have taken place in the grave. According to Winter ( 1999 : 246 , 249 – 250 ), the corpse
may have been subject to anointment, which is indicated by the occurrence of certain
utensils. Vessels were frequently found close to the mouth of the deceased. I would
like to suggest that it is possible that such vessels may have been part of death rituals
that were designed to enable the deceased to ritually consume foods in the afterlife.
Such rituals may have been similar to the pı ̄t pî(mouth opening) and mı ̄s pî(mouth
washing) rituals (Walker and Dick 2001 ), which made it possible for divine statues to
consume the foods and drinks offered to them as part of the daily rituals. Katz offered
yet another interpretation, albeit one that is based on later textual documentation. She
suggested that performative practices took place, sometimes with the help of a statue
or figurine, aimed at detaching the “soul” of the deceased. The “soul” could then travel
into the netherworld and remain there (Katz 2010 , 2007 , 2005 : 62 – 64 , 2003 : 207 – 210 ).
One should, however, bear in mind that metaphysical concepts such as “soul” are
extremely difficult to distinguish and understand in cultures that are so geographically
and chronologically remote from our own.
At some point, the attendants at the funeral placed their offerings for the dead into
the grave. In addition to gifts of jewelry, most offerings seem to have consisted of vessels
that were possibly filled with foods or other organic materials. In Mesopotamia, such
vessels, which were made from different materials and exhibit a great variety of shapes,
have been found in all types of graves and burials. The hypothesis that these vessels
were funerary offerings is also supported by the fact that some vessels were inscribed
with names that were not the names of the deceased (Marchesi 2004 : 162 , 176 ).
Furthermore, ethnographic studies show that it is common in many societies to bury
the dead together with objects that either were important to them during their lifetime
or that were linked to certain aspects of someone’s identity. In the Royal Cemetery,
such objects comprise rare artifacts such as game boards, small harps, model boats, the
“Standard of Ur,” statues, beautifully decorated containers, bronze mirrors, weapons,
individually designed pieces of jewelry, or seals.
The above-mentioned account for the expenditures for the burial of Geme 2 – dLama 3
also lists a main meal for her grave on the morning of the third day (Jagersma 2007 :
293 ). Woolley found several vessels with food remains in the Royal Cemetery. Larger
pots and bowls contained bones of birds, fish, goats, pigs, and sheep, as well as grains,
and date pits. In some cases these were found together with the remains of baskets, in
which the foods had been transported. Large beakers that were found in the graves
probably contained beer. Woolley suggests that these foods were meant as provisions
for the dead during their journey into the netherworld (Woolley 1934 : 144 ). Yet textual
and archaeological sources indicate that the dead were continuously supplied with food
and drinks, which is also reflected in the mortuary practices that began right after the
funeral. Based on the finds of food remains and the large numbers of vessels, it has
recently been suggested that the funerary party held a death banquet at which they
took their last meal together with the deceased (Selz 2004 a: 210 – 211 , 2005 : 45 – 46 ;
Cohen 2005 : 89 – 91 , esp. 90 ; Pollock 2007 a: 101 – 105 ). However, the Royal Tombs that
did yield more substantial food remains (for example, RT 1050 and RT 1054 ), make it
difficult to imagine that such a meal was shared by a large group of people as there was
not enough room at the tomb itself. More importantly, there is no evidence that meals
were shared by the living and the dead in the context of mortuary practices. On the
contrary, our evidence suggests that the dead were supplied with food in the context
–– Death and burial ––