Th e poorwere buried in mass graves, their bodies cov-
ered by simple shrouds or sacks. Th e wealthy used sarcoph-
agi—coffi ns made of wood or stone—and oft en had elaborate
tombs. Non-Christian Romans buried a wide variety of grave
goods, including household items, jewelry, pottery, shoes,
clothing, weapons, and even food and drink, intended to suc-
cor the dead on their journey to the next world. Images of
the dead were painted on small wooden planks or carved into
stone tombstones or memorials.
Elaborate mausoleums were constructed for aristocrats,
with the emperors having striking monumental buildings
raised to house their remains. Th e most famous is Hadrian’s
Tomb, later known as the Castel San Angelo, which still rises
above the right bank of the Tiber River in Rome. Another
monument, known as the Pyramid of Cestius, was built di-
rectly into the city wall at the southern edge of Rome and sur-
vives intact to this day. Th e pyramid, which contains a small
burial chamber, was raised about 12 b.c.e., shortly aft er the
Roman conquest of Egypt, when Egyptian monuments and
religious cults were fashionable.
Christian Romans built underground catacombs, cities
of the dead that protected the remains of thousands of people.
Th e bod ies were placed i n sa rcophag i a nd t hen set i n niches i n
the walls of the narrow passageways. Each grave was marked
by a stone slab carved with the deceased’s name, age, and date
of death.
Th e Romans believed that the dead sometimes wandered
the underworld in a state of limbo. An unappeased or rest-
less spirit, especially of someone who had died a violent or
sudden death, could appear among the living to deliver im-
portant messages or warnings. To prevent such wanderings
the Romans oft en cut off the head of the dead or weighted
the body down with stones. All the same, “curse tables” cre-
ated to invoke the powers of the dead to harm an enemy were
common. During the Parentalia festival the spirits of dead
parents are appeased with off erings made by their off spring.
Romans also carried out rituals of appeasement to the dead
during the Lemuria festival.
THE AMERICAS
BY KEITH JORDAN
Th e earliest evidence of ancient American burial rituals and
the provision of grave goods to accompany the deceased into
the aft erlife dates beyond 8,000 years b.c.e., suggesting that
these cultural traits came to the New World with the fi rst
peoples crossing from Asia. Burials from the Paleo-Indian
Period (ca. 13,000–8000 b.c.e.) show a great variety of prac-
tices. At the Anzick site in Montana, ice age hunters buried
two children accompanied by fi nely worked stone blades,
bone tools, and red-ocher pigment believed to symbolize life,
blood, and rebirth. At the Marmes site on the Washington
coast people were cremating their dead by 8500 b.c.e. A man
from a hunter-gatherer community was interred on the ledge
of a sinkhole at Warm Mineral Springs, Florida, at around
the same time, taking with him a tool of his trade—the shell
hook of a spear thrower (a rodlike implement used to provide
greater impetus for throwing a spear or similar weapon). At
Spirit Cave, Nevada, an early Native American was buried in
a rock shelter, wrapped in reed mats and a rabbit-fur robe,
some 9,400 years before the present.
Th is diversity of burial practices continued into the suc-
ceeding Archaic Period (8000–1000 b.c.e.). Prehistoric peo-
ples in Florida buried t heir dead in wet la nds some 6,0 0 0 yea rs
ago. At about the same time the fi sherfolk of the Chinchorro
culture of Chile preserved the bodies of the deceased, espe-
cially children, by elaborate methods of mummifi cation, the
oldest evidence for this practice anywhere. Th ey skinned the
bodies, tied the bones together to form a frame, and some-
times removed the muscles and internal organs. Th e corpses
were then dried and stuff ed with ash, the features modeled
in an ash paste, and the skin was reattached and covered
with a black mineral pigment or painted red with iron oxide.
Apparently, like later Andean peoples such as the Incas, the
Chinchorros felt a need to preserve the dead so as to keep
them a part of the community and ensure their survival in
the aft erlife.
In most hunter-gatherer burials in the Americas up to
historical times, grave goods tended to be similar for all mem-
bers of the community, consistent with a lack of marked dif-
ferences in social status. Conversely, an increased complexity
of funerary practices and the appearance of luxury burialGold diadem, found in the Camaná valley, Peru, and dating to the
fi rst century c.e.; it would have been attached to a mummy. (© Th e
Trustees of the British Museum)death and burial practices: The Americas 321