unchecked human propagation. Th us death from old age and
disease came into existence.
ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY CONSTANCE A. COOK
Th e earliest human burials in Asia are found in caves occu-
pied as much as 25,000 years ago in Southeast Asia, such as in
peninsular Th ailand. Th e very early burials are random and
unclear in nature, but beginning in about 8000 b.c.e. people
here began burying their dead in circular pits, their bones
sometimes marked with red ocher. Regular burial grounds
with grave goods, oft en in caves used earlier as habitations,
became common in this region around 3000 b.c.e. and log
coffi ns just before the start of the Common Era. Cremation
fi rst appeared in the northern Indus valley in 1900 b.c.e.,
aft er the decline of the predominant Harappa cultures (ca.
2500–2000 b.c.e.), whose dead were buried in wooden or
brick coffi ns and surrounded with pottery vessels.
Th e 45,000-year-old Niah cave complex in Sarawak,
Borneo, represents the most ancient burial style, although
the period of greatest activity dates to around 4,000 years
ago. In the earliest chronological layer of these cave burials,
rain-forest foragers buried their dead inside logs, in wooden
coffi ns, or simply wrapped in a shroud—a basic burial style
perpetuated throughout much of Asia. Later, in Sarawak
and elsewhere in island Southeast Asia and the Pacifi c, bod-
ies were sometimes partially burned and placed in ceramic
or bamboo containers. At Sarawak and many other sites the
bodies show evidence of being processed aft er their primary
burial and then interred again in what are known as second-
ary burials. Secondary burials here and elsewhere, such as
among early farming communities in China, consist of group
burials. One major diff erence is that the secondary burials
in the Niah caves were in jars. Jar burials were common for
children in early northern Chinese cultures, but the primary
and secondary burials of adults were in pits. Th e Polynesian
Lapita culture of 3,000 years ago removed the skulls of their
dead aft er decomposition and sealed them in pots. Th e head-
less skeletons and the teeth were buried in pits.
Early Neolithic (7500–6000 b.c.e.) cave sites in southern
China contain burials similar to those found farther south:
fl exed, some with perforated skulls, and bones covered in red
ocher. Bodies found in Th ailand from 2000 to 1400 b.c.e. were
likewise covered with red ocher but wrapped in cloth and
placed supi ne i n wooden st r uc t u res w it h pot ter y a nd shel l jew-
elry. Th ere is evidence of lineage burials (burials in grounds
set aside for a single lineage) and ritual feasting. Burials from
3,000 to 5,000 years ago in the Red River valley in Vietnam
also have bodies wrapped in ramie shrouds and buried with
pottery and beads but placed in canoes, oddly reminiscent of
the Ba people’s canoe burials in the cliff s near the upper Yang-
tze River valley of China around the same period.
Beginning in the cemeteries of the Early Neolithic farm-
ing communities in China, burials were aligned in a single
direction, such as north–south or east–west. A number of
communities practiced secondary burials in which the bones
were reorganized into kin burial sites. Grave goods included
such items as stone mortars and pestles, stone axes, and pot-
tery tripods and bowls. Occasionally, a primary burial was
marked as that of a person of importance by inclusion of rit-
ual implements such as musical instruments—for example,
fl utes carved of crane bones or rattles made of tortoise shells.
Many cemeteries include ash pits fi lled with animal and hu-
man bones, vessels, and tools suggesting sacrifi ce to the dead
and the beginning of ancestor cults. Th e burial of humans as
sacrifi ce occurred especially in building projects, such as of a
tomb, house, or city wall. Th is practice reached its peak dur-
ing the Shang Dynasty (1500–1045 b.c.e.) when large royal
tombs contained hundreds of victims and the cemeteries
thousands.
By the end of the Middle Neolithic in northern China
(5000–3000 b.c.e.) the majority of cemeteries clearly gave
preference to males. Some primary burials began to have a
“second-level ledge” for the display of mortuary feasting ves-Jade eye plaques from China during the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.e. to
220 c.e.), used to cover the eyes of the dead to protect the body from
decomposition. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)316 death and burial practices: Asia and the Pacific