FURTHER READING
Tony Allan, “Glimpses of Past Grandeur.” In Th e Archaeology of the
Aft erlife: Deciphering the Past from Tombs, Graves, and Mum-
mies (London: Duncan Baird, 2004).
Bernardo T. Arriaza, Beyond Death: Th e Chinchorro Mummies of
Ancient Chile (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1995).
Paul G. Bahn, Tombs, Graves and Mummies (London: Weidenfeld
and Nicolson, 1996).
Robert Chapman, Ian Kinnes, and Klavs Randsborg, Th e Archaeol-
ogy of Death (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981).
Constance A Cook, Death in Ancient China: Th e Tale of One Man’s
Journey (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2006).
Jon Davies, Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity
(New York: Routledge, 1999).
Don W. Dragoo, Mounds for the Dead: An Analysis of the Adena
Culture (Pittsburgh, Penn.: Carnegie Museum, 1963).
Robert Garland, Th e Greek Way of Death, 2nd ed. (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cor-
nell University Press, 2001).
P. V. G l o b , Th e Bog People: Iron Age Man Preserved (Ithaca, N.Y.:
Cornell University Press, 1969).
Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson, Th e Mummy in Ancient Egypt:
Equipping the Dead for Eternity (London: Th ames and Hudson,
1998).
Sarah Iles Johnston, Restless Dead: Encounters between the Living
and the Dead in Ancient Greece (Berkeley: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 1999).
Naguib Kanawati, Th e Tomb and Beyond: Burial Customs of Egyp-
tian Offi cials (Warminster, U.K.: Aris and Phillips, 2001).
Dina Katz, Th e Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources
(Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2003).
Donna C. Kurtz and John Boardman, Greek Burial Customs (Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1971).
Donald G. Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome (New York:
Routledge, 1998).
Magdalena S. Midgley, Th e Monumental Cemeteries of Prehistoric
Europe (Stroud, U.K.: Tempus, 2006).
George R. Milner, Th e Moundbuilders: Ancient Peoples of Eastern
North America (London: Th ames and Hudson, 2004).
Ian Morris, Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Carlos Serrano Sánchez, “Funerary Practices and Human Sacrifi ce
in Teotihuacan Burials.” In Teotihuacán: Art from the City of
the Gods, ed. Kathleen Berrin and Esther Pasztory (London:
Th ames and Hudson, 1993).
Jo Ann Scurlock, “Death and the Aft erlife in Ancient Mesopota-
mian Th ought.” In Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, ed. J.
M. Sasson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1995).
Martha L. Sempowski and Michael W. Spence, Mortuary Practices
and Skeletal Remains at Teotihuacán (Salt Lake City: Univer-
sity of Utah Press, 1994).
A. J. Spencer, Death in Ancient Egypt (New York: Penguin, 1982).
John H. Taylor, Death and the Aft erlife in Ancient Egypt (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2001).
J. M. C. Toynbee, Death and Burial in the Roman World (Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971).
W. A. B. van der Sanden, Th rough Nature to Eternity: Th e Bog Bod-
ies of Northwest Europe (Amsterdam: Batavian Lion Interna-
tional, 1996).
Emily Vermeule, Aspects of Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979).
James M. Vreeland, Jr., “Mummies of Peru.” In Mummies, Disease,
and Ancient Cultures, ed. Aidan and Eve Cockburn (Cam-
bridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Richard L. Zettler, ed., Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur (Phila-
delphia: University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology, 1998).▶ drama and theater
introduction
Th e impulse for people to take part in performance art runs
deep into human history. While early ancient peoples left
behind no drama as the term is understood in modern life,
archaeological evidence shows that they engaged in ritual
performances, oft en dance, in connection with major life
events. Th e nature of these performances was oft en dictated
by geography. People who survived by cultivating crops, for
example, took part in ritual performances connected with
planting and harvesting. Th ose who lived in regions where
they survived as hunters took part in ritual performances in
connection with successful hunts. Such ritual performances
also occurred to celebrate victory in battle as well as to cel-
ebrate births and marriages, mourn the dead, or ensure fer-
tility. Th ese early dramatic performances, however, had no
plot, character development, and the like. Th ey tended to be
spontaneous expressions of the community in response to the
events that defi ned their lives.
Much early theater had a strong religious element. Sha-
mans, for example, oft en directed ritual performances. Th ese
performances, enacted out of doors, were designed to honor
or appease a god. Th ey oft en illustrated the culture’s cosmol-
ogy, or beliefs about the origin of the universe. Th ey became
a way of preserving and transmitting the culture’s values
and norms as well as its history, myths, and legends. In some
cases, such as India, the earliest dramatic performances de-
picted events recorded in sacred texts. It is no exaggeration
to say that in many cultures, drama and theater were the
culture’s history and religious “textbooks” for youngsters and
others in the community.
More formalized dramatic presentations became com-
mon in ancient India, Japan, and China. Th ese performances,
which were highly ritualized and stylized and with elaborate
costumes, makeup, masks, and other conventions, were of-
ten done at court for the entertainment of royalty, and Asian
theatrical performances still refl ect these ancient roots. In
Asia, too, the arrival of roving bands of performers was oft en
a highly anticipated event in communities.
Th e development of theater as the word is understood
in modern times began with the ancient Greeks and Roman.
While the performances of the Greeks were still highly styl-
ized, they incorporated many of the conventions of dramadrama and theater: introduction 327