Grave goods

Last updated
The gilded throne of Pharaoh Tutankhamun is but one of the treasures found within his tomb. Respaldo del trono de oro de Tutankamon.jpg
The gilded throne of Pharaoh Tutankhamun is but one of the treasures found within his tomb.

Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are items buried along with a body.

Contents

They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into an afterlife, or offerings to gods. Grave goods may be classed by researchers as a type of votive deposit. Most grave goods recovered by archaeologists consist of inorganic objects such as pottery and stone and metal tools, but organic objects that have since decayed were also placed in ancient tombs. [1] If grave goods were to be useful to the deceased in the afterlife, then favorite foods or everyday objects were supplied. Oftentimes, social status played a role in what was left and how often it was left. [2] Funerary art is a broad term but generally means artworks made specifically to decorate a burial place, such as miniature models of possessions - including slaves or servants - for "use" in an afterlife. (Ancient Egypt sometimes saw the burial of real servants with the deceased. [3] Similar cases of human sacrifice of slaves, retainers and wives feature in graves in (for example) the Americas, ancient Germania, and ancient Mesopotamia. [4] Compare suttee.)

Where grave goods appear, grave robbery is a potential problem. Etruscans would scratch the word śuθina, Etruscan for "from a tomb", on grave goods buried with the dead to discourage their reuse by the living. [5] The tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun is famous because it was one of the few Egyptian tombs that was not thoroughly looted in ancient times.

Grave goods can be regarded as a sacrifice intended for the benefit of the deceased in the afterlife. Closely related are customs of ancestor worship and offerings to the dead, in modern western culture related to All Souls' Day (Day of the Dead), in East Asia the "hell bank note" and related customs. [6] [7] [8] Also closely related is the custom of retainer sacrifice, where servants or wives of a deceased chieftain are interred with the body. [9] As the inclusion of expensive grave goods and of slaves or retainers became a sign of high status in the Bronze Age, the prohibitive cost led to the development of "fake" grave goods, where artwork meant to depict grave goods or retainers is produced for the burial and deposited in the grave in place of the actual sacrifice. [10]

History

Model of the warrior's burial 'Hamburg-Marmstorf Grave No. 216', dating to circa 50 A.D., Hamburg-Marmstorf, Hamburg, Germany. At the upper edge are turf and the plough horizon. Below are the burial in a ceramic urn and beneath that the grave goods. Urnenbestattung HH-Marmstorf Grab 216 Modell.jpg
Model of the warrior's burial 'Hamburg-Marmstorf Grave No. 216', dating to circa 50 A.D., Hamburg-Marmstorf, Hamburg, Germany. At the upper edge are turf and the plough horizon. Below are the burial in a ceramic urn and beneath that the grave goods.

There are disputed claims of intentional burial of Neanderthals as old as 130,000 years. Similar claims have been made for early anatomically modern humans as old as 100,000 years. The earliest undisputed cases of homo sapiens burials are found in Upper Palaeolithic sites.

Burials that include intentional artifacts come much later. There is evidence of Egyptians (of the Badarian culture) being buried with grave goods very early in their prehistory. Examples of these items include pots, shells, combs, stone vessels, animal figurines, and slate palettes. [11] [12]

Beads made of basalt deposited in graves in the Fertile Crescent date to the end of the Upper Paleolithic, beginning in about the 12th to 11th millennium BC. [13]

The distribution of grave goods are a potential indicator of the social stratification of a society. Thus, early Neolithic graves tend to show equal distribution of goods, suggesting a more or less classless society, while in Chalcolithic and Bronze Age burials, rich grave goods are concentrated in "chieftain" graves (barrows), indicating social stratification. [14] It is also possible that burial goods indicate a level of concern and consciousness in regard to an afterlife and related sense of spirituality. For example, when they buried pharaohs in ancient Egypt, they buried common house hold items, food, vehicles, etc. so they could have a comfortable afterlife. [15]

