel like the differences between the two examples are the individual's permission. The people who are on display at Body Worlds have donated their bodies to science, whereas the Maori did not. As a result, the heads are being repatriated from museums all around the world (for example, France recently returned twenty heads). In Jeremy Bentham's case, he wished to be on display. I feel like his conscious choice validates the display... but what happens to individuals who lived thousands of years ago? 

Usually they are displayed in museums without anyone's permission because it is unclear who needs to give their permission. This is especially true with First Nations individuals, ancient Greeks and ancient Egyptians. I personally think that displays in museums where the remains were found are more respectful than touring exhibits where the remains can be damaged. If the remains stay in one place, even while on display, the remains are less disrupted. However, should the remains be displayed in the first place? I think they should be if there are no identifiable descendants and the people visiting the museum make a choice to see the remains (by having them in a separate area). Ethical concerns always surround displaying human remains in a public context, and should be addressed for each individual displayed.