sels around the bodies, which might be covered with bone
or stone beads. Some jade objects and tomb decor suggest
the use of astrological or cosmic symbols in rituals to con-
tact the supernatural through spirit mediums. In Manchuria
burials from the Hongshan culture (4500–3000 b.c.e.) used
rock cairns (mounds of piled stones) with a central tomb
surrounded by a cluster of similar but smaller tombs. Large
tombs at one Hongshan site seem to have been associated
with a temple fi lled with statues of pig-dragons and of women
naked and pregnant.
Cemeteries during the Late Neolithic (3000–2500 b.c.e.)
and the highly socially stratifi ed Erlitou culture (1900–1500
b.c.e.) in the middle Yellow River valley bear many traits that
would remain common in Chinese burials for millennia. Th e
mortuary feast display became increasingly ostentatious for
the elite and included exotic and highly craft ed goods such as
fi ne painted or thin-walled pottery, jade, alligator and pottery
drums, stone chimes, painted wooden vessels, and accumu-
lated stores of meat, such as whole pigs. Bodies were placed
in wooden painted and lacquered coffi ns over a “waist pit,” a
pit dug into the cinnabar-covered fl oor of the tomb chamber
under the waist area of the body and fi lled with dog, deer, or
human sacrifi ces. In some tombs grave goods were placed in
painted wooden chests at the foot and sides of the wooden
coffi n or in an outer coffi n containing the inner coffi n, with
diff erent categories of goods placed in each.
Th e Shang Dynasty saw the creation of royal mausole-
ums such as the complex near present-day Anyang, in Henan
Province. It consisted of numerous large cruciform (in the
shape of a cross) tombs originally fi lled with display bronzes
and jades. Sacrifi cial victims of all ages and both genders,
some intact, some headless or otherwise mutilated, were
buried in all areas of the tomb and in thousands of sacrifi -
cial pits, along with an array of domestic and exotic animals.
Th e burial of horses and chariots began during this period.
Such magnifi cence was not seen again until the burial of the
fi rst Qin Dynasty emperor in 220 b.c.e., though by then the
horses, chariots, and humans were made in miniature or cast
out of clay.
Aft er the Shang the second-level platform and waist pit
became less common, but jades, jewelry, weapons, and cloth-
ing continued to be buried in or around the inner coffi n. Th e
outer coffi n (a wooden chamber inside the tomb and outside
the “inner” coffi n or coffi ns) came to display, at fi rst, a rich ar-
ray of bronze cooking, eating, serving, and ritual ablution (or
purifi cation) vessels and some ritual jades, and then, by the
fourth century b.c.e., fi ne painted lacquer vessels and statues.
Th e statues protected the tomb from demons and aided the
journey of the deceased into the aft erlife. By this time, too,
bamboo texts were placed in the tomb. Some listed mortuary
gift s used in the funeral, and some of these gift s were buried
with the dead. Other texts, including accounts of healing ritu-
als, almanacs, administrative documents, and philosophical
tracts, suggest that the occupant wanted to have these items
to maintain some aspect of his mortal identity in the aft erlife
or perhaps to prove his rank in the world of the ancestors.
Wooden, clay, or stone fi gurines were buried with equipment
for hunting, travel, ritual ceremonies, and musical feasts.
Th e ancient practice of jar burials continued in Japan
with the Yayoi culture (300 b.c.e.–300 c.e.), whose burials
consisted of stamped-earth mounds over a coffi n consisting
of two large painted jars placed end to end. In some cases
other jar burials radiated outward from the central burial
or were placed in clusters or lines. Besides bronze daggers,
mirrors, glass beads, and other items found in the jars,
burial mounds hold a variety of pottery vessels and serv-
ing dishes. Th e earlier Jōmon people buried their dead in
rows of pits in communal cemeteries marked off with stone
circles or ramparts.EUROPE
BY PETER BOGUCKI
Deat h was a n impor ta nt pa r t of life in late prehistoric Europe.
Th e death of a member of Neolithic, Bronze Age, or Iron Age
society was oft en the occasion for elaborate ritual and mor-
tuary ceremonies and the display of status and wealth, and
the dead continued to be present in the everyday lives of the
living. Th ere was a remarkable range in the ways that corpses
were treated and eventually buried. Archaeologists consider
many characteristics of mortuary practices, or practices re-
lating to the burial of the dead. Th e most fundamental is the
treatment of the body itself: How was the corpse prepared for
burial, and how was it buried? Th e two principal options for
dea ling wit h a corpse are eit her buria l as an anatomica l entit y
of fl esh and bone or transformation into ashes through cre-
mation. Prehistoric European societies practiced both at vari-
ous times and places. In addition, some societies left bodies
to decay in a ceremonial location and then gathered the de-
fl eshed bones for burial, a practice known as “excarnation.”
Th e principal choices for burial of a body in ancient Eu-
rope was either to lay it in the grave in an extended position,
with legs straight and arms at the sides or crossed over the
torso, or to place it in a contracted position, lying on one
side with legs drawn up to the chest and arms bent. Seated
burials are also known, and occasionally bodies were placed
in a grave pit without apparent consideration for how they
were lying. Bodies were sometimes enclosed in coffi ns. Virtu-
ally nothing is known of embalming or other techniques of
preparing the corpse that leave little trace on the bones and
therefore no long-lasting evidence.
Graves were individual, multiple, or collective. Individ-
ual burial was most common in ancient Europe, one corpse
per grave; some graves contain several or many corpses, es-
pecially if members of the same family died at about the same
time. Collective burials, in which graves contain many bod-
ies, are found from time to time, commonly at the gravesites
of societies that practiced excarnation. Th e bones were gath-
ered into crypts containing dozens of people; in instances of
violence many bodies were buried quickly in a mass grave.death and burial practices: Europe 317