Archaeology of Death

ARCHAEOLOGY OF DEATH

University of Victoria

In This Issue: Apotropaics Vikings

Vampire Burials of the Mediterranean

The editors of the present publication would like to acknowledge that the information found herein is of a very sensitive nature and may not appeal to all readers. We have compiled information on death, burial, and, the supernatural from many cultures across the globe keeping a cultural relativistic perspective on our content. We present this information as purely academic, with no inclusion of personal opinions or biases. The content found herein is not presented with the intention of causing discomfort or offense to our readership. Bearing that in mind, we invite you to peruse and enjoy our magazine.

Sincerely, The Editors.

Kayla Berryman University of Victoria,

Tamarah Braithwaite, BSc University of Victoria, BA Anthropology

Don Crawford University of Victoria,

Kara Fennema University of Victoria, BA History – Anthropology minor

Cover Image: Betsinger, T. and A, Scott. 2014. Female Vampire Burial with Sickle (Photograph).

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Introduction to Grave Goods, Charms, and Trinkets ………………………………………………….page 03

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Viking Undead: The Draugr…………….……...page 06

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Vampire and Deviant Burials in Medieval Poland……………………...……………………page 10

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The Supernatural East…………………………..page 15

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Mediterranean Vampires and Revenants………..page 18

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Grave Currency…………………………………page 24

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References……………………….……………...page 27 3

In this issue of UVic Archaeology of Death we explore the unique, the strange, and even the…supernatural?...aspects of death, burial, and grave goods.

Around the world there are various cultural practices and rituals surrounding death and burial, including many rituals to bind spirits to the body, or to prevent the deceased from rising out of the grave. As humans, we are fascinated and compelled by the unknown and therefore we invent exciting explanations for deviant practices associated with death. Many of these explanations go beyond what archaeology can support, venturing into the realm of witches, zombies, and vampires.

It may be hard to take an archaeological article discussing vampires, evil, and magic seriously, but these topics do arise in anthropology, the question is – do they belong there? Many magic related burials seem to date back to

medieval times and the conversion to Christianity1. At that time, popular grave goods would have included amulets believed to protect the body from decay in preparation for resurrection1. These amulets began as trinkets of folk-magic but began to acquire religious significance over time.

The exact grave goods included, and the provenience of such items is extremely relevant to burials whether considered deviant or not. In a British study on medieval burials, Gilchrist1 notes that there are four general categories of magical grave good:    

Healing and protective amulets Objects possessing occult power Antique objects Demonic magic, divination, or sorcery 4

The evidence of magic in the form of such grave goods is relatively rare however, such goods being present in only 2% of published medieval burials1. In an archaeological context, such magic items placed into graves or associated rituals to prevent evil are known as ‘apotropaics’2.

Apotropaics show up in the archaeological record in many forms and in many countries.

As previously mentioned, medieval British apotropaics included amulets of protection, but other common items were staffs to ward off evil – it is hypothesized that such staffs of warding can be traced back to Iron-Age Shaman rituals and the Old Norse Gods1.

Many graves have also been found to contain various coins, generally placed near the shoulders or face which is thought to be representative of healing or saintly contracts of safe passage in death1. British and French lore of the 14th century suggests coffins were lined with ash to prevent the deceased from rising and wandering1. Similarly, in African culture, cattle and oxen were sacrificed and the bones arranged at the head of the burial to ward away evil and prevent the deceased from

leaving the grave3.

Interestingly, the reasons for the restlessness of the dead vary cross-culturally, British and French belief is that the dead will rise to return home and avoid the cold of death while African belief is that the dead wish to obtain favours from those still living1,3.

Likely of most interest to this particular area of study is the use of apotropaics to ward off the ‘undead’ or the ‘vampire’.

This usage was common in Eastern Europe during the medieval and post-medieval periods where outsiders were considered reanimation risks2.

All of the above mentioned apotropaics will be discussed at greater length in the following articles in an attempt to understand relevance of the supernatural to archaeology, as well as promoting the idea that knowledge of deviant burial practices provides modern anthropologists with important insight into past cultures and social organization.

