Programme & Abstracts :: Registration Details :: Accommodation
THE CLOTHED BODY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
17-19 January 2002Jack Green
Institute of Archaeology, LondonRitual and display in funerary contexts: The Late Bronze Age/ Early Iron Age Cemetery at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, Jordan.
Questions dominating mortuary archaeology in recent decades are concerned with the aspects of burials which provide indicators of social stratification, religion, or aspects of cultural or ethnic diversity. Likewise, studies of cemeteries in the Near East have been either broadly culture-historical/ descriptive, or over-processual, often taking for granted material culture in graves as a simplistic index of status or wealth, or an indicator of the 'social persona'. Burials are creations of the living, often presenting the deceased in an idealized form, in ornamentation and provisions given in the form of food, liquids and 'cosmetic' artifacts.
The cemetery at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, Jordan, presents an intriguing ensemble of burials. Concentrating on the burials from the 13th-12th Century BC, different phases of changing use can be detected, possibly consisting of various ethnic groups such as Egyptians, Canaanites and 'Sea Peoples'. There is no clear evidence from the grave-goods alone specifically identifying members of these ethnic groups. Many aspects of adornment were preserved in situ on articulated skeletons, such as bronze and iron bracelets, anklets, earrings, pins, weapons and beads. Evidence from bitumen encased inhumations and burials with bronze artifacts include fragments or impressions of cloth, perhaps used to tightly bind or shroud the dead. The way in which these artifacts are worn in graves, and by whom, provides useful information not usually preserved in Southern Levantine multiple burial caves.
This paper explores ornamentation from a contextual perspective. From the evidence at Tell es-Sa'idiyeh, what can we learn of ornamentation in death, and how is this different to adornment in every-day life? What is the significance of gender and age difference in burial adornment, and what does it tell us about Egyptian or Egyptianizing burial customs in the Southern Levant during this period?