Short description:

The Routledge Handbook of Archaeothanatology spans the gap between archaeology and biological anthropology, the field and laboratory, and between francophone and anglophone?funerary archaeological?approaches to the remains of the dead and the understanding of societies, past and present.

Long description:

The Routledge Handbook of Archaeothanatology spans the gap between archaeology and biological anthropology, the field and laboratory, and between francophone and anglophone funerary archaeological approaches to the remains of the dead and the understanding of societies, past and present.

Interest in archaeothanatology has grown considerably in recent years in English-language scholarship. This timely publication moves away from anecdotal case studies to offer syntheses of archaeothanatological approaches with an eye to higher-level inferences about funerary behaviour and its meaning in the past. Written by francophone scholars who have contributed to the development of the field and anglophone scholars inspired by the approach, this volume offers detailed insight into the background and development of archaeothanatology, its theory, methods, applications, and its most recent advances, with a lexicon of related vocabulary.

This volume is a key source for archaeo-anthropologists and bioarchaeologists. It will benefit researchers, lecturers, practitioners and students in biological anthropology, archaeology, taphonomy and forensic science. Given the interdisciplinary nature of these disciplines, and the emphasis placed on analysis in situ, this book will also be of interest to specialists in entomology, (micro)biology and soil science.

Winner of the European Association of Archaeologists Archaeology Book Prize 2023

'For too long, language has divided French and English-speaking researchers over approaches to the archaeology of death. This very substantial volume brings them together for the first time in a major endeavour which reveals the range and potential of archaeothanatological approaches.' ~ Mike Parker Pearson, University College London, United Kingdom

'Harking back on many decades of evolving archaeothanatology in action, this book certainly sets a new global standard both in burial excavations and depositional reconstructions of human skeletal remains and their contexts.' ~ Vera Tiesler, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, Mexico

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Table of Contents:

Introduction: Archaeothanatology, funerary archaeology and bioarchaeology: perspectives on the long view of death and the dead

 Christopher J. Knüsel and Eline M.J. Schotsmans

1. Methodological guidelines for archaeothanatological practice

2. A tale of two worlds: Terminologies in archaeothanatology

3. Words between two worlds: Collective graves and related issues in burial terminology

4. Secondary cremation burials of past populations: Some methodological procedures for excavation, bone fragment identification and sex determination

5. The accompanying dead

6. Denied funeral rites: The contribution of the archaeothanatological approach

7. Early primary burials: Evidence from Southwestern Asia

8. The earliest European burials

9. Beyond the formal analysis of funerary practices? Archaeothanatology as a reflexive tool for considering the role of the dead amongst the living: A Natufian case study

10. What can archaeothanatology add? A case study of new knowledge and theoretical implications in the re-study of Mesolithic burials in Sweden and Denmark

11. Neolithic burials of infants and children

12. Defining collective burials: Three case studies

13. Different burial types but common practice: The case of the funerary complex at Barbuise and La Saulsotte (France) at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age

14. Deathways of the Durotriges: Reconstructing identity through archaeothanatology in later Iron Age southern Britain

Karina Gerdau-Radonić, Janne Sperrevik, Martin Smith, Paul Cheetham, and Miles Russell

15. The Roman cemetery of Porta Nocera at Pompeii: The contribution of osteological re-associations to the study of secondary cremation burials

16. Reopening graves for the removal of objects and bones: Cultural practices and looting

17. Cluniac funerary practices

18. ?Bring out your dead?: Funerary and public health practices in times of epidemic disease

19. Jewish funerary practices in Medieval Europe

20. Islamic burials: Muslim graves and graves of Muslims

21. Recognising a slave cemetery: An example from colonial-period Guadeloupe, Lesser Antilles

22. Archaeothanatological approaches to associated remains in funerary contexts in Europe: An overview

23. An archaeothanatological approach to the identification of late Anglo-Saxon burials in wooden containers

24. Ceramic studies in funerary contexts from Roman Gaul

25. Animal remains in burials

26. The walking dead ? life after death: archaeoentomological evidence in a Roman catacomb: (Saints Marcellinus and Peter, central area, 1st-3rd century AD)

27. From flesh to bone: building bridges between taphonomy, archaeothanatology and forensic science for a better understanding of mortuary practices

28. Exploring the use of actualistic forensic taphonomy in the study of (forensic) archaeological human burials: An actualistic experimental research programme at the Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State University (FACTS), San Marcos, Texas

29. An experimental approach to the interpretation of prehistoric cremation and cremation burials

30. The taphonomic and archaeothanatological potentials of diagenetic alterations of archaeological bone

31. 3D models as useful tools in archaeothanatology

32. Use of archaeothanatology in preventive (salvage/rescue) archaeology and field research archaeology

33. Managing and reburying ancient human remains in France: From legal and ethical concerns to field practices

34. Lexicon of terms used in archaeothanatology: A work still in the process of becoming

Christopher J. Knüsel, Karina Gerdau-Radonić, and Eline M.J. Schotsmans