ABSTRACT
In recent years, much attention has been given to the sociological impact of burials found in excavations. Following the pioneering work of Saxe (1970) and Binford (1971), virtually all studies of ranking and stratification of ancient societies rely to some degree or other upon analysis of mortuary remains. Simply speaking, it has been suggested that patterns in death bear a direct relationship to patterns of life in society. Any social distinctions in life are assumed to be directly reflected in the burial record, thus enabling the student to reconstruct a society’s social organisation by analysing the mortuary evidence. This approach has been severely criticised by, among others, Hodder (1980) and Pader (1980; 1982) as being much too simplistic and as overlooking many of the symbolic actions in human mortuary behaviour. Burial practices do not a priori reflect social realities but, in contrast, may give an inverted or disguised picture of the world of the living, due to prevailing societal attitudes towards death.
