View allAll Photos Tagged archaeological
Cremation is the combustion, vaporization and oxidation of dead bodies to basic chemical compounds, such as gases, ashes and mineral fragments retaining the appearance of dry bone. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite that is an alternative to the interment of an intact dead body in a coffin or casket. Cremated remains, which do not constitute a health risk, may be buried or interred in memorial sites or cemeteries, or they may be retained by relatives and dispersed in various ways. Cremation is not an alternative to a funeral, but rather an alternative to burial or other forms of disposal.
In many countries, cremation is usually done in a crematorium. Some countries, such as India and Nepal, prefer different methods, such as open-air cremation.
HISTORY
ANCIENT
Cremation dates from at least 20,000 years ago in the archaeological record, with the Mungo Lady, the remains of a partly cremated body found at Lake Mungo, Australia.
Alternative death rituals emphasizing one method of disposal of a body - inhumation (burial), cremation, or exposure - have gone through periods of preference throughout history.
In the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the Neolithic era. Cultural groups had their own preferences and prohibitions. The ancient Egyptians developed an intricate transmigration of soul theology, which prohibited cremation, and this was adopted widely among other Semitic peoples. The Babylonians, according to Herodotus, embalmed their dead. Early Persians practiced cremation, but this became prohibited during the Zoroastrian Period. Phoenicians practiced both cremation and burial. From the Cycladic civilisation in 3000 BC until the Sub-Mycenaean era in 1200–1100 BC, Greeks practiced inhumation. Cremation appeared around the 12th century BC, constituting a new practice of burial, probably influenced by Anatolia. Until the Christian era, when inhumation again became the only burial practice, both combustion and inhumation had been practiced, depending on the era and location. Romans practiced both, with cremation generally associated with military honors.
In Europe, there are traces of cremation dating to the Early Bronze Age (c. 2000 BC) in the Pannonian Plain and along the middle Danube. The custom becomes dominant throughout Bronze Age Europe with the Urnfield culture (from c. 1300 BC). In the Iron Age, inhumation again becomes more common, but cremation persisted in the Villanovan culture and elsewhere. Homer's account of Patroclus' burial describes cremation with subsequent burial in a tumulus, similar to Urnfield burials, and qualifying as the earliest description of cremation rites. This may be an anachronism, as during Mycenaean times burial was generally preferred, and Homer may have been reflecting the more common use of cremation at the time the Iliad was written, centuries later.
Criticism of burial rites is a common form of aspersion by competing religions and cultures, including the association of cremation with fire sacrifice or human sacrifice.
Hinduism and Jainism are notable for not only allowing but prescribing cremation. Cremation in India is first attested in the Cemetery H culture (from c. 1900 BC), considered the formative stage of Vedic civilization. The Rigveda contains a reference to the emerging practice, in RV 10.15.14, where the forefathers "both cremated (agnidagdhá-) and uncremated (ánagnidagdha-)" are invoked.
Cremation remained common, but not universal, in both Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. According to Cicero, in Rome, inhumation was considered the more archaic rite, while the most honoured citizens were most typically cremated - especially upper classes and members of imperial families.
Christianity frowned upon cremation, both influenced by the tenets of Judaism and as an attempt to abolish Graeco-Roman pagan rituals. By the 5th century, the practice of cremation had practically disappeared from Europe.
In early Roman Britain, cremation was usual but diminished by the 4th century. It then reappeared in the 5th and 6th centuries during the migration era, when sacrificed animals were sometimes included with the human bodies on the pyre, and the deceased were dressed in costume and with ornaments for the burning. That custom was also very widespread among the Germanic peoples of the northern continental lands from which the Anglo-Saxon migrants are supposed to have been derived, during the same period. These ashes were usually thereafter deposited in a vessel of clay or bronze in an "urn cemetery". The custom again died out with the Christian conversion of the Anglo-Saxons or Early English during the 7th century, when inhumation became general.
