years ago, when

tombs became more substantial than houses, when the deceased and
their tombs were made the
centre and focus of life itself. Tombs had become literally 'power
houses'.
There has been a tendency to view funerary architecture in isolation
from domestic and other
forms of architecture. Suzanne Preston Blier's insightful analysis of
Batammaliba architecture,
quoted above, illustrates some of the metaphorical connections that are
possible between house and
tomb. Tombs may be houses of the ancestors or, alternatively, the living
may consider themselves to
dwell within the houses of the ancestors. The tombs of the pharaohs
and nobles in the Valley of the
Kings replicate and exaggerate the passageways, staircases and ramps
of their above-ground
palaces and temples and are adorned with paintings in which the life
above ground is replicated in
the tomb. The architectures of life and death are not simply
metaphorical transformations of each
other and of the cosmos - they form part of a greater whole, humanity's
understanding and quest for
the meaning of life in the face of death.
9.1 The Great Pyramid of Khufu built c. 2540 BC. It stands 147m high
and was constructed of 2.
3 million carved stone blocks each weighing an average of 2. 5 tonnes.
Death has inspired some of the world's greatest architecture. Two of
the ancient world's great
wonders were tombs: the great pyramids (Figure 9. 1) and the
mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The
latter was the resting place of Mausolus, the Persian satrap of Caria
(Asia Minor) who died in 353
or 352 BC, and was built either by him or by his sister and wife
Artemisia. Although under Islamic
tradition stone memorials should be erected only if it is feared that the
grave might not be
recognized, the Taj Mahal ('abode of the chosen one') at Agra is another
tomb synonymous with
architectural magnificence and beauty. It was built between 1631 and
1653 by the Mogul emperor
Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal, who
bore him fourteen children
and was buried here in 1632. Supposedly a monument inspired by his
grief, it is one of a series of
massive building projects, including forts, mosques, trunk roads and
other public edifices, through
which he built Mogul rule into the landscape of northern India. The Taj
Mahal and its garden may
additionally be a materialization of heaven on earth, constructing
conceptions of the afterlife in
solid form as an ultimate symbol of Mogul rule under Shah Jahan.
Tombs are not just somewhere to put dead bodies: they are
representations of power (Figure 9.
2). Like ritual, funerary architecture legitimizes and extends the
hegemonic order. Tombs can be the
focus of a society's economy, towards which the accumulation of wealth
and surplus are directed.
They are artefacts which must have profoundly altered prehistoric
peoples' comprehension of space
and time. Tombs are often vast, substantial and beautiful, massively
constructed from many smaller
elements to provide an effect of permanence which appears to
overcome death. This monumental
permanence also changes the lived landscape forever, forming a fixed
point in time and space for
future generations.
9.2 Outside the Kremlin two soldiers stand guard at the door of Lenin's
tomb. From on top of the
tomb, which contains his embalmed body, Soviet dignitaries used to
watch the May Day parades.
The Rus of the tenth century might have kept alive the memory of that
remarkable funeral of their
kinsman, passed down over several generations, but the mound served
as a visible, physical
manifestation of the event, the culmination of the funerary process but
also the beginning of
remembrance and commemoration. In constructing the burial mound
with its great birch post, the
Rus were fixing their dead firmly in that Volga landscape so that it would
remain for many centuries
after they departed.
CONCLUSION
I have ended this book by focusing on the two major facets of the
archaeology of funerary practices
- the rituals which accompany death and the monuments which reveal
its presence to the world.
Ritual - the intangible indicator of a death - has in the past been
dismissed as an irretrievably lost
aspect of prehistory but, as this book has shown, we can today
approach the study of human
behaviour in past societies with new theories and new understanding.
On the other hand, funerary
architecture - the most enduring sign of a past life - has sometimes been
treated with a certain
theoretical simplicity. Archaeologists have in recent years refined their
approaches to the meaning
and causes of monumentality, by keeping ever-present in their theories
the individuals whose
diverse motivations led to the construction of the tombs and burial
places which still mark our
landscape.
Archaeology has grown beyond attempts to explain all human life
according to universal laws of
behaviour. We now move towards the understanding and explanation
of the past through more subtle
ideas about human experience and perception. Archaeology can range
across space and time to
excavate and understand the many paths we make but, immanent in
the diversity of life, there is one
universal - death. We are all ultimately going in the same direction.
APPENDIX
EXCAVATING HUMAN REMAINS
Contrary to popular belief, archaeologists no longer behave like Indiana
Jones or Lara Croft, the
animated heroine of Tomb Raider. When we venture to disturb the
dead, archaeology requires both
meticulous excavation and recording and also sensitive handling and
dignified treatment to
accommodate the feelings of the living. Archaeologists and other
researchers have developed many
techniques and approaches for recovering different kinds of information
from human remains and
the particular structures and environments in which they have survived
the centuries and millennia.
There is now a huge international body of literature on excavation and
recording techniques and
standards, archaeological project organization and management, legal
requirements and scientific
analytical techniques. 1 What is provided here is a summary of
excavation techniques to give the
reader an idea of the procedures involved.
PRE-EXCAVATION
All fieldwork should have a project design which includes research
objectives, methodology,
timetable, costing and provision for post-excavation analysis and
writing-up. 2 All site workers
should be fully briefed and familiarized with methods of recording and
excavating, and
identification of different archaeological materials including human
bone. There is no excuse for not
knowing the relevant legislation and obtaining the necessary licences,
agreements and permissions
from, in England, the Home Office, the local authority, the land owner,
the tenant and the county
archaeologist. It is always worth making sure that all parties with a
potential interest in the work
are informed before beginning the excavation. This includes the parish
council, the police, the local
public and, where appropriate, the local clergy. Nobody likes to feel left
in the dark and very often
difficulties and misunderstandings can be nipped in the bud with
adequate prior consultation.
Arrangements must be made for on-site specialists and specialist
equipment; if sampling for
DNA surviving in human bones, sterile suits and gloves are
recommended though they are no
guarantee of sterile conditions. Arrangements for eventual deposition
of bones and other finds
should also be made before excavation. The site safety officer should
ensure that site workers are
inoculated against tetanus - other diseases are very unlikely to survive
more than fifty years on sites
where bodies have become skeletonized. However, if sealed lead coffins
are expected then
consultation with the local Health and Safety Executive is essential since
there may well be risks
from lead poisoning, smallpox, anthrax and fungal diseases. Additionally
some site workers may be
in danger of suffering psychologically where soft tissue on the remains
survives largely intact.
On cemetery sites identified for development, it is rare that gravestones
have not been
previously cleared. Where they remain in situ and can be recorded prior
to excavation, the CBA
have published a manual for their