Abstract
This chapter reviews the mortuary component in bioarchaeological research. Bioarchaeologists who incorporate mortuary archaeology into their analyses are able to broaden their interpretations. The practice of bioarchaeology remedies the decoupling of biological remains from their archaeological (and cultural) context, but it also means that bioarchaeologists need to have a great deal of archaeological training or be in close collaboration with archaeologists. Humans have not always buried their dead, and so the appearance of this practice approximately 10,000 years ago signaled a shift in how people were thinking about the significance of dying. Analysis of burial ritual and mortuary sites has revealed a great deal about social ranking, variability in location and positioning, social organization, and treatment of elites.
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Martin, D.L., Harrod, R.P., Pérez, V.R. (2013). The Mortuary Component and Human Remains. In: Bioarchaeology. Manuals in Archaeological Method, Theory and Technique. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6378-8_5
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