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.

Why Don't We Taxidermy Humans?

While cremation, donation to science and burial are the first three ways I think of for what to do with corpses, there are alternatives that include being turned into a diamond, frozen, or "buried" on the moon. Some of these ideas are laid out in VSauce's video "Why Don't We Taxidermy Humans?"

 

Taxidermy is all about preservation. In many people's minds, including myself, it would be much too morbid. However, remembering the dead through preservation has been a recurring line of thought in cultures such as in ancient Egypt and Russia. Today, people taxidermy their pets just like the ancient Egyptians mummified animals. Taxidermy involves rearranging and preserving only the skin on a frame, which is not always successful. For this reason (along with sociological, ethical, and legal concerns) taxidermy is not performed on humans.

There is no place like home

Tombs are defined by Merriam-Webster.com as:

1 a : an excavation in which a corpse is buried : grave
   b : a place of interment 

2 : a house, chamber, or vault for the dead 

3 : a building or structure resembling a tomb (as in appearance) 

When I think of a tomb, the first picture that comes into my head is not of a house. However, in the ancient world there are many house tombs. For instance, in Turkey there is a site called Gordion, which has a number of tumuli. The most impressive excavated so far is Tumulus MM, dated to approximately 740 B.C.E. and is the "oldest standing wooden building in the world" (Digital Gordion).

The tumulus is a wooden cabin, which had one 60-65 year old man's body inside. The cabin was then covered over with a huge man-made mound. As you enter the tomb there is a long passage way that was dug by the excavators and you eventually come to the cabin: 

Fig .1 Cross section of the tumulus

The burial of the cabin preserved the wood, which allowed it to be dated by dendrochronology (which is dating when the tree was cut down by counting the tree rings). The excavators found that the inside of the tomb was set up like a house, which included "three large bronze cauldrons; 166 bronze bowls, ladles, and pitchers; 172 bronze fibulae (clothing or safety pins); nine three-legged wooden tables; and two large inlaid wooden serving stands" (Digital Gordion). 

Another example of house tombs are Etruscan tholoi, which actually look like Hobbit Holes:

Fig. 2 Aerial View of Cerverteri

 

Fig. 3 A Hobbit Hole

The Etrsucans lived in Italy before the Romans became powerful. They buried their dead in cities of the dead, otherwise known as necropoleis. Two of the best known sites are at Cerveteri and Tarquinia. The tombs had been robbed, but the carvings and wall paintings give archaeologists the best evidence for Etruscan domestic architecture. The tombs are laid out like a house might be with different rooms, and the sculptures have been made to represent chairs, shields, food, tools and benches. The paintings have shown banquets, musicians and everyday activities such as fishing.

Fig. 4 Interior of the Tomb of the Reliefs

Fig. 5 Musicians at a Banquet

  The idea of a house tomb is an interesting concept because of modern and different culture's associations with death. In the ancient world the understanding of death and ideas of how to bury (or not bury) the dead were completely different from culture to culture. However, house tombs turn up in a number of contexts, and show that there really might be no place like home.
 
P.S. Here are some additional sources on Gordion:

McGovern, P. E. 2000. "The Funerary Banquet of 'King Midas'," Expedition 42.1, pp. 21-29.

McGovern, P., D. Glusker, R. Moreau, A. Nuñez, C. Beck, E. Simpson, E. Butrym, L. Exner, and E. Stout. 1999. "A Funerary Feast Fit for King Midas," Nature 402 (Dec. 23), pp. 863-64.

Simpson, E. 1996. "Phrygian Furniture from Gordion," in The Furniture of Western Asia: Ancient and Modern, ed. G. Herrmann, Mainz, pp. 187-208.

Here are some sources for Etruscan tombs:

"Etruscan tomb paintings : their subjects and significance" by Frederik Poulsen

"House Urns and Etuscan Tomb Painting: Tradition Versus Innovation in the Ninth-Seventh Centuries BC"  by Robert Leighton

P.P.S. The images that do not have a link after them are personal photos taken in 2011.

Facing Mortality: What would I be buried with?

According to Merriam-Webster.com grave goods are “objects (as weapons, ornaments, tools) that are found buried with the dead...”

Grave goods represent the identity of an individual, their family, and sometimes the society they live in. Some of my favourite ancient grave goods are the Mask of Agamemnon from Mycenae, Greece, and the jewellery from Priam’s Treasure found at Troy.

Fig. 1 Mask of Agamemnon

Fig. 2 Sophia Schliemann modelling jewellery from Troy

My professor asked us what sorts of grave goods we would include in our burial to portray our identity. While this is very morbid to consider, my first "grave good" would actually be a tree and flowers planted. I really like the idea as it represents the cycle of life and rebirth. I could have grave goods buried at the foot of the tree as well. The first object would be a necklace my grandparents gave me on my 14^th birthday. They live in Australia so it’s the only birthday I have celebrated with them. The pendant on the necklace is in the shape of a heart, and I would hope that the necklace portrays family ties and an emphasis on relationships. It's one of my good luck charms. I would also want my miniature of the Parthenon because I love ancient Greece and I am also half Greek. Even though it would not last I would like a photo album of all of my friends and places I have traveled. I would also like a framed picture of my family, and my copy of Lysistrata's Frogs and Clouds. I would hope that archaeologists find that I have close ties to my friends and family.

