Archaeology Today

ARCHAEOLOGY

TODAY DECEMBER 2015 - Vol.1

HUMAN SACRIFICE -Everybody’s doing it-

• BOG BODIES • THE SHANG DYNASTY • MOCHE

• UR CEMETERY

... AND MORE

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NEW RECIPE INSIDE

CONTENTS ON THE COVER 8

December 2015 | Vol 1 | Issue 1

4SO

T\THE SHANG DYNASTY

BOG BODIES

Dive into China’s deep history and discover the Shang Dynasty. Arguably China’s oldest civilization, the Shang are known for their bronze tools, their complex government and their practice of human sacrifice

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MOCHE Take a trip to Pre-Columbian South America and look at some of the variations of human sacrifice practiced by the Moche.

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SO

UR CEMETERY

A reexamination of the Royal Cemetery of Ur uncovered by Sir Leonard Woolley after new evidence surfaced concerning Woolley’s interpretation of human sacrifice.

FEATURES 13

T\CROSS WORD

A look at Iron-Age Ireland and two of its most famous residents: Clonycavan man and Oldroghan man.

Put your human sacrafice knowledge to the test with this fun and challenging cross word!

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T\DISCUSSION

Put your human sacrafice knowledge to the test with this fun and challenging cross word!

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T\RECIPE

Ever wanted to try a bog bodie finger? Now yours chance with this intersting recipe!

“

Human sacrifice! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!

-Bill Murray

”

[A NOTE FROM

THE EDITORS]

Cole McAllister’s contribution investigates bog bodies in Ireland. Focusing on two specific individuals, his article deals with how they lived, how they died, and the circumstances that led to them being preserved the way they did.

Human sacrifice has a dicey reputation. In our continually globalized world, human rights and exploitation have become the stalwart campaign for human rights activists and social justice warriors alike. Through our modern lens it becomes difficult for us understand why people chose to sacrifice other people. Our modern lens entices us to infer that the sacrificed were unlucky, or they did something wrong, or maybe they were of an opposing population. What we aim to present is that human sacrifice, as grim as it sounds, was not always negative. Historically human sacrifice occurred globally and for a number of different reasons.

We chose to compile four separate cases of human sacrifice, from four different cultures, at roughly four different time periods. Through comparing these differences we are able to highlight similarities and differences in human sacrifice.

Rather than being too interpretive, we are relying on the facts presented by the archeological record, and current methods such as isotope analysis, forensic skeletal analysis, and available ethnohistories. Before your trip through human sacrifice begins let’s introduce our researchers.

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Martine Van Der Heever looks at new evidence found at the Royal Cemetery of Ur that suggests human sacrifice was a much more violent practice than researchers initially thought. In her article she mainly discusses the use of radiographic tests done on two individuals from the cemetery, as well as different interpretations behind the reasons for human sacrifice at this site in modern day Iraq.

Carmen Hjermstad’s article focuses on the practice of human sacrifice in one of China’s oldest and best studied dynasties. She discusses how the Chinese sacrificed humans for more the one reason, and the important religious ceremonies that often led to the inevitable death of healthy young men.

Mike Axenroth examines recent interpretations of Moche human sacrifice in Pre-Columbian South America. He focuses on the infamous archaeological site of Huaca de la Luna, and using isotopic, iconographic, and forensic evidence he attempts to situate variations of human sacrifice as social responses from the Moche.

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Bog Bodies

Case Study: Bog Bodies in Ireland Examining two Iron-Age bog bodies from Ireland

TEXT WRITTEN BY Cole McAllister

Ireland is known for many things, in many respects. It has its varieties of distinct music, language, spirituality, and culture. Archaeologically, it has a distinction too. Ireland, along with much of Northern Europe, is home to a phenomenon known as “bog bodies.” This occurrence describes the form of preservation that a body undergoes under certain circumstances. In Ireland’s famous peat bogs, many well-preserved bodies have been discovered over the centuries, and continue to be discovered to this day.

While the occurrence of bog bodies is not exclusive to Ireland by any means, it is definitely a big part of the isle’s history; and sheds light on the ancient rituals and activities that occurred there, including human sacrifice. As for the discoveries themselves, the bodies are found in Ireland’s many peat bogs. Peat is a natural product of mosses 4

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decaying and compacting over hundreds of years, and is often used for fuel in place of firewood.

