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“Great houses served the dead as well as the living. The earliest part of Pueblo Bonito, the cluster of earliest rooms at the center of the building, became a mausoleum for elite burials. Two high-status middle-aged men—perhaps the building’s founders—were buried in AD 850 with great wealth in wooden crypts beneath the building’s floor. These honored dead defined one aspect of the great house’s monumentality. Later construction preserved the early core with its burials, enveloping the older masonry in better-built blocks of rooms. Many more elite deceased were later richly interred in the oldest parts of the building. In contrast, burials at unit pueblos were typically in middens fronting the homestead, accompanied by a ceramic pot or two.”
[1]
“Another clue to the size of long-ago populations is the number of burials in a region. But only a relatively small number of skeletons have been found in Chaco Canyon. No one has discovered a cemetery. Many of the skeletons that have been found were in rooms in Pueblo Bonito. Others were found in the refuse piles at the small-house sites. The practice of providing the dead with turquoise ornaments and pottery to accompany them on their journey to the Underworld may have lured early pothunters to the area, who destroyed the graves before archaeologists had the chance to examine them. The missing skeletons pose yet another mystery. The great houses in Chaco Canyon do not give up their secrets easily.”
[2]
[1]: (Lekson 2016: np) Lekson, Stephen H. 2016. “Chaco Canyon,” Colorado Encyclopedia, August 15, 2016, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chaco-canyon. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JMISYRGX [2]: (Vivian and Anderson 2002: 32) Vivian, R. Gwinn and Anderson, Margaret. 2002. Chaco Canyon, Digging for the Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/996XW2NW |
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The following suggests that the only type of site that has been identified are homesteads. “For the first 400 years of the settlement’s history, Kirikongo was a single economically generalized social group (Figure 6). The occupants were self-sufficient farmers who cultivated grains and herded livestock, smelted and forged iron, opportunistically hunted, lived in puddled earthen structures with pounded clay floors, and fished in the seasonal drainages. [...] Since Kirikongo did not grow (at least not significantly) for over 400 years, it is likely that extra-community fissioning continually occurred to contribute to regional population growth, and it is also likely that Kirikongo itself was the result of budding from a previous homestead. However, with the small scale of settlement, the inhabitants of individual homesteads must have interacted with a wider community for social and demographic reasons. [...] It may be that generalized single-kin homesteads like Kirikongo were the societal model for a post-LSA expansion of farming peoples along the Nakambe (White Volta) and Mouhoun (Black Volta) River basins. A homestead settlement pattern would fit well with the transitional nature of early sedentary life, where societies are shifting from generalized reciprocity to more restricted and formalized group membership, and single-kin communities like Kirikongo’s house (Mound 4) would be roughly the size of a band.”
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 27, 32) |
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In the Russian Empire, cemeteries were not just places of burial but also reflected the religious, cultural, and social aspects of Russian society. They varied greatly in size, design, and significance, with some becoming prominent historical and cultural sites.
Novodevichy Cemetery (Moscow) [1] [1]: “Новодевичье Кладбище .. Онлайн Тур По Некрополю.” Accessed December 18, 2023. https://novodevichye.com/. Zotero link: XRK5X7XZ |
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Cemeteries.
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Cemeteries across the empire.
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There is a lack of evidence over which burial rights were observed during this period. As Zoroastrians, they may have prohibited ground burial as it was thought to pollute the earth, but tombs may have been used by the elite as they were in neighbouring Zoroastrian polities.
[1]
[1]: Redgate 2000: 82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4RQ68NKA |
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Cemeteries.
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Cemeteries throughout the entire region and polity duration. Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have been found dating from as early as 425 CE.
[1]
[2]
“The most widespread evidence from England in the mid-fifth to midseventh centuries is undoubtedly that from cemeteries, to which we must now briefly return. Something between 30,000 and 40,000 graves have been discovered over the past few centuries, sometimes in concentrations of several thousand in a single place.74 This sounds a very large number indeed, but it should be remembered that this material represents deposition over at least two centuries, so reflects perhaps only at most 3,000–4,000 per generation.”
[3]
[1]: (Higham 2004: 6) Higham, Nick. ‘From Sub-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England: Debating the Insular Dark Ages’, History Compass 2, no. 1 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2004.00085.x. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XZT7A79K [2]: (Yorke 1990: 7) York, Barbara. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203447307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXTNCWJN [3]: (Higham 2004: 12) Higham, Nick. ‘From Sub-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England: Debating the Insular Dark Ages’, History Compass 2, no. 1 (2004). |
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The Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow. Established in 1917, it served as the former national cemetery of the Soviet Union. The site began as an improvised burial place for 240 pro-Bolsheviks who died during the Moscow Bolshevik Uprising in November 1917 and evolved into a significant location for military and civilian honor, especially during the Second World War. The necropolis is centered around Lenin’s Mausoleum and includes the tombs of prominent Soviet leaders such as Stalin, Kalinin, Dzerzhinsky, and Brezhnev.
