Death Rituals, Social Order and the Archaeology of Immortality in the Ancient World
'Death Shall Have No Dominion'

This volume, with essays by leading archaeologists and prehistorians, considers how prehistoric humans attempted to recognise, understand and conceptualise death.

Colin Renfrew (Edited by), Michael J. Boyd (Edited by), Iain Morley (Edited by)

9781107443143, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 12 August 2021

467 pages, 163 b/w illus. 13 maps 7 tables
28 x 21.5 x 2.5 cm, 1.2 kg

Modern archaeology has amassed considerable evidence for the disposal of the dead through burials, cemeteries and other monuments. Drawing on this body of evidence, this book offers fresh insight into how early human societies conceived of death and the afterlife. The twenty-seven essays in this volume consider the rituals and responses to death in prehistoric societies across the world, from eastern Asia through Europe to the Americas, and from the very earliest times before developed religious beliefs offered scriptural answers to these questions. Compiled and written by leading prehistorians and archaeologists, this volume traces the emergence of death as a concept in early times, as well as a contributing factor to the formation of communities and social hierarchies, and sometimes the creation of divinities.

Preface Colin Renfrew, Michael J. Boyd and Iain Morley
1. 'The unanswered question': investigating early conceptualisations of death Colin Renfrew
Part I. Intimations of Mortality: 2. Non-human animal responses towards the dead and death: a comparative approach to understanding the evolution of human mortuary practices Alex Piel and Fiona Stewart
3. Lower and Middle Palaeolithic mortuary behaviours and the origins of ritual burial João Zilhão
4. Upper Palaeolithic mortuary practices: reflection of ethnic affiliation, social complexity and cultural turn-over Francesco d'Errico and Marian Vanhaeren
Part II. Mortality and the Foundations of Human Society: Sedentism and the Collective: 5. Gathering of the dead? The Early Neolithic sanctuaries of Göbekli Tepe, Southeastern Turkey Jens Notroff, Oliver Dietrich and Klaus Schmidt
6. Death and architecture: the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A burials at WF16, Wadi Faynan, Southern Jordan Steven Mithen, Bill Finlayson, Darko Mari?evi?, Sam Smith, Emma Jenkins and Mohammad Najjar
7. Corporealities of death in the central Andes (c.9000–2000 BC) Peter Kaulicke
8. Mediating the dominion of death in Prehistoric Malta Simon Stoddart
9. House societies and founding ancestors in Early Neolithic Britain Julian Thomas
Part III. Constructing the Ancestors: 10. Constructing ancestors in Sub-Saharan Africa Timothy Insoll
11. Different kinds of dead: presencing Andean expired beings George F. Lau
12. Putting death in its place: the idea of the cemetery Anthony Snodgrass
13. Becoming Mycenaean? The living, the dead and the ancestors in the transformation of society in second millennium BC southern Greece Michael J. Boyd
Part IV. Death, Hierarchy and the Social Order: 14. Life and death in late-prehistoric to early historic Mesopotamia Karina Croucher
15. The big sleep: early Maya mortuary ritual Norman Hammond
16. De-paradoxisation of paradoxes by referring to death as an ultimate paradox: the case of the state-formation phase of Japan Koji Mizoguchi
17. Death and mortuary rituals in mainland southeast Asia: from hunter-gatherers to the god kings of Angkor Charles F. W. Higham
Part V. Materiality and Memory: 18. How did the Mycenaeans remember? Death, matter and memory in the early Mycenaean world Lambros Malafouris
19. Eternal glory: the origins of eastern jade burial and its far-reaching influence Li Shuicheng
20. Eventful deaths – eventful lives? Bronze age mortuary practices in the late prehistoric Eurasian steppes of central Russia (2100–1500 BC) Bryan Hanks, Roger Doonan, Derek Pitman, Elena Kupriyanova and Dmitri Zdanovich
Part VI. Intimations of Immortality: Glimpsing Other Worlds: 21. Northern Iroquoian deathways and the re-imagination of community John L. Creese
22. Locating a sense of immortality in early Egyptian cemeteries Alice Stevenson
23. Buddhist mortuary traditions in ancient India: st?pas, relics and the Buddhist landscape Julia Shaw
24. Killing mummies: on Inka epistemology and imperial power Terence N. D'Altroy
Part VII. Responses and Reactions: Concluding Thoughts: 25. Death shall have no dominion: a response Timothy Jenkins
26. Comments: death shall have no dominion Paul Wason
27. The muse of archaeology Ben Okri.

Subject Areas: Worship, rites & ceremonies [HRLF], Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA], Archaeology by period / region [HDD], History: specific events & topics [HBT], History: earliest times to present day [HBL]