About Me

I'm a PhD student researching the role of the archaeological dead in contemporary British society. Think of this as a scrapbook of all the interesting links, snippets of information and random bits and bobs I come across pertaining to death, dying and the dead. Enjoy?!

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    Why Georgians 'dine with the dead'

    In many Western countries graveyards are seen as sinister or even frightening but not so in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.

    As with other eastern Orthodox countries, it is common for Georgians to honour their deceased relatives by taking food and wine to cemeteries, and having feasts beside the graves.

    Although practised thoughout the year, Orthodox Easter is one of the busiest times for the tradition.

    Damien McGuinness joined families in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to find out more about dining with the dead.

    The Close-up series focuses on aspects of life in countries and cities around the world. What may seem ordinary and familiar to the people who live there can be surprising to those who don’t.

    (Source: BBC)

    Dead and Buried is an innovative research project that enagaged a group of young people with the opportunity to work alongside Dr Hannah Rumble, from Bath University’s Centre for Death and Society and Charlotte Chapman, a facilitator from Kumiko Community Arts, to engage in a participatory arts project exploring death and natural burial. The project ran for 7 weeks, meeting one afternoon a week, at The Park local opportunity centre in Knowle West, Bristol. The participants ranged in age from 17 to 25 and all came from very different backgrounds.
    Through a series of structured workshops that provoked questioning and exploration around death and burial, the young people were encourgaed to think critically, to explore these themes and develop a “creative response”. 
    The result was a very successfull week long exhibition at Centrespace Gallery in Bristol in April 2013.

    (Source: Vimeo)

    Titanic: Grave of crew member who survived disaster marked

    The grave of a crew member who survived the Titanic disaster has been marked for the first time in Ballymoney.

    Wilfred Deable Seward was born in London in 1887 and by 1912 he was already an experienced crewman.

    He was chief pantry steward for the second class passengers on Titanic.

    Seward was on his bunk reading when the ship shuddered as it struck the iceberg late on 14 April.

    Initially he was not concerned until another member of staff told him there was something wrong and he better go up on deck.

    When the order was given to abandon the ship, the 25 year old was tasked with getting passengers on to lifeboat number three. He joined the passengers and helped row the boat away from the doomed liner.

    (Source: BBC News)

    Anger Over Plan to Sell Site of Wounded Knee Massacre

    WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. — Ever since American soldiers massacred men, women and children here more than a century ago in the last major bloodshed of the American Indian wars, this haunted patch of rolling hills and ponderosa pines has embodied the combustible relationship between Indians and the United States government.

    It was here that a group of Indian activists aired their grievances against the government with a forceful takeover in 1973 that resulted in protests, a bloody standoff with federal agents and deep divisions among the Indian people.

    And now the massacre site, which passed into non-Indian hands generations ago, is up for sale, once again dragging Wounded Knee to the center of the Indian people’s bitter struggle against perceived injustice — as well as sowing rifts within the tribe over whether it would be proper, should the tribe get the land, to develop it in a way that brings some money to the destitute region.

    James A. Czywczynski of Rapid City is asking $3.9 million for the 40-acre plot he owns here, far more than the $7,000 that the deeply impoverished Oglala Sioux say the land is worth. Mr. Czywczynski insists that his price fairly accounts for the land’s sentimental and historical value, an attitude that the people here see as disrespect.

    Read more.

    discoverynews: No one can predict how 9/11 will be remembered because the history is still being written. How Should We Remember 9/11? While Americans have an admirable tendency to focus on the positive, historians say it’s critical to also remember tragedy. Remember where you were that day, think about what you saw, heard and felt, but also remember that we are still here. We are still striving, succeeding, failing, working, loving and listening. We carry the memory of those lost with us. We are Americans and we will continue. we remember… wnyc: (Photo by Stephen Nessen) Since it opened on September 11 of last year, more than 4.5 million visitors have entered the National 9/11 Memorial to observe the reflecting pools in the footprint of the World Trade Center. But what does the memorial say about us?

    discoverynews:

    No one can predict how 9/11 will be remembered because the history is still being written.

    How Should We Remember 9/11?

    While Americans have an admirable tendency to focus on the positive, historians say it’s critical to also remember tragedy.
    Remember where you were that day, think about what you saw, heard and felt, but also remember that we are still here. We are still striving, succeeding, failing, working, loving and listening.
    We carry the memory of those lost with us.
    We are Americans and we will continue.

    we remember…

    wnyc:

    (Photo by Stephen Nessen)

    Since it opened on September 11 of last year, more than 4.5 million visitors have entered the National 9/11 Memorial to observe the reflecting pools in the footprint of the World Trade Center. But what does the memorial say about us?