Many of the bodies are discovered in these bogs while people harvest the peat for fuel. There are two bog bodies from Ireland that are particularly famous. They are known as “Oldcroghan Man” and “Clonycavan Man.” Both of these bodies have been shown to be from the early Iron Age, between 392 BCE and 201 BCE for Oldcroghan Man, and between 362 BCE and 175 BCE for Clonycavan Man (Jarrett A. Lobell & Samir S. Patel, Archaeology Magazine archive). Neither of the bodies is complete. A peat-cutting machine severed Clonycavan man’s torso, and his legs were lost in the process (Lobell & Patel). Oldcroghan man, is similarly without the lower half of his body, and is also missing his head (Lobell & Patel). However, unlike Clonycavan man, Oldcroghan man’s head and lower body were severed before he was buried in the bog (Plunkett et al. 265).

Both of these men died violently, and show signs of having been killed ritualistically too.

Clonycavan Man’s skull was split by a stone axe or similar tool, and his nose was smashed (Lobell &

Oldcroghan Man - Note the leather armband still attached to the left arm Patel). As for Oldcroghan man, he was also murdered brutally and ritualistically. In addition to being stabbed in the chest, he had hazel branches threaded through holes in his skin, binding him (Lobell & Patel). He was then decapitated, and cut in half at the waist before finally being buried in the peat bog (Lobell & Patel). Now, why were these men killed so violently and placed in the bog the way they were? The National Museum of Ireland’s keeper of Irish Antiquities, Eamonn P. Kelly, suggests that they were not simply murdered, but intended as human sacrifices. As described in the article by Lobell and Patel, Kelly suggests that these men were sacrificed to an ancient Celtic goddess of land, fertility, sovereignty, war, and death (Lobell & Patel). This explains the variety of wounds and ritualistic mutilation both men endured before their deaths. While their means of death varied, Clonycavan man and Oldcroghan man share one common wound. Their nipples had been ritualistically cut, which Kelly says would make them unable to become an Irish king: “Sucking a king’s nipples was a gesture of submission in ancient Ireland… Cutting them would have made him incapable of kingship” (Lobell & Patel).

Whether the individuals who sacrificed

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Clonycavan man and Oldcroghan man knew it or not, the peat bogs they chose as their burial location provided the natural preservation we are able to observe today. This is due to the properties of the peat bogs themselves. As the bogs often present a microenvironment that is high in acid and moisture, and anaerobic, human soft tissue is often able to be preserved remarkably well (William D. Haglund, Marcella H. Sorg, page 18). In the case of Oldcroghan man, evidence shows that when he was sacrificed, the area of bog he was buried in was completely covered with water. This means that rather than being buried in the peat, he was submerged in the pool (Gill Plunkett et al. 274).

In this article, a very detailed analysis of the plant matter and microorganisms surrounding the area where Oldcroghan man was buried explain why he was so well preserved. It describes how he likely settled approximately 45 cm under the surface of the pool, and how the amount of amebae at certain depths describe how the bog changed from a wet lawn environment to a submerged pool approximately one century before Oldcroghan man was placed there (Plunkett et al. 274).

These two individuals were sacrificed to a higher power, presumably in exchange for favourable things for the living, such as fertility and pros

Bog Bodies

Peat bog, an invironment similar to the ones where Clonycavan man and Oldcroghan man were discovered perity. However, that happened over 2000 years ago; and due to convenient chemistry in the places they were buried, we are able to view them as if they had died very recently. As with many bog bodies from around the world, these two men have been preserved amazingly well. Clonycavan man, for instance, still has a full head of hair, and a short beard. Because his hair is so well preserved, we are able to know that it was styled in a Mohawk-esque twist with a type of early “gel� made from pine sap (Lobell & Patel). We are also able to tell what these men ate before they died. Oldcroghan man, for instance, has been shown to have regularly eaten meat, which indicates a high social status, and was given a ritualistic meal of grains and buttermilk before his death (Lobell & Patel). The fact that both of these men show evidence of high

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social status and/or wealth, as well as being young and healthy at the time of their deaths, also adds evidence supporting ritual sacrifice, rather than cold-blooded murder (Lobell & Patel). Hopefully over time, we will uncover more individuals like Clonycavan man and Oldcroghan man, so we can get a better sense of how the ancient Irish peoples lived throughout time. They are a rare instance of being able to observe how these people looked while they were alive, which is remarkable considering the thousands of years that have separated their lives from ours.

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Clonycavan Man

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THE SHANG DYNASTY

THE MYSTERIESOF ANCIENT CHINA

ONCE BELIEVED TO BE NOTHING BUT A MYTH, CHINA’S OLDEST DYNASTY BEGINS TO REVEAL ITSELF, INCLUDING THEIR PRACTICE OF HUMAN SACRIFICE.

