Education

• Archaeology and Palaeoecology (UG)
• Geography (UG)
• Disability Officer

Module Content

This course introduces students to the study or mortuary practice in archaeology. It is divided into two parts. Part 1 provides an introduction to the study of social structure in archaeology and then a general survey of the different approaches to mortuary practice by anthropologists and archaeologists, in particular the various analytical techniques that are currently employed to reconstruct social systems on the basis of cemeteries. Students are introduced to the statistical package SPSS and its application to mortuary practice in archaeology and undertake a series of practical assignments on preparing a mortuary data base, coding information, running SPSS, interpreting results and writing a report based on quantitative analysis. The course also examines a series of case studies from both the Old and New worlds.

Part 2 examines a number of main themes related to the archaeology of death, particularly during the historic period. Topics include the physical reality of death, violent death, festivals of the dead and the death of children. A multidisciplinary approach will be adopted which is intended to show students the value of incorporating information derived from material culture, funerary monuments, human remains and the artistic and literary records. Students will also be introduced to the study of gravestones and this will include a fieldtrip to Friar’s Bush cemetery.

Module Objectives

• To provide a survey of the major theoretical approaches to mortuary evidence
• To provide an understanding of the relationship between mortuary practice and social organization
• To provide the analytical skills to investigate the social implications of mortuary remains.
• To provide an understanding of attitudes to death and the afterlife in different cultures and to explore the rituals associated with these beliefs.
• To explore the differences in the death ritual between different strands of Christianity in the post reformation-period.

Lecturer

Professor Jim Mallory
Dr Eileen Murphy

Assessment

SPSS Project	30%
Essay	30%
Exam	40%

Skills taught

• Recognising how the form and beliefs in the afterlife changed through time and understanding to what extent these beliefs affected burial ritual and monuments.
• Recognising the hierarchical nature of the rituals associated with death and burial.
• Combining the archaeological and documentary evidence to produce a balanced understanding of death, burial and the afterlife.
• Development of statistical analytical computer skills (SPSS) and the presentation of quantitative data.