So we ask you, our reader, superstitious rituals? Or sacred religious beliefs? – keep reading to find out more!

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The Viking sagas tell of the draugr, undead creatures of malevolent nature that are greatly feared. The draugr are the animated bodies of the dead, which leave their graves at night to prey on the living; they also have a knack for skaldic poetry1. Draugr are terrible creatures that possess incredible strength, resilience, and an extensive set of supernatural powers. The Draugr could be slain by decapitation or through cremation, or they could be put to rest by appeasement through the sacrifice of a loved one1.

But, how real were the draugr; and did the Vikings entertain the idea of undead monsters coming to kill them in the night; or were the tales of draugr in the sagas considered just stories? The archaeological evidence of draugr is scarce, however, the impact that fear of their existence had culturally can be inferred through the grave goods and burial rituals of the Vikings.

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When considering Viking burial rituals a popular image is the funeral pyre, where the dead and accompanying objects are sent into the afterlife through an enormous raging fire.

Burning the dead was a common practice among the Vikings, but why? For the Vikings cremation of the dead was supernatural in nature. It was believed that the destruction and transformation of the body with fire would accelerate the deceased’s journey into the afterlife. This has direct implications concerning the draugr. First it destroys the body so that it may not return from its grave; second it traps the spirit of the deceased in the afterlife, preventing it from rejoining the world of the living. In this way cremation acts as a form of protection for the living. This interpretation for the use of cremation as protection from the dead is consistent with the tales of the draugr from the sagas as no corpses that are burned return as draugr; in fact, cremation is used to destroy a draugr in the Eyrbyggja Saga2.

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Viking grave goods share a similar supernatural nature. As well as being objects that the deceased take with them into the afterlife, it is believed that knives, spears and axes, as grave goods, could have been used to prevent the dead from returning2. Knives were particularly symbolic in funerary practices to ward against the undead; placing a knife on or in a grave is meant to prevent the dead from rising, also placing a knife next to the door of a house is meant to prevent the dead from doing harm to anyone that lives within the house2. Spears also held a great deal of symbolic significance to the Vikings with strength and order being prominent themes which take their influence from the Viking deity Odin. Odin, also known as the Spear God2, would call too order the other gods by hurling his spear over their heads. As an instrument of order a relationship between the spear and the undead can be made as the undead are often thought to be a disruption of a natural order of life and death. Functionally, this theory would indicate that spears found in association with burials are meant to maintain the order of life and death; to prevent the dead from returning2.

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Archaeologically, these methods of securing the dead to eternal death are relevant.

While many Viking burials will offer evidence of grave goods, cremation, or both, it is difficult to know whether either form of burial ritual was performed to contain or ward against supernatural forces.

However, a grave has been discovered that, in its abnormality, offers a wealth of evidence that supports a supernatural interpretation.

The burial contained the burnt remains of a woman that were scattered in a circular layer, along with beads, combs and brooches, and nine damaged knives2. The layer of burnt remains then had five spears, that were purposely bent and twisted, driven through it; then the burial was covered and another small hollow was dug into the top of the mound where a tenth sharp knife, a garment, and two oval brooches were placed2.

Considering the symbolic and supernatural nature of knives and spears, as well as the funerary practice of cremation, it is evident that the context of this burial was meant to ensure that the deceased stay dead for eternity, with no chance of returning from the grave.

While the archaeological evidence of the draugr is scarce, the supernatural nature of Viking burial rituals and grave goods can be considered a compelling story for a culture's fear of the undead.

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Vampire and Deviant Burials in Medieval Poland Through the 10

th

-16th centuries in what today we recognize as

Poland, burials have appeared that deviate from the typical methods of burial at the time. Due to the conversion of the area from Slavic Paganism to Christianity, the people of the time were beginning to bury their dead instead of cremating them2. A typical burial was a supine burial with grave goods (except in children under the age of three) like knives, silver of bronze jewelry, glass beads, spindle whorls, ceramic vessels, carnelian rock crystal and weaponry like arrows, arrowheads, and axes1.