CARMEN HJERMSTAD

Chinese civilizations have been around for thousands of years, boasting some of the earliest recorded societies with an abundance of archaeological evidence. Anthropologists, archaeologists, and historians alike have expressed keen interest in studying China’s deep history. One of the best studied ancient Chinese civilizations brings us back to the heart of the Bronze Age circa 1600 BCE (Ying, 2,577) The Shang Dynasty, which was located in the far east of modern day China, is the oldest recorded dynasty to emerge from the vast archeological record of China (Ying 2,577). The Shang Dynasty is attributed with detailed bronze works, divine spiritual rituals, and the earliest form of writing in Chinese history. Thanks to their recorded history much is known about this ancient dynasty today, including their practice of human sacrifice.

There are myths of a possible dynasty predating the Shang period, but the Shang is the oldest dynasty with strong enough archaeological evidence to make it clearly identifiable as such (Mccurley 1,941). What makes this dynasty so important in the archaeological record is that these Page 8

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people were the first to record specific events, like rituals, on oracle bone in an early form of Chinese characters (Mccurley 1941). Before the discovery of these texts, scholars were not able to prove that the Shang Dynasty had ever existed because the civilization had only been described in Chinese texts written many years after the Shang had ended (Lai, spice digest). Now, thanks to these oracle bone texts more is known about this dynasty and ancient Chinese culture than ever before.

The oracle bone texts would be used in precognitive rituals where a king, or a diviner appointed by the king, would carve a question into half of the bone, which was typically a cattle shoulder bone or a tortoise shell (Mccurley, 1,943). The questions would ask such things as “Will it rain tomorrow?” or “If we send 3,000 men into battle, will we succeed?”(Lai, Spice Digest). On the other half of the bone a number of small pits would be carved in with a thin hot metal rod until the bone began to crack. Once the bone had cracked the diviner would interpret the cracks, draw an answer from them, and carve the answer into the opposite side of the bone (Lai, Spice Digest). These inscribed bone texts allow scholars to decipher the Shang systems of government, spiritual beliefs, names of elites and kings, military style, and other

Map of Shang Dynasty inside moderm day China1

Fu Hao’s excavated tomb. Notice the bodies on either side.2

details that piece together fascinating features of China’s history. Thanks to these inscribed bones we know that the Shang period was a period of mass sacrifice, both human and animal; and that they were sacrificing for two different reasons.

An example of the first reason for human sacrifice was found in the royal burials. In 1928 excavations on Yinxu, the Shang’s final capital, commenced. Those excavations, led by archaeologists from The Institute of Philology and Histology of Central Academia Sinica, lasted until 1937 and were not resumed again until 1950 (Ying 2,577). It was during that second wave of excavations in 1976 that the royal tomb of Lady Fu Hao was found. It was the first royal tomb to be found undisturbed with no signs of looters. Her name and her title as King Wu Ding’s third queen is known because of over two hundred oracle bone texts that bear her name, and the matching name is found on hundreds of bronze artifacts that resided within her tomb (Ying 2,577). Among the bronze items were several hundred jade items, rare items of trade, and approximately five hundred bones that represented portions of bodies that had been placed with her (Ying, p. 2,577). The Shang believed in the afterlife, and the royal family would have needed servants to continue serving them after death (Ying, 2,578). Lady Hao was a particularly special figure. According to the oracle bone inscriptions she was a mother, the queen, and a military leader (Ying, p. 2578). This may be why she had so many items and bodies buried with her. She is not the only royal burial with examples of human sacrifice though. Other royal tombs have been found, and though they have been looted, there is still evidence of human sacrifice (Ying, 2578).

Commonly the bodies are found on the outside of the tomb, while the heads are found on the inside (Ying, 2578).

The second reason for human sacrifice in the Shang dynasty was as an offering to their ancestors and to their gods. Those found in sacrificial pits in the Yinxu ruins seemed to be the bodies of young 5 | DESIGN MGZ 6

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THE SHANG DYNASTY

healthy men, which leads scholars to believe that they were perhaps men that the Shang had captured in war and sacrificed to their gods and ancestors (Ying, 2578). Oracle bone scripts reveal that sometimes these men were sacrificed in great numbers to please the Gods. They believed that the ancestors and gods controlled everything, from “war to harvest” and “from giving birth to tooth pain.”(Ying, 2578) During oracle bone ceremonies the appointed diviners would act as the link between the ancestors and gods and the living. These ceremonies sealed the fate for many sacrificed men. It was not until the last years of the Shang dynasty that women and children began to be sacrificed, which could represent a shift in spiritual beliefs or a change in the fortune readings of oracle bones. (Ying, 2578)

Human sacrifice may have been a large part of who the Shang were, but they were more than that. This period introduced sophisticated social structures, bronze material development, complex religious rituals, and the beginnings of a writing system that would develop into the Chinese characters known today. There is lots of archaeological work left to do in China. The work that has been published is fascinating and gives some hope to the future of the mysteries that have yet to be unearthed.

