38 Results Found

In July 2024, the “Investigating the Archaeology of Death in Pompeii Research Project” carried out a scientific and methodical excavation of the areas outside two of the gates to the city of Pompeii. One of them is the funerary area of Po...

There is a rich iconographic tradition demonstrating the importance of animals in ritual in the Dolenjska Hallstatt archaeological culture of Early Iron Age Slovenia (800–300 bce). However, the role of animals in mortuary practice is not well r...

This investigation intends to study and characterize the mortars and bricks from walls and floors used in the funerary nucleus of the archaeological site of Dr. Gonçalo Sampaio Street (Braga, Portugal), associated with the Via XVII necropolis of the...

A variety of Prehistoric dry-stone monuments are ubiquitous in Western Sahara, a region delimited by the boundaries of the former Spanish colony. With either burial or ritual functions, these monuments are spread throughout the Sahara Desert creating...

Wall painting in the Sardis hypogea expresses a regional visual language situated within the context of Late Antique approaches to decorative surfaces and multivalent motifs of indeterminate religious affiliation. Iconographic ambivalence and a typic...

Archaeoentomology is the study of insects and other arthropods recovered from an archaeological site; they can be found in association with ancient human and animal remains, food, artefacts or they can be related to the environment and its changes th...

Our archaeological and anthropological investigations carried out inside the Crypt of the Franciscan Monastery in Azzio (Varese, Northern Italy) allowed us to discover a singular funerary practice of Franciscan friars. It consisted of a secondary bur...

Environmental elements, such as insects, plants, algae and microbes, may provide important information when reconstructing and interpreting past events. In archaeological contexts, the study of the insects associated with dead bodies can contribute t...

The Iron Age Saka population of the eastern Eurasian Steppe is considered one of the earliest of the Scythian groups to emerge at the beginning of the 1st millennium BCE, consequently producing some of the earliest expressions of ‘animal style&...

This article analyses the architecture of the Early Iron Age royal burial mound Tunnug 1 in the “Siberian Valley of the Kings” in Tuva Republic, Russia. This large monument is paramount for the archaeological exploration of the early Scythian period...

Pompeii represents a unique archaeological site in the world for the knowledge potential that it preserves, coinciding with an entire city of the ancient world—a fragile urban organism whose conservation represents an enormous challenge. The Pompeii...

Funerary archaeoentomology is the discipline that studies insects and other arthropods in archaeological contexts, with a particular focus on the funerary domain. The presence of specific species, such as necrophagous beetles or saprophagous flies, c...

For past societies on the Iberian Peninsula, one of the most prolific architectures was earthen construction, with a wealth of typologies and solutions derived from the legacy of local construction and materials. However, its study within the field o...

Historical and archaeological records help shed light on the production, ritual practices, and personhood of cult objects characterizing the central Peruvian highlands after ca. AD 200. Colonial accounts indicate that descendant groups made and vener...

This paper presents the integrated study of the funerary ara of Ofilius Ianuarius, discovered within the burial complex of Via Appia Antica 39, and explores its digital stratigraphic recontextualisation through two 3D semantic workflows. The research...

Systematic studies on Late Islamic cemeteries that integrate architectural, ritual, and biological aspects remain relatively rare, particularly in Islamic countries or regions with an active Muslim presence. Typically, available research focuses more...

The marginal arid region encompassing the western Nafud in the east to Wadi Tabuk in the west has only been subject to limited archaeological survey. This paper reports on data from a systematic remote sensing survey of the region as part of the Enda...

A mummy portrait of a young woman with a golden wreath is part of the archaeological collection of the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. This portrait is covered by four authors, each from their separate perspective, namely provenance research, tec...

A multi-parametric approach that involves the use of different geophysical methods coupled with geochemical data allowed us to identify undiscovered archeological burials in a funerary area of the Grotte di Castro Etruscan settlement. In particular,...

