This is an interesting and varied mix of case studies that delves into the complexities of studying the human corpse within the archaeological framework. The over-arching theme is how the dead body is treated by people in a wide range of societies, places and time-periods. As Emma-Jayne Graham highlights in the introduction – and which becomes more apparent throughout – ‘there can … be multiple ways in which to be “dead”’.
The case studies have considerable depth and breadth, highlighting the multi-faceted scope of funerary treatment and human behaviour. Chapter 1 provides an excellent introduction to the book, giving a solid context for subsequent chapters. In Chapter 2, Katharina Rebay-Salisbury provides an overview of the complexities of burial practices, identifying the differences between cremation and inhumation, and assessing the future interpretation of such funerary contexts to better understand the very process of burial. Examples span from the later European prehistory and classical periods. In contrast, in Chapter 3, Emma-Jayne Graham focuses solely on the Roman period, asking what may have prompted the change from cremation to inhumation. Graham discusses the reasons for such a significant shift in practice and the multifactorial attitudes and relationship between the living. In Chapter 4, Zoë L Devlin looks at the Anglo-Saxons and their often complicated attitudes towards the corpse, bringing together evidence from five key sites. Deliberate disturbance of burials and the actions of preservation and decay of a corpse influenced how a dead person might be viewed in Anglo-Saxon society. In Chapter 5, Edeltraud Aspöck looks in detail at one Anglo-Saxon cemetery site in Hampshire: Winnall II. She discusses the different approaches for identifying what may be normal and what may be deviant burials within a cemetery and how, with new methodological approaches, it is time to look again at how we study Anglo-Saxon burials, by analysing them individually (instead of pigeon-holing them) and bringing in other factors, besides mortuary evidence, for consideration.
Chapter 6, by Daniela Hofmann, represents a major shift temporally to the early Neolithic, and geographically to central Europe with the Linearbandkeramik (LBK), investigating variability and deviance in the funerary context. Hofmann provides a thorough overview for the LBK, highlighting the difficulties faced when dealing with an array of burial rites within settlement burials and cemeteries and the complex challenges involved in discerning the variation in burials from the remains, grave goods and type, and what comprises a deviant burial. Elisa Perego et al discuss the social and ritual marginalisation in late prehistoric and protohistoric Italy in Chapter 7. It is an engaging discourse based on the approach for the application of methodological and theoretical frameworks. The bioarchaeological construct is also considered as a means of gaining a better insight to the variation in burial treatment in Venetic funerary contexts, and how such an approach could be a way forward for future mortuary analysis in Italy. Finally, in Chapter 8, Simon Stoddart et al give a perceptive account of the treatment of the dead in prehistoric Malta through the monumental burials, with a focus on the Xaghra monument, employing ethnographic studies, population studies, an analysis of the relationship between the living and the dead, and a look at the elite and their place within the ritual landscape.
Each chapter is well formulated and imparts its information in an accessible and articulate way. The contributors engage the reader in their discussions, and the topics they cover are approached in a comprehensive and learned manner. There is good use of graphics, tables and images throughout to enhance the content more fully. Researchers will find the bibliographies at the end of each chapter highly useful.
The variety of the chapters in terms of geographical locations, time-periods and practices – including unexpected preserved bodies, deviant burials, inhumation, cremation and corporeal preparation – demonstrates well the diversity of funereal behaviour and its significance for the living, dead and societies past and present. The scope of the chapters does raise questions as well as attempt to answer them and prompts the reader to think in much more detail about the corpse and burial treatment and what all this truly means. The book’s overall content, therefore, reveals the rich wealth of information in the field of funerary archaeology, identifying the limitations that can be faced and the difficulties that lay behind such investigations and interpretations.
In short, this book is a fascinating insight into death, burial practices and the importance of the body, as well as being a very useful research resource. In its format and accessible writing style, it will also appeal to the general public, or anyone with a combination of genuine interest and understanding – not to mention macabre curiosity.
