Introduction

Not to be confused with death, this book is concerned with cemeteries – the elucidation and understanding of Chalcolithic (4500-3700 bce) and contemporary cemeteries in the Southern Levant. Death is a universal phenomenon that elicits a variety of cultural responses, while cemeteries are but one possible outcome, resulting from the accumulated eect of repeated inhumations in a prescribed location. In Western culture, the two concepts are intimately related; this, however, is by no means always the case and the distinction between them is important to maintain. To focus our attention on cemeteries means to put their structure, organization and dynamics in the centre, while death, whether as concept or experience, is of subsidiary relevance.