[1]
[1]: “Могилы легендарных людей у Кремлевской стены | agava.by.” Accessed November 24, 2023. https://www.agava.by/poleznaya-informaciya/mogily-legendarnykh-lyudey-u-kremlevskoy-steny. Zotero link: R87AGTQ9 |
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In the Russian Empire, cemeteries were not just places of burial but also reflected the religious, cultural, and social aspects of Russian society. They varied greatly in size, design, and significance, with some becoming prominent historical and cultural sites.
Notable Cemeteries: Novodevichy Cemetery (Moscow) [1] Tikhvin Cemetery (Saint Petersburg) [2] Arskoe Cemetery (Kazan) [3] [1]: “Новодевичье Кладбище .. Онлайн Тур По Некрополю.” Accessed December 18, 2023. https://novodevichye.com/. Zotero link: XRK5X7XZ [2]: “Некрополь Александро-Невской Лавры Кладбища Усыпальницы Санкт-Петербурга,” accessed December 18, 2023, https://lavraspb.ru/. Zotero link: QZ6VW9WI [3]: “Кладбище Арское - Кладбища Казани,” accessed December 18, 2023, https://cemetery.kzn.ru/cemeteries/8. Zotero link: D5UMUI58 |
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E.g. pyramids. [Bard 2015, pp. 145-155]
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The honouring of Islamic saints is a big part of Somali society. “Their tombs, which dot the country side, are frequently the sites of annual religious celebrations held to commemorate the life and works of the deceased saint.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 120) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library |
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“The honouring of Islamic saints is a big part of Somali society. “Their tombs, which dot the country side, are frequently the sites of annual religious celebrations held to commemorate the life and works of the deceased saint.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 120) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library |
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Abdul Hakim was said to have introduced Islam to Jimma and converted the first king, Abba Jifar to Islam in 1830 CE. “Abdul Hakim settled in Jiren, near the palace of the king. His tomb (k’ubba)is still venerated by the religious.”
[1]
[1]: (Lewis 2001, 42) Lewis, Herbert S. 2001. Jimma Abba Jifar, an Oromo Monarchy: Ethiopia, 1830-1932. Lawrenceville, New Jersey: The Red Sea Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NRZVWSCD/collection |
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"For example, concurrent with the founding of Mound 11, a cemetery was established to the west of Mound 4, between their iron furnace and habitations. This cemetery was a mounded burial monument that was likely for the dead of Mound 4. The false huts that were set atop the burials may have served as altars for petitioning the village ancestors, as documented amongst Gourounsi villages in the early twentieth century (Tauxier 1912). The burials of individuals from other mounds may have been restricted to their respective residential areas, and lacked false huts. The mortuary program was likely a materialization of Mound 4’s authority over a village community, and consequently over the village earth and ancestral shrines."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 28) |
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“The profits accruing to the Ajuuraan state from this trade were used to commission projects like castles, necropolises, pillar tombs, fortresses, cities, and other landmark architectures – some of which are still standing as historic sites today.”
[1]
[1]: (Njoku 2013, 40) Njoku, Raphael C. 2013. The History of Somalia. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/U9FHBPZF/library |
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“Saints are historical personalities widely respected and even venerated by Somalis for their personal piety, miraculous works, or contribution to the spread of Islamic learning. Their tombs, which dot the countryside, are frequently the sites of annual religious celebrations held to commemorate the life and work of the deceased saint.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 120) Cassanelli, Lee. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Lee/titleCreatorYear/items/TKPH7Z89/item-list |
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“The original inhabitants were of Sidama stock; but although it was invaded by the Galla in the sixteenth century, the kingdom is said to have been founded by a Somali from Mogadishu. This man, Nur Husain, otherwise known as Wariko, was a worker of miracles: he could fly like an eagle, and could change men into animals […] To Wariko, however, a tomb has been assigned on the bank of the Dadesa, and Cecchi was told that it was an object of veneration.”
[1]
[1]: (Beckingham and Huntingford 1954, lxxxix) Beckingham, C.F. and Huntingford, G.W.B. 1954. Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646. London: Hakluyt Society. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/F86ZNREM/collection |
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The honouring of Islamic saints is a big part of Somali society. “Their tombs, which dot the country side, are frequently the sites of annual religious celebrations held to commemorate the life and works of the deceased saint.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 120) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library |
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“Zekaria has made the interesting suggestion citing the existence of Arabic gravestones from the Harlaa area and other Harlaa associated sites in Eastern Ethiopia that ‘it is logical to accept the Harla connection for the name Harar,’ rather than posited alternatives based on, for example the derivation of the words ‘Ha’ ‘ra’ and ‘ra’ from the opening verse of the Quran.”
