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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    Child bridegroom: Eight-year-old boy marries 61-year-old woman after ‘dead ancestors told him to tie the knot’ An eight-year-old schoolboy has married a 61-year-old woman because the ghost of his dead ancestor told him to. Sanele Masilela tied the knot with Helen Shabangu, who is already married and a mother-of-five. The boy, from Tshwane, South Africa, said he had been told by his dead ancestors to wed and his family, fearing divine retribution, forked out for a wedding. They paid £500 for the bride and a further £1,000 for the big day, which was organised in just two months.  Dressed in a bow tie and tiny silver suit, little Sanele, the youngest of five children, exchanged rings in front of 100 guests and even puckered up for a kiss. It’s already shocked the community but the family has defended the ceremony, saying it was just a ritual and not legally binding. Read more here.

    Child bridegroom: Eight-year-old boy marries 61-year-old woman after ‘dead ancestors told him to tie the knot’

    An eight-year-old schoolboy has married a 61-year-old woman because the ghost of his dead ancestor told him to.

    Sanele Masilela tied the knot with Helen Shabangu, who is already married and a mother-of-five.

    The boy, from Tshwane, South Africa, said he had been told by his dead ancestors to wed and his family, fearing divine retribution, forked out for a wedding.

    They paid £500 for the bride and a further £1,000 for the big day, which was organised in just two months.

     Dressed in a bow tie and tiny silver suit, little Sanele, the youngest of five children, exchanged rings in front of 100 guests and even puckered up for a kiss.

    It’s already shocked the community but the family has defended the ceremony, saying it was just a ritual and not legally binding.

    Read more here.

    Brazil: police puzzle over 7 gift-wrapped skulls

    RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Police in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo are baffled by a macabre puzzle: someone has been leaving gift-wrapped human skulls around town.

    Investigator Paul Henry Bozon Verduraz described the case to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper in a story published Thursday.

    The first skull in cherry-red wrapping was found on February 20 in a planter near a residential building downtown. Since then, seven others have been found near Mormon temples or consulates, including those for Russia, the Czech Republic and South Africa. The skulls are old, with traces of dirt.

    Verduraz says security cameras captured images of a woman in an ankle-length skirt leaving the skulls, which seem old, with traces of dirt. He thinks this may be part of some sort of ritual.

    China imprisons four men for ‘ghost marriage’ corpse bride trafficking Yanchuan court jails men for digging up and selling bodies in afterlife custom of matching dead women to deceased bachelors Photograph: @mr.jerry/Getty Images/Flickr RF A county court in central China has sentenced four men to prison for digging up and selling corpses on the black market to enable “ghost marriages”, a millennia-old custom of burying deceased bachelors alongside newly deceased wives so that they will not grow lonely in the afterlife. On Saturday, the Xi’an Evening News reported that the Yanchuan county court in Yan’an City, Shanxi province, sentenced each of the men to more than two years in prison for stealing 10 female corpses, cleaning them up and counterfeiting their medical records to boost their prices, and selling them on the black market for a total of £25,000. Ritual ghost marriages, which may date back to the 17th century BC, are increasingly rare in contemporary China – Mao Zedong tried to eliminate them when he assumed power in 1949 – but they are still practised in rural parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and Guangdong provinces. Families often employ a matchmaker to help find a suitable spouse for their deceased loved ones. The four men, with surnames Pang, Bai, He and Zhang, exhumed the corpses in the winter of 2011 from a smattering of arid, coal-rich counties in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces. The state-run Global Times newspaper reported in 2011 that an influx of coal money to parts of northern Shaanxi province bolstered the area’s underground corpse trade, with a newly wealthy but superstitious demographic suddenly being able to afford high prices for desirable postmortem mates. Some are known to purchase their corpse brides straight from hospitals, where they cut deals with grieving families. This is not the first time that ghost marriage intermediaries have fallen on the wrong side of the law. One woman died over the lunar new year in February 2012 and was sold by her family to the family of a recently deceased young man for about £3,700; soon afterwards, police caught a graverobber selling her twice-exhumed body to another family for slightly less. In 2009, a grieving father in Xianyang City, also in Shaanxi province, paid a team of graverobbers £2,700 to find a suitable bride for his son, who had died in a car crash. They were arrested for exhuming the remains of a teenage girl who had killed herself not long after failing her college entrance exams. According to the Global Times, less affluent families who desire ghost marriages may use a non-human proxy for the corpse bride, such as a silver statuette or a doughy human-shaped biscuit with black beans for eyes. Some may buy an old, rotten corpse at a discounted price, dress it in clothing and reinforce its skeleton with steel wire. The tradition has its own set of customs and rituals, including postmortem marriages with sumptuous feasts and dowries, according to the report.