The atypical burials are where things get interesting however. The main types of atypical burials occur in Medieval Poland: • • • •

Stoned burials Decapitations Prone burials Stabbed, pierced, or staked burials 10

One particular burial in Poland revealed a man and woman in a shared grave2. The man had been decapitated and his head had been placed between his feet2. The woman was in a prone position next to him, and archaeologists believed that she in fact was a witch2. This assumption of atypical burials containing deviant individuals or as an apotropaic funerary ritual was the first explanation that many archaeologists applied.

However more recently, archaeologists have been looking for other explanations to explain the atypical burials, keeping in mind that often these graves could be of an socially deviant individual such as criminal, instead of a witch or a prevention for the rising of the dead1. Explanations for the main types of burial deviance can be applied to both adults and children, with the children limiting the age range from 0-13, and anything about that considered an adult1,2.

Apotropaic graves were used in the prevention of revenants, a theory that came to be due to the time period. The 10th-16th centuries in Poland were a time of religious upheaval, as the Christian clergy were converting the masses from Slavic paganism to Christianity2. Due to this, many archaeologists speculate that because the Slavs were no longer cremating the dead, worries began to arise about their inhumed relatives returning from the dead to haunt or harm them2. Due to this fear of revenants, the Slavs took apotropaic action in preventing from their relatives returning from the grave2. One of these prevention theories included a prone burial.

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Prone Burials: Prone burials are when the body is placed in a grave face down. Prone burials were usually single burials containing men, occasionally women with limited grave goods2.

A few of the remains found in Poland were decapitated as well as prone, however the prone bodies have never been found in a coffin or with stones placed around the body2. A theory explaining the prone position could be taking into account the history of the individual in the grave? Was he or she a criminal? If so, perhaps their prone burial can be chalked up to a post-mortem atonement or shame of the way they lived their lives2.

The oldest type of penitentiary death in Poland was hanging, usually for thieves, but a slightly more gruesome end for a criminal could be decapitation2.

Decapitation Burials: Decapitation burials were again usually male burials, but occasionally there were female individuals in these graves2. Three types of decapitation burials, some without a skull, some with just the skull, and others with the skull located somewhere near the body2.

Popular apotropaic opinions link decapitation to prevent the body from rising, however this method of burial could also be explained as a type of capital punishment2. The nails or stakes found in some of the decapitated heads could be explained as the heads being used a public statement or warning to not deviate2. An example of this is a man in a burial that was just long enough to hold his headless body, with a wooden post by his feet2.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the post was above ground and his head could have been displayed atop it, and visible to all below the hill in which he was buried, serving as a sort of sign or warning2.

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Explanations for the stones found on both adults and children are ambivalent. Some believe the stones were used to keep the mouths shut to maintain an aesthetically pleasing funerary position1,2. However the other theory is that the stones were used to keep the mouths shut because open mouthed corpses were more likely to become possessed, especially children1.

Baptism was very important to these new Christian converts, and if a child had died before they could be baptized, they were very privy to evil spirits and resurrection1. In fact, revenant children were charged with causing the Black Death1. Some children were found with knives thrust through them, physically restraining them to their graves – a nonapotropaic theory is hard to apply here, what other type of explanation does one have other than attempting to keep the child from returning to haunt the village2?

Anyway that you slice it, the deviant burials in Medieval Poland have an air of supernatural suspicion to them. And although there is definitely more than just one explanation for the atypical graves, one can’t help but wonder what started the apotropaic traditions in the first place?

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Examples of decapitated burials.

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Within Asian cultures burial practices are often centered around the use of Fengshui which promotes the flow of good energy. Fengshui has been considered superstitious at times but the usage of this ancient ritualistic tradition is regaining popularity3. In traditional Chinese culture, places of death and burial were considered dangerous and impure, requiring specific graveside rituals or offerings to appease the spirits of the deceased3. Similarly Japanese culture boasts many ritual beliefs centered on death and spirit appeasement2.