[1]
[1]: (Insoll 2017, 210) Insoll, Timothy. 2017. ‘First Footsteps in Archaeology of Harar, Ethiopia’. Journal of Islamic Archaeology. Vol 4:2. Pp 189-215. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/VQ38B374/collection |
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French archaeologists discovered mosques and a burial area that date back to the Ifat period at the site of Nora in Ethiopia. “The excavation confirmed the urban character of the Nora site and made it possible to document on an archaeological plan, structures with a religious function (two mosques partially excavated, including the Friday mosques, among the mosques found) housing sectors, several outdoor spaces, as well as a funeral area.”
[1]
[1]: (Fauvelle et al. 2017, 239-295) Fauvelle, François-Xavier et al. 2007. “The Sultanate of Awfāt, its Capital and the Necropolis of the Walasma”, Annales Islamologiques. Vol. 51. Pp 239-295. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HJCMAMX7/library |
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The honouring of Islamic saints is a big part of Somali society. “Their tombs, which dot the country side, are frequently the sites of annual religious celebrations held to commemorate the life and works of the deceased saint.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 120) Cassanelli, Lee. V. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TKPH7Z89/library |
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“The holy men stimulated practices of saint veneration and visits to their centers and tombs, which again led to the emergence of local cults.”
[1]
[1]: (Loimeier 2013, 150) Loimeier, Roman. 2013. Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HJTAUHA9/collection |
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“There are 356 holy sites within Harar’s walls, mainly tombs of emirs, religious preachers, and descendants of clerics who founded the city in the thirteenth century. Pilgrimage to these tombs was not necessarily connected to Sufi Ziyara tradition and was more a central custom in the daily lives of most city residents, regardless of gender, status, and ethnic background.”
[1]
[1]: (Ben-Dror 2018, 15) Ben-Dror, Avishai. 2018. Emirate, Egyptian, Ethiopian: Colonial Experiences in Late Nineteenth-Century Harar. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/CHS87GBI/collection |
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“Otherwise the dead are buried in Moslem fashion in graves known as Kabare, which fulfil the functions of both the dico and the das. The Kabare, like the das, is generally situated close to a main track. The grave is enclosed by a low circular wall, with a doorway generally flanked by two pillars.”
[1]
[1]: (Thesiger 1935, 10) Thesiger, Wifred. 1935. ‘The Awash River and the Aussa Sultanate.’ The Geographical Journal. Vol. 85:1. Pp 1-19 Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/APBB7BBK/library |
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“Saints are historical personalities widely respected and even venerated by Somalis for their personal piety, miraculous works, or contribution to the spread of Islamic learning. Their tombs, which dot the countryside, are frequently the sites of annual religious celebrations held to commemorate the life and work of the deceased saint.”
[1]
[1]: (Cassanelli 1982, 120) Cassanelli, Lee. 1982. The Shaping of Somali Society: Reconstructing the History of a Pastoral People, 1600-1900. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/Lee/titleCreatorYear/items/TKPH7Z89/item-list |
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Given the intimate connection between Islam and daily life in the Sokoto Caliphate, one would assume that the burial practices common across the Islamic world would have been followed. No source reviewed specifically mentions this in detail, but graveyards and at least one tomb are mentioned. “In this Sokoto was very different from the situation in Kano, Katsina, or Zaria where the capital city existed with well-built houses and a "palace," great long walls and political institutions. Title-holders had their large houses and areas of responsibility, Islamic courts were in place, as were great mosques, saints’ tombs, and burial sites; marketplaces were already in operation (see Moody 1969). The new jihadi authorities in the great cities thus had simply to take over the relevant offices and even move into the official residences. New clan mosques might be built locally within the city, but otherwise everything was already in place (Zahradeen 1983:57-66): only the conquered population had to be persuaded, perhaps intimidated, into accepting the new regime - and that, the shaikh in Sokoto had suggested, could if necessary be done with force or threats of force: symbolically he sent his new commander in Kano a knife (Palmer 1928:128).”
[1]
“The trees in a house’s graveyard may house cattle egrets whose droppings make excellent fertilizer for onions; small fire finches (known as bayin Allah , "slaves of Allah") come into rooms where students sit studying Islamic texts, and doves nest under the edges of thatch roofs.”
[2]
“In short, Sokoto city may have been the capital of a great polity but it was also a rural town. It lacked monuments or monumental architecture, and it was short of ceremonial space; its layout was not designed to impress or intimidate, though the streets were regularly laid out and well built - unusually so, said Clapperton (1828,ii:377). The shaikh’s tomb (hubbare) is his old, originally suburban house in which he also had a tent (laima); his mosque was nearby - low, plain, and many-pillared, so unlike the splendid mosque built in 1836 for the emir in Zaria, or the huge ancient mosque in Rano with its high, bulky minaret.”
