Sarah Tarlow | |
---|---|
Born | 1967 (age 55–56) |
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Archaeologist, academic |
Academic background | |
Education | |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Historical archaeology |
Institutions | |
Notable works | The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial |
Sarah Tarlow is a British archaeologist and academic. As professor of historical archaeology at the University of Leicester,Tarlow is best known for her work on the archaeology of death and burial. In 2012,Tarlow was awarded the chair in archaeology at the University of Leicester.
Sarah Tarlow was born in 1967. She obtained a BA in 1989 from Sheffield University,a MPhil (1990) and a PhD (1995) from Cambridge University. [1] Tarlow taught at the University of Wales,Lampeter from 1995 to 2000. In 2000,she became a lecturer in Historical archaeology at the University of Leicester,and in 2006 was promoted to senior lecturer. In 2012,Tarlow was awarded the chair in archaeology. [1] [2]
Tarlow's research focuses on the historical archaeology of Great Britain and Northern Europe. She has published several books,journals and edited anthologies on the archaeology of death and burial,including the Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial (Oxford Handbooks). Tarlow also studies the archaeology of emotion and issues of archaeological ethics. [2]
From 2011 to 2016,Tarlow directed the large-scale research project,Harnessing the Power of the Criminal Corpse,funded by the Wellcome Trust. The study focused on the period between the sixteenth century and the twentieth century,and investigated the management,treatment and uses of the criminal corpse in Britain. The project's overall goal was an examination and discussion of the "changing ideas of self and person as they relate to the body". [2] [3]
Tarlow is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the archaeology journal Antiquity . [4]
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including the brainstem. Brain death is sometimes used as a legal definition of death. The remains of a former organism normally begins to decompose shortly after death. Death is an inevitable process that eventually occurs in all organisms. Some organisms, such as Turritopsis dohrnii, are biologically immortal. However, they can still die from means other than aging.
Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objects in it, and covering it over. A funeral is a ceremony that accompanies the final disposition. Evidence suggests that some archaic and early modern humans buried their dead. Burial is often seen as indicating respect for the dead. It has been used to prevent the odor of decay, to give family members closure and prevent them from witnessing the decomposition of their loved ones, and in many cultures it has been seen as a necessary step for the deceased to enter the afterlife or to give back to the cycle of life.
A gibbet is any instrument of public execution. Gibbeting is the use of a gallows-type structure from which the dead or dying bodies of criminals were hanged on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. Occasionally, the gibbet was also used as a method of execution, with the criminal being left to die of exposure, thirst and/or starvation. The practice of placing a criminal on display within a gibbet is also called "hanging in chains".
Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was a German Jewish banker and court Jew for Duke Karl Alexander of Württemberg in Stuttgart. Throughout his career, Oppenheimer made scores of powerful enemies, some of whom conspired to bring about his arrest and execution after Karl Alexander's death.
Owen Davies is a British historian who specialises in the history of magic, witchcraft, ghosts, and popular medicine. He is currently Professor in History at the University of Hertfordshire and has been described as Britain's "foremost academic expert on the history of magic".
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.
Psychological punishments are punishments that aim to cause mental pain or discomfort in order to punish an individual. Psychological punishments are usually designed to cause discomfort or pain through creating negative emotions such as humiliation, shame and fear within an individual or by depriving the individual of sensory and/or social stimulation.
A public execution is a form of capital punishment which "members of the general public may voluntarily attend." This definition excludes the presence of only a small number of witnesses called upon to assure executive accountability. The purpose of such displays has historically been to deter individuals from defying laws or authorities. Attendance at such events was historically encouraged and sometimes even mandatory.
A cillín is a historic burial site in Ireland, primarily used for stillborn and unbaptized infants. These burial areas were also used for the recently deceased who were not allowed in consecrated churchyards, including the mentally disabled, suicides, beggars, executed criminals, and shipwreck victims.
The Tellem were the people who inhabited the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali between the 11th and 16th centuries CE. The Dogon people migrated to the escarpment region around the 14th century. In the rock cells of this red cliff, clay constructions shelter the bones of the Tellem as well as vestiges witnessing to their civilization, which existed well before that of the Dogons.
The archaeology of religion and ritual is a growing field of study within archaeology that applies ideas from religious studies, theory and methods, anthropological theory, and archaeological and historical methods and theories to the study of religion and ritual in past human societies from a material perspective.
Burial in Anglo-Saxon England refers to the grave and burial customs followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the mid 5th and 11th centuries CE in Early Mediaeval England. The variation of the practice performed by the Anglo-Saxon peoples during this period, included the use of both cremation and inhumation. There is a commonality in the burial places between the rich and poor – their resting places sit alongside one another in shared cemeteries. Both of these forms of burial were typically accompanied by grave goods, which included food, jewelry, and weaponry. The actual burials themselves, whether of cremated or inhumed remains, were placed in a variety of sites, including in cemeteries, burial mounds or, more rarely, in ship burials.
Jar burial is a human burial custom where the corpse is placed into a large earthenware container and then interred. Jar burials are a repeated pattern at a site or within an archaeological culture. When an anomalous burial is found in which a corpse or cremated remains have been interred, it is not considered a "jar burial".
The London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial was an association that was co-founded in 1896 by William Tebb and Walter Hadwen. In the 1800s, it was not common nor mandatory for a physician to examine a body after death and declare the person deceased. The absence of a final check by a competent person for signs of life led to fears of premature burial. The London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial was created to bring attention to the perceived problem of this state of affairs. The association campaigned for improvements in death certification and for the building of "safety coffins" with warning devices that could be activated by a person mistakenly declared dead and buried.
Dawn Marie Hadley is a British historian and archaeologist, who is best known for her research on the Anglo-Saxon and Viking-Age periods, the study of childhood, and gender in medieval England. She is a member of the Centre for Medieval Studies and the department of archaeology at the University of York.
Toloy is the name given to the first occupants of the Bandiagara Escarpment in Mali. Since the 15th century, this area has been known as Dogon country.
Marilyn Palmer, is a British historian, archaeologist and academic, who specialises in landscape history and industrial archaeology. Having been a school teacher, she moved into academia and taught at Loughborough College, Loughborough University, and Leicester University. She was the United Kingdom's first Professor of Industrial Archaeology.
Prehistoric religion is the religious practice of prehistoric cultures. Prehistory, the period before written records, makes up the bulk of human experience; over 99% of human experience occurred during the Paleolithic period alone. Prehistoric cultures spanned the globe and existed for over two and a half million years; their religious practices were many and varied, and the study of them is difficult due to the lack of written records describing the details of their faiths.
Funerary archaeology is a branch of archaeology that studies the treatment and commemoration of the dead. It includes the study of human remains, their burial contexts, and from single grave goods through to monumental landscapes. Funerary archaeology might be considered a sub-set of the study of religion and belief. A wide range of expert areas contribute to funerary archaeology, including epigraphy, material culture studies, thanatology, human osteology, zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis.