Grave goods
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Grave goods, in
They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into an
Where grave goods appear,
Grave goods can be regarded as a
History
There are disputed claims of
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
Famous grave sites
The expression of social status in rich graves is taken to extremes in the royal graves of the Bronze Age. In the
In the sphere of the
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
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
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.
See also
- Burial
- Grave field
- Necropolis
- Mingqi, the traditional Chinese burial goods
References
- ISBN 0-521-37611-4)
- ^ "Grave Goods in Ancient Egypt". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
- ^ hooverre (2014-02-06). "Ancient Egyptian Grave Goods". Rise of Civilization. Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
- ^
ISBN 9780807046722. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
- ISBN 0-7190-5540-7); several examples collected
- ^ "All Souls' Day – Saints & Angels". Catholic Online. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "What's the Origin of Hell Money?". South China Morning Post. 2015-09-03. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
- ^ "Human Sacrifice | The Ancient Egypt Site". www.ancient-egypt.org. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
- ^ "BBC – History – Ancient History in depth: Hidden Treasure Fact Files". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
- ^ "Artifacts: Grave Goods, Mummification, Online Exhibits, Exhibits, Spurlock Museum, U of I". www.spurlock.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
- ^ Smith, Homer W. (2015) [1952]. Man and His Gods. p. 16.
- ^ The Earliest Beads, muma.org[clarification needed]
- ISBN 978-0-495-81084-1, p. 268.
- ^ "Mummy History". history.com. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
- ^ Lubow, Arthur. "Terra Cotta Soldiers on the March". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
- ISBN 978-0-86054-917-8
- ^ ISSN 2328-1286.
- ISBN 978-1-315-09722-0.
- ^ "BBC – History – Ancient History in depth: Hidden Treasure Fact Files". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
- PMID 11424073.
- S2CID 152224107.
- S2CID 22946203.
Further reading
- Härke, Heinrich (2014). "Grave goods in early medieval burials: messages and meanings". Mortality. 19 (1): 41–60. S2CID 143771175.
- Huggett, J. W. (1988). "Imported Grave Goods and the Early Anglo-Saxon Economy". Medieval Archaeology. 32: 63–96. doi:10.5284/1071745.
- Woodward, Ann; Hunter, John; Ixer, Rob; Maltby, Mark; Potts, Philip J.; Webb, Peter C.; Watson, John S.; Jones, Michael C. (2005). "Ritual in Some Early Bronze Age Gravegoods". Archaeological Journal. 162: 31–64. S2CID 162333049.