[3]
[1]: Last, Murray. “Contradictions in Creating a Jihadi Capital: Sokoto in the Nineteenth Century and Its Legacy.” African Studies Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–20: 11–12. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5RUPN5VI/collection [2]: Last, Murray. “Contradictions in Creating a Jihadi Capital: Sokoto in the Nineteenth Century and Its Legacy.” African Studies Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–20: 12. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5RUPN5VI/collection [3]: Last, Murray. “Contradictions in Creating a Jihadi Capital: Sokoto in the Nineteenth Century and Its Legacy.” African Studies Review, vol. 56, no. 2, 2013, pp. 1–20: 12–13. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5RUPN5VI/collection |
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“Communion with the Ancestors. The Ata now leaves the Ashadu’s compound for good, and proceeds via Egbe, where the Ashadus are buried (he halts there to make a propitiatory sacrifice), to the royal necropolis at Ajaina and presents himself at the house of the Ugwalla (the Keeper of the Tombs) where he remains in close seclusion for eight days. During this period he is shown the graves of his predecessors and is supposed to be in communion with their spirits. On the eighth evening the Ugwalla presents him with a garment made in the form of a child’s shirt and he proceeds that same night to Ofoloko (" the birthplace ") where he is joined by the senior wife of the late Ata before whom he must display his nakedness and with whom he must co-habit that night.”
[1]
[1]: Clifford, Miles, and Richmond Palmer. “A Nigerian Chiefdom.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 66, 1936, pp. 393–435: 422. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/TF7MM698/collection |
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“At this stage any suggestions must be tentative, especially since on the local side it is still very unclear - and will remain so unless the site of Igbo-Ukwu can be re-examined in a radically novel way - whether the location excavated by Shaw was no more than a burial shrine or priest’s abode secluded in the forest, or whether contrarily it was part of a real town of that period with an industrial quarter. Either way, it is acknowledged that the manufacture and burial of so many exquisite objects, most of them essentially non-utilitarian, must be of religious and social significance, as well as economic.”
[1]
“Many of the finds — which included a treasure hoard and a dignitary buried in a sitting position in a wood-lined chamber, with slaves and valuables — were immediately explicable in terms of later Nri culture.”
[2]
[1]: Sutton, J. E. G. (1991). The International Factor at Igbo-Ukwu. The African Archaeological Review, 9, 145–160: 149. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HBPMUV6T/collection [2]: Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of African Societies to 1870. Cambridge University Press, 1997: 247. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z4GK27CI/collection |
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“The distinctive characteristics of these southern Chad Basin polities are that then capitals were walled settlements and they also had extensive graveyards. Such townships included Kabe, Kala-Kafra, Maltam, Kala-Maloue, Logone-Birni, and Ngala. They buried their dead in jars and the grave goods that accompanied the burial of the elites included carnelian and glass beads and alloyed copper artifacts (Holl, 1996, p. 590).”
[1]
[1]: Ogundiran, A. (2005). Four Millennia of Cultural History in Nigeria (ca. 2000 B.C.—A.D. 1900): Archaeological Perspectives. Journal of World Prehistory, 19(2), 133–168: 145. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/PK7F26DP/collection |
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“Burials of important people such as lamaan (lineage chief), saltigue (rainmaker) and kumax (leader of the male initiation society) involved several villages and ages, resulting in impressive earthen tumuli several metres high. The deceased was buried with his or her utilitarian possessions, and offerings were deposited on top of the graves.”
[1]
“Ethnographic and ethnohistorical literature indicate that Sereer, Wolof, and Mande speakers practiced tumuli burials until the 16th and 17th centuries, but only the Sereer continued to do so in more recent historical periods.”
[2]
[1]: (Thiaw 2013, 100) Thiaw, Ibrahima. 2013. ‘From the Senegal River to Siin: The Archaeology of Sereer Migrations in North-Western Senegambia. In Migration and Membership Regimes in Global and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Ulbe Bosma. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Q2ZFJKTJ/collection [2]: (Thiaw 2013, 102) Thiaw, Ibrahima. 2013. ‘From the Senegal River to Siin: The Archaeology of Sereer Migrations in North-Western Senegambia. In Migration and Membership Regimes in Global and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Ulbe Bosma. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Q2ZFJKTJ/collection |
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“Burials of important people such as lamaan (lineage chief), saltigue (rainmaker) and kumax (leader of the male initiation society) involved several villages and ages, resulting in impressive earthen tumuli several metres high. The deceased was buried with his or her utilitarian possessions, and offerings were deposited on top of the graves.”
[1]
“Ethnographic and ethnohistorical literature indicate that Sereer, Wolof, and Mande speakers practiced tumuli burials until the 16th and 17th centuries, but only the Sereer continued to do so in more recent historical periods.”