    China imprisons four men for ‘ghost marriage’ corpse bride trafficking

    Yanchuan court jails men for digging up and selling bodies in afterlife custom of matching dead women to deceased bachelors

    Photograph: @mr.jerry/Getty Images/Flickr RF

    A county court in central China has sentenced four men to prison for digging up and selling corpses on the black market to enable “ghost marriages”, a millennia-old custom of burying deceased bachelors alongside newly deceased wives so that they will not grow lonely in the afterlife.

    On Saturday, the Xi’an Evening News reported that the Yanchuan county court in Yan’an City, Shanxi province, sentenced each of the men to more than two years in prison for stealing 10 female corpses, cleaning them up and counterfeiting their medical records to boost their prices, and selling them on the black market for a total of £25,000.

    Ritual ghost marriages, which may date back to the 17th century BC, are increasingly rare in contemporary China – Mao Zedong tried to eliminate them when he assumed power in 1949 – but they are still practised in rural parts of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Hebei and Guangdong provinces. Families often employ a matchmaker to help find a suitable spouse for their deceased loved ones.

    The four men, with surnames Pang, Bai, He and Zhang, exhumed the corpses in the winter of 2011 from a smattering of arid, coal-rich counties in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.

    The state-run Global Times newspaper reported in 2011 that an influx of coal money to parts of northern Shaanxi province bolstered the area’s underground corpse trade, with a newly wealthy but superstitious demographic suddenly being able to afford high prices for desirable postmortem mates. Some are known to purchase their corpse brides straight from hospitals, where they cut deals with grieving families.

    This is not the first time that ghost marriage intermediaries have fallen on the wrong side of the law. One woman died over the lunar new year in February 2012 and was sold by her family to the family of a recently deceased young man for about £3,700; soon afterwards, police caught a graverobber selling her twice-exhumed body to another family for slightly less.

    In 2009, a grieving father in Xianyang City, also in Shaanxi province, paid a team of graverobbers £2,700 to find a suitable bride for his son, who had died in a car crash. They were arrested for exhuming the remains of a teenage girl who had killed herself not long after failing her college entrance exams.

    According to the Global Times, less affluent families who desire ghost marriages may use a non-human proxy for the corpse bride, such as a silver statuette or a doughy human-shaped biscuit with black beans for eyes. Some may buy an old, rotten corpse at a discounted price, dress it in clothing and reinforce its skeleton with steel wire.

    The tradition has its own set of customs and rituals, including postmortem marriages with sumptuous feasts and dowries, according to the report.

    sparkypoo: Artist’s impression of the Shanidar Cave ‘flower burial’.The grave site of Shanidar IV (the 60,000 year-old skeletal remains of an adult male Neanderthal) was found to contain high concentrations of pollen; far more than expected for natural placement. Upon examination of these concentrated pollen samples,it was found that the overwhelming majority of plant species had medicinal properties, pointing to a potential deliberate inhumation with symbolic meaning. Could Homo Neanderthalensis contemplate the notion of life after death? Shanidar, as well as other sites such as Kebara, give us insights into the social lives of our sister species. We might never know whether or not these ‘burials’ were, in fact, intentional - but we can certainly continue to question the Neanderthal stereotype. 

    sparkypoo:

    Artist’s impression of the Shanidar Cave ‘flower burial’.

    The grave site of Shanidar IV (the 60,000 year-old skeletal remains of an adult male Neanderthal) was found to contain high concentrations of pollen; far more than expected for natural placement. Upon examination of these concentrated pollen samples,it was found that the overwhelming majority of plant species had medicinal properties, pointing to a potential deliberate inhumation with symbolic meaning. 

