Burial positions past and present: An introduction and some critical thoughts скачать в хорошем качестве

Burial positions past and present: An introduction and some critical thoughts

Archaeological bodies are found in a variety of positions. Supine, one-sided, prone, flexed, and crouched are familiar terms that burial archaeologists deal with regularly. By manipulating how the body is seen and experienced, the positioning of the corpse plays a significant part in the funerary ritual and the experience of death. For the western viewer, it might seem normal, proper, and suitably respectful that the body of the deceased is laid out in an extended supine position. However, this preference is hardly universal or timeless, and is historically rooted in over a millennium of Christian funerary traditions. Different societies have derived specific sets of rules about how and how not corpses should be positioned. Even within the same community, different people may be given different positional rites, invoking ideas about their identities in life and in death. This introductory paper to the session offers an overview of corpse positioning past and present – from the uninteresting extended supine graves to the baffling prone burials – and seeks to provide some critical reflections on how archaeologists approach and interpret dead bodies. Sian Mui, Durham University