Of particular interest to the supernatural topics discussed in this work, is a Japanese ritual called matsugo no miso (“the last water”) which is performed by moistening the lips with water immediately after an individual dies – the purpose of which is to basically ensure death by offering a final resuscitation attempt2. Further apotropaics utilized by the Japanese include items placed in the coffin to help with, and ensure, their passage into the realm of death – sandals, a bag, and a stick for crossing ‘the thorny mountain’ and money for ‘crossing the river’, along with several personal items2.

While it is mostly believed that these grave goods are provided as comforts and protection for the deceased, it also must be considered that [in Japan at least] items belonging to the dead are considered tainted and must be disposed of – so why not place them in the coffin?2 15

Once an individual is buried and the spirit has entered the realm of Buddha, the process is not yet over, while the individual may be considered ‘deceased’ the spirit is still considered restless and dangerous requiring further ritual2. To accomplish the purification and settling of the deceased, three services are held after an initial 49 day period of mourning: Tsuki meinichi – monthly anniversary marking the day of death.

Shotsuki meinichi – annual anniversary marking the day of death.

Nenki – periodic service held on the first, third, seventh, thirteenth, seventeenth, twenty-third, twenty-seventh, thirty-third, fiftieth, and hundredth anniversaries.

Japanese bon festival lanterns.

On the final anniversary it is thought that the deceased is pure and no longer restless allowing them to become a safe and honoured ancestor and protector of the household2. While the body of the deceased may then be safely confined to their grave, it is accepted that the spirit still wanders, particularly at the time of the festival of the dead or bon festival (August 13-16) when family members of the deceased provide offerings of food, flowers, incense, and paper lanterns (pictured above) to guide the dead home2. While many cultures engage in similar practices to the bon festival, it could be seen as an odd ritual associated with death as majority of such rituals exist to prohibit the dead from wandering, even in spirit form, not to encourage them to return home.

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Much of the treatment of a spirit depends on the energy associated with said spirit, and whether it is considered evil or demonic. In Han-dynasty burials in China it is common to find mirrors which are believed to have apotropaic properties1. In China longevity is intrinsically tied to the strength of metal and stone therefore much jade and many metal grave items find their way into Chinese burials1. Currently it is not entirely clear the intended purpose of mirrors as grave goods but it has been suggested that mirrors may ward against evil or reflect the true identity of an evil beast1. It has also been suggested that mirrors may have been utilized to prevent the spirit and life energy from leaving the body; similarly the mouths of the dead were filled with jade stones in hopes that supernatural changes to the body post-death would not take place1.

Example of a Chinese mirror excavated from a Handynasty burial.

These elements tie-in closely to the practices of fengshui in which energy and flow of the spirit must be taken into account during burial so as not to create negative energy and a restless or wandering spirit3. As evidenced in Asian cultures and throughout exploration into many other burial practices around the world, it seems to be very important [cross-culturally] that we keep the spirits at bay and the dead in their graves, where did this fear of the ‘undead’ stem from? And why is it so important to make sure that the dead are officially dead?

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Mediterranean Vampires and Revenants

 Archaeological evidence reveals that atypical burials from many different time periods are present in various locations in Southern Europe4. This article will examine and explain deviant burials located specifically in the Mediterranean regions of Greece, Cyprus, and Italy, and will focus in particular on burials interpreted by archaeologists as being associated with vampires and revenants.

These burial sites in Greece, Cyprus and Italy are distinguished from ‘normal’ burials by the presence and location of certain ‘grave goods’ (for lack of a better term) that are associated with the interred bodies4. In Greece and surrounding areas, practices due to necrophobia (a Greek word meaning fear of the dead) among communities resulted in the use of certain items in burials – such as large rocks, nails, and wedges4. These practices have generally been interpreted by anthropologists and archaeologists as apparent attempts to restrict the deceased by weighing down the body to keep the dead from being reanimated after burial3.

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Reanimated dead bodies are a common feature in local vampire legends in the region, in both the legends belonging to the Greek vampire species termed Vrykolakas by the Greek Orthodox Church in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, and other Greek legends about revenants dating back to antiquity3,2. The Vrykolakas did not necessarily drink blood like vampires did in other European legends – such as Slavic legends – but rather were known for rising from the dead to haunt and torment the living2.