Example of an orcale bone text.3 Page 6 | 10 DESIGN MGZ 6

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An orcale bone pit found in the Yinxu ruins. This pit contains hundreds of turtle shells used in ancient ritual.4

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Moche

The Moche and Human Sacrifice as a Social Respose

Recent advances in archaeological methods have allowed for new, and sometimes conflicting, evidence to be unearthed from Moche burial sites containing human sacrifice.

Michael Axenroth Long ago on the northern Peruvian coast an ancient civilization flourished. Situated near modern day Trujillo, the Moche were one of the largest Pre-Columbian civilizations in South America.

They boasted impressive agricultural techniques that used elaborate irrigation systems, had outstanding iconography on ceramics and frescos, detailed metallurgy, and monumental architecture that is still standing strong today (Chapdelaine 192). Although the Moche culture dissipated before European contact, they left us with many questions about just how they lived. Archaeologists have interpreting the messages left behind in their ceramics, as well as looking at old civic centers and burials to try to determine the high debated topic of just who were the Moche sacrificing?

The motif of human sacrifice is a commonality in Moche art. It appears frequently painted on ceramics, it is pounded in to their metalwork, chiseled into their friezes, and painted in frescos at their adobes (Sutter and Cortez 525). Two depictions frequently arise here. First, there are images of large-scale combat and what appears to be the weaponless enemy of the Moche being sacrificed after combat (Sutter and Cortez 525). The other

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is one on one combat between Moche, which has been interpreted as ritual combat used to designate the loser for sacrifice (Sutter and Cortez 525).

These both suggest very different things. Were the Moche drawing sacrificial victims from their own population, or were they sacrificing defeated warriors from warring nations? For a better understanding we have to turn to contemporary archaeological methods.

The problem with interpretation is just that.

Interpretation is based in the eye of the beholder.

Much of the context surrounding the Moche has been lost, so situating our interpretations can be difficult. Archaeologists Richard Sutter and Rosa Cotrez use forensic evidence on the skeletons of the sacrificed to attempt to situate their role in society; as well as dental isotope samples to determine if the sacrificed were local to the area, or maybe they came from somewhere else.

The Huaca de la Luna , or Temple of the Moon, was a likely a booming city between 120 and 580 CE (Sutter and Cortez 526). In a highly stratified society, occupants of the city represented the skilled trade workers, social elite, traders, and religious authority (Sutter and Cortez 522).

The Huaca de la Luna served a strong ceremonial purpose as well, with numerous depictions of human sacrifice on frescos still remaining today (Sutter and Cortez 528). On one of the plazas at the Huaca de la Luna contained twenty-four “intact adult male human sacrifices” (Sutter and Cortez 526). There were cut marks on the bone and at the throat, which certainly indicates their deaths as sacrifices (Sutter and Cortez 526).

The forensic evidence shows that these victims had parry fractures from combat, and that their wounds had began to heal (Turner 24). This might have some correlation with “iconographic materials on ceramics” suggesting that human sacrifices “may have been given special or celebratory treatment before death” (Turner 24). It must have been a decent period of time to see the healing of their bone fractures. Now turning to the isotope samples derived from Sutter and Cortez. They determined that the young males were not derived from local populations, but rather they were drawn from neighboring populations (Sutter and Cortez 533).

Based on this evidence they conclude that the sample at Huaca de la Luna does not represent ritual combat, but rather it suggests the sacrifice of captured warriors from nearby warring populations (Sutter and Cortez 533).

This evidence reveals a social complexity of the Moche.

Would they capture their enemies, feed them, give them time to heal, and to then when they have regained much of their strength they were sacrificed to the Moche gods? This represents the challenge of contextually applying the archaeological record to their ethnohistory.

An important aspect of human sacrifice for the Moche likely was the role it played in their social organization.

Victims were not just sacrificed and then buried in the tropical savannah; rather, at places like the Huanca de la Luna they were left on display. Looking at insect fauna that has preserved itself with the skeletal remains we can gather some explanations. Insect pupae and fauna found on sacrificial victims at Huaca de la Luna indicate that bodies were left out in the open on the plazas for a minimum of 31-40 days (Hutchet and Greenberg 2853).

Above: is an example of sacrficed war captives at Huaca de la Luna. Notice how their bodies are strewn in various positons, and many appear dismembered.

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This suggests that the viewing, decomposing, and presence of the sacrificed were intertwined with the living Moche as they went about their everyday practices.