Famous grave sites

Conical loaves of bread as grave goods exactly as laid out in the Great Tomb, North Necropolis, Gebelein, 5th Dynasty (Old Kingdom), 2435-2305 BC. Excavations by Ernesto Schiaparelli, 1911. Egyptian Museum, Turin, S. 14051-14055 Conical loaves of bread, Gebelein, 5th Dynasty c 2400 BC.jpg
Conical loaves of bread as grave goods exactly as laid out in the Great Tomb, North Necropolis, Gebelein, 5th Dynasty (Old Kingdom), 2435–2305 BC. Excavations by Ernesto Schiaparelli, 1911. Egyptian Museum, Turin, S. 14051–14055

The expression of social status in rich graves is taken to extremes in the royal graves of the Bronze Age. In the Theban Necropolis in Ancient Egypt, the pyramids and the royal graves in the Valley of the Kings are among the most elaborate burials in human history. This trend is continued into the Iron Age. An example of an extremely rich royal grave of the Iron Age is the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang. [16]

In the sphere of the Roman Empire, early Christian graves lack grave goods, and grave goods tend to disappear with the decline of Greco-Roman polytheism in the 5th and 6th centuries. Similarly, the presence of grave goods in the Early Middle Ages in Europe has often been taken as evidence of paganism, although during the period of conversion in Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire (7th century), the situation may be more complicated. [17] In the Christian Middle Ages, high-status graves are marked on the exterior, with tomb effigies or expensive tomb stones and still had certain grave goods such as accessories and textiles. [18]

The practice of placing grave goods with the dead body has thus an uninterrupted history beginning in the Upper Paleolithic, if not the Middle Paleolithic. Many people would assume that the introduction of Christianity led to the absence of grave goods, however, there were many different Christian tombs that were shown to still have grave goods such as jewelry. [18] [19]

Role in archaeology

A Copper Age grave group including a stone wristguard, copper dagger and bone belt fitting found at Sittingbourne Copper age grave group stone wristguard copper dagger bone belt fitting sittingbourne british museum.JPG
A Copper Age grave group including a stone wristguard, copper dagger and bone belt fitting found at Sittingbourne

The importance of grave goods, from the simple behavioral and technical to the metaphysical, in archaeology cannot be overestimated. Because of their almost ubiquitous presence throughout the world and throughout prehistory, in many cases the excavation of every-day items placed in burials is the main source of such artifacts in a given prehistoric culture. However, care must be taken to avoid naïve interpretation of grave goods as an objective sample of artifacts in use in a culture. Because of their ritual context, grave goods may represent a special class of artifacts, in some instances produced especially for burial. Artwork produced for the burial itself is known as funerary art, while grave goods in the narrow sense are items produced for actual use that are placed in the grave, but in practice the two categories overlap.

Grave goods in Bronze Age and Iron Age cemeteries are a good indicator of relative social status; these wealthier graves may have included earrings, necklaces, and exotic foreign materials such as amber. Some even had the spectacular sighting of gold as their grave goods which contrasted from the less wealthy graves which were more deficient. [20] Also, in a 2001 study on an Iron Age cemetery in Pontecagnano Faiano, Italy, a correlation was found between the quality of grave goods and Forensic indicators on the skeletons, showing that skeletons in wealthy tombs tended to show substantially less evidence of biological stress during adulthood, with fewer broken bones or signs of hard labor. [21]

Along with social status, grave goods also shed light on the societal norms with regards to sex. Common binary societies had women perform duties such as mothering, processing activities, cooking, etc. and men perform duties such as hunting and fighting. These societies would bury their women with jewelry and their men with axes. The Durankulak cemetery on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast had findings to match this society structure. [22] There are societies where the roles are switched. The Sauromatian society's women were highly respected warriors. Their graves were full of weapons and horse trappings. [23] When it was difficult to determine sex of the individual due to bone decay, the grave goods became the determining factor.

In modern times

Grave goods continue to be important in modern funerary rituals. In contemporary English and American culture, bodies may be buried with goods such as eyewear, jewelry, photographs, and letters. [24] In addition, objects are sometimes left above ground near or on top of gravestones. Flowers are common, although visitation stones are preferred in Jewish culture. [25] In addition, coins for the dead (including challenge coins) are sometimes left on American military graves by comrades of the deceased. [26]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mastaba</span> Type of tomb in ancient Egypt

A mastaba, also mastabah or mastabat) is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks or limestone. These edifices marked the burial sites of many eminent Egyptians during Egypt's Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom. Non-royal use of mastabas continued for over a thousand years.

