Perspective on Burial Analysis

The study of Prehistoric Mortuary Practices has enriched our knowledge of past societies in varied ways. It gives us a vivid description of the physical and biological aspects of people studied, belonging to the prehistoric times, and also an idea about the social and ideological dimensions of them. Mortuary symbolism has been interpreted variously in Anthropology. Understanding about shared ancestry, place and history are the symbolic raw material from which a sense of mutual interest and community is built. One can visualize an important emotional relationship between the people concerned and their dead ancestors. Archaeologists can benefit from looking at mortuary practices by observing the manner in which the dead were disposed, as well as spatial and architectural associations with the burials. While looking at mortuary practices, archaeologists can compare the material culture shown in the burial along with age and sex to answer questions about social status and gender. Archaeologists see mortuary practices as a communication that expresses the social role at death of an individual. Archaeologists in different parts of the world have studied the socio-economic and ideological roles of individuals through mortuary evidence.

Archaeologists have devoted much energy to the study of cemeteries and skeletal remains. A body of theory and corresponding methods has therefore developed to determine the level of information archaeologists can gain from cemetery data. This article does not attempt to conduct a comprehensive review of the copious literature devoted to the archaeology of death. Here I would examine some theoretical approaches and methods used in burial analysis. Before delving into this discussion it is necessary to define mortuary practices.

          

I should describe here what the mortuary practices are. Simply stated, mortuary practices are made up of actions that are carried out by the living when an individual dies. Such practices consist of ceremonies performed for the dead and may leave no traces in the archaeological record. Archaeologists use the physical remnants of mortuary practices left in the archaeological record, to make statements about the ceremonies and practices that patterned their creation. Why should archaeologists concern themselves with studying mortuary practices? According to Metcalf and Huntington(1991), the study of death ritual is a positive endeavour because ,regardless of whether custom calls for festive or restrained behaviour, the issue of death throws into relief the most important cultural values by which people live their lives and evaluate their experiences. Life becomes transparent against the background of death, and the fundamental social and cultural issues are revealed.

         

It would follow that social and cultural issues are reflected in both the mortuary behaviours accorded to an individual upon death and its physical manifestations. As a result, an archaeologist may examine social and cultural issues by studying the physical manifestations of mortuary behaviour.  Saxe states that "How people dispose of their dead is a reflection of the socio-cultural system in which they participate" (1977:74).

         

A method for determining the status of archaeological skeletal remains is suggested by Saxe (1970), Brown (1971), and Tainter (1978). They use Binford’s theory to develop a methodology, formal analysis, to quantify the amount of energy invested in the mortuary treatment of skeletal remains. Peebles (1971) developed a method based on Binford's theory, evaluating the status of grave goods by classifying them according to technomic, socio-technic, and idiotechnic categories. Once the status of the deceased is determined, Peebles pose that archaeologists can ascertain the level of social organization characterizing the group the individual lived within.