The Materiality of Death - mikroarkeologi.se

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The situation in Tomb 12 was totally unexpected. The observations made about the coffin, the skeleton, the stones and the fills all contributed to the conclusion that we were facing an unusual, individual case. The uniqueness of the situation was acknowledged in recording, and the resulting narrative shows how the tombs can testify of their distinctive postdepositional history. However, we cannot be certain if the members of the family noticed that the tomb had started to fall into pieces or if the start of the postdepositional sequence affected their behaviour in any way. In any case, the skeleton remained on the floor unmoved and the blocking stones outside where all in place. (Bedini 1980; 1983). Digging simple trenches was not entirely unusual during this period but digging one inside a filled dromos of a chamber is unheard of. The existence of an Archaic burial on a level over a metre higher than the floor of the dromos above a series of layers of collapsed material testifies that the arch had collapsed already during the Archaic period and the dromos remained covered by soil. Tomb 12 and its many consecutive layers of collapsed tufo and accumulated limo also highlight the physical effort needed to reach the find layers. This also points to the extent which the structure of the chamber has transformed. It is impossible, therefore, to know the original form of the space where the final part of the burial ritual took place. Similarly, the same is also true of any of the collapsed tombs. None of them can be experienced as they originally were. We can only reconstruct their structure and create reconstructed materialities as the end product of our interpretation process. Their pristine architecture is forever lost, but we can infer it from the undamaged chambers at Crustumerium and elsewhere in central Italy. Tomb 17 (Fig. 3) lies higher up in the slope, north of Tomb 12. Its orientation is west-northwest – eastsoutheast and like Tomb 12 it belongs to the larger tomb type. The massive stone deposits in its chamber suggest that its ceiling collapsed as a result of one devastating episode. When the dromos of the tomb was excavated, it contained a series of fills instead of the normal single fill. Some of them were rubble sloping to the blocking slab of the tomb. In addition, there were numerous layers of irregular tufo blocks lying on stratified limo clay. From the outside and inside of the chamber it became apparent that the arch of the doorway had collapsed and part of the material had slipped into the dromos. In this case, the postdepositional event seems to have affected the behaviour of the members of the past community. This is shown by the discovery of an inhumation at the beginning of the excavation. The burial and its blocking and/or marking stones were clearly placed into the uppermost fill of the dromos. Since the single fills of the dromoi are usually relatively findless, they are usually removed as swiftly as possible. This time the excavators had removed only twenty centimetres from the end of the dromos when they encountered a skeleton. The finding of the buried remains was totally unanticipated. This skeleton 31707 (Fig. 6) was buried with some grave goods. The bronze fibulae and bullae discovered date the burial to the Archaic period. The inhumation is very similar to the Archaic ones found at Casale Massima Figure 6. Skeleton 31707 in Tomb 17 (photo by U. Rajala). This inhumation could be taken as evidence for the loss of the knowledge of Tomb 17. However, the simple trenches at Casale Massima (Bedini 1980; 1983) were cut into tuff. Thus, digging a trench into the fillings of a dromos and burying a new body at the site of a known tomb could be taken as a symbolic act of remembrance and preservation of burial rights. Di Gennaro (1999:17- 18) has suggested that a group of fossa, a loculo and chamber tombs in the older cemetery of Monte Del Bufalo belonged to the same family since one of the 84
chambers cut into two earlier trenches, and thus, made the group unusually densely spaced. Alternatively, this could be interpreted as a sign of forgetting the existence of the earlier tombs and their location. Therefore, this group cannot be taken as an ultimate manifestation of the existence of family burial plots. On the other hand, the act of exceptional interment in the dromos of Tomb 17 can be interpreted as evidence for the Archaic ownership of funerary plots. This illustrates the will to maintain rights to the liminal space around the town area. The example of Tomb 17 shows how the past postdepositional events have affected contemporary behaviour at Crustumerium. The collapse of the arch has denied a family any further use of the tomb. However, the people who have known about the event have wanted either to preserve or claim the rights to the plot or to show remembrance and affiliation. During the excavations in 2007 it became clear that the chamber was from a relatively early period, and the original burials were deposited in the end of the Orientalising period. Thus, the exceptional character of this burial is highly suggestive of being a consequence of the latter intension. Conclusions The results from the excavations of the Remembering the Dead project at Cisterna Grande at Crustumerium have encouraged a review of the importance of the postdepositional processes and events and their effect on human behaviour. The Archaic chamber tombs here belong to at least two different types and they have also had different postdepositional histories. Some of the tombs have collapsed as a consequence of local geology. The collapses have either been rapid or occurred in stages over a longer period of time. All these alternatives can be induced from the material remains of the chambers and their fills. As a consequence of these observations, the concept of postdepositional history has been used to describe and narrate the different fortunes of the tombs. Postdepositional history is thus a part of the life history of a tomb. Postdepositional histories consist of different postdepositional processes and events that can be either natural or a result of human agency. Together different histories of the tombs at Cisterna Grande make up a part of the biography of this site. Different histories have changed the outlook of the tombs and their original deposits, and therefore, they result with the transformed materialities of these tombs. Different transformed materialities and postdepositional histories have affected human behaviour in different ways, both in the past and in the present. In the present the archaeological practices of the excavations reflect the physicality of removing deposits from the filled chambers and the importance of recording different collapse and accumulation layers. The investment in digging Archaic chamber tombs also reflects the awareness of the importance of the findings regardless the time and effort involved. Nevertheless, the realities of removing spoil seem to deter looting. The archaeological examples presented in this article demonstrate both the early occurrence of the postdepositional events and the actions they caused. In the case of Tomb 12 the collapses seem to have started