In archaeology and anthropology a mortuary house is any purpose-built structure, often resembling a normal dwelling in many ways, in which a dead body is buried.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kerma</span> Ancient Nubian capital city in Sudan

Kerma was the capital city of the Kerma culture, which was founded in present-day Sudan before 3500 BC. Kerma is one of the largest archaeological sites in ancient Nubia. It has produced decades of extensive excavations and research, including thousands of graves and tombs and the residential quarters of the main city surrounding the Western/Lower Deffufa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C-Group culture</span> C. 2400–1550 BCE Lower Nubian archaeological culture

The C-Group culture is an archaeological culture found in Lower Nubia, which dates from c. 2400 BCE to c. 1550 BCE. It was named by George A. Reisner. With no central site and no written evidence about what these people called themselves, Reisner assigned the culture a letter. The C-Group arose after Reisner's A-Group and B-Group cultures, and around the time the Old Kingdom was ending in Ancient Egypt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ushabti</span> Funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian religion

The ushabti was a funerary figurine used in ancient Egyptian funerary practices. The Egyptological term is derived from 𓅱𓈙𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 wšbtj, which replaced earlier 𓆷𓍯𓃀𓏏𓏭𓀾 šwbtj, perhaps the nisba of 𓈙𓍯𓃀𓆭 šwꜣb "Persea tree".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Egyptian funerary practices</span>

The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals included mummifying the body, casting magic spells, and burials with specific grave goods thought to be needed in the afterlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman funerary practices</span> Care of the dead in ancient Rome

Roman funerary practices include the Ancient Romans' religious rituals concerning funerals, cremations, and burials. They were part of time-hallowed tradition, the unwritten code from which Romans derived their social norms. Elite funeral rites, especially processions and public eulogies, gave the family opportunity to publicly celebrate the life and deeds of the deceased, their ancestors, and the family's standing in the community. Sometimes the political elite gave costly public feasts, games and popular entertainments after family funerals, to honour the departed and to maintain their own public profile and reputation for generosity. The Roman gladiator games began as funeral gifts for the deceased in high status families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norse funeral</span> Burial customs of ancient North Germanic Norsemen

Norse funerals, or the burial customs of Viking Age North Germanic Norsemen, are known both from archaeology and from historical accounts such as the Icelandic sagas and Old Norse poetry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phourni</span> Minoan cemetery in Crete, Greece

Phourni is the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan cemetery in Crete, established in 2400 BC and lasted until 1200 BC. Phourni is Greek for "furnace, oven" and the name of the hill on which the cemetery is located. Phourni is located at 70100 Epano Archanes, Heraklion, Greece—located on a hill in north-central Crete. Phourni can be seen from Mount Juktas. It is a small hill situated northwest of Archanes, between Archanes and Kato Archanes. Phourni is reachable from a signed scenic path that starts at Archanes. It was an important site for Minoan burials. The burials consistently and proactively engaged the community of the Minoans. The largest cemetery in the Archanes area was discovered in 1957 and excavated for 25 years by Yiannis Sakellarakis, beginning in 1965. The 6600 sq m cemetery includes 26 funerary buildings of varying shapes and sizes. The necropolis of Phourni is of primary importance, both for the duration of its use and for the variety of its funerary monuments. All the pottery and much of the skeletal material was collected, unlike many other pre-palatial tombs. The cemetery was founded in the Ancient Minoan IIA, and continued to be used until the end of the Bronze Age. The occupation reached its peak during the Middle Minoan AI, just before the palaces of Knossos and Malia appeared. The proximity of Archanes to the important religious centres of Mount Iuktas probably contributed to the prominence of the site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punic religion</span> Religion in Carthage

