ABSTRACT
It is a truism to observe that all people die. It is equally true to observe that the death of a loved one is one of the most traumatic events in life. Beliefs about the nature of life, death and what happens thereafter, are profoundly religious in nature. The study of burials brings the archaeologist into the closest possible contact with a vanished people and society – providing both the remains of the individuals and one of the very few enduring examples of very deliberate, and inherently meaningful, belief-laden activities. Jean-Louis Brunaux has phrased it thus: ‘it would be more correct to see the [world of the dead] as the terrain of an ideology – not simply funerary, but more broadly religious and eschatological’. Burials and funerary practices are of unequalled value to the archaeologist.
