Decarnation
In archeology and ethnology, decarnation ( Latin for “deflashing”) or excarnation (“flesh out”) describes all processes by which a human corpse or an animal carcass is freed from all soft parts , leaving only the bones and animals also the antlers or the horns remain. Various techniques of decarnation have been and are used as part of burial rituals ; this ranges from releasing with knives, decomposing and digging up to releasing it as food for birds.
Early examples
These burial techniques were mainly practiced during the time of the hunter-gatherers , but were also found in the Neolithic . The decarnation with a second burial of the bones was common among the band ceramists , as the latest excavations in Herxheim, Germany show, where at least 1,350 skeletons from a radius of several hundred kilometers were collected and buried together. Since the ritualized second burial at the central sanctuary took place at longer intervals, the decarnation of the previously deceased was left to the natural process of decay, and those who died shortly before the funeral were fleshed out accordingly.
The South American Moche let their dead rot on the surface or dissolved by the flies they worshiped before the remaining bones were buried in the earth with grave goods. The Indians believed that this was the only way to free souls from bodies.
Animal skulls were also placed in caves very early, presumably as sanctuaries . For example, at the Çatalhöyük archaeological site in what is now Turkey , large numbers of bull skulls were integrated into cult rooms ( Bukranion : replica of a cattle skull as a decorative motif). Both the released bones of one's own dead after the decarnation by birds ( vultures ) and animal bones were built into the clay of the building .
Current occurrence
Excarnation found in today or, until recently, Stone Age living peoples in Papua New Guinea . In a few tribes, the meat of the dead people was also eaten (see also cannibalism ). The Fore people became particularly well-known , because they and some neighboring tribes spread the prion- induced Kuru disease through this behavior .
The feeding of corpses to birds was also common among the Mongols and is still partly used by the Parsees and Tibetans today (see also celestial burial ). As followers of Zoroastrianism , the Parsis put the corpses of the deceased in round towers, which are called Dachma or "Towers of Silence". The decarnation and feeding of birds, which is still partly common in Tibet, is shown to some extent in Martin Scorsese's film Kundun (1997), in which the burial ritual is used for the father of the 14th Dalai Lama .
See also
literature
- Eileen Murphy: Funerary Processing of the Dead in Prehistoric Ireland. In: Archeology Ireland. Volume 17, No. 2, 2003, ISSN 0790-892X , pp. 13-15 (English).
- Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .
Web links
- Miriam N. Haidle: The band ceramic mine Herxheim / Pfalz: The human bones. University of Tübingen, 2005, accessed on July 3, 2014 .
- Miriam N. Haidle, Jörg Orschiedt : The human bones of the excavations 1996–1999. In: Herxheim settlement and mine near Landau. German Research Foundation , March 2009, accessed July 3, 2014 .
- What to do with the dead Funeral rituals. In: Scinexx . Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, September 23, 2005, archived from the original on August 14, 2007 ; Retrieved July 3, 2014 .
- Travel report: Thus spoke Zarathustra. In: Studyrussian.com. Ziegler & Partner, Switzerland, August 20, 2012, accessed on July 3, 2014 (Towers of Silence in Iran).
- Terra X : Cult of the dead in Çatal Hüyük - metropolis of the Neolithic Age. ZDF , June 29, 2008, accessed on July 3, 2014 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Angelika Franz: insect archeology: funeral feast with maggot gray. In: Spiegel Online . October 7, 2010, accessed July 3, 2014 .