    Could Homo Neanderthalensis contemplate the notion of life after death? Shanidar, as well as other sites such as Kebara, give us insights into the social lives of our sister species. We might never know whether or not these ‘burials’ were, in fact, intentional - but we can certainly continue to question the Neanderthal stereotype. 

    (via theolduvaigorge)

    The bizarre burial rituals of Europe’s newly discovered ‘oldest town’: Residents sliced their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up Residents of what is thought to be Europe’s oldest town cut their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up, according to archaeologists. The newly discovered ancient settlement, thought to date back to 4700BC, is near the Bulgarian town of Provadia, about 25 miles from the country’s Black Sea coast. Archaeology professor Vassil Nikolov led the dig which focused on the town itself and its necropolis, where the strange and complex burial rituals were discovered. Full story here!

    The bizarre burial rituals of Europe’s newly discovered ‘oldest town’: Residents sliced their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up

    Residents of what is thought to be Europe’s oldest town cut their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up, according to archaeologists.

    The newly discovered ancient settlement, thought to date back to 4700BC, is near the Bulgarian town of Provadia, about 25 miles from the country’s Black Sea coast.

    Archaeology professor Vassil Nikolov led the dig which focused on the town itself and its necropolis, where the strange and complex burial rituals were discovered.

    Full story here!

    50 shattered skulls used in sacrificial rituals found at sacred Aztec temple after lying hidden for 500 years Mexican archaeologists have uncovered the largest number of skulls ever found in one offering at the most sacred temple of the Aztec empire dating back more than 500 years. The finding reveals new ways the pre-Colombian civilization used skulls in rituals at Mexico City’s Templo Mayor, experts said. That’s where the most important Aztec ceremonies took place between 1325 until the Spanish conquest in 1521. The 50 skulls were found at one sacrificial stone. Five were buried under the stone, and each had holes on both sides - signaling they were hung on a skull rack. Full story and more photos here!

    50 shattered skulls used in sacrificial rituals found at sacred Aztec temple after lying hidden for 500 years

    Mexican archaeologists have uncovered the largest number of skulls ever found in one offering at the most sacred temple of the Aztec empire dating back more than 500 years.

    The finding reveals new ways the pre-Colombian civilization used skulls in rituals at Mexico City’s Templo Mayor, experts said. That’s where the most important Aztec ceremonies took place between 1325 until the Spanish conquest in 1521.

    The 50 skulls were found at one sacrificial stone. Five were buried under the stone, and each had holes on both sides - signaling they were hung on a skull rack.

    Full story and more photos here!

    A brief history of restorative arts

    As early as 1200 BCE, the ancient Egyptians were practicing a range of restorative techniques on the emaciated features of the dead from filling the inside of the mouths with sawdust to improve hollowed cheeks to stuffing linen under the eyelids or replacing eyes with stones. They would continue this procedure, tending to any disability, injury or disfigurement until the face and the body were contoured to approximate the original features and shape of the person they were preparing for their death ceremony.

    Since then, modern restorative techniques, renamed restorative arts in 1930, became an important sub-discipline of the aftercare services; mending the body when it exhibited obvious signs of trauma, disease or wounds from war to provide comfort to the bereaved by presenting a loved one who appears familiar in death as they did in life.

    Full post here!

    Dancing for death It is a display fit for heroes. These amazing photographs show how members of an indigenous tribe in the Amazonian Basin of Brazil gathered to honour in death people who are of great importance to them. Decorating themselves with impressive markings and wearing colourful headdresses, the Yawalapiti tribe members danced and wrestled in an extraordinary spectacle known as the ‘quarup’. The ritual, which has been held for centuries, lasts several days. This year the tribe was photographed as it honoured a Yawalapiti Indian who they consider a great leader. They also honoured Darcy Ribeiro, a well-known author, anthropologist and politician known for focusing on the relationship between native peoples and education in Brazil. The tribe lives in the village Yawalapiti, which is located to the south of the Amazonian Basin, between the Tuatuari and Kuluene rivers. For the full story and more photographs, click here.