I asked some of my friends and family what they would bury with me. My friend Michelle said “your really pretty blue dress and with… a rose.” Michelle and I have joked about roses are very fitting for me, and therefore her choice makes sense. My friend Marie-Louise would include “a rose, a childhood photo of us eating popsicles and playing dress up, sailor moon DVDs, a photo album of my traveling, the Legend of Zelda games and a tennis racket.”  My friend Caitlyn focused more on location. She chose a tree or rose bush in my hometown with my family, as well as a plaque about my life. My brother said he would bury me with three things to show my identity:

 1) something that shows how much I love all of our family and friends so selflessly (maybe a scrapbook of photos and crafts/gifts/paintings/projects I made)
 2) a sea shell from Salt Spring Island
 3) a beautiful old set of Greek classic books

 My friends choices reflect memories we had together. Michelle and I were coworkers and roommates and had a lot of occasions to dress up for birthdays and staff banquets. Marie-Louise is one of my childhood friends, and the main theme of her choices is nostalgia. Caitlyn was another of my roommates, and we talked a lot about our family and hometowns. My brother has known me my whole life and his choices reflect memories with our family. Common themes between my friends choices and mine are roses, family, friends, and traveling. These represent ties to others around me, and memories I have had.

A World Away: Stonehenge and Ancestor Stones in Madagascar

Stonehenge is one of the most world famous archaeological sites, which has long fascinated both scholars and the general public. Mike Parker Pearson is an Archaeologist who has worked at Stonehenge, and has developed an analogy between the monument and modern stone structures in Madagascar with the help of a local Archaeologist named Ramilisonina. The two are compared in order to form a new interpretation of Stonehenge.

What are the ancestor stones from Madagascar? They are used in tombs and monuments. They are the possessions of the ancestors, as stone is a sacred material. The living do not use stone, but they use wood instead. The analogy Parker Pearson and Ramilisonia developed compares the use of stone in both monuments to connect them to ancestors.

There are no doubt similarities between modern burial traditions in Madagascar and ancient burial traditions from Neolithic England seen through the standing stones. However, an analogy between the two is not that applicable in my opinion. It is possible for similar ideas to arise independently, but the causes of those similarities are most likely completely different. The comparison is between two vastly different cultures separated by both time and geography. Analogies can be useful between two contemporaneous cultures to show cultural preferences and customs. However, we do not know that much about Neolithic England. We cannot verify our information.

For instance, we know that the stones in Madagascar are for ancestors, however we cannot confirm this in Neolithic England. There are theories interpreting Stonehenge as everything from a calendar to an alien monument. The monument’s main purpose was most likely much more complex, and probably changed through time. We cannot test these ideas because it was constructed in the Neolithic. In Madagascar we can consult the actual people performing the ritual surrounding the remaining burial site. Therefore any direct comparison between the two is restricted.

 

 Madagascar Ancestor Stones.

An aerial view of Stonehenge.

Saved by the Bell

Saved by the Bell. 

I didn’t know until recently that this phrase possibly originated from a practice from 17^th century England. People were saved from being buried alive by having their hand tied to a string attached to a bell above the ground. If anyone awoke from a coma-like state they could move their hand and be “saved by the bell.”

My name is Rose and I’m a Greek and Roman Studies and Anthropology student. The purpose of my blog is to explore different topics in mortuary archaeology for my Anthropology class. In other words, I’ll be learning about everything from bog bodies to ice mummies. Then I will be sharing my thoughts and ideas about what I’ve learnt in class. As our professor says, everyone is to some degree fascinated with death in order to be enrolled in the course. When I was younger I loved watching documentaries on Egyptian Mummies and ancient civilizations. I also watched shows that would have archaeological topics like “Mystery Hunters” and “The Magic School Bus.” I love learning about random facts like the etymology of "saved by the bell." My interest in the archaeology of death also stems from other classes I have taken. Some of my favourite classes include the History of the Bronze Age Aegean and Homer, Women in the Ancient World, and Greek and Roman Mythology. I’ve also had the opportunity to participate in two field schools. The first was an onsite lecture series in Greece and Turkey. We not only travelled to a number of popular archaeological sites such as Mycenae and Delphi, but we also got to visit two archaeological dig sites that are not open to the general public. The second field school I went to was called the Eastern Boeotia Archaeological Project, where I participated in the excavation of one of the sites I had visited the year before called Eleon. It was an amazing opportunity, and I learned both excavation and conservation techniques. I hope that this course will touch upon some examples from Greece, as that is my primary area of interest. I would also like to learn more about frozen bodies, grave goods, and Egyptian mummies. I hope to gain a broader perspective about funerary rites, and a greater understanding of cross-cultural practices. After my undergraduate degree I’m planning to travel for a couple of months to visit my family and then I am hoping to go to law school. I would also like to participate in excavations when I can.

P.S. Here’s a link to some photos of the Eleon excavation team on the site.

P.P.S. Here’s the blog from the exacavtion.