[2]
[1]: (Thiaw 2013, 100) Thiaw, Ibrahima. 2013. ‘From the Senegal River to Siin: The Archaeology of Sereer Migrations in North-Western Senegambia. In Migration and Membership Regimes in Global and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Ulbe Bosma. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Q2ZFJKTJ/collection [2]: (Thiaw 2013, 102) Thiaw, Ibrahima. 2013. ‘From the Senegal River to Siin: The Archaeology of Sereer Migrations in North-Western Senegambia. In Migration and Membership Regimes in Global and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Ulbe Bosma. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Q2ZFJKTJ/collection |
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“Burials of important people such as lamaan (lineage chief), saltigue (rainmaker) and kumax (leader of the male initiation society) involved several villages and ages, resulting in impressive earthen tumuli several metres high. The deceased was buried with his or her utilitarian possessions, and offerings were deposited on top of the graves.”
[1]
“Ethnographic and ethnohistorical literature indicate that Sereer, Wolof, and Mande speakers practiced tumuli burials until the 16th and 17th centuries, but only the Sereer continued to do so in more recent historical periods.”
[2]
[1]: (Thiaw 2013, 100) Thiaw, Ibrahima. 2013. ‘From the Senegal River to Siin: The Archaeology of Sereer Migrations in North-Western Senegambia. In Migration and Membership Regimes in Global and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Ulbe Bosma. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Q2ZFJKTJ/collection [2]: (Thiaw 2013, 102) Thiaw, Ibrahima. 2013. ‘From the Senegal River to Siin: The Archaeology of Sereer Migrations in North-Western Senegambia. In Migration and Membership Regimes in Global and Historical Perspectives. Edited by Ulbe Bosma. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Q2ZFJKTJ/collection |
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Lombard cemeteries were built rapidly as soon as they moved in to their new Italian territories. Around the city of Cividale especially there were several cemeteries built within the first year. Tombs and crypts were used for elite individuals.
[1]
[1]: Christie 1998: 77, 100, 158. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/975BEGKF |
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During the king’s or brak’s enthronement ceremony he visited the tomb of his ancestors. “Once in Jurbel, the brak was led straight to the mound of earth, the jal or tumulus of his family meen, where he was coronated.”
[1]
[1]: (Barry 2012, 41) Barry, Boubacar. 2012. The Kingdom of Waalo: Senegal Before the Conquest. New York: Diasporic Africa Press. Seshat URL:https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9KV5MEKN/collection |
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The following quote discusses the archaeological site at Kodumanal which dates from 300 BCE to 200 CE. “There are over 150 burials to the east and north-east of the habitation area at Kodumanal. The earlier ones were secondary burials in which disarticulated remains were interred inside a cist.”
[1]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 402) Singh, Upinder. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. London: Pearson Education. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/UJG2G6MJ/collection |
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There are tangential references to at least one specific suspected burial site for the Rozvi period. “Chironde mountain, one of the several mountains that the Rozvi attach their historical origins on. There are claims that several Rozvi burials are scattered on this mountain, but these have not yet been ascertained….”
[1]
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[1]: (Machiridza 2012, 111) Lesley Machiridza, Material Culture and Dialectics of Identity and Power: Towards a Historical Archaeology of the Rozvi in South-Western Zimbabwe, MA Archaeology Dissertation, University of Pretoria 2012. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/RT3ZFDBC/item-list |
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“European accounts of Allada and Whydah before their conquest by Dahomey in the 1720s refer to the practice of human sacrifice in these kingdoms, but without great emphasis. Dapper, for example, refers to the killings of concubines and servants at royal funerals in Allada, and later accounts of Whydah record the sacrifice of wives and slaves at royal funerals there also, as well as the practice of substitutionary sacrifice, the killing of a man to preserve the king when ill. There is no suggestion, however, that human sacrifice was practised on any extravagant scale. Royal funerals involved the sacrifice of only two women and an unspecified number of men in Allada, and of only eight women and a variable but also unspecified number of men in Whydah. There is also no record of the offering of human sacrifices at any of the regular annual festivals of Allada or Whydah.”
[1]
“No graves from before the Dahomean kingdom have hitherto been found. But settlements of earlier periods have already been located in the region, and partly excavated (Randsborg et al.9 manuscript in preparation [1]), so it is no doubt only a matter of time before pre-Dahomean mortuary traditions are revealed. It should also be remembered that certain elements in the Dahomean burial tradition seem to have had a longer history. Consistency in grave installations, including those dated early, i.e., the 17th century, reflects well- established mortuary practices. Also, different ethnic and social groups subscribed to the same traditions, supporting the assumption of deeper roots to Dahomean mortuary practices. Regularity is also observed in the material reflections of the belief systems (for instance, inclusion of a fixed "survivor-kit" for the afterlife), something that cannot be introduced overnight.”