The Punic religion, Carthaginian religion, or Western Phoenician religion in the western Mediterranean was a direct continuation of the Phoenician variety of the polytheistic ancient Canaanite religion. However, significant local differences developed over the centuries following the foundation of Carthage and other Punic communities elsewhere in North Africa, southern Spain, Sardinia, western Sicily, and Malta from the ninth century BC onward. After the conquest of these regions by the Roman Republic in the third and second centuries BC, Punic religious practices continued, surviving until the fourth century AD in some cases. As with most cultures of the ancient Mediterranean, Punic religion suffused their society and there was no stark distinction between religious and secular spheres. Sources on Punic religion are poor. There are no surviving literary sources and Punic religion is primarily reconstructed from inscriptions and archaeological evidence. An important sacred space in Punic religion appears to have been the large open air sanctuaries known as tophets in modern scholarship, in which urns containing the cremated bones of infants and animals were buried. There is a long-running scholarly debate about whether child sacrifice occurred at these locations, as suggested by Greco-Roman and biblical sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya death rituals</span> Part of Maya religion

Death rituals were an important part of Maya religion. The Maya greatly respected death; they were taught to fear it and grieved deeply for the deceased. They also believed that certain deaths were more noble than others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funerary art</span> Art associated with a repository for the remains of the dead

Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs, tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, and communal memorials to the dead, such as war memorials, which may or may not contain remains, and a range of prehistoric megalithic constructs. Funerary art may serve many cultural functions. It can play a role in burial rites, serve as an article for use by the dead in the afterlife, and celebrate the life and accomplishments of the dead, whether as part of kinship-centred practices of ancestor veneration or as a publicly directed dynastic display. It can also function as a reminder of the mortality of humankind, as an expression of cultural values and roles, and help to propitiate the spirits of the dead, maintaining their benevolence and preventing their unwelcome intrusion into the lives of the living.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latial culture</span> Early Iron Age culture in the Italian peninsula

The Latial culture ranged approximately over ancient Old Latium. The Iron Age Latial culture coincided with the arrival in the region of a people who spoke Old Latin. The culture was likely therefore to identify a phase of the socio-political self-consciousness of the Latin tribe, during the period of the kings of Alba Longa and the foundation of the Roman Kingdom.

Ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifice is a type of human sacrifice in which pharaohs and occasionally other high court nobility would have servants killed after the pharaohs' deaths to continue to serve them in the afterlife. In Egypt, retainer sacrifice only existed during the First Dynasty, from about 3100 BC to 2900 BC, slowly dwindling, and eventually dying out.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Funerary cult</span> Teaching or practice venerating the dead

A funerary cult is a body of religious teaching and practice centered on the veneration of the dead, in which the living are thought to be able to confer benefits on the dead in the afterlife or to appease their otherwise wrathful ghosts. Rituals were carried on for the benefit of the dead, either by their relatives or by a class of priests appointed and paid to perform the rites. These rituals took place at the tombs of the dead themselves or at mortuary temples appointed to this purpose. Funerary cults are found in a wide variety of cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Greek funeral and burial practices</span> Funerary practices of ancient Greece

Ancient Greek funerary practices are attested widely in literature, the archaeological record, and in ancient Greek art. Finds associated with burials are an important source for ancient Greek culture, though Greek funerals are not as well documented as those of the ancient Romans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs</span>

Ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs were centered around a variety of complex rituals that were influenced by many aspects of Egyptian culture. Religion was a major contributor, since it was an important social practice that bound all Egyptians together. For instance, many of the Egyptian gods played roles in guiding the souls of the dead through the afterlife. With the evolution of writing, religious ideals were recorded and quickly spread throughout the Egyptian community. The solidification and commencement of these doctrines were formed in the creation of afterlife texts which illustrated and explained what the dead would need to know in order to complete the journey safely.

Başur Höyük in Turkey's south-eastern Siirt Province is a 5,000-year-old Bronze Age burial site. It is located near the village of Aktaş, Siirt in a valley of the upper Tigris River. The 820-foot by 492-foot burial mound was excavated in the years up to 2018, by Brenna Hassett of the Natural History Museum in London, and Haluk Sağlamtimur of Ege University in Turkey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese burial money</span> Historic Chinese funerary ritual

Chinese burial money a.k.a. dark coins are Chinese imitations of currency that are placed in the grave of a person that is to be buried. The practice dates to the Shang dynasty when cowrie shells were used, in the belief that the money would be used in the afterlife as a bribe to Yan Wang for a more favourable spiritual destination. The practice changed to replica currency to deter grave robbers, and these coins and other imitation currencies were referred to as clay money (泥錢) or earthenware money (陶土幣).