MIDDLE AGES
Throughout parts of Europe, cremation was forbidden by law, and even punishable by death if combined with Heathen rites.[6] Cremation was sometimes used by authorities as part of punishment for heretics, and this did not only include burning at the stake. For example, the body of John Wycliff was exhumed years after his death and cremated, with the ashes thrown in a river, explicitly as a posthumous punishment for his denial of the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.
On the other hand, mass cremations were often performed out of fear of contagious diseases, such as after a battle, pestilence, or famine. Retributory cremation continued into modern times. For example, after World War II, the bodies of the 12 men convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials were not returned to their families after execution, but were instead cremated, then disposed of at a secret location as a specific part of a legal process intended to deny their use as a location for any sort of memorial. In Japan, however, erection of a memorial building for many executed war criminals, who were also cremated, was allowed for their remains.
HINDUISM AND OTHER INDIAN ORIGN RELIGIONS
Religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism practice cremation. In Buddhism cremation is acceptable but not mandated. The founder, Shakyamuni Buddha was cremated. For Buddhist spiritual masters who are cremated, one of the results of cremation are the formation of Buddhist relics.
A dead adult Hindu is mourned with a cremation, while a dead child is typically buried. The rite of passage is performed in harmony with the Hindu religious view that the microcosm of all living beings is a reflection of a macrocosm of the universe. The soul (Atman, Brahman) is the essence and immortal that is released at the Antyeshti ritual, but both the body and the universe are vehicles and transitory in various schools of Hinduism. They consist of five elements - air, water, fire, earth and space. The last rite of passage returns the body to the five elements and origins. The roots of this belief are found in the Vedas, for example in the hymns of Rigveda in section 10.16, as follows:
Burn him not up, nor quite consume him, Agni: let not his body or his skin be scattered,
O all possessing Fire, when thou hast matured him, then send him on his way unto the Fathers.
When thou hast made him ready, all possessing Fire, then do thou give him over to the Fathers,
When he attains unto the life that waits him, he shall become subject to the will of gods.
The Sun receive thine eye, the Wind thy Prana (life-principle, breathe); go, as thy merit is, to earth or heaven.
Go, if it be thy lot, unto the waters; go, make thine home in plants with all thy members.
— Rigveda 10.16
The final rites, in case of untimely death of a child, is usually not cremation but a burial. This is rooted in Rig Veda's section 10.18, where the hymns mourn the death of the child, praying to deity Mrityu to "neither harm our girls nor our boys", and pleads the earth to cover, protect the deceased child as a soft wool.
SATI
The act of sati refers to a funeral ritual in which a widowed woman committed suicide on the husband's funeral pyre. While a mention of self-immolation by one of several wives of an Indian king is found in a Greek text on India, along with self-immolation by widows in Russia near Volga, tribes of Thracians in southeast Europe, and some tribes of Tonga and Fiji islands, vast majority of ancient texts do not mention this practice. Rare mentions of such cremations in aristocratic circles appear in texts dated to be before the 9th century AD, where the widow of a king had the choice to burn with him or abstain. Ancient texts of Hinduism make no mention of Sati; its early medieval era texts forbid it, while post 10th century medieval era texts partly justify it and criticize the practice. The practice of sati, grew after 1000 CE, becoming a particularly significant practice by Hindus in India during the Islamic wars of conquest in South Asia.
This practice was made illegal in 1829 during the British colonial rule of India. After gaining independence from British colonial era, India passed a series of additional laws. The Indian Sati Prevention Act from 1988 further criminalised any type of aiding, abetting, and glorifying of sati. In modern India, the last known case of Sati was in 1987, by Roop Kanwar in Rajasthan. Her action was found to be a suicide, and it led to the arrest and prosecution of people for failing to act and prevent her suicide during her husband's cremation.
