Engaging with the Dead adopts a cross-disciplinary, archaeologically focused, approach to explore a variety of themes linked to the interpretation of mortuary traditions, death and the ways of disposing of the dead. Nineteen papers highlight the current vitality of ‘death studies’ and the potential of future research and discoveries. contributors explore changing beliefs and practices over time, considering how modern archaeology, ethnography and historical records can aid our interpretations of the past, as well as considering how past practices may have influenced understandings of death and dying within the modern world. It is clear that there are very significant variations in the quantity of dead that appear in the archaeological record over time, and the contributions to this volume attempt to understand why that might be the case. By bringing together papers from a variety of specialists working within Europe and the Near East, we investigate the pivotal role of death studies in the 21st century, providing a case for the retention of human remains in archaeological collections. Engaging with the Dead aims to set period specific contributions within a broader perspective and integrates papers from bioarchaeologists, theologists, textual specialists, as well as archaeologists. It provides an in-depth introduction to the multitude of ways in which the mortuary record can be interrogated and interpreted and explores the role of archaeology and theology within contemporary social studies. This volume challenges our current understanding and conceptualisation of mortuary practices in the ancient and contemporary world.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter 1. Introduction: Engaging with the dead: Jennie Bradbury and Chris Scarre
• Chapter 2. Tracking the dead in the Neolithic: The ‘Invisible Dead’ in Britain: Mandy Jay and Chris Scarre
• Chapter 3. Mind the gap … what did Late Bronze Age people do with their dead? Evidence from Cliffs End, Kent: Jacqueline I. McKinley
• Chapter 4. Romano-British rural burial practices in south-east England: Alexander Smith
• Chapter 5. Iron Age mortuary practices and beliefs in the Southern Levant: David Ilan
• Chapter 6. Taphonomy of human remains exposed in burial chambers, with special reference to Near Eastern hypogea, ossuaries and burial caves: Arkadiusz Sołtysiak and Rafał A. Fetner
• Chapter 7. Protracted burial practices and cremation in the ancient Near East: Two independent phenomena?: Candida Felli
• Chapter 8. Shifting identities: The human corpse and treatment of the dead in the Levantine Bronze Age: Jennie Bradbury and Graham Philip
• Chapter 9. Looking forward to look back: How investigations of historical burial populations can inform our interpretations of prehistoric burial practice: Amanda Murphy and Andrew Chamberlain
• Chapter 10. Developing and implementing ‘big picture’ approaches in bioarchaeology: Opportunities and challenges: Charlotte Roberts
• Chapter 11. Dead and (un)buried: Reconstructing attitudes to death in long-term perspective: Mike Parker Pearson
• Chapter 12. Reanimating the dead: The circulation of human bone in the British Later Bronze Age: Joanna Brück
• Chapter 13. Cultural memory and the invisible dead: The role of ‘old objects’ in burial contexts: Peter Pfälzner
• Chapter 14. The visible dead: Ethnographic perspectives on the curation, display and circulation of human remains in Iron Age Britain: Ian Armit
• Chapter 15. The distribution of graves and the food within: Evidence from late 3rd to 2nd millennia BC Mari, Syria: Sarah Lange
• Chapter 16. Variations on a tomb: The Umm el-Marra mortuary complex in the context of elite burial ritual in 3rd-millennium western Syria: Sarah Yukich
• Chapter 17. Living with the dead, past and present: A reinterpretation of Southwest Asia’s Neolithic mortuary practices in light of contemporary theories of bereavement: Karina Croucher
• Chapter 18. Materiality, identity, mutability: Irresolvable tensions within burial reform: Julie Rugg
• Chapter 19. Beyond the Invisible Dead: Future priorities, opportunities and challenges: Jennie Bradbury and Chris Scarre
• Acknowledgements