Ossuary

Though it is often supposed that the dead are hidden in modern societies and that modern people have no way to relate to the dead, there are a number of sites in which the general public can see and relate to corpses and human remains - notably funeral parlours, museums and, in some countries, burial places and crematoria. This article sketches eighteen sites in which this takes place in the modern world. These are in addition to less public sites, such as autopsy rooms and medical school anatomy labs reserved for medical specialists, and semi-private sites such as the tiny fragments of hair, bone or ash that can be incorporated into jewellery. Nor do I consider media representations of the dead - on television, in movies, in photos, in paintings, or in virtual environments such as the Visual Human Project. I am here concerned with those settings in which the general public can, and do, see a substantial volume of human remains. These spaces are more common than might be expected from the supposition that in modernity death is ‘hidden’ or ‘denied’ and that the public are now left with no way to relate to human remains.

La fouille de la Roussillonne, en 2000, a procuré une tombe à incinération de la seconde moitié du IVe ou de la première moitié du IIIe s. av. J.-C. Celle-ci est placée dans un fossé circulaire creusé à la même époque. Un deuxième fossé double en partie du moins le premier, vers l’extérieur. La situation de ce dépôt funéraire est celle d’une tombe annexe. Cependant, l’arasement par les travaux agricoles du centre de l’aire circonscrite ne permet pas de noter la présence d’une éventuelle sépulture principale ni celle d’un tumulus de terre, dont l’existence est
reconnue sur plusieurs sites funéraires protohistoriques fouillés
récemment en milieu alluvial dans le sud de la France.

Il sacrario di Cima Grappa è un monumento di importanza nazionale ed europea: in primo luogo, come luogo dell’estremo riposo per le salme di migliaia di soldati italiani e austro-ungarici; in secondo luogo, come patrimonio storico dell’Italia e memento dell’esperienza della Grande Guerra; ed infine come opera d’arte unica al mondo.

La collocazione del sacrario in un teatro di guerra è densa di significati. Come riportato in un opuscolo del 1927, ‘sul Grappa l’Italia salvò se stessa’, e l’ubicazione sulla vetta del monte è un’immagine potente della vittoria italiana. I progettisti del sacrario, Giovanni Greppi e Giannino Castiglioni, sfruttarono la topografia del terreno ed il rapporto con il paesaggio, situando sull’apice del pendio una ‘torre di Babele’ di cerchi ascendenti e concentrici, che si connette alla ‘Via Eroica’ adagiata lungo la cresta. La composizione abbina architettura e paesaggio, il naturale e l’artificiale, generando un simbolo possente del ciclo naturale di morte e rinascita. Il sacrario è un unicum nella storia dell’architettura, e dimostra come i progettisti tendessero alla creazione di un nuovo tipo di monumento funebre in cui la priorità fosse data alla poeticità dello spazio, invece che alla monumentalità delle forme solide. Il sacrario è anche un esempio di archi-scultura, ovvero di un’opera d’arte che elide i confini tra architettura e scultura.

Da un punto di vista prettamente simbolico, il Monte Grappa unisce due elementi che sono a fondamento dell’identità italiana: da un lato la religione, dall’altro il patriottismo nazionale. Se a partire dal 1901, data della creazione del sacello della Madonna, il sito fu legato indissolubilmente al culto mariano, durante la Grande Guerra vi fu associato al contempo anche il culto dei soldati morti per la patria. Divenne così un luogo conteso tra le autorità laiche e le autorità clericali, che cercavano entrambe di imporre i propri simboli sul Monte. Di fatto, la coesistenza della fede, del patriottismo e della memoria rendono il Grappa un ‘monte sacro alla patria’, oltre che un patrimonio storico ed artistico eccezionale.

This paper focuses on Italy’s Fascist ossuaries of the First World War. It is intended to show how a methodology that uses images and texts can expose the political purposes that underpinned the creation of the ossuaries, to contribute to the literature on the commemoration of fallen soldiers, and to advance the study of war monuments as expressions of political forces. The paper also represents an attempt to bridge between different approaches to the study of war monuments that have emerged in history and in visual studies. It examines Italian ossuaries of the Great War as both objects and symbols, or as aesthetic configurations and carriers of political meanings. Physical characteristics, such as those associated with context, space and style, are shown to express elements of Fascist ideology relating, for instance, to hierarchy, victory and power.