BALI
Balinese Hindu dead are generally buried inside the container for a period of time, which may exceed one month or more, so that the cremation ceremony (Ngaben) can occur on an auspicious day in the Balinese-Javanese Calendar system ("Saka"). Additionally, if the departed was a court servant, member of the court or minor noble, the cremation can be postponed up to several years to coincide with the cremation of their Prince. Balinese funerals are very expensive and the body may be interred until the family can afford it or until there is a group funeral planned by the village or family when costs will be less. The purpose of burying the corpse is for the decay process to consume the fluids of the corpse, which allows for an easier, more rapid and more complete cremation.
ISLAM
Islam strictly forbids cremation. Islam has specific rites for the treatment of the body after death.
WIKIPEDIA
Roman, 4th or early 5th century AD
Found during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section at St Martin's Close, Winnall, Winchester in 1984-5
This elaborately decorated comb was found inside a bone inlaid box that had been placed in the grave of a young woman. The main body of the comb has ring-and-dot decoration, and the end plates cut-out shapes with more ring-and-dot. Archaeologists believe that combs such as these were first made plain, and then decorated to order. Popular motifs were owls, dolphins and horses. With the eye of faith, it can be seen that this is a horse comb- the end plate decoration looks like opposing pairs of horses' heads.
People buried in this part of Winchester's eastern Roman cemetery were rarely given grave goods, but those that have been found are generally of high quality, suggesting a high status group within the population. The way people were buried compares well in some respects with late Roman Christian cemeteries in Mediterranean areas and the Middle East.
Length 127mm. Width 64mm. Width 23mm.
On display at City Museum, Venta Gallery.
Object number: WINCM:SMCW84-86 S331B
Western Han (206-25 B.C.)
Unearthed from Han Tomb No.1 at Mawangdui, Changsha in 1972
Height: 28cm; Diameter at mouth: 23cm
This lacquer tripod is ellipsoid shaped, with a spherical cover. There are three orange-colored loop lugs on the cover, and the cover and the body are closed in a snap fastener fashion. The body is swelled and the bottom is rounded. There are two upright ears attached to the mouth of the body and the three legs are shaped like animal hooves. The outer surface of this tripod is coated with black lacquer while the inside surface with vermillion lacquer. Around the outer rim of the mouth is drawn a band of lozenge designs while the cover and the body are drawn with geometric cloud designs formed by vermillion and grayish green whirlpool patterns and joint-square patterns. The surface of each leg is painted with a beast mask design and the two ears with a cloud design. The bottom of the tripod bears two Chinese characters “二斗” (two dou) in red color, indicating the capacity of this vessel.
The basis of lacquer ware unearthed from the Han tombs at Mawangdui is mainly of wood and hemp cloth, with a few of bamboo. The methods of preparing wooden basis include rotating a single piece of wood against a knife, cutting and hewing, chiseling and sharpening, with different methods applied for utensils of different shape. Hemp cloth basis is prepared first by creating a wooden or earthen roughcast as the inner mould. Then multi layers of hemp or silk fabric are attached to the inner mould and each layer is coated with lacquer. When these layers are dry enough, the inner mould is cast away, leaving behind only the hemp cloth basis. This is also known as “making bodiless lacquerware”. Of the lacquerware unearthed, over ninety percent are of wooden basis which is subdivided into trimmed basis, hewed basis and rolled (carving up a thin sheet of wood to form a cylinder) basis. This Lacquer Tripod with Cloud Design has clear traces of being rotated against a knife on the inner surface of its body to fashion it to its desired shape.
Most amazing is that when archaeologists were cleaning this tripod, they discovered there was soup with slices of lotus root inside it and the slices of lotus root in the soup were still clearly visible even after more than 2100 years. A more puzzling thing is that the slices of lotus root continuously diminished with each move of the tripod and with each added minute when they were exposed to air, and by the time the tripod was moved to the museum the slices had all miraculously disappeared. Why then had these slices of lotus root remained undecayed after being soaked in liquid for over 2100 years and disappeared soon after they were unearthed? Experts explained that the fibers inside those clearly visible slices of lotus root when unearthed had in fact decayed, leaving behind only some seemingly complete external forms. The oxidization process after they were unearthed and the unavoidable shake when the tripod was taken out caused the quick dissolution of these slices of lotus root. This indicates that the Changsha region has very rarely been hit by big earthquakes. Otherwise, if there have been frequent earthquakes (with an occasional big one), either the tripod would have collapsed or the slices of lotus root would have been dissolved long ago.