While the Huaca de la Luna has some compelling evidence for Moche sacrificial practices, we have to be careful not to apply the part to the whole. Just because it seems to represent warrior sacrifice drawn from neighboring populations at Huaca de le Luna, we cannot generalize and conclude that Huaca de la Luna is representative of all Moche sacrificial practices. Here’s why. Bethany Turner is an archaeologist at the Georgia State University who has carried out isotope samples from other Moche sites with human sacrifice.

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Above: A reconception of Moche human sacrifice by illustrator John Foster

Above: An example of Moche iconography display the human sacrifice of soldiers captured from war.

Notice they are stripped naked with their weapons and armor beside them Bottom Right: A sacrifical alter at Huaca de la Luna

Her results from Chotuna-Huaca de los Sacrificios determined the exact opposite. She found that sacrificial victims “were drawn from surrounding local populations” (Turner 34). The results from this site demonstrate how the Moche may have used human sacrifice at different times, in different ways, and for different purposes. It’s ethnocentric for us to think that they had a standardized system.

The variation between sites has forced scholars to dig deeper for answers, and some of the results have been intriguing. It has been suggested that ecological pressures may have been catalysts for sacrifice. Rain on the tropical savannah is rare, but when it comes it is usually in the form of a torrential downpour. There is a strong possibility that sacrifices occurred during times of unrelenting rain as way to appease the gods in order for the rains and flooding to stop (Sutter and Cortez 526). It is not outlandish to assume that “such environmental stress would have required some form of social response” (Sutter and Cortez 525). Numerous sacrifices at the Huaca de la Luna were found in at least five layers of mud sentiment, which is indicative of torrential raining and flooding (Sutter and Cortez 526).

This environmental interpretation helps us develop context for their motivations for human sacrifice.

What we are able to gather from this is that developing contextual information about the Moche solely from the archaeological record is difficult. The Moche likely used human sacrifice as a response for various social and ecological responses. These exact responses will remain at the mercy of our interpretation, but one thing does resonate. Human sacrifice was a symbolic cultural practice for the Moche.

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Human Sacrifice and The Great Death Pit

Royal Cemetery of Ur

The Royal Cemetery of Ur, Mesopotamia

By Martine Van Der Heever

Between the 1920s and 1930s Sir Leonard Woolley, along with his wife and a team of excavators, uncovered thousands of human skeletons at the archaeological site of Ur’s royal cemetery, dating to the late third- millennium BC (Baadsgaard et al.

27; Vidale 427). The excavations took place at Tell al- Muqayyar and were sponsored by the British Museum and Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Most of the skeletal remains were split between the two museums, although some artefacts still remain in Iraq. The site sits in the center of the city so those in power could easily control it. Vidale points out, that this was most likely to reflect the “ideological and political centrality of elite funerals” (427). Woolley reported just over 2000 remains and estimated that the cemetery once probably held twice that number, but that they were most likely destroyed by later internments, looters, or construction (Baadsgaard et al. 28).

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Inside the Tombs: The Great Death Pit and More

Based on the wealth of grave goods and cylinder seals inscribed with royal titles and personal names, Woolley identified sixteen of the tombs as belonging to royalty. These sixteen tombs date to between 2600-2450 BC, and are most likely related by blood or marriage , although no test have been done to support this theory(Baadsgaard et al. 28).

Some of the tombs are stone chambers with one or two rooms at the bottom of the pit. Evidence shows that the chamber was reserved for royal burial, and very often the entombment included personal attendants. More attendants were found placed outside the main chamber or in subsidiary pits adjacent to it. These are the death pits (Baadsgaard et al. 28).

Among Woolley’s finds are two intact tombs of royal women. The first, Private Grave (PG) 800 belonged to a queen known through text as Puabi, and she is estimated to have been around forty years old at the time of her death (Baadsgaard et al. 29). The second PG 1054 belongs to a young unidentified female. Other prominent graves include PG 789, or King’s Grave, which contain the remains of sixty-three attendants including six soldiers at the pit’s entrance and two ox-drawn carts with their drivers and grooms. The pit also included the remains of several women lining the southwest wall of the chamber and female, and male bodies lining the passage to the chamber. The Great Death Pit (PG 1237) contained the remains of seventy-four attendants, including 5-6 males lining the northeast wall near the entrance and sixty-eight additional elaborately dressed female attendants grouped around a set of musical

instruments (Baadsgaard et al. 29). After examining some of the remains Woolley reported that the attendants had been intentionally killed, stating that they were either “cut down where they stood” or they were “slaughtered apart and then laid in the grave.” (From Woolley’s report as quoted by Baadsgaard et al. 29) After finding the female attendants in PG 1237, he decided instead that the attendants had drunk poison.