    Dancing for death

    It is a display fit for heroes.

    These amazing photographs show how members of an indigenous tribe in the Amazonian Basin of Brazil gathered to honour in death people who are of great importance to them.

    Decorating themselves with impressive markings and wearing colourful headdresses, the Yawalapiti tribe members danced and wrestled in an extraordinary spectacle known as the ‘quarup’.

    The ritual, which has been held for centuries, lasts several days.

    This year the tribe was photographed as it honoured a Yawalapiti Indian who they consider a great leader.

    They also honoured Darcy Ribeiro, a well-known author, anthropologist and politician known for focusing on the relationship between native peoples and education in Brazil.

    The tribe lives in the village Yawalapiti, which is located to the south of the Amazonian Basin, between the Tuatuari and Kuluene rivers.

    For the full story and more photographs, click here.

    Stone Age skull-smashers spark a cultural mystery

    AN UNUSUAL cluster of Stone Age skulls with smashed-in faces has been found carefully separated from the rest of their skeletons. They appear to have been dug up several years after being buried with their bodies, separated, then reburied.

    Collections of detached skulls have been dug up at many Stone Age sites in Europe and the Near East - but the face-smashing is a new twist that adds further mystery to how these societies related to their dead.

    Juan José Ibañez at the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelonasays the find may suggest that Stone Age cultures believed dead young men were a threat to the world of the living.

    No one knows why Neolithic societies buried clusters of skulls - often near or underneath settlements. Some think it was a sign of ancestral veneration. “When people started living together [during the Neolithic period], they needed a social cement,” says Ibañez. Venerating ancestors might have been a way of doing this. But the violence demonstrated towards the skulls in the latest cluster suggests a different story.

    Full story here.

    Despite the dapper tie and snappy suit, this old chap isn’t in the best of health… mainly because he’s been dead for a couple of hundred years. Held up by (living) family members, the mummified remains of a man and a woman are given their three-yearly sprucing, which includes new threads in a ritual in Indonesia. Called Ma’nene, the ceremony, which was pictured in the Sulawesi Province, celebrates the deceased and the bond that exists between family members - both alive and dead. After the ritual, the remains are laid to rest for another three years before returning once again to the world of the living. Just…wow! For someone who’s been dead for a couple of centuries, I think the fellow looks pretty good! Click here to see more photos…

    Despite the dapper tie and snappy suit, this old chap isn’t in the best of health… mainly because he’s been dead for a couple of hundred years.

    Held up by (living) family members, the mummified remains of a man and a woman are given their three-yearly sprucing, which includes new threads in a ritual in Indonesia.

    Called Ma’nene, the ceremony, which was pictured in the Sulawesi Province, celebrates the deceased and the bond that exists between family members - both alive and dead.

    After the ritual, the remains are laid to rest for another three years before returning once again to the world of the living.

    Just…wow! For someone who’s been dead for a couple of centuries, I think the fellow looks pretty good! Click here to see more photos…

    Dancing With The Dead

    by  

    Winter in Madagascar is a season that sees two traditional rituals of passage – famadihana (the ‘turning of the bones’), and rites of circumcision.

    Every five to ten years, it is the custom for many Malagasy families to exhume their deceased relatives, wrap them in new shrouds, and dance with their bodies before returning them to ancestral crypts. The ceremonies of famadihana take place in winter as some believe that the dead are cold, so need new shrouds. Deceased ancestors are gone but are always resting close by. Their tombs lie in the backyards of family homes. Famadihana involves huge family festivity and sumptuous banquets of meat and rice. It is a time for the living to meet the dead, to show respect to ancestors and ask for their blessing.

    Also at wintertime, Malagasy boys undergo circumcision to mark their transition to manhood. By marking the moment with the physical transformation of circumcision, the point of crossing over is made an event. Originally, the ritual took place in winter as it less likely to get sick then in the heat of summer. These days, circumcision ceremonies are often held when boys reach school-going age, rather than at puberty. The ceremony starts in the early morning before the sun comes up, and once the boys have returned home they are lavished with toys and sweets.

