Chalcolithic Ossuaries and “Houses for the Dead”

Mastin, Brian A.

doi:10.1179/peq.1965.97.2.153

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Box or ‘house’ ossuaries were initially thought to represent houses of the dead (Sukenik ; Perrot and Ladiray ). Mastin () pointed out patterns and features that appeared to preclude this interpretation, without offering any real alternative explanation for the ossuary form. Anati (, 289–90) and Callaway (, 80) followed up on the domicile idea, proposing that congregations of house‐shaped ossuaries represented ‘villages of the dead’.…”

Section: Interpreting Ossuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

Ilan

Rowan

2019

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary We examine and reinterpret the phenomenon of containers used for the secondary burial of human remains – ossuaries – in the Chalcolithic period of the southern Levant, c.4500–3700 BCE. Ossuary form and decoration, both plastic and painted, is evocative and symbol‐laden. Since their first discovery in the 1930s, several hypotheses have sought to explain ossuary iconography, but none provides an integrated, holistic interpretation. Chalcolithic iconography, mortuary contexts, and archetypal mythologies suggest that ossuaries, mainly of clay, but also of stone, served as vehicles of reincarnation.

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Section: Interpreting Ossuariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

Ilan

Rowan

2019

Oxford J Archaeology

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“…The structural and jar ossuaries are usually decorated, with painted and plastic decoration. The structural ossuaries have been interpreted as houses of the dead (Mastin 1965 and references therein; Sukenik 1937), although such houses are not found in the Chalcolithic architectural corpus. Structural ossuaries are always painted, typically with horizontal and vertical red lines, and prominent eyes and almost noses are added as clay appendages.…”

Section: The Materials Expression Of Chalcolithic Religious Belief: a mentioning

confidence: 99%

7  Deconstructing and Recomposing the Narrative of Spiritual Life in the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant (4500–3600 B.C.E.)

Ilan¹,

Rowan²

2011

Archaeological Papers of the American

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The serendipity of discovery can determine the process and progress of the archaeological interpretation of religious belief and ritual practice. The Chalcolithic period (4500-3600 B.C.E.) of the southern Levant is used as a case study. Had the material expressions of Chalcolithic religion been discovered in a different sequence, our understanding of that religion might have been distinctly altered. We first present a chronological narrative of discovery, with summary headlines, and then proceed to dismantle previous syntheses. Finally, we construct our own framework for understanding Chalcolithic religion, which is essentially a life-cycle religion with extensive, almost ever-present, ritual reference to death and the regeneration of life. [ritual, mortuary landscape, ossuary, iconography, secondary burial]

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Houses, Households, and Changing Society in the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant

Banning¹

2010

paleo

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Characteristics of the built environment provide a source of evidence for the complex social landscapes of the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant. Rather than an inexorable evolutionary progression, this evidence suggests considerable variability and fl exibility throughout these periods. At various times and places, individual houses isolated themselves from the rest of their settlement within a walled courtyard that also protected their stores and livestock. At others, we find clusters of apparently quasi-independent households sharing a courtyard enclosed by the houses themselves, and most storage space sequestered within the houses, while other activity areas were shared. Throughout, we also usually find some isolated houses not clearly associated with any courtyard or house cluster. Furthermore, we find considerable variation among contemporary houses in their size, elaboration, and storage capacity, suggesting some degree of economic differentiation, perhaps difference of rank, and possibly interhousehold competition. Some of these characteristics suggest that heads of houses made strategic choices with regard to the size of their household, its alliances with other households, the accumulation of herds or grain stores, and competitive display, in order to promote their house’s political and economic advantage. Possibly this pattern fits C. Lévi-Strauss’s concept of “ house societies.”

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Chalcolithic Ossuaries and “Houses for the Dead”

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

7  Deconstructing and Recomposing the Narrative of Spiritual Life in the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant (4500–3600 B.C.E.)

Houses, Households, and Changing Society in the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant

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Chalcolithic Ossuaries and “Houses for the Dead”

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

Expediting Reincarnation in the Fifth Millennium BCE: Interpreting the Chalcolithic Ossuaries of the Southern Levant

7 Deconstructing and Recomposing the Narrative of Spiritual Life in the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant (4500–3600 B.C.E.)

Houses, Households, and Changing Society in the Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant

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7  Deconstructing and Recomposing the Narrative of Spiritual Life in the Chalcolithic of the Southern Levant (4500–3600 B.C.E.)