Maros Funerary Differentiation

Abstract

The configuration of remains found archaeologically within a mortuary context is but the final step in a process of unknown duration that began at, or immediately prior to, the time of an individual’s death. This process involved the preparation of the body for funerary disposal, but also may have included ritual and feasting, construction of a funerary monument or facility, and a range of other acts designed to reaffirm social relations and positions within the community and beyond. This range of potential activities is subsumed here under the heading of treatment variables, or formal treatments, as distinct from grave accompaniments or offerings that are placed with the dead.

Then take that half dozen stout fellows, And let them all stagger and go And dig a great hole in the meadow, And in it toss Rosin the Beau.

—“Rosin the Beau” Traditional Irish ballad