"La tombe du VIIe s. av. J.-C. découverte en 1993, au lieudit Saint-
Martin-de-Colombs à Fabrègues, Hérault, contribue à combler quelque peu le vide actuel des connaissances sur les pratiques funéraires dupremier Âge du Fer dans la région littorale du Languedoc oriental. Les restes d’une très probable femme incinérée ont été déposés dans une urne, selon une superposition rappelant grossièrement l’ordre anatomique, mêlés à des bracelets, et cet ossuaire est fermé par une coupe. C’est un des rares
adultes protohistoriques du sud de la France dont le sexe anthropologique puisse être reconnu avec une très forte probabilité, et cette tombe vient donc enrichir un corpus, actuellement réduit, permettant de valider la valeur symbolique sexuelle de certains objets."

This thesis is an inventory and analysis of the juvenile remains excavated in 2010 from a Middle Mississippian ossuary at the Shady Grove site (22QU525), located in the Mississippi Delta. This project presents a clear challenge given the commingled and incomplete nature of the sample, as well as the preservation biases associated with subadult material, but this research offers valuable insight into the demographic pattern of the larger population at the site, as well as the mortuary practices which created the ossuary at Shady Grove. A “bone-by-bone” inventory revealed the presence of 43 juvenile individuals between the ages of 0 and 18 years old. Demographic comparisons to contemporaneous populations highlight the under representation of infant individuals within this burial likely due to pre-depositional loss, and the increased representation of 1 to 3 and 3 to 5 years old individuals, potentially relative to the heightened rates of infectious cranial and postcranial lesions in these age groups. The spatial distribution and analysis for each age category display the lack of any intentional pattern or placement design, as well as the high level of commingling and fragmentation within the ossuary. This large mass burial appears to represent the final resting place for a local kin group, bound together by the ritual inclusion in the deposit, and is likely one of many ossuaries still undiscovered at the Shady Grove site.

The paper describes two ceramic funerary vessels from Southern Kazakhstan. The first one is an oval elongated ossuary (solid, with no lid or ornamentation, on legs), discovered in the middle reaches of the Arys river. The second vessel is a khum with a lid and special lugs on the body for tying the lid, discovered near Shymkent settlement, possibly on its Early Medieval necropolis. This vessel is exhibited in the Museum of Local Lore of Shymkent.These unique findings are associated to the Zoroastrian/Mazdean burial technique of the Middle Syr Darya region. According to scientific information, since the 5th century AD the catacomb burial rite was replaced with the Naous rite across the entire right bank of the Syr Darya. This rite consisted in subsequent final burial of bone remains in ceramic vessels or other containers, or without them, in dedicated locations of the landscape, not associated with the active life of society. The discovery of the ossuary and funerary khum is extremely important for the reconstruction of the local version of the Zoroastrian funerary rite of the region practiced in the 5th – 8th centuries AD.

Most researchers believe that the Sassanid dead bodies were left in the open air to decompose, and then bones by animals and birds remaining in the troughs and niche was created in the rocks. The spaces created in the hard rock mountain ossuary called (Ostkhan Dan). Many of these Astvdans in the Persian mountains like Naqsh-e Rajab, on a hillside on the outskirts Zangiabadi mercy, have mercy on the mountain near the pool, on a platform on a hillside Gvndashlv, isolated on a rock near Naqsh-e Rostam, the great stone cut surface Tight hay near Sivand, in close Eghlid Abade and at the top of a castle overlooking the Bishapour were detected. The Astvadans were created within the rocky mountains or conglomerate layeres both permanently and temporarily (The Dakhmak) In this study, the number of Astvdanhay identified in the Persian Gulf which is comparable to the examples of Fars , were presented and their actual applicatiion will be discussed.

Le site de Magdala en Galilée, proche du lac de Tibériade a révélé plusieurs mosaïques à décor de fleuron ou rosace, l’une aux abords d’un bain rituel (mikvé), l’autre dans une synagogue datant du Ier siècle de notre ère. Nous commencerons par observer le contexte géographique et historique de ces découvertes, pour nous pencher ensuite sur l’étude du répertoire iconographique. Les parallèles mosaïstiques gréco-romains, mais aussi les ivoires orientaux révèlent l’adoption de schémas communs et la persistance de traditions anciennes.