immediately after the burial in the coffin was made during the Archaic period. The event that resulted with the momentarily overturned coffin was also the first in a long series of episodic collapses. We do not know if these episodes affected the past behaviour but in the present the existence of multiple consecutive collapses and accumulation layers slowed down the excavation of the tomb. Tomb 17 in its turn is remarkable in many different ways. Not only does the existence of the Archaic inhumation in the uppermost part of the dromos fill show that the chamber collapsed during the use life of the cemetery but it also gives evidence for the application of burial ritual in the case when the burial chamber was not available. The co-existence of the chamber tomb and the exceptional inhumation as an entity is a proof of both remembrance and ownership. Its sheer fragile materiality affected our work and enabled unparalleled interpretation. The current project at Cisterna Grande will continue, unexpectedly, for one more short season in early 2008. During this coming season we will expose the earlier use life of our final tomb (Tomb 18). After that, we will be able to summarise those unique narratives the excavated chamber tombs allow us to tell. Acknowledgements The interpretations presented here could not have been made without the joint efforts of all team members. I would especially like to thank the trench supervisors FM Heli Arima and HuK Maija Helamaa who were responsible for Tombs 12 and 17. Naturally, I am grateful to Francesco di Gennaro and Soprintendenza archeologica di Roma for the collaboration, which has made these excavations possible. The Academy of Finland (grants n. 211057 and 213324), the British Academy, the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Niilo Helander Foundation have generously given funding to the excavations. In addition, we have got assistance from the Fourth Municipality of the city of Rome, Muuritutkimus ky, Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, the British School at Rome, Gruppo Archeologico dell’Associazione del Dopolavoro Ferroviario di Roma, University of Cambridge, and University of Oulu. Dr Phil Mills and Francesco di Gennaro kindly commented on the earlier draft of this article. 85
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The Materiality of Death Bodies, bu
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Contents Chapter 1. The Materiality
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Fig. 1. Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph
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ather one has to emphasise the mate
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dead are often regarded as unfriend
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Fig 3. The old man Tei Tetuna by hi
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The Materiality of Social Change: H
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The Materiality of Eternity - The A
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FAHLANDER, F. & OESTIGAARD, T. 2004
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Susanne Kuechler-Fogden, Webb Keane
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Chapter 2 More than Metaphor: Appro
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discuss death and the treatment of
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had to deal with. This is not to sa
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hide that could be removed to expos
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pp111-123. Philadelphia: University
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Chapter 3 A Piece of the Mesolithic
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The main point is that the division
Page 37 and 38: A Piece of the Mesolithic: Skatehol
Page 39 and 40: question we need to construct some
Page 41 and 42: Fig. 4. Skateholm I (above) and Ska
Page 43 and 44: visible many years after the origin
Page 45 and 46: Phase Area Properties Interpretatio
Page 47 and 48: phase of one site with a contempora
Page 49: MILNER, N. & WOODMAN, P. 2005. Meso
Page 52 and 53: with dead people belonging to other
Page 54 and 55: Fig. 2. Due to the extraordinaire c
Page 56 and 57: As with all cremations in Hinduism,
Page 58 and 59: Based on the amount of scattered bo
Page 60 and 61: To have an ethical approach involve
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 5 From Corpse to Ancestor:
Page 65 and 66: Figure 2. Isola Sacra, Tomb 100. Ph
Page 67 and 68: Figure 4. Isola Sacra, Tomb 87. Pho
Page 73: 69 Burials
Page 76 and 77: through careful recording of the or
Page 78 and 79: Figure 4: Pencraig Hill: Distributi
Page 80 and 81: focussed on use of partial sets of
Page 83 and 84: Chapter 7 Ritual and Remembrance at
Page 85 and 86: urial (tomba a doppio loculo tipo M
Page 87: ‘original’ walls of the tomb. L
Page 91: Madison: Prehistory Press, Monograp
Page 94 and 95: Well-organized cemeteries or messy
Page 96 and 97: influenced who was buried inside th
Page 98 and 99: it was quite short, which could ind
Page 100 and 101: References ARTELIUS, TORE 2004. Min
Page 103 and 104: Chapter 9 Life and Death in the Bro
Page 105 and 106: Fig. 5.1. Cremation necropolis at P
Page 107 and 108: place. These burials were very simp
Page 109 and 110: Chapter 10 Norwegian Face-Urns: Loc
Page 111 and 112: The recurring themes in the debate
Page 113 and 114: The local context of the Norwegian
Page 115 and 116: Death is the inevitable conclusion
Page 117 and 118: OESTIGAARD, T. 1999. Cremations as
Page 119 and 120: Chapter 11 The Use of Ochre in Ston
Page 121 and 122: Ochre was used so intensively that
Page 123 and 124: Fig. 5. Zvejnieki burial ground. Th
Page 125 and 126: grave has been dated to 5690±45 BP
Page 127 and 128: Khanty of northern Siberia, the col
Page 129 and 130: 125 Beliefs
Page 131 and 132: Chapter 12 ”Death Myths”: Perfo
Page 133 and 134: Variation within the same cist Bø,
Page 135 and 136: Variation within the same mound Lyd
Page 137 and 138: Figures 6 and 7. Modvo, Luster muni
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To what extent there have been corr
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when they die, a probable explanati
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fragmented spindles, iron weaving s
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Chapter 13 Reproduction and Relocat
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may be questioned, and analysed mor
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References Andersson, G. 1997: A st
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Chapter 14 A Road for the Viking’
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Figure 2. The Jarlabanke Bridge tha
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Chapter 15 A Road to the Other Side
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Fig. 4. Clearing the bridge on an e
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Chapter 16 Stones and Bones: The My
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Fig. 4. An Iron Age scene at Sylta
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Fig. 7. The resemblance between cru
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