The deviant dead of ancient Mesopotamia
Beheaded, bound, or partially burnt – Leif Inselmann examines irregular burials from the ancient Near East.
burial customs
Beliefs and narratives: Images from Predynastic Egypt
Barbara A Boczar explores the imagery of Egypt’s Naqada periods.
Viking Age boat grave found in Norway
It appears the grave was cut, and the boat – which may have accommodated one or more deceased – placed within before being covered with a burial mound.
This week: Hoards
No one knows for certain why Viking Age people chose to bury their most treasured possessions underground. According to one 13th-century source, the influential Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, they did it because Odin – the Norse god who oversees Valhalla – had decreed that a man will have the use in the afterlife of any treasure he buried while still alive. More recently, however, archaeologists and historians have preferred more earthbound explanations for the presence in the British Isles of so many Viking Age 'hoards'.