[2]
[1]: Law, Robin. “Human Sacrifice in Pre-Colonial West Africa.” African Affairs, vol. 84, no. 334, 1985, pp. 53–87: 67. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/39VMC55B/collection [2]: Merkyte, Inga, and Klavs Randsborg. “Graves from Dahomey: Beliefs, Ritual and Society in Ancient Bénin.” Journal of African Archaeology, vol. 7, no. 1, 2009, pp. 55–77: 75. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HM36HSG5/collection |
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“These references to embarkation in a canoe are usually understood to be purely metaphorical, the remains of the dead being in fact buried in the ground. A contemporary report of the funeral ceremonies for a king of Hueda in 1708, however, refers to the making of an actual model canoe (a foot and a half by two feet in size), which was carried with an image of the king, to be placed on the road to the ancestral homeland of the royal family.”
[1]
“The second letter of the third section of the 1688 Description comprises an extended description of the kingdom of "Juda" or Whydah (133-38). Barbot describes the natural resources of the country, the conduct of the European trade there, the local king and his court, the local religion (especially the veneration of snakes), the administration of justice (including a form of trial by ordeal, the accused being obliged to swim across a crocodile-infested river), burial customs (including human sacrifice), the ceremony of the blood pact, agriculture and crafts, weaponry, the local currency (of cowry shells), domestic slavery and polygamy, and much else besides.”
[2]
[1]: Law, Robin. “West Africa’s Discovery of the Atlantic.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 44, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–25: 12. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/WA6SG9KW/collection [2]: Law, Robin. “Jean Barbot as a Source for the Slave Coast of West Africa.” History in Africa, vol. 9, 1982, pp. 155–73: 159. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/N4D6NU7J/collection |
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Reference to bronzes comparable to burial bronzes from Igbo-Ukwa: “T. Shaw made some astonishing discoveries at Igbo-Ukwu (east of the Niger, Awka District). Prominent among the findings is the burial chamber of a dignitary which was dated to about A.D. 900 (Shaw 1979). There is no evidence of connections between the Igbo-Ukwu culture, whose origins are not known up till now, and Benin. The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes show no stylistic similarity to those known from Ife and Benin.”
[1]
[1]: Bondarenko, Dmitri M., and Peter M. Roese. ‘Benin Prehistory: The Origin and Settling down of the Edo’. Anthropos 94, no. 4/6 (1999): 542–52:549. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Y4V3D623/collection |
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Specific burial practices and places are referred to. The fact that the king’s grave is allowed to fall into disrepair implies that it is arranged in a specific way initially. “The juwe, as the principal aspect of the king’s spiritual potency, is dangerous to men and potentially harmful to the crops. The dindi, on the other hand, is magically beneficial to the crops. The most powerful physical manifestations of the dindi-hair and nails-of priests and counsellors are buried at Puje, the sacred site of the annual harvest festival. The nails and hair of the king, carefully preserved during his reign, are buried with his body, formerly alongside a slave who was called the ’attendant of the corn’.”
[1]
“The king’s bwi, unique to the individual, is separated together with the dindi when the death of the body occurs. However, in popular belief, kings do not die, they ’return to the skies ’ or simply disappear. The elaborate and highly secret preservation of the king’s body and its animated farewell to the people on its last journey is a vivid expression of the king’s personal immortality-as a god. As a man, once stripped of its titles and its kingly roles, the corpse is renamed and buried secretly with few grave goods. The grave is even permitted to fall into disrepair.”
[1]
[1]: Young, M. W. (1966). The Divine Kingship of the Jukun: A Re-Evaluation of Some Theories. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 36(2), 135–153: 148. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NTI9GQMF/collection |
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“The Huns honored Attila in death as in life. His body, draped in rare oriental silks, glittered with magnificent jewelry, costly gifts from Roman emperors hoping to buy off an enemy whom they had repeatedly failed to defeat. On his shoulder gleamed a great golden brooch set with a single slice of onyx the size of a man’s palm… That night, far beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire, Attila was buried. His body was encased in three coffins: the innermost covered in gold, a second in silver, and a third in iron. The gold and silver symbolized the plunder that Attila had seized, while the harsh gray iron recalled his victories in war. The tomb was filled with the weapons of enemies defeated in battle, precious jewels, and other treasures. The servants responsible for preparing the burial were killed so that they could not reveal its location.”
[1]
“What is most remarkable about the presence of the Huns in Europe is the striking lack of archaeological evidence. Only some seventy burials have been identified that, on the basis of their characteristic features, might be thought to belong to Huns. This small number could simply be a reflection of their relatively brief domination of the middle Danube—roughly from 410 to 465, ten years after the death of Attila. The chances of survival play a part, too: leading Huns, as Priscus’ description of Attila’s funeral confirms, were interred beneath great earthen mounds, that—despite the brutal precautions taken at the time of burial— acted as prominent markers for tomb robbers.”
[2]
[1]: (Kelly 2009: 6) Kelly, Christopher. 2009. The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome. London; New York: W. W. Norton & Company. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NCDATP6U [2]: (Kelly 2009: 64) Kelly, Christopher. 2009. The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome. London; New York: W. W. Norton & Company. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NCDATP6U |
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Cemeteries all across the territory.