This knowledge of regional Vampire myth and superstition, coupled with the unusual ‘grave goods’ that were apparently used to discourage the reanimation of deceased bodies, has led to the interpretation that these particular atypical Mediterranean graves belonged to individuals that were believed to be vampires or revenants in general3. These ‘grave goods’ and their associations with vampires and revenants will be explored in further detail by discussing six interesting case studies from the Mediterranean region.

Neolithic Revenants on Cyprus

Some of the earliest evidence in the Mediterranean region of deviant burials associated with revenants or vampires are located in Cyprus, and date to the Neolithic period – 7000-2500 BC3. These burials are believed to be deviant burials not only because the bodies were interred in shallow graves in unusual ways – in constrained positions with their knees angled against their chest, which is an atypical position when compared to other burials of the time period and region – but because of the objects used in the burials3.

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Multiple layers of both small rocks and larger slabs were placed on top of the head and/or the chest of the buried individuals. There were also instances of wedging the head of the deceased with pebbles, which, as mentioned, has been interpreted by archaeologists as a deliberate design to keep the deceased from reanimating3.

Similar Neolithic burials in Cyprus are located at the archaeological site Khirokitia, dating to 4500 – 3900/3800 BC4. These burials were found in the main settlement, the bodies in flexed positions and buried in pit graves. Here again, large millstones were positioned on top of the body or the head4.

Greek Revenants

A deviant burial similar to the ones previously discussed was discovered in the Argolis region of Greece, dating to the Bronze Age – known as the Halladic period in Greek4. In this stone cist grave, a large rock was positioned on top of a flexed body4.

Figure 1: An illustration of an individual buried in a tightly flexed position.

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Further evidence of atypical burials can also be found on Delos Island, in Greece. Two female skeletons dating from around the late second century BC to the early first century BC were discovered in the ancient House of Fourni. The bodies were found by excavators in the cistern of the house. Evidence reveals that one of the individuals was decapitated and that both of the individuals were found with multiple iron nails1. Anthropologist Phillippe Charlier has suggested that these nails are the remains of hobbles (shackles) that were used to prevent movement1. Though it is possible that these hobbles were used to restrain the individuals before burial, it is interesting to consider the possibility that they were fastened after burial, and that both this and the beheading were done for the same reason as what’s thought to be behind the use of the stones in other sites.

Figure 2: An ancient cistern located on Delos Island, Greece.

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Italian Revenants

The next case study that is worth looking at is two burial sites located in Capo Colonna, Trani, Italy, which date to the eighth or ninth century. These two graves were excavated by Dr. Ada Riccardi and contain the bodies of three young adult men and one adolescent4.

Most of the bodies display lesions, all underwent significant trauma before burial, and all of the individuals were covered with a large sandstone slab4. Archaeologists have suggested that the individuals were used as sacrifices, and that the large slabs were, again, an insurance against the dead coming back and taking their revenge against those responsible for their deaths4.

The Vampire of Lesbos

The final case study worth looking at is a well-known grave that has attracted much publicity over the years. First discovered in the early 1990’s, the buried individual is generally known as the “Vampire of Lesbos.” The burial is located in a remote area of the city of Mytilene on the Island of Lesbos, Greece, in a Turkish cemetery dating to the Ottoman occupation of the region in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries3. The burial is considered atypical due to the fact that the individual – an adult male – was nailed into place with 20 cm nails through the neck, pelvis, and ankle3.

Travel accounts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries explain that bodies that were suspected of becoming vampires were nailed into their casket to prevent them from reanimation5.

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Clearly this burial fits with that observed cultural ritual. This particular burial is especially interesting because this would have been a Muslim burial, and Muslims, unlike Christians, did not commonly believe in Vampires5.

Conclusion

In summary, archaeological evidence in the form of unusual ‘grave goods’ has shown that there are quite a few deviant burials located in the Mediterranean region, which date from the Neolithic era to the nineteenth century4. When compared to other European regions, however, not much scholarship has been done in this area. This is perhaps due to the fact that in other regions there is much more compelling evidence on deviant burials.

