The Archaeology of Death in the Ancient Near East.

• Author: Harris, Rivkah
• Position: Review

Edited by STUART CAMPBELL and ANTHONY GREEN. Oxbow Monograph, no. 51. Oxford: OXBOW BOOKS, 1995. Pp. x + 297, 1 plate. $58 (paper).

The thirty essays in this book were papers presented in 1992 at an international conference sponsored by the Victoria University of Manchester. They are far-ranging in time (from Palaeolithic to Late Islamic), in space (the Levant, Mesopotamia [including Bahrein], Turkey, Egypt, and Cyprus), as well as in topics. Most earlier studies on death in the ancient Near East have dealt with "ideologies of death"; these treat the material remains of funerary activities: burial practices, tomb types, skeletal remains, and grave-goods. The contributors come from different countries (their institutional affiliations might have been noted) and bring diverse interests and specializations to their work.

The Levant is the locus of many of the essays. D. Nadel examines Levantine burial customs from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Chalcolithic periods. A. Belfer-Cohen questions whether evidence exists for social stratification in the Natufian burials in the southern Levant. The interrelationship between domestic space and ritual space at the Natufian site of Mallaha (Eynan) is examined by B. Boyd. From the database on Natufian Pre-Pottery Neolithic burials and burial practices in the Levant A. Gopher and E. Orrelle draw important conclusions regarding changes and new trends.

The Dead Sea domens from EB I are studied by K. Prag who views them primarily as territorial markers and only "secondarily as tribal/religious symbols" (p. 84). Mortuary variability and social differentiations in EB IV formal burial sites at Jericho and Tell Ajjul are explored by E. Baxevani. D. Ilan examines MB mortuary practices at Tel Dan and concludes that they reflect Canaanite practices and ideology. G. Gilmour disputes Aegean influence on LB Age burial practices in the southern Levant.

Both Ras Shamra-Ugarit tomb architecture and death ideology are discussed by J.-F. Salles. J. Zias examines the use of Cannabis sativa for medicinal purposes in a fourth-century C.E. burial near Jerusalem.

The following are the contributions made to the Mesopotamian archaeology of death. S. Campbell, studying Hassuna and Halaf burials in the north, suggests that age differentiation correlates with the quantity of grave goods. T. Molleson and S. Campbell examine the social context of artificially deformed skulls of males and females in Halaf and Ubaid burials at Tell...