ABSTRACT
A sensory approach to the study of ancient funerary rituals offers fresh insights into the sights, sounds, tastes, textures, and smells of death and burial. This chapter situates the varied roles of corpses—and their attendant olfactory, visual, and tactile characteristics—in funerary rituals of the second millennium bce Levant. The study argues that close and continuing interaction with human remains in reused intramural burials played a significant role in the transformation of the social status of the dead after burial. Intramural burials occurred widely throughout the region and will be presented through two case studies: Royal Hypogeum at Qatna in Syria (c. 1800–1350 bce); and Tomb 100 at Tel Megiddo in Israel (c. 1600–1450 bce). Additionally, this chapter devotes special attention to novel sensory experiences that have yet to be addressed involving use of mind-altering substances in funerary rituals of the ancient Near East. Altering the mind could both mitigate unpleasant conditions of shared burial spaces and enhance mourners’ interactions with the dead as bodies and as persons.