English Abstract
The Magdala site in the Galilee, near the lake of Tiberias has revealed several mosaics decorated with rosettes, one situated close to a ritual bath (mikveh) and the other in a synagogue dating back to the first century AD. We will begin by taking a look at the geographical and historical context of these discoveries before proceeding to study the iconography. Greco-Roman mosaic parallels but also oriental ivories reveal the adoption of shared patterns and the persistence of ancient traditions.

A single radiocarbon date from an unattributed ossuary excavated near Cobourg, Ontario is re-examined in the light of known problems with the calibration curve in the period 1500 to 1600 A.D.  Originally reported by McKillop and Jackson (1991), the Poole-Rose burial site was not given a cultural affiliation due to a complete absence of artifacts but was determined to have an ossuary pattern comparable to descriptions in the Jesuit Relations accounts of the Feast of the Dead.  A 2011 media account (Ormsby 2011) claimed the site was Huron-Wendat when no such determination was possible.  Representatives for the Deceased in the case of this site excavation were the Anishinabek treaty holders of Alderville First Nation.  Alternative explanations are offered in this paper for both possible cultural affiliations and dating of the site prior to European contact.  Designations of ethnicity are considered beyond any available archaeological evidence which raises larger questions about cemeteries regulations requiring statements of cultural affinity.

We created a database of anthropological information on 342 of the 1489 crania from amongst the skeletal remains in the Ossario di Custoza (Sommacampagna, VR) - those of the dead from two Italian Risorgimento (wars of independence) battles in 1848 and 1866 who had been buried collectively without distinction on the battlefield and were subsequently exhumed and re-housed in the Ossario.
We present preliminary analyses of 10 particularly interesting crania. The dead were young men, but not adolescents, in generally good health with few dental or skeletal pathologies, but often with markers of metabolic stress. The crania bear the marks of changing military technology: larger bore and smaller bore firearms, bayonets and sabres. The further evolution of these military technologies led to the devastating injuries inflicted during the WWI.

In springtime the thoughts of young media folk and religious book editors turn fondly to the mountains of shekels they're gonna rake in off this year's just-in-time-for-Easter "scholars discover radical new take on Jesus" story.  The first horse out of the gate this Easter season (2007) was Simcha Jocobovici's documentary The Lost Tomb of Jesus that aired on the evening of Sunday March 4th, on the Discovery Channel.

A diagnosis of tuberculosis in prehistoric skeletal remains is not uncommon and can most often be identified by the manifestation of rib lesions and destruction of vertebral bodies, resulting in kyphosis, as well as other elements with large amounts of cancellous bone, such as joint areas. However cranial lesions associated with TB are much less common. The cranial vault is usually affected only after the disease has travelled via the bloodstream from a primary site, such as the lungs, and then it causes lesions in the diploe.
    This paper discusses a case of calvarial tuberculosis that was discovered in a Middle Mississippian (ca AD 1100-1300) ossuary burial from the Shady Grove site (22QU525) in Quitman County, Mississippi. Burial 43-5A, a young adult male, shows classic signs of tuberculosis in the vertebrae and ribs as well as on the sternum. However, he also had two severe circular lesions perforating the cranial table, along with several other smaller progressive lesions on the interior cranial surface. This pattern has been seen in several cases of tuberculosis identified in more clinical literature. Additionally, severe osteomyelitis is seen on the left clavicle, but this may be related to causes in addition to the tuberculosis. This individual was one of the few bundled burials in the ossuary. Had associated postcranial remains not been present, the diagnosis of tubercular lesions in the cranium likely not would have been made.

During surveys over the southern part of the Kuh-e Hossein range and east of Naqš-e Rostam, a group of three pairs of rock-cut niches (two unfinished) was found at the foot of high cliffs rising above the foothills in 2012. Next to the niches nine engraved inscriptions were discovered. A year later an epigraphic study was carried out in order to decipher the Middle Persian texts. These rock-cut niches are in line with previously documented inscribed funerary remains in the surroundings of the historical city of Estaḫr: the inscriptions depict them as daḫmag. Less than 1 m in size, they should most probably be interpreted as ossuaries or cavities cut in the rock to shelter mobile ossuaries. The style of script suggests dating these funerary remains back to a period no earlier than the 7th century AD, most probably during the early decades of Islamic domination. These new tombs enhance our knowledge of the rich funerary landscape along the southern Kuh-e Hossein foothills, where we ar...