Head burial
A head burial is a funeral rite in which the head of the corpse is buried separately from the body . It is one of the rites of partial burials .
Occurrence
prehistory
Head burials (also known as "skull burials") are particularly known from an archaeological context. The oldest head burial known from prehistory and early history was found during excavations in the Mas d'Azil cave ( canton Le Mas-d'Azil , Ariège department , France) and dates back to the archaeological culture of Azilia . Its dating is around 10,000 BC. Chr.
The head burials from Jericho , ʿAin Ghazal and other sites of the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic B in the Middle East are somewhat more recent . Some of the skulls were covered with plaster and the facial features were modeled. The eyes are made partly of Kauri clams. In Köşk Höyük and Çatal Höyük (house 42) in Turkey, skull burials are covered with plaster of paris.
Head burials are also a special feature of the Late Mesolithic in Central Europe. Evidence of this tradition can be found in the Great Ofnet cave near Nördlingen , in the Hohlenstein barn in the Lonetal and in the cave ruins of the Hexenküche in Kaufertsberg near Lierheim ( Donau-Ries district ).
In the Bronze Age of the Middle East (3000-2700 BC) there were skull burials among the Assyrians . This is shown by excavations carried out at Heidelberg University between 1982 and 1991.
Ethnology
A special method had to the 19th century, the Californian Achumawi - Indians . They buried their deceased standing up so that the shoulders were barely covered by the earth and the head protruded from the grave. Various foods such as dried fish, roots and spices, as well as bows and arrows were added to the deceased as grave goods. The head was then separated from the body and the body was completely covered with earth. The head was burned on a pile of wood. The remaining ash was mixed with tar or another binding agent. The female relatives of the deceased picked up the paint with their fingers and put three black stripes on their right cheek. This symbolized their grief, which lasted until the stripes disappeared.
Modern
It is uncertain to what extent the modern burial custom in the Hallstatt ossuary should be rated as head burial or rather as secondary burial . In Hallstatt, until the advent of modern cremation in the 20th century, the dead were buried in earth graves in the cemetery. After about 20 to 30 years, the bones were exhumed, transferred to the ossuary, bleached and then decorated: the person's name usually appears on the forehead with the date of birth and death, painted with dark wreaths made of oak leaves, ivy or flowers. A total of 610 skulls are stacked in this form.
Todays situation
In Germany, partial burials , such as skull burials or heart burials , are still permitted in principle today.
Trivia
In the Canadian film Fido , the head burial is the usual form of funeral to prevent the dead from becoming zombies . Since zombies are also cheap labor, they are allowed against a high payment.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kimberley Patton, Lori D. Hager, "Motherbaby": a death in childbirth at Çatalhöyük. In: Ian Hodder (Ed.), Religion at work in a Neolithic society . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2015, 244
- ↑ Jörg Orschiedt : Results of a new investigation of the late Mesolithic head burials from southern Germany . In: Conard, Nicholas J. & Kind, Claus-Jürgen (Hrsg.): Current research on the Mesolithic - Current Mesolithic Research. Urgeschichtliche Materialhefte 12. Tübingen, 1998. pp. 147-160.
- ^ CY Yarrow: An Introduction to the Mortuary Customs of the North American Indian. Kessinger Publishing, 2004, E-Book # 6462, p. 36, ISBN 1-4191-0662-7
- ↑ P. Rödler: There is peace under all tops. In: Line One , 2007