shell disks and embossed copper sheets found in mounds
throughout central North America, and the gold and pre-
cious stones found across much of the Middle East. It is a
safe assumption that such valuables were not taken out of cir-
culation lightly, but it is often unclear exactly what the goal
was. There may have been an element of sacrifice, especially
where animals or even humans were immolated at the grave-
side. In accordance with that conception, in many places
grave goods must be broken before they can be transmitted
to the other world.
HIERARCHY AND TOMB ELABORATION. Diversity in grave
goods from tombs of the same period is often taken by ar-
chaeologists as evidence of differences in the social status of
the living, and hence a measure of social hierarchy. There are,
as usual, exceptions that undermine the validity of the infer-
ence. For instance, the funerals of the kings of Bali, an island
in Indonesia, were theatrical displays of pomp and hierarchy,
yet the king’s ashes ended up strewn on the sea according to
the Hindu origins of the ancient empire of Majapahit. Noble
Balinese families that had lost a member in the previous few
years took the opportunity to participate in the grand crema-
tion rites, so that the only graves that remained were those
of commoners. Again, the kings of the Shilluk of southern
Sudan had no tombs because it was intolerable that the king
should die. Since the king’s vitality was associated with that
of the whole nation, signs of frailty meant that he had to be
suffocated by his own wives, or so it was said. However the
king died, his body was simply left where it lay, and the door
of the hut walled up with bricks. Until the new king was in-
stalled, the spirit of the nation passed into an effigy kept for
the purpose. Consequently, mortuary structures provide no
evidence of the existence of the state. As a further example,
Saudi kings are buried in plain graves facing Mecca as a ges-
ture of humility before Alla ̄h.
Nevertheless, it remains true that the tombs most char-
acteristic of a place or an epoch are often those of the elite,
especially where there is intense status competition. In Iron
Age northern Europe, warrior kings tried to establish their
lineages by building impressive tumuli containing stone-
lined vaults and passageways. The size of the artificial hill was
physical proof of a king’s ability to muster numerous follow-
ers. A striking variant was the ship burials that have proved
such a treasure trove for archaeologists and were particularly
appropriate to images of death as a voyage. Ship symbolism
is in fact widely found in connection with tombs, and partic-
ularly with coffins that resemble dugout canoes.
PRIMARY AND SECONDARY STORAGE. Tumuli or burial
mounds often became ritual centers, incorporating subse-
quent interments. This was especially true when they were
associated with secondary treatment of the dead. This in-
volves the temporary storage of a corpse while the flesh de-
cays from the bones, with final entombment of the bones at
a later date.
The technique was employed in ancient times across the
Mississippi region. At Cahokia in present-day Illinois, there
are over a hundred flat-topped earth mounds, the largest of
which is one hundred feet high. The mounds show traces of
wooden buildings on top, which probably included charnel
houses where corpses were left to rot until the remains were
ready for burial in the mound. There are also graves contain-
ing whole skeletons, the remains of burials of particularly
prestigious people. Bundles of bones were also brought from
elsewhere, to produce a complex pattern of interment in one
mound. The Cahokia site supported a dense population, but
dispersed populations in less fertile regions of the Appala-
chian Mountains also built mounds, which grew over many
generations by accretion of new bones and earth. Exposure
platforms were widely used across North America, the corpse
dressed and equipped suitably for the gender and role of the
deceased.
Secondary treatment is by no means restricted to the
Americas. It is found in parts of Southeast Asia and in New
Guinea, where corpses are laid out on platforms or set behind
domestic fireplaces to dry out. In rural Greece the burial of
corpses is only temporary. After some years, the grave is dug
up and the bones stored in a communal ossuary. The same
process in monastic communities in southern Europe pro-
duced crypts lined with anonymous skulls and femurs neatly
arranged in patterns—a dramatic expression of death as the
great leveler. In other cases in Europe, the removal of bones
from communal graveyards to make room for others is the
fate of paupers buried at public expense.
BURIALS, TOMBSTONES, VAULTS, AND MAUSOLEUMS. Sim-
ple earth burial is often associated with those on the lower
rungs of a social hierarchy. It may be argued that this is a
matter of practical expedience, the most rapid way to dispose
of corpses before putrescence sets in. The carnage of a battle
or a lethal epidemic makes mass graves necessary. At Caho-
kia, however, immediate burial was a privilege of a small
elite, whereas paupers in southern Europe were lucky to rest
undisturbed in their graves. In the Christian tradition, earth
burial is the norm for rich and poor, in accordance with the
doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Moreover, mis-
sionaries have exported Christian practices to the indigenous
populations of Africa, the Americas, and Asia. The spread of
Islam has had the same effect, so that burial is now more uni-
versal than it was in previous centuries.
Accordingly, tombstones provide the most familiar of
death monuments. They are found in many varieties, from
stones or plain slabs covering a grave to elaborate sculptures.
The commonest are headstones inscribed with brief accounts
of the deceased, but changing fashions have sometimes pro-
duced much more elaborate and imposing structures. In
parts of the Islamic world, grave markers are nothing more
than short wooden posts, carved in abstract or floral designs,
but elsewhere the same process of elaboration has occurred
as in Christian cemeteries.
Such changes of fashion date back to classical antiquity.
Until sometime in the first century, Romans of any respect-
ability were cremated, and their ashes stored in barrel-vaulted9226 TOMBS