Grave goods

The gilded throne of Pharaoh Tutankhamun is but one of the treasures found within his tomb.

Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.

They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods are a type of votive deposit. Most grave goods recovered by archaeologists consist of inorganic objects such as pottery and stone and metal tools but there is evidence that organic objects that have since decayed were also placed in ancient tombs.[1]

Where grave goods appear, grave robbery is a potential problem. Etruscans would scratch the word śuθina, Etruscan for "from a tomb", on grave goods buried with the dead to discourage their reuse by the living.[2] The tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun is famous because it was one of the few Egyptian tombs that was not thoroughly looted in ancient times.

Grave goods are in origin a sacrifice intended for the benefit of the deceased in the afterlife. Closely related are customs of ancestor worship and offerings to the dead, in modern western culture related to All Souls' Day (Day of the Dead), in East Asia the "hell bank note" and related customs. Also closely related is the custom of retainer sacrifice, where servants or wives of a deceased chieftain are interred with the body. As the inclusion of expensive grave goods and of slaves or retainers became a sign of high status in the Bronze Age, the prohibitive cost led to the development of "fake" grave goods or funerary art, where artwork meant to depict grave goods or retainers is produced for the burial and deposited in the grave in place of the actual sacrifice.

History

Grave goods were considered as prestigious commodities in the ancient days. Graves goods that existed between the sixth and the seventh century contain a varied number of prestige goods. The graves are mostly found in the northern and western Europe. Since the kick off of the Roman era, most funerals were moved northwards from Germany and Denmark. The other group associated with the grave goods was from the Frankish world, which was as a result of the constant funerary methods which enhanced and promoted grave goods within the regions. The grave goods were of varied nature and type some of which included the Coptic bowls and gold coins and sword adornment. Prestigious goods characterized most ancient rituals in the ancient Europe. The prestigious goods were acquired from Francia through redistribution or direct acquisition. For instance, sword ornament obtained from Frankish power and gold coins from Egypt by means of redistribution.[3] The relationship between the various regions rich in grave goods was maintained through various means. Marriage was used as a primary factor for maintaining the bond. In essence, marriage enhanced the smooth exchange of the grave goods within the trading setups. It is imperative to recognize that most grave goods were obtained from the Frankish power and later distributed to the peripheries, which included Austrasia and Burgundy. The distribution of the grave goods can be described as monetary exchange or relocation of assets. Research shows that commercial exchange of the grave goods took place along the European Rivers and reallocation was conducted via Merovingian courts. The gold materials dominated the grave goods and constituted about 60-70% of all the grave goods. It is believed that children’s prolific grave at Tournai provided the first grave goods. Later, the grave goods were sourced from Merovingian prestigious burials. For instance, Arnegunde was buried with a broad range of essential goods which were later taken to be sold again. The male burials less prestigious compared to those of women and children and therefore, men were buried in an ordinally manner apart from the prominent men in the society. The southern regions of Europe adopted the lavish funerary style conducted in the peripherals. Due to the distribution of prestigious graves in the southern and eastern part of England shows that England was within the domain of Frankish power.[4] The possession of grave goods gave Frankish an upper hand in the political and economic supremacy. In this case, influential individuals in Frankish were buried in special areas, and their funerals were conducted in a lavish manner. Such honor to the dead proved that the Frankish Kingdom was rich and powerful. For this and other reasons, the Frankish Kingdom commanded large portions of the region. The Southern Europe kingdoms aped the Frankish Kingdom and started conducting lavish funerals and honoring their prominent members of the society.[5] The Frankish political and economic supremacy can be traced back in Kent and south east parts of Britain. The political and economic endowment of the region was due to the recovery of a wide range of grave items from the surrounding areas.

[6] The marriage alliance between Althelberht and the Frankish princess contributed significantly to the political and economic power of Frankish. Finally, the grave goods resulted in the formation of strong socio-economic bonds among the trading allies in the early Anglo-Saxon economy

Warrior's burial from Hamburg-Marmstorf Grave

Evidence for intentional burial is found in Neanderthal sites from 130,000 years ago or earlier. In Homo sapiens burials beginning about 100,000 years ago, the body of the deceased was sprinkled with red ochre, and offerings of food, tools, and fresh flowers may have been deposited in the grave.[7]

Beads made of basalt deposited in graves in the Fertile Crescent date to the end of the Upper Paleolithic, beginning in about the 12th to 11th millennium BC.[8]

The distribution of grave goods are a potential indicator of the social stratification of a society. Thus, early Neolithic graves tend to show equal distribution of goods, suggesting a more or less classless society, while in Chalcolithic and Bronze Age burials, rich grave goods are concentrated in "chieftain" graves (barrows), indicating social stratification.[9] It is also possible that burial goods indicate a level of concern and consciousness in regards to an afterlife and related sense of spirituality.

Famous grave sites

The expression of social status in rich graves is taken to extremes in the royal graves of the Bronze Age, notably in Ancient Egypt. The pyramids and the royal graves in the Valley of the Kings are among the most elaborate burials in human history. This trend is continued into the Iron Age. An example of an extremely rich royal grave of the Iron Age is the Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang.

In the sphere of the Roman Empire, early Christian graves lack grave goods, and grave goods tend to disappear with the decline of Greco-Roman polytheism in the 5th and 6th centuries. Similarly, the presence of grave goods in the Early Middle Ages in Europe has often been taken as evidence of paganism, although during the period of conversion in Anglo-Saxon England and the Frankish Empire (7th century), the situation may be more complicated.[10] In the Christian Middle Ages, high-status graves are marked on the exterior, with tomb effigies or expensive tomb stones rather than by the presence of grave goods.