Terminology: Ding (tripod) in ancient times was considered a symbol of social status and power “to make clear the difference between the noble and the humble, the dominant and the subordinate”. From the Xia Dynasty to the two Han Dynasties, ding, whether bronze or lacquer, is a symbol of national strength and power. There was a whole system for using the ding: normally the Son of Heaven (the emperor) could use nine ding, dukes and princes seven, senior state officials five and scholar-officials three. Nobody dared overstep this rule. This lacquer ding with cloud design was heavy and robust, with the rim and the bottom trimmed out of a log first and then the inside chiseled out. Many pieces of exquisite lacquer ding were unearthed from the Han tombs at Mawangdui. Tomb No.1 alone yielded seven pieces of ding. From this we can know the extremely high social status of the occupant of the tomb. After the Han Dynasty, ding gradually became a cooking vessel for people’s daily use.
Late Assyrian winged bull (lamassu) at Nebi Yunus, Mosul, Iraq.
Minaret of modern mosque commemorating the burial spot of the prophet Jonah. 4 June 1990.
The United States of America was born in April 1775, with the shots heard 'round the world from Lexington and Concord. Or it was born in July 1776, with the signing of the Declaration Independence in Philadelphia. Or it was born in the winter of 1787, when a 35-year-old Virginia legislator holed up at his estate and undertook a massive study of governmental systems around the world and over the ages.
The legislator was James Madison, and it was through his winter's labor that he devised a system of checks and balances that would be enshrined in the Constitution of the United States that fall. Madison's estate, Montpelier, proved less durable than his ideas, but now, after a five-year, $24 million restoration, it has been reopened to visitors.
"Madison is back, and he's getting the recognition he deserves," says Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns Montpelier. It may seem odd to think of Madison as being "back"—in addition to becoming known as the "father of the Constitution," he also served as Thomas Jefferson's secretary of state (1801-1809) and won two presidential terms of his own (1809-1817)—but then, he was overshadowed in his own time by his good friend Jefferson, and the father of the country, George Washington.
"Without Washington, we wouldn't have won the revolution. Without Jefferson, the nation wouldn't have been inspired," says Michael Quinn, president of the Montpelier Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting Madison's legacy. "What made our revolution complete was the genius of Madison.... He formed the ideals of the nation."
Montpelier, which lies a few miles south of Orange, Virginia, and about 90 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., is where Madison grew up and where he retired after his days as president were over. His grandparents had settled the estate in the early 1730s, and a few years after the future president was born, in 1751, his father began building the house where he would live.
Although Madison repeatedly left central Virginia—he graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), for example, and sat in the Virginia House of Delegates in Williamsburg and Richmond; he lived in Washington for almost the first two decades of the 19th century—he always returned to Montpelier.
In the late 1790s, he added several rooms to the relatively modest house his father had built, and during his first term as president he added wings to each side, creating a more stately home that matched his position. Once his days in Washington were done, Madison spent his years overseeing the plantation at Montpelier, growing wheat and tobacco and raising livestock.
He died there in 1836, at age 85, the last of the founding fathers to pass away.
Read more: www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/montpelier.htm...
Antique Archaeology is the setting of the American Pickers TV Show. Antique Archaeology is located on the Banks of the Mississippi River in Le Claire, Iowa
Photographed during a visit to the National Museum of Ireland - Archaeology. Located in Kildare Street in Dublin, Ireland.
Naples Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com.
Projectile point. Tusayan district. 9-21-10. Credit the U.S. Forest Service, Southwestern Region, Kaibab National Forest.
Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth.
Galleries Contain.
Prehistoric pottery, figurines, and tools.
