Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period

by Harold Mytum

Overview

Burial grounds strike an immediate chord with all who visit them. They are landscapes full of pathos and cultural associations which many find attractive, though a minority feel are too morbid to deserve detailed attention. This book is designed to offer a framework for studying historic burial ground monuments, and contains a certain amount of information regarding below-ground archaeology, as some projects will involve the study of both. Moreover, from a research perspective above and below ground archaeology together can throw considerable light on the process of dying, body disposal and commemoration that formed a continuum for those involved. However, the more easily accessible graveyard memorials can be used to study many aspects of past culture beyond that directly associated with death, and they are the focus of the book. Most people who become interested in historic graveyard memorials come to the subject via the material itself. Only rarely does a research question get posed, and graveyard data seem like an appropriate arena for investigation. This has the advantage that many researchers have some ideas about the data available, but the disadvantage that they may not have clear questions to ask of it, nor how to set their discoveries in a wider intellectual context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306480768
Publisher:	Springer US
Publication date:	12/31/2003
Series:	Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2004
Pages:	274
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.36(d)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- 1. A Brief History Historical Mortuary Archaeology.- 2. THeoretical Approaches.- 3. Summary.- 2. Folk Traditions And High Culture: Funerary And Commemorative Practice To The Early 18Th Century.- 1. Death.- 2. The Funeral.- 3. Burial Grounds.- 4. Internal Memorials.- 5. External Memorials.- 6. Conclusions.- 3. A Maturing Industry: The Mid-18Th Century To Early 20Th Century.- 1. The Funeral.- 2. Mourning.- 3. Commemoration.- 4. Burial Grounds And Cemeteries.- 5. INTERNAL MEMORIALS.- 6. External Memorials.- 7. Decoration And Symbols.- 8. Text.- 9. Conclusions.- 4. A Marginalized Activity: From After World War I.- 1. The Funeral.- 2. Mourning.- 3. Commemoration.- 4. Burial Grounds And Cemeteries.- 5. Internal Memorials.- 6. External Memorials.- 7. Conclusions.- 5. Production And Consumption.- 1. Funerary And Mourning Paraphernalia.- 2. Commemoration.- 3. Temporal Change.- 4. Spatial Change.- 5. Conclusions.- 6. Social Structures.- 1. The Relationship Between Living Communities And Burial Ground Populations.- 2. Status.- 3. Family Structures.- 4. Institutional Structures.- 5. Patterns Of Dependency.- 6. Social Hierarchies.- 7. Necrogeography.- 8. Emulation.- 9. Conclusions.- 7. Identities.- 1. Religious Affiliation.- 2. Ethnicity.- 3. Linguistic Group.- 4. Vocational Identity.- 5. Conclusions.- 8. Attitudes Toward Death, The Body And Remembrance.- 1. The Manner Of Death.- 2. Attitudes Toward The Body.- 3. Grave Refurbishment.- 4. Conclusions.- 9. Carrying Out A Study.- 1. Methodological Issues.- 2. Project Fieldwork Planning.- 3. Sampling.- 4. Survey.- 5. Researching Memorials.- 6. Analysis.- 7. Excavation.- 8. Conclusions.- 10. Conservation, Education, And Display.- 1. Ethics And Methods Of Conservation.- 2. Historic Burial Grounds In Education.- 3. PublicInterpretation And Display.- 4. Conclusions.- Appendix 1. Examples Of Recording Systems.- Appendix 2. Useful Addresses.