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Cemeteries; tombs. “Charles devoted unusual attention to the construction of Prague. As early as the establishment of the Prague archbishopric, he laid the foundation stone of St Vitus Cathedral in 1344, in which the bodies of the royal dynasts were to be interred. Situated within Prague Castle, the cathedral symbolized the conjunction of royal and spiritual power, and at the same time provided safe housing for the coronal insignias.”
[1]
“After examining the books of Hus and finding them infected with ‘erroneous, scandalous, offensive, seditious and notorious heresies’ the Council determined they must be destroyed by fire. They were burned in the church cemetery.”
[2]
[1]: (Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 138) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ [2]: (Fudge 2010: 143) Fudge, Thomas A. 2010. Jan Hus: Religious Reform and Social Revolution in Bohemia. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z325C95F |
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“One aspect that deserves attention is the fact that some of the Tiwanaku burials already exhibit “open sepulcher” features. Excavations at the site of Guaqui, for example, have shown that this sort of grave anteceded the larger, chullpa kind (Albarracin-Jordan 1996). Similar archetypes were found in Tiwanaku contexts in Lukurmata (Bermann 1994) and in Moquegua (Goldstein 1989).”
[1]
[1]: (Albarracin-Jordan 1999: 88) Albarracin-Jordan, Juan V. 1999. The Archeaology of Tiwanaku: The Myths, History, and Science of an Ancient Andean Civilization. Bolivia: Impresión P.A.P. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/P7MDWPAP |
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“Great houses served the dead as well as the living. The earliest part of Pueblo Bonito, the cluster of earliest rooms at the center of the building, became a mausoleum for elite burials. Two high-status middle-aged men—perhaps the building’s founders—were buried in AD 850 with great wealth in wooden crypts beneath the building’s floor. These honored dead defined one aspect of the great house’s monumentality. Later construction preserved the early core with its burials, enveloping the older masonry in better-built blocks of rooms. Many more elite deceased were later richly interred in the oldest parts of the building. In contrast, burials at unit pueblos were typically in middens fronting the homestead, accompanied by a ceramic pot or two.”
[1]
“Another clue to the size of long-ago populations is the number of burials in a region. But only a relatively small number of skeletons have been found in Chaco Canyon. No one has discovered a cemetery. Many of the skeletons that have been found were in rooms in Pueblo Bonito. Others were found in the refuse piles at the small-house sites. The practice of providing the dead with turquoise ornaments and pottery to accompany them on their journey to the Underworld may have lured early pothunters to the area, who destroyed the graves before archaeologists had the chance to examine them. The missing skeletons pose yet another mystery. The great houses in Chaco Canyon do not give up their secrets easily.”
[2]
[1]: (Lekson 2016: np) Lekson, Stephen H. 2016. “Chaco Canyon,” Colorado Encyclopedia, August 15, 2016, https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/chaco-canyon. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/JMISYRGX [2]: (Vivian and Anderson 2002: 32) Vivian, R. Gwinn and Anderson, Margaret. 2002. Chaco Canyon, Digging for the Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/996XW2NW |
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Royal Mausoleum. “During the reigns of the last two Kamehamehas and Lunalilo, approximately a million dollars were spent by the government on public works. The Hawaiian Hotel and Aliiolani Hale accounted for about a quarter of that sum. One hundred and eighty thousand dollars went into the construction of buildings of lesser magnitude—lIolani Barracks, a new prison, Royal Mausoleum, post office, customhouses, warehouses, schoolhouses, insane asylum, quarantine building.”
[1]
[1]: (Kuykendall 1938: 174) Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson. 1938. The Hawaiian Kingdom. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. http://archive.org/details/hawaiiankingdom0002kuyk. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/QJ4Z7AAB |
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Gravesites; tombs; acropolis. “Although not one of the richest graves at Tikal in terms of jade or other precious goods, Animal Skull’s Burial 195, embedded within Temple 32 of the North Acropolis, is certainly one of the most fascinating… The wooden hoards feature a damaged but legible date of 9.8.0.0.0 or 593, and go on to provide Animal Skull’s name, titles and Tikal emblem, as well as his status as a 3 K’atun Ajaw (i.e. aged between 39 and 59 years).”
[1]
[1]: (Martin and Grube 2000: 41) Martin, Simon and Grube, Nikolai. 2000. Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya. London; New York: Thames & Hudson. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5WIIDVRJ |
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Cemeteries all across the polity territory. Tombs; mausoleums. “Increasingly after 1650, the elite buried their dead privately, at night. Expensive tombs and monuments in parish churches continued to emphasize the status and honor of the lineage well into the seventeenth century, but they too were eventually replaced by simple wall plaques.”
[1]
“The ‘social map of community’ was not, however, only carved in box pews: it was also chiselled in funeral monuments. The vestry’s introduction of fines for the unauthorised reopening of vaults in the chancel of Boxford parish church in 1608 reflects the regulation of symbolic space at a time when honour, status and reputation found expression not only on this side of the grave. At Cranbrook, it seems, burial within the church was itself a symbol of vestry status.”