    This story is about the persistence of life. About transitions and tributes that despite their routine nature, bring forth profound and genuine emotion. Photographing the story allowed me to study the power of ritual to help people feel and remember. Traditions endure, and they indicate a continuance of life. Circumcision marks a transition for boys to the next stage of life. Similarly, death is not finality. Life and memory persist despite death. Celebrating lives posthumously questions the significance of death. When graves are opened during famadihana, family members hug, kiss and dance with the bodies. There is no sense of fear or disgust, death becomes meaningless and families are made whole again.

    Mysterious 1200AD temple under Mexico City has bodies of 15 children - and a dog slain to keep them company in the afterlife  Archaeologists in Mexico City have unearthed the skulls and other bones of 15 people, most of them the children of traveling merchants during Aztec times.  The mysterious mass grave had a ceremonial purpose, researchers say - and the children were surrounded by religious items including a dog sacrificed to ‘keep them company.’ It pains me to link to stories from the Daily Mail, it really does, but this is an interesting discovery and so needs must!

    Mysterious 1200AD temple under Mexico City has bodies of 15 children - and a dog slain to keep them company in the afterlife 

    Archaeologists in Mexico City have unearthed the skulls and other bones of 15 people, most of them the children of traveling merchants during Aztec times. 

    The mysterious mass grave had a ceremonial purpose, researchers say - and the children were surrounded by religious items including a dog sacrificed to ‘keep them company.’

    It pains me to link to stories from the Daily Mail, it really does, but this is an interesting discovery and so needs must!

    A Death Ritual for the Living

    Most people dread the idea of being confined in tight spaces – for people with claustrophobia, it’s a constant search for escape routes – it’s a matter of having openings; exits; a steady stream of airflow, so the sheer thought of being enclosed in a narrow, body-sized space is enough to cause those glands to perspire and that heart to palpitate. In fact, for years people have dreaded the notion of being prematurely buried alive, however, for Buddhists in Thailand, their offering is a deeply bizarre ritual of death and rebirth.

    It’s the death rite for the living; an opportunity to spin the wheel of karma – to have a second chance at life by experiencing a symbolic death, resurrection and rebirth. It is the Buddhist rebirth ceremony known as non loeng sadorcro, which can be translated to, lie in coffin, get rid of bad luck and it is with this ceremony that the Monks believe that it can solve a person’s life torments and free them of bad karma.

    Despite my hatred of confined spaces, I actually rather like the sound of this…very cathartic! Click through to read the rest of the article, it’s fascinating stuff!

    ‘Bizarre cow woman’ found in Cambridgeshire Anglo-Saxon dig Archaeologists excavating an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Cambridgeshire say the discovery of a woman buried with a cow is a “genuinely bizarre” find. The grave was uncovered in Oakington by students from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Central Lancashire. At first it was thought the animal skeleton was a horse. Student Jake Nuttall said: “Male warriors might be buried with horses, but a woman and a cow is new to us.” He added: “We were excited when we thought we had a horse, but realising it was a cow made it even more bizarre.” Co-director of the excavation, Dr Duncan Sayer, from the University of Central Lancashire, said: “Animal burials are extremely rare, anyway. Grave goods including brooches indicated the woman was of high status “There are only 31 horse burials in Britain and they are all with men”. Click through to read more about the ‘bizarre cow woman’…

    ‘Bizarre cow woman’ found in Cambridgeshire Anglo-Saxon dig

    Archaeologists excavating an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Cambridgeshire say the discovery of a woman buried with a cow is a “genuinely bizarre” find.

    The grave was uncovered in Oakington by students from Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Central Lancashire.

    At first it was thought the animal skeleton was a horse.

    Student Jake Nuttall said: “Male warriors might be buried with horses, but a woman and a cow is new to us.”

    He added: “We were excited when we thought we had a horse, but realising it was a cow made it even more bizarre.”

    Co-director of the excavation, Dr Duncan Sayer, from the University of Central Lancashire, said: “Animal burials are extremely rare, anyway.

    Grave goods including brooches indicated the woman was of high status

    “There are only 31 horse burials in Britain and they are all with men”.

    Click through to read more about the ‘bizarre cow woman’…