    • Posted 8 months ago
    • September 11th, 2012

    319 Likes & Reblogs

    Interactive gravestones: how the dead live on, online

    Quick Response codes can be scanned by smartphones to open up online biographies of the person who has died.

    Traditional graveyards are being transformed through technology with interactive headstones providing a revolutionary way for people to remember loved ones.

    Quick Response (QR) codes on gravestones can be scanned by smartphones to open up online biographies of the dead person.

    The related webpage can show profiles of the person, pictures, videos and tributes from family and friends.

    The funeral directors Chester Pearce of Poole, Dorset, which is using the technology, said the QR barcodes enabled visitors to learn all about the person buried, rather than being limited to a name, age and date of birth and death.

    Those given access to the website can also add tributes of their own.

    The QR codes can also be put on memorials and tribute plaques on benches, said Chester Pearce’s managing director, Stephen Nimmo.

    The £300 codes are etched on to a small granite or metal square before being embedded or glued on to a gravestone.

    One of the first customers in Poole to use the technology is Gill Tuttiett, 53, whose husband, Timothy, died from heart failure in November, aged 55.

    “Tim was quite outward-going and game for anything,” she said. “I think this is the way forward and Tim would have wanted that, and it’s making a process that’s hard possibly easier.” It would also be useful for someone trying to create family trees in the future, she said.

    Nimmo said that he got the idea after visiting the Kremlin Wall necropolis in Moscow and realising he knew so much about the people buried there.

    “People often wander around cemeteries and look at gravestones and wonder who that person was. By using the QR codes they can find out all they need to know”.

    Full story here.

    Spontaneous Mourning and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Roadside Memorials

    American roadsides are home to a vast range of impromptu memorials, some anonymous and modest crosses at the scene of a tragedy and others elaborate and well-maintained commemorations.  Most of the markers on the shoulders of American streets commemorate the victims of an automobile accident, but there seem to be no especially systematic surveys of the geographical distribution, styles, composition, or duration of such markers.  The phenomenon is not restricted to the US:  In Australia, for instance, an astounding one in five auto accident fatalities is commemorated by a roadside memorial, and a thorough and fascinating catalogue of its roadside memorialsreveals exceptionally complex markers and a diverse range of material commemorations; in the Ukraine, markers are traditionally placed at the site of tragedyand dot Ukrainian roadsides; and an ambitious French study by anthropologist Laetitia Nicolas inventoried markers and elements of roadside shrines throughout the country, with some thorough ethnographically researched studies of some shrines.  While these memorials appear to have become much more common in the past few decades, the historical roots for such memorials extend well into the past, too, evoking the trailside burials left along arteries blazed by the earliest settlers into the American West.

    There is a series of compelling archaeological questions in these spontaneous shrines that reflect how we manage tragedy and loss and collectively approach public space.  

    This is a brilliant post - click through to read the rest!

    Ghost bikes

    Ghost Bikes are small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street. A bicycle is painted all white and locked to a street sign near the crash site, accompanied by a small plaque. They serve as reminders of the tragedy that took place on an otherwise anonymous street corner, and as quiet statements in support of cyclists’ right to safe travel.

    The first ghost bikes were created in St. Louis, Missouri in 2003. Currently there are over 500 ghost bikes that have since appeared in over 180 locations throughout the world. For those who create and install the memorials, the death of a fellow bicyclist hits home. We all travel the same unsafe streets and face the same risks; it could just as easily be any one of us. Each time we say we hope to never have to do it again — but we remain committed to making these memorials as long as they are needed.

    Ever seen a white bike chained to a railing and wondered what that was all about? It’s a ghost bike and this great website explains all.

    Sheffield memorial removed after threat from objectors

    A MEMORIAL gate to help mourners grieve has had to be removed - as people said it ‘reminded them about death’.

    Volunteers at Your Good Mourning shop, in Walkley, were ‘gobsmacked’ to be told to take down the gate or it would be torn down by objectors.

    Tributes, ribbons and memorial doves had been tied to the gate, which had permission to be attached to the tree outside on South Road, in memory of lost loved ones.

    Its aim was to help people come to terms with a death as part of the Dying Matters national campaign.

    Glenda Kirkby has founded the shop, which acts as a chatroom to help people dealing with the death of a friend or loved one.

    She said: “We want to make people aware that to be able to grieve and talk about it does help the process of losing somebody.