Yet though there may not be as many vampire or revenant burials in the Mediterranean as there are in the Slavic region, for example, the burials that have been uncovered by archaeologists are important. They tell us that fear of the supernatural affected communities in a significant way in the Mediterranean for thousands of years, and was a part of the region’s culture. They offer a fascinating glimpse into these belief systems.

23 Figure 3: The Vampire of Lesbos.

Silver half penny of Edward III from Somerset, England.

Copyright and courtesy of Context One Archaeological Services.

Currency is a popular grave good cross-culturally, found over many periods in time and thought to have various meanings and reasons for deposit in graves. In medieval Scandinavian burials silver and copper coins are often found, several are pierced which is suggestive of the coin being used as a pendant in life – incorporation of such coins in graves shows that Scandinavians may have been making use of coins as apotropaics to ward off evil3.

Coins and imitation paper money was, and still is, popular in Asian graves with the hope that such currency will help the deceased find safe passage into the afterlife2. The oddity here lies in the assumption that material objects can be carried through limbo into the afterlife and that they will continue to be useful once there.

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But perhaps many forms of currency found in graves have been misinterpreted; it is common to find cowrie shells in Chinese Bronze Age sites which are assumed to have been representative of currency [possibly dating as far back as the Neolithic] but could have been decorative or ritualistic4.

Anthropological knowledge of cowrie shells would point towards the former as many cultures utilized the cowrie as a form of currency but without ethnographic context it is impossible to know the function of these grave goods and whether they could be considered apotropaics or not.

In medieval Britain coins were suggestive of ritual religious mortuary practices and magic, particularly those coins that had been ‘folded’1. Folded or bent coins represented the performance of a ritual contract with a saint involving healing and safe journey – it is common practice to bend coins, pendants, and other amulets as doing so was believed to harness the magic within the

item1.

With the extreme focus on magic that most apotropaics have, including coins, it must be considered that our modern understanding of magic differs greatly from that of preEnlightenment societies3.

Supernatural entities such as the ones discussed in this work were not just invented notions, but were actually believed to exist within many parts of Europe, as well as elsewhere across the globe3. It is this fact that supports the existence of so many supernaturally related apotropaics and the need to investigate their various meanings.

Various Asian Coins.

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At the Charms of Death Emporium we carry trinkets and talismans to meet all of your grave good needs.

Drop in today!

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Introduction: 1. Gilchrist, R. 2008 Magic for the Dead? The Archaeology of Magic in Later Medieval Burials. Medieval Archaeology 52:119-159.

2. Gregoricka, L., T. Betsinger, A. Scott, and M. Polcyn.

2014 Apotropaic Practices and the Undead: A Biogeochemical Assessment of Deviant Burials in Post-Medieval Poland. PLoS ONE 9(11):1-24.

3. Larson, P. 2001 Austronesian Mortuary Ritual in History: Transformations of Secondary Burial (Famadihana) in Highland Madagascar. Ethnohistory 48(1-2):123-155.

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Viking Undead: The Draugr: 1. Chadwick, N. K. 1946 Norse Ghosts (A Study in the Draugr and the Haugbui) in Folklore. 57(2): 50-65.

2. Artelius, T. 2005 The Revenant by the Lake: Spear Symbolism in Scandinavian Late Viking Age Burial Ritual. Dealing with the Dead. 261-276.

Draugr Image: 2010. Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2. Paizo Publishing. (image) Large Fire: 2011. My friend being awesome in front of a large fire (Photograph). https://www.facebook.com Bent and Twisted Spears: 2005. Anders Anderson (Photographer). Spearheads from the burial site beside Lake Dalstorp in southern VästergÜtland (Photograph).

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Vampire and Deviant Burials in Medieval Poland: 1. Leszek, G. and Duma, P. 2013 Untimely Death: Atypical Burials of Children in Early and Late Medieval Poland. World Archaeology 45(2):314-332.