References

  1. ↑ Ian Morris, Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 1992; ISBN   0-521-37611-4)
  2. ↑ "Grave Goods in Ancient Egypt". World History Encyclopedia . Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  3. ↑ hooverre (2014-02-06). "Ancient Egyptian Grave Goods". Rise of Civilization. Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
  4. ↑ Taylor, Timothy (2004). The Buried Soul: How Humans Invented Death. Beacon Press. ISBN   9780807046722 . Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  5. ↑ Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante The Etruscan Language: an Introduction (Univ. Manchester Press, 2002. ISBN   0-7190-5540-7); several examples collected
  6. ↑ "All Souls' Day – Saints & Angels". Catholic Online. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  7. ↑ "Top 10 things to know about the Day of the Dead". Travel. 2017-10-26. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  8. ↑ "What's the Origin of Hell Money?". South China Morning Post. 2015-09-03. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  9. ↑ "Human Sacrifice | The Ancient Egypt Site". www.ancient-egypt.org. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  10. ↑ "BBC – History – Ancient History in depth: Hidden Treasure Fact Files". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  11. ↑ "Artifacts: Grave Goods, Mummification, Online Exhibits, Exhibits, Spurlock Museum, U of I". www.spurlock.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  12. ↑ Smith, Homer W. (2015) [1952]. Man and His Gods. Boston, Little, Brown. p. 16.
  13. ↑ The Earliest Beads, muma.org[ clarification needed ]
  14. ↑ see e.g. William A. Haviland, Harald E. L. Prins, Dana Walrath, Bunny McBride, Anthropology: The Human Challenge, Cengage Learning, 2010 ISBN   978-0-495-81084-1, p. 268.
  15. ↑ "Mummy History". history.com. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  16. ↑ Lubow, Arthur. "Terra Cotta Soldiers on the March". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
  17. ↑ Helen Geake, The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England, c. 600–c. 850, British Archaeological Reports, 1997, ISBN   978-0-86054-917-8
  18. 1 2 Pleşa, Alexandra D. (2017). "Religious Belief in Burial: Funerary Dress and Practice at the Late Antique and Early Islamic Cemeteries at Matmar and Mostagedda, Egypt (Late Fourth–Early Ninth Centuries CE)". Ars Orientalis. 47. doi: 10.3998/ars.13441566.0047.002 . hdl:2027/spo.13441566.0047.002. ISSN   2328-1286.
  19. ↑ Bayliss, Alex (2017-07-05). Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the 6th and 7th Centuries AD. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315097220. ISBN   978-1-315-09722-0.
  20. ↑ "BBC – History – Ancient History in depth: Hidden Treasure Fact Files". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  21. ↑ Robb, John; Bigazzi, Renzo; Lazzarini, Luca; Scarsini, Caterina; Sonego, Fiorenza (2001). "Social status and biological status: A comparison of grave goods and skeletal indicators from Pontecagnano". American Journal of Physical Anthropology . 115 (3): 213–222. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1076. PMID   11424073.
  22. ↑ Stratton, Susan (2016-08-11). "'Seek and you Shall Find.' How the Analysis of Gendered Patterns in Archaeology can Create False Binaries: a Case Study from Durankulak". Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. 23 (3): 854–869. doi:10.1007/s10816-016-9290-2. ISSN   1072-5369. S2CID   152224107.
  23. ↑ Guliaev, V. I. (April 2003). "Amazons in the Scythia: New finds at the Middle Don, Southern Russia". World Archaeology. 35 (1): 112–125. doi:10.1080/0043824032000078117. ISSN   0043-8243. S2CID   22946203.
  24. ↑ Harper, Sheila (2012). "'I'm glad she has her glasses on. That really makes the difference': Grave goods in English and American death rituals". Journal of Material Culture. 17 (1): 43–59. doi:10.1177/1359183511432987. ISSN   1359-1835.
  25. ↑ adventuresincemeteryhopping (2013-12-13). "Grieving Outside the Box: Why People Leave Things on Graves". Adventures in Cemetery Hopping. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  26. ↑ Swanson, Christa (May 27, 2024). "Coins on a soldier's headstone: What do they mean?". fox4kc.com. Retrieved July 12, 2024.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.