(Re-)Constructing Funerary Rituals in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the First International Symposium of the Tubingen Post-Graduate School 'Symbols of the Dead' in May 2009.

• Author: Beckman, Gary
• Position: Book review

(Re-)Constructing Funerary Rituals in the Ancient Near East. Proceedings of the First International Symposium of the Tubingen Post-Graduate School "Symbols of the Dead" in May 2009. Edited by Peter Pfalzner; Herbert Niehr; Ernst Pernicka; and Anne Wissing. Qatna Studien Supplementa, vol. I. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2012. Pp. ix + 312, illus. 92 [euro].

In the past decade or so, several German universities have introduced the welcome practice of supporting cohorts of graduate students pursuing research on a common, but broadly defined, topic. These projects not only allow the recipients jointly to develop their research skills and academic writing, thereby improving their chances in a highly competitive job market, but also produce particularly insightful results, due to the synergy of the diverse methodologies and bodies of knowledge contributed by the various participants. Often these undertakings lead up to a conference, to which a few outside experts in the relevant topic might also be invited, a meeting that showcases the progress achieved by the group. The volume under review presents the papers delivered at the culmination of the first such gathering of young scholars assembled at the Univertsitat Tubingen (May 2009), whose subject of inquiry was the treatment of the dead in ancient Mesopotamia, the Levant, and adjacent regions.

The twenty contributions (Table of Contents: http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/dz0artikel/201 /001 / 1969_201 .pdf7t= 1359101981) are all written in (sometimes rather awkward) English. Three essays focus on Mesopotamia, five on inland Syria, five on coastal Syria, five on the southern Levant, one on Elam, and--providing ethnographic parallels--one on the modern Kyrgyz. Although archaeological research predominates, philology is also well represented.

From this assemblage of textual and artifactual data emerges an ideal type of ancient Near Eastern funerary beliefs and practice, seemingly valid at least for the elite groups whose remains make up the bulk of the available evidence: In addition to its living members, each family--including that of the king--was comprised of two to three generations of deceased forebears who retained their individual identities, plus an undifferentiated body of ancestors. At death, the newly departed was deposited under the floor of the...