Cova de la Sarsa (València, Spain) is one of the most important Neolithic impressed ware culture archaeological sites in the Western Mediterranean. It has been widely referenced since it was excavated in the 1920s, due partly to the relatively...

Differentiating cremated non-human bones from human ones in archaeological contexts is a challenging task. This analysis aims at proposing a rather solid criterion based on an osteoarchaeological sample. In this work, the main issues of taxonomic ide...

The cemetery of the Church of Santi Simone e Giuda in Borca di Cadore (Belluno province, Veneto region, Italy) was excavated between 2021 and 2023 as part of an archaeological intervention. The excavation area yielded a total of 21 graves dating back...

Ancient Egyptians had a complex religion, which was active for longer than the time that has passed since Cleopatra until our days. One amazing belief was to be buried with funerary statuettes to help the deceased carry out his/her tasks in the under...

The Chalcolithic levels of El Portalón de Cueva Mayor (Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain) offer a good opportunity to test whether the small-mammal contents of different archaeo-stratigraphical units may be useful to characterize them as independent entities....

A diachronic, multi-analytical approach combining EDXRF, µFTIR, µRaman, SEM-EDS, and Py-GC/MS has been adopted with the aim to study for the first time the painting materials used to decorate Egyptian funerary masks and sarcophagi ranging from the La...

This research presents a methodological approach combining UAV-LiDAR technology and SfM photogrammetry for the comprehensive documentation and analysis of O Corro dos Mouros, a Bronze-to-Iron Age archaeological site in the northwest of the Iberian Pe...

This study examines the construction of individual and collective identity in pre-Neolithic Egypt and the Levant through the post mortem manipulation of human remains. Focusing on funerary rituals and skull reuse, interpreted using recent anthropolog...

Fayum mummy portraits, painted around 2000 years ago, represent a fascinating fusion of Egyptian and Graeco-Roman funerary and artistic traditions. Examination of these artworks may provide insight into the Roman Empire’s trade and economic and socia...

A preventive excavation performed in 2018 prior to development work led to the discovery of more than 213 subjects buried from the 4th to the 11th centuries in the 1850 m2 dug area. This is a cemetery located in Olonne-sur-Mer in France (46.53723, −1...

The plant’s representation had, in the past, a great symbolic relevance, which is now often neglected. The presence and significance of mullein (Verbascum sp.) in Euro-Mediterranean art have been investigated, but despite its iconographic impor...

Plant motifs had a significant role in ancient cultures, with decorative, artistic, and communicative values. However, little knowledge exists of the botanical composition of festoons, widely used in Greek-Roman art. We analysed 81 festoons, exclusiv...

The study of animal mummification in ancient Egypt has recently received increasing attention from a number of modern scholars given the fact that this part of ancient Egyptian funerary and religious history is a practice yet to be fully understood....

Ancient Ardaxšīr Khwarrah, today known as Shahr-e Gur, situated near the modern town of Firuzabad in Fars, Iran, holds historical significance as the inaugural capital city of the Sasanian Empire. During archaeological excavations conduct...

The ancient Roman town of Turris Libisonis was located on the northern coast of Sardinia and was known in the past as an important naval port. Located in the Gulf of Asinara, it was a Roman colony from the 1st century BCE and became one of the riches...

Jade artifacts produced in prehistoric China continue to generate extensive scholarly interest. In the absence of textual data, inferring how works functioned in Jade Age communities remains challenging. This paper focuses on Hongshan 红山...

Imagining life before the advent of modern medical treatments is challenging. Today, congenital dysplasia is typically diagnosed within the first months of a child’s life, allowing for timely intervention. In the past, however, this condition o...

The objective of this research is to conduct a spatial analysis of the functional Andean worldview of the Ankasmarka Archaeological Site, located in Calca, Peru. The preservation of cultural heritage in Latin America faces significant challenges that...

This study deals with the morphometric characterization and quantification of earthquake damage in the ancient Roman city of Baelo Claudia in South Spain (Gibraltar Arc) by means of the use of 3D modelling from drone imagery. Baelo Claudia is a world...