Human Sacrifice: The Proof in the Scan After putting two of the skulls from the collection at Penn Museum through a CT scan, Baadsgaard and her team are certain that there is physical evidence of sacrifice as well as evidence into how the bodies were treated after death (28). The first skull that they examined belongs to a young female from PG1237 who is identified as body 52.

Based on the eruption of her upper and lower 3rd molars, her age is placed between late teens to early twenties at death (Baadsgaard et al. 33). The second skull (Body 50) is one of the six soldiers placed near the entrance of the tomb PG 789. He was found wearing a copper helmet and his dentition indicates death around age 25 to 30 (Baadsgaard et al. 34). The placement of his body suggests he was dumped rather than carefully placed like the others.

The helmet protected the male’s skull from major postmortem fragmentation. The fact that there is no damage to the helmet, suggests that the attendants were killed and then redressed before being placed in the tombs (Vidale 439). Once the CT scans had been examined it was clear that there was evidence of perimortem as well as postmortem damage to both skulls, the latter being estimated to have occurred at or around the time of death

Body 52 found in the Great Death Pit (Baadsgaard et al. 36). There are three separate cases of blunt force trauma, two occurring on the male skull and one on the female. The fractures appear to be about 30mm in diameter (Baadsgaard et al. 36). These wounds were probably inflicted by a weapon similar to a copper battleaxe with a long spike on one end (Baadsgaard et al. 36). This new examination of remains contend that attendants were violently killed by blunt force trauma, refuting Woolley’s theory that they willingly took poison; however, considering the limited osteological evidence, we are unable to tell if the attendants died without a struggle. Since the two skulls come from different tombs, it is reasonable to assume that this pattern can be found among other attendants across the cemetery.

CT scans of Body 50 and Body 52 showing evidence of radiating fractures consistent with blunt force trauma 193 |

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Royal Cemetery of Ur

Kings and Queens/ Priest and Priestesses: Possible Reasons for Human Sacrifice

According to Woolley, the attendants had been sacrificed to continue serving their kings and queens in the netherworld. Over the years there have been many other interpretations of why these attendants were sacrificed.

Smith and BĂśhl speculate that the graves belonged to priests and priestesses interpreting marriages to the gods, and that the attendants were sacrificed to ensure the fertility of the land(Vidale 428). Winter, Cohen, and Tinney believe that the dead kings and queens were meant to present gifts, in the form of people and artefacts, to the rulers of the underworld upon their arrival(Vidale 430). CharvĂĄt , theorizes that the bodies were placed there long after the death of the main occupants, to reaffirm their links to their leaders after death (Vidale 430).

According to Vidale the practice of human sacrifice could have also signaled growing political power (440). Perhaps the attendants were strangled, or their throats were cut. The male attendants found at the entrance of PG 1237 were found with copper blades (Vidale 444). According to Vidale, they were among the last to be put in the pit based on their placement near the entrance (446). Vidale further suggests that they were the executioners. and that they used the blades to execute the attendants before turning and executing one another (438, 446).

Possible weapon used to kill attendants This includes everyday objects like ceramic drinking vessels, bowls and pots (Cohen 84). These graves appear to be outfitted for feasting. It is theorized by Cohen that the attendants buried with these vessels had taken part in the festivities prior to their deaths (84). After the festivities ended, the attendants were lead into the tombs where they were sacrificed. It is also speculated that the attendants were buried with ceramics to be able to provide food and drink to their leaders in the afterlife (Cohen 86). Another theory, proposed by Baadsgaard suggests that the attendants were sacrificed and then embalmed to temporary delay decay during the practices of funerary right.

This is based on traces of cinnabar and arsenic found on skulls while conducting CT scans (38).

Party ‘til you Drop: Feasting Before Sacrifice

In the 3rd millennium BCE, feasts were an integral part of annual festivals, war victories, diplomatic meetings, and most importantly in life cycle events like death and marriage. In some graves including PG800, PG1407 and PG 755 contained some grave goods that were objects used in the preparation and storage of food.

A drawing of the Great Death Pit 20 4 | DESIGN MGZ 6

The General Consensus

While there are many theories surrounding the Royal Cemetery of Ur, there is a general agreement among academics that human sacrifice was practiced here.

While funerary rituals including feasting and mourning are attested in texts, human sacrifice seems to be unique to Ur, since evidence of it hasn’t been found in surrounding sites that correspond to the same period.

As mentioned before this could reflect the city’s power and wealth

as well as the elites’ ability to continue their privileged existence in the after life (Baadsgaard et al. 40). It is speculated that human sacrifice was short lived based on the fact that there are only sixteen tombs that show evidence of sacrifice, as well as proof of decline of goods and number of sacrifices in later tombs. It is perhaps fair then to assume that these extravagant funerals became too costly to achieve any longstanding symbolic efficacy or legitimacy.