Geometric, Archaic, and Classical periods
Roman statues of rulers, floor mosaics, wall paintings
Roman and Byzantine pottery, also weapons.
Votives from the Asklepieion at Ancient Corinth.
Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take a picture of the Twin Kouroi, one of the top works.
(but you can see it on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_Museum_of_Ancient_Co...)
Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth.
Galleries Contain.
Prehistoric pottery, figurines, and tools.
Geometric, Archaic, and Classical periods
Roman statues of rulers, floor mosaics, wall paintings
Roman and Byzantine pottery, also weapons.
Votives from the Asklepieion at Ancient Corinth.
Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take a picture of the Twin Kouroi, one of the top works.
(but you can see it on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_Museum_of_Ancient_Co...)
Title : Citania de Briteiros
Date : 600 BCE - 300 CE
Current location : Citania de Briteiros, Braga, Portugal
Description of work : Discovered in 1873 by Francisco Martins Sarmento, Citania de Briteiros is "one of the largest and most impressive Iron Age hillforts in Northern Portugal" (Nash, G. Citania de Briteiros, Current World Archeology 60, 2013: 44). The walled settlement contains foundations of over 150 stone houses. While Citania de Briteiros is unusual among castros in having its houses arranged along streets in a rough grid pattern (MacKendrick, Paul. The Iberian Stones Speak. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1969, p. 90), its stone structures and carvings are characteristic of the Celtic Castro culture.
Description of view : stone walls zigzag across the hill
Work type : Architecture and Landscape
Style of work : Prehistoric: Iron Age: Castro
Culture : Castro
Materials/Techniques : Stone
Plants
Source : Pisciotta, Henry
Date photographed : 2006
Resource type : Image
File format : JPEG
Image size : 2048H X 1536W pixels
Permitted uses : This image is posted publicly for non-profit, educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted. alias.libraries/psu.edu/vius/copyright/publicrightsarch.htm
Collection : Worldwide Building and Landscape Pictures
Filename : WB2013-1026 Briteiros.jpg
Record ID : WB2013-1026
Sub collection : archaeological sites
Copyright holder : Copyright Henry Pisciotta
Naples Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy. Complete indexed photo collection at WorldHistoryPics.com.
Image © Roger Butterfield. Not to be used without express permission.
The former engine house of Wheal Owles Mine, near Botallack in the far west of Cornwall.
The god Dionysos is seated on the back of a panther, his upraised arm brandishing the thyrsus, the long staff twined with ivy tha was his usual emblem. His body and that of the panther are executed with white tiles, making them stand out against the black background, while the sculptural volumes are highlighted with chiaroscuro shading effected with grey pebbles. The outlines are details of the god's head, hand and feet are delineated with lead wire, while strips of fired clay were used in the areas of the eyes and curls. Green artificial pebbles are worked into the wreath and staff, and red ones ornament the trailing ribbons. The chief characteristics of this scene are the harmony of its composition, the calligraphic rendering of the details and the sensitive use of colour.
The subject of Dionysos on a panther or in a chariot drawn by panthers, usually in a sanctuary and accompanied by his triumphal train, belonged to the cycle of the «manifest deities» commonly used on Attic pottery on the 4th century.
The area in front of the threshold of the banqueting room was also decorated with a mosaic scene: a griffin seizing a deer.
Nineveh. Shamash Gate. View of modern Mosul built over the ruins of ancient Nineveh looking west from Shamash Gate. Mound of Nebi Yunus is visible near horizon just left of main thoroughfare. Mound of Kuyunjik is barely visible at horizon to the right. May 1989.
Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth.
Galleries Contain.
Prehistoric pottery, figurines, and tools.
Geometric, Archaic, and Classical periods
Roman statues of rulers, floor mosaics, wall paintings
Roman and Byzantine pottery, also weapons.
Votives from the Asklepieion at Ancient Corinth.
Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take a picture of the Twin Kouroi, one of the top works.
(but you can see it on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeological_Museum_of_Ancient_Co...)