The practice of placing grave goods with the dead body has thus an uninterrupted history beginning in the Upper Paleolithic, if not the Middle Paleolithic, upheld until comparatively recent times, in many regions of the world ceasing only with Christianization.

Role in archaeology

A Copper Age grave group including a stone wristguard, copper dagger and bone belt fitting found at Sittingbourne

The importance of grave goods, from the simple behavioural and technical to the metaphysical, in archaeology cannot be overestimated. Because of their almost ubiquitous presence throughout the world and throughout prehistory, in many cases the excavation of every-day items placed in burials is the main source of such artifacts in a given prehistoric culture. However, care must be taken to avoid naive interpretation of grave goods as an objective sample of artefacts in use in a culture. Because of their ritual context, grave goods may represent a special class of artifacts, in some instances produced especially for burial. Artwork produced for the burial itself is known as funerary art, while grave goods in the narrow sense are items produced for actual use that are placed in the grave, but in practice the two categories overlap.

Grave goods in Bronze Age and Iron Age cemeteries are a good indicator of relative social status; in a 2001 study on an Iron Age cemetery in Pontecagnano Faiano, Italy, a correlation was found between the quality of grave goods and Forensic indicators on the skeletons, showing that skeletons in wealthy tombs tended to show substantially less evidence of biological stress during adulthood, with fewer broken bones or signs of hard labor.[11]

Grave Goods in Anglo-Saxon

Ancient studies reveal that grave goods were in plenty at the cemeteries in Anglo-Saxon. People dug out the grave goods and exported them to different countries. The products were of high quality and value since they could stay for long, reused and molded to produced the decided shapes. Therefore, the grave goods were in high demand in other countries and therefore their market was readily available. In this regard, it can be observed that grave goods stimulated trade between nations and played a central role in revolutionizing the foreign trade. Amber Beads were found in places such as Romania, Sicily, Portugal and many others. it is hard to understand how such beads got into those places without an in-depth analysis to identify their origin. However, the beads are said to have been deposited in Hollywell Row graves in hundreds of years ago and then spread to other parts such as the central and eastern parts of England.[12] The Beads are said to have originated from the eastern parts of Mediterranean during the Roman era. In essence, the beads are believed to have come from India and Egypt. Some scholars argue that the beads originated from the Frankish tribes. They hold that the beads were exonerated from Roman graves. However, large numbers of Amethyst beads were found in cemeteries located in the areas between northeast Wiltshire and Cambridgeshire.[13] Ivory Rings were ivory rings discovered in the Anglo-Saxon burial sites mainly gotten from ivory. The ivory is sad to have originated from the northern and the Mediterranean regions. The ivory rings can be traced back to the fifth, sixth, and the seventh centuries. There are other grave goods believed to have been imported such as crystal balls, crystal beads, cowrie shells, glass vessels, and wheel-thrown pottery. These were found in various graves in Anglo-Saxon Region. The issues of grave robbery were quite frequent in the ancient Anglo-Saxon region. People had realized the value of grave goods and everyone's interest was to generate wealth through whatever means possible. However, despite the robbery challenge, the grave goods contributed significantly to the growth of the Anglo-Saxon economy. In summary, the grave goods stimulated trade economic growth of different parts in the world. Moreover, social interactions and bonding were encouraged and resulted in the emergence of a rich culture composed of lifestyles from different regions of the world. The political systems of many regions were strengthened due to economic control.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ian Morris, Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 1992; ISBN 0-521-37611-4)
  2. ↑ Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante The Etruscan Language: an Introduction (Univ. Manchester Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7190-5540-7); several examples collected
  3. ↑ Pearson, Micheal Parker (1993). "Three men and a boat: Sutton Hoo and the East Saxoon Kindom". Cambridge.
  4. ↑ Huggeet, Jeremy (1988). "Imported grave goods and the early Anglo-Saxon economy". Medieval Arcaeology.
  5. ↑ Arnold, Christopher (2005). "An archaeology of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms". ". Routledge.
  6. ↑ Loveluck, Christopher (1994). "A high-status Anglo-Saxon settlement at Flixborough, Lincolnshire". Antiquity.
  7. ↑ Museum of Ancient and Modern Art, muma.org
  8. ↑ The Earliest Beads, muma.org
  9. ↑ see e.g. William A. Haviland, Harald E. L. Prins, Dana Walrath, Bunny McBride, Anthropology: The Human Challenge, Cengage Learning, 2010 ISBN 978-0-495-81084-1, p. 268.
  10. ↑ Helen Geake, The use of grave-goods in conversion-period England, c.600-c.850, British Archaeological Reports, 1997, ISBN 978-0-86054-917-8
  11. ↑ Robb, John; Bigazzi, Renzo; Lazzarini, Luca; Scarsini, Caterina; Sonego, Fiorenza (2001). "Social status and biological status: A comparison of grave goods and skeletal indicators from Pontecagnano". American Journal of Physical Anthropology 115 (3): 213–222. doi:10.1002/ajpa.1076.
  12. ↑ Arnord, c.J (1994). "An archaeology of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms". Routledge.
  13. ↑ hUGGETT, J.W (1998). "Imported grave goods and the early Anglo-Saxon economy".

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, April 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.