An artist’s representation of attendants standing outside the Great Death Pit waiting to be sacrificed

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Putting It All Together T

What can we learn by comparing these case studies?

he four examples described in these articles represent unique cultures in four distinct time periods. They all shared commonalities not just in practicing human sacrifice, but also in their motivation for sacrifice. Our journey took us from the Mesopotamians in the late Neolithic period, through the Shang Dynasty in the Bronze Age, to the Celtic bog bodies in the early Iron Age, and finally ended with Moche in the Pre-Columbian Classical period in South America. These cultures are globally distinct from one another with no temporal overlapping, so just what trends seemed to be prevalent in human sacrifice?

First, these examples all expressed human sacrifice as a ritualized activity. They weren’t just slaughtering people in violent acts, there was purpose behind the sacrifice. The bog bodies and Moche left human sacrifices from the living to appease to the gods; whereas, the Shang and Mesopotamian examples involved sacrifice so slaves or attendants could accompany the deceased social elite to the afterlife. In this light, human sacrifice was a medium used to communicate or interact with their gods or religion.

Whether those sacrificed were locals, war captives, or slaves there is a universal theme that rises from our case studies. Those who were sacrificed were given special treatment before they died. This involved feasting, drinking, and in the case of some war captives, given time to heal before the sacrifice. There seemed to be something powerful about sending a happy or healed soul away rather than sacrificing the weak or feeble.

Finally, human sacrifice was likely a social response to various conditions. It was not just meaningless slaughter. These conditions could rise environmentally, politically, or even socially. It is difficult for us to accurately determine these reasons from the archaeological record, but through modern archaeological methods and reinterpretation of old sites we are slowly able to understand the complexities of these monumental civilizations from long ago.

Archaeology has come a long way since the days of these “archaeologists�.

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When Your Field School Requires Nothing But The Best, Trust

Nothing But The Best.

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ArchaeTech

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One hour

Dismembered Bog Fingers Quick, crispy, tart and spicy flavours in a jar.

The Things You Will Need: - 1 cup vinegar - 1/2 cup cold water - 2 teaspoons kosher salt -2 teaspoons pickling spice - 5 small cumcumbers - a couple cloves of garlic - a spring of dill (optional)

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Prep: Prep: 10 mins 10 mins Chill: Chill: 1 hour 1 hour Makes: Makes: 1 pint 1 pint

Combine: Vinegar, water, kosher salt, pickCombine: ling spice, and garlic in a small sauce Vinegar, water, kosher salt, pickpan. ling spice, and garlic in a small sauce pan.

Heat: Bring mixture to a boil. Boil for Heat: 5 mins and remove from the heat.

Bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 5 mins and remove from the heat.

Place: Put the cucumbers into a Place: clean, dry glass container large Put the cucumbers into the a fingers enough to hold clean, dry glass container large enough to hold the fingers Pour: Pour:Pour the brine mixture over the cucumbers until it is completely Pour the brine mixture over the covered. cucumbers until it is completely covered.

Cover and refrigirate for 1 hour and refrigirate for 1 hour 2 | DESIGN MGZCover The pickles6 will keep for 10 days The pickles will keep for 10 days

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Bibliography Bog Bodies - pages 4-7 Haglund, William D., Sorg, Marcella H. (2001) Advances in Forensic Taphonomy: Method, Theory, and Archaeological Perspec

tives. CRC Press, p. 17-18. Print.

Lobell, Jarrett A., Patel, Samir S (2010). Clonycaven and Oldcroghan Men, Archaeology Archive, Volume 63, No. 3. http://archive. archaeology.org/1005/bogbodies/clonycavan_croghan.html Plunkett, Gill., Whitehouse, Nicki J., Hall, Valerie A., Charman, Dan J., Blaauw, Maarten., Kelly, Eamonn., Mulhall, Isabella.

(2009) A multi-proxy paleoenvironmental investigation of the findspot of an Iron Age bog body from Oldcroghan, Co.

Offlay, Ireland.: Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 36, Issue 2, Feb. 2009. Pages 265-277. From http://www. sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.library.uvic.ca/science/article/pii/S0305440308002069.

The Shang Dynasty - pages 8-11

Mccurley, Dallas L. “Dynasty, Shang.” Berkshire

Encyclopedia of China: Modern and Historic Views of the World’s Newest and Oldest Global Power. Vol. 4. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2009. 1941-1944. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 26 Nov. 2015.

Lai, S. and Brown, W. T. (2006) SPICE - the Shang dynasty, 1600 to 1050 BCE. Available at: http://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/

docs/the_shang_dynasty_1600_to_1050_bce (Accessed: 27 November 2015).