[2]
[1]: (Bucholz et al 2013: 178) Bucholz, Robert, Newton Key, and R.O. Bucholz. 2013. Early Modern England 1485-1714: A Narrative History. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=1166775. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XQGJH96U [2]: (Hindle 2002: 220) Hindle, Steve. 2002. The State and Social Change in Early Modern England, 1550–1640 (London: Palgrave https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/GVIZDIC9 |
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Cemeteries.
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There were cemeteries throughout the region. In the provincial and capital cities there were often dedicated burial spaces such as the poets’ cemetery in Tabriz.
[1]
Rulers had tombs and mausoleums constructed.
[2]
[1]: Buniyatov 2015: 98. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SAEVEJFH [2]: Buniyatov 2015: 182. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SAEVEJFH |
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Cemeteries are found in all settlements. Some of the larger settlements such as La Ciudad, Grewe or Snaketown have several cemetery sites. There are some discrepancies between burial sites, such as tombs and pit burials, which indicate that Hohokam was a hierarchical society.
[1]
[1]: McGuire 2018: 9-11, 20-22. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/C9FB2IXT |
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“In 1023/1640–1, Muhammad al-Hajj was even able to seize the sovereign power and get himself recognised by Fez and Meknes after his victory over Mawlay Mahammad al-Shaykh b. Zaydan. He won over the Berber tribes, and Mawlay al-Rashid in 1076/1666 found the Bani Mtir against him, allied with the Dilai Abu ‘Abd Allah, and he had to fight them again in 1076/1668. Mawlay al-Rashid seems to have been interested in Meknes, the qasba of which he restored. In burying him in the mausoleum of Majdhub, Mawlay Ismail said he was fulfilling the last wishes of the deceased.”
[1]
[1]: (Bosworth 2007: 398) Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. 2007. ed., Historic Cities of the Islamic World. Leiden; Boston: Brill. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/HGHDXVAC |
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Cemeteries across the empire.
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Cemeteries.
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Cemeteries across the polity.
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Cemeteries throughout the entire region and polity duration. Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have been found dating from as early as 425 CE.
[1]
[2]
“The most widespread evidence from England in the mid-fifth to midseventh centuries is undoubtedly that from cemeteries, to which we must now briefly return. Something between 30,000 and 40,000 graves have been discovered over the past few centuries, sometimes in concentrations of several thousand in a single place.74 This sounds a very large number indeed, but it should be remembered that this material represents deposition over at least two centuries, so reflects perhaps only at most 3,000–4,000 per generation.”
[3]
[1]: (Higham 2004: 6) Higham, Nick. ‘From Sub-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England: Debating the Insular Dark Ages’, History Compass 2, no. 1 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2004.00085.x. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XZT7A79K [2]: (Yorke 1990: 7) York, Barbara. 1990. Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203447307. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/YXTNCWJN [3]: (Higham 2004: 12) Higham, Nick. ‘From Sub-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England: Debating the Insular Dark Ages’, History Compass 2, no. 1 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-0542.2004.00085.x. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XZT7A79K |
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As of 2017, no burials related to the site have been discovered, making it impossible to verify whether the monumental features necessary to constitute a burial site for the purposes of coding existed. “Given the fragmentary nature of archaeological evidence, and that to date no burials have been recovered from the site….”
[1]
[1]: (Chirikure et al. 2017, 6) Shadreck Chirikure et al., “What was the population of Great Zimbabwe (CE 1000-1800)?” in Public Library of Science One Vol. 12, No. 6 (2017). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/6QC8PD3X/collection |
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"Contexts that could shed light on the dynamics of social structure and hierarchies in the metropolis, such as the royal burial site of Oyo monarchs and the residences of the elite population, have not been investigated. The mapping of the palace structures has not been followed by systematic excavations (Soper, 1992); and questions of the economy, military system, and ideology of the empire have not been addressed archaeologically, although their general patterns are known from historical studies (e.g, Johnson, 1921; Law, 1977)."
[1]
Regarding this period, however, one of the historical studies mentioned in this quote also notes: "Of the earliestperiod of Oyo history, before the sixteenth century, very little is known."
[2]
Law does not then go on to provide specific information directly relevant to this variable.
[1]: (Ogundiran 2005: 151-152) [2]: (Law 1977: 33) |
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The near-absence of archaeologically identified settlements makes it particularly challenging to infer most site types. "While the historical sources provide a vague picture of the events of the first 500 years of the Kanem-Borno empire, archaeologically almost nothing is known. [...] Summing up, very little is known about the capitals or towns of the early Kanem- Borno empire. The locations of the earliest sites have been obscured under the southwardly protruding sands of the Sahara, and none of the later locations can be identified with certainty."
[1]
[1]: (Gronenborn 2002: 104-110) |
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