    “The gate was up there for two days when a woman came in the shop and said ‘can you take it down because it’s upsetting people’.

    “We were gobsmacked so asked why and she said it was reminding people about death.

    “She said there was a group of people who don’t like it and they will rip it down if you don’t take it down.”

    Hours later, posts at the side of the gate had been ripped down and Your Good Mourning volunteers felt forced to remove the memorial.

    Glenda, who set up the shop after finding a lack of support when her father died, wants Star readers to give their views on what happened.

    She added: “We were worried that some of the tributes people had left might be taken which would be far more disrespectful.

    “The only problem we possibly thought could happen with the gate is that somebody take it for scrap, that’s why we secured it.

    “We never thought people would complain because it reminded them of death.

    “The situation we have faced is crazy. This just shows there are still a lot of taboos about death.”

    A devoted farmer created this touching heart-shaped meadow as a tribute to his late wife - by planting thousands of oak trees. Dedicated Winston Howes, 70, spent a week planting each oak sapling after his wife of 33 years Janet died suddenly 17 years ago. He laid out the fledgling trees in a six-acre field but left a perfect heart shape in the middle - with the point facing in the direction of her childhood home. The labour of love has now blossomed into a mature meadow - a peaceful oasis where Winston can sit and remember his wife of 33 years. His meadow cannot be seen from the road and has remained a family secret until a hot air balloonist took this photograph from the air. So sad and yet so beautiful at the same time! *sniff*

    A devoted farmer created this touching heart-shaped meadow as a tribute to his late wife - by planting thousands of oak trees.

    Dedicated Winston Howes, 70, spent a week planting each oak sapling after his wife of 33 years Janet died suddenly 17 years ago.

    He laid out the fledgling trees in a six-acre field but left a perfect heart shape in the middle - with the point facing in the direction of her childhood home.

    The labour of love has now blossomed into a mature meadow - a peaceful oasis where Winston can sit and remember his wife of 33 years.

    His meadow cannot be seen from the road and has remained a family secret until a hot air balloonist took this photograph from the air.

    So sad and yet so beautiful at the same time! *sniff*

    The rise of genocide memorials Members of England’s European Championship squad have visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camps. This comes as memorials and museums marking the sites of mass killings around the world witnessed an increase in visitors. A delegation led by Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson took time out from training on Friday to visit the notorious death camp Nazi Germany operated on Polish soil after invading its neighbour during World War II. Another group headed by captain Steven Gerrard travelled to Oskar Schindler’s factory in Krakow. The visits received a mixed reaction from commentators, with the Daily Mirror’s Oliver Holt saying the “harrowing visit… made an extremely powerful statement” at a time “football is wrestling with new and grave concerns over racism among players and supporters”. But for the Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips, it was a “deeply distasteful football PR stunt”, which was “intended to cleanse the besmirched reputation of English football”. Yet England’s players are not the first footballers to visit Auschwitz. Holland and Italy, who are also camped in Krakow, have already been, as have representatives of the German team. And they join the millions of tourists who have walked through the iron gates at Auschwitz bearing the legend Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free) to pay their respects. Last year, a record 1.4 million people visited the site, while Holocaust memorials all over the world are also seeing numbers soar. Click through to read the rest of the article.

    The rise of genocide memorials

    Members of England’s European Championship squad have visited the former Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camps. This comes as memorials and museums marking the sites of mass killings around the world witnessed an increase in visitors.

    A delegation led by Wayne Rooney and England manager Roy Hodgson took time out from training on Friday to visit the notorious death camp Nazi Germany operated on Polish soil after invading its neighbour during World War II.

    Another group headed by captain Steven Gerrard travelled to Oskar Schindler’s factory in Krakow.

    The visits received a mixed reaction from commentators, with the Daily Mirror’s Oliver Holt saying the “harrowing visit… made an extremely powerful statement” at a time “football is wrestling with new and grave concerns over racism among players and supporters”.

    But for the Daily Mail’s Melanie Phillips, it was a “deeply distasteful football PR stunt”, which was “intended to cleanse the besmirched reputation of English football”.

    Yet England’s players are not the first footballers to visit Auschwitz. Holland and Italy, who are also camped in Krakow, have already been, as have representatives of the German team.

    And they join the millions of tourists who have walked through the iron gates at Auschwitz bearing the legend Arbeit Macht Frei (work makes you free) to pay their respects.

    Last year, a record 1.4 million people visited the site, while Holocaust memorials all over the world are also seeing numbers soar.

    Click through to read the rest of the article.