2. Leszek, G. and Kajkowski, K. 2013 Vampires, Criminals or Slaves? Reinterpreting ‘Deviant Burials’ in Early Medieval Poland. World Archaeology 45(5):780-796.

Drawn Decapitation: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/Lj2uIbjSaPM/U0B2HzaLfoI/AAAAAAAAP6k/iRrXHhIPwNo/s1600/Fig.+2.gif Accessed Mar 28 2015.

Decapitation Burial: http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wpcontent/uploads/2013/07/Vampire-burial-Gliwice.jpg Accessed Mar 28 2015.

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The Supernatural East: 1. Brashier, K. 1995 Longevity Like Metal and Stone: The Role of the Mirror in Han Burials. T’oung Pao 81(4/5):201-229.

2. Kim, H. 2012 The Purification Process of Death: Mortuary Rites in a Japanese Rural Town. Asian Ethnology 71(2):225-257.

3. Teather, E. 2001 The Case of the Disorderly Graves: Contemporary Deathscapes in Guangzhou. Social & Cultural Geography 2(2):185-202.

Background Image: 2015. FengShui (Photograph). http://astrologyclub.org/feng-shui-astrology/ Accessed Mar 28 2015.

Lanterns: 2015. Rev. Jikai Dehn (Photographer) Japanese bon festival lanterns (Photograph). http://tendaiaustralia.org.au/O-Bon.php Accessed Mar 28 2015.

Mirror: 1992. Kong Xiangxing in Brashier, K. 1995. Han-dynasty Chinese Mirror (Image).

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Mediterranean Vampires and Revenants: 1. Charlier, P. 2008 The Value of Palaeoteratology and Forensic Pathology for the Understanding of Atypical Burials: Two Mediterranean Examples from the Field. In Deviant Burial in the Archaeological Record. Eileen M. Murphy, ed. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

2. Keyworth, D. 2006 Was the Vampire of the Eighteenth Century a Unique Type of Undead-Corpse? In Folklore Vol. 117, No. 3., 241-260..

3. Tsaliki, A. 2001 Vampires Beyond Legend: A Bioarchaelogical Approach. In M. La Verghetta and L Capasso (eds.), Proceedings of the XIII European Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Chieti, Italy, 18-23 Sept 2000l, Edigrafital S.p.A: Teramo-Italy, 295-300.

4. Tsaliki, A. 2008 Unusual Burials and Necrophobia: An Insight into the Burial Archaeology of Fear. In Deviant Burial in the Archaeological Record. Eileen M. Murphy, ed. Oxford:Oxbow Books.

5. Williams, H. 1994 The Vampire of Lesbos. In ARCHAEOLOGY: a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America. March/April 1994 Issue, pg. 22.

Figure 1: http://killackeyillustration.com/images/Catalhoyuk_tightly_flexed_internment_Kathryn_Killacke y.jpg Figure 2: http://www.mdpi.com/water/water-05-01916/article_deploy/html/images/water-05-01916-g0051024.png Figure 3: http://archive.archaeology.org/online/features/halloween/vampire.html

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Grave Currency: 1. Gilchrist, R. 2008 Magic for the Dead? The Archaeology of Magic in Later Medieval Burials. Medieval Archaeology 52:119-159.

2. Kim, H. 2012 The Purification Process of Death: Mortuary Rites in a Japanese Rural Town. Asian Ethnology 71(2):225-257.

3. Vesa-Pekka, H., R. Nurmi and J. Symonds.

2012 Engaging with Money in a Northern Periphery of Early Modern Europe. Journal of Social Archaeology 12(3):287-309.

4. Yung-Ti, L. 2003 On the Function of Cowries in Shang and Western Zhou China. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 5(1-4):1-26.

Half Penny: 2008. Copyright and courtesy of Context One Archaeological Services in Gilchrist, R. 2008. Silver Half Penny (Photograph).

Cowrie Background: 2015. Cowrie Shells (Photograph). https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/170702031/cowrie-shell-50pc-12-34-inch-sliced?ref=market Accessed Mar 28 2015.

Coins: 2015. Braithwaite, T. (Photographer). Various Asian Coins (Photograph).

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