Ying, Wang. “Yin Ruins (Yinxu).” Berkshire Encyclopedia of China: Modern and Historic Views of the World’s Newest and Oldest

Global Power. Vol. 5. Great Barrington, MA: Berkshire Publishing, 2009. 2577-2579. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web.

26 Nov. 2015.

Moche - pages 14-17

Chapdelaine, Claude. “Recent Advances in Moche Archaeology.” Journal of Archaeological Research 19, no. 2 (2011). 191-231.

Huchet, J., and B. Greenberg. “Flies, Mochicas and Burial Practices: A Case Study from Huaca de la Luna, Peru.” Journal of Ar

chaeological Science, no. 37 (2010): 2846-2856.

Sutter, Richard, and Rosa Cortez. “The Nature of Moche Human Sacrifice: A Bio-Archaeological Perspective.” Current Anthropolo

gy 46, no. 4 (2005). 521-544.

Turner, Bethany, Haagen Klaus, Sarah Livengood, and Leslie Brown. “The Variable Roads to Sacrifice: Isotopic Investigations of

Human Remains from Chotuna-huaca de los Sacrificios, Lambayeque, Peru.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology,

no. 151 (2013). 22-37

Ur Cemetery - pages 18-21

BAADSGAARD A., MONGE J., COX S., ZETTLER R.L. (2011). Human Sacrifice and Intentional Corpse Pre

vention in the Royal Cemetery of Ur. Antiquity. 85 (327). p. 27-42.

VIDALE, M. (2011). PG 1237, Royal Cemetery of Ur: Patterns in death. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 21

(3). p. 427-451 COHEN, A. C. (Ed.). (2005). Activities Surrounding the Corpse. Death rituals, ideology, and the development of

early Mesopotamian kingship: towards a new understanding of Iraq’s royal cemetery of Ur. Ancient

Magic and Divination. (7). Brill.

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Image Bibliography Cover Page Clark, R. (no date) Feature: Bog bodies // Robert Clark [Photograph]. Available at: http://www.insti

tuteartist.com/filter/robert-clark-feature/feature-Bog-Bodies-Robert-Clark (Accessed: 27

November 2015).

Contents Page

Lange, K. E. (2007) Tales from the bog Available at: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/09/

bog-bodies/bog-bodies-text (Accessed: 27 November 2015).

Bog Bodies - pages 4-7

https://dbsirishstudies.wordpress.com/2015/02/08/the-bog-bodies-of-the-iron-age-the-clonyca

van-man-and-the-old-croghan-man-belen-gimenez/ [Clonycavan man Image] https://dbsirishstudies.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/old-crogham-man.jpg [Oldcroghan man

Image. From same page as above link] http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2009/08/296287094_7aa36bf57c_b.jpg [Bog

Image]

The Shang Dynasty - pages 8-11

Shang dynasty map - the art of Asia - history and maps (no date)Available at: http://archive. artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/shang-dynasty-map.cfm (Accessed: 27 November 2015).

2 When in Time (2013) Shang dynasty -tomb of Lady Fu Hao [Photograph]. Available at: http://

whenintime.com/EventDetails.aspx?e=52a61750-95e5-41b9-bbb3-5a80b8ff12db&t=/tl/

mrsbroderick/ap_world_period_4/ (Accessed: 27 November 2015).

3 Calendars Through the Ages (no date) Shang Oracle Bone [Photograph]. Available at: http://

www.webexhibits.org/calendars/imagesFolder/shang-oracle-bonesZ.jpg (Accessed: 27

November 2015).

4 Che, X. (2015) Yinxu - oracle bones [Photograh]. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/

rosemania/4430509846/in/ photostream/ (Accessed: 27 November 2015).

1

Moche - pages 14-17

Skeletons pic - http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ news/2013/11/131119-moche-human-sacrifice-war-victims-burials-archaeology-science/ Alter- http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/07/photogalleries/100730-human-sac rifice-chamber-peru-presentation-science-pictures/ John Foster (painting) - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/355362226822428714/

Iconography – Sutter, Richard, and Rosa Cortez. “The Nature of Moche Human Sacrifice: A Bio-Archaeological Perspective.”

Current Anthropology 46, no. 4 (2005). 521-544.

Ur Cemetery - pages 18-21

Pictures gathered from articles listed under Ur Cemetery in bibliography

Advertisement Image

https://www.flickr.com/photos/56705607@N00/3561818764/

Discussion Image

British Museum. https://britishmuseumblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/m1217_544.jpg

Recipe Image

https://www.flickr.com/photos/36714999@N05/8613779835/

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