The Social Life of Human Remains: Burial rites and the accumulation of capital during the transition

853 Pages·2011·18.06 MB·English

The Social Life of Human Remains: Burial rites and
the accumulation of capital during the transition from
Neolithic to urban societies in the Near East

Volume I

Gareth David Brereton

University College London

Thesis submitted for examination for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy (PhD)

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Declaration

I, Gareth Brereton, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where
information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated
in the thesis.

January 2011

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Abstract

The accumulation of capital is a widely recognised, but little studied, feature of early
urbanisation in Mesopotamia during the fourth-millennium BC. Current research links
the concentration and mobilisation of capital in urban centres to the expansion of cross-
regional trade routes. However, the social and cultural mechanisms through which
primary accumulation took place remain poorly understood. A related aspect of urban
growth is the virtual disappearance of human burials from the archaeological record.
This contrasts with earlier traditions where burials were routinely incorporated into
domestic contexts. Adapting Weber‟s insights regarding the origins of modern capitalist
accumulation in changing modes of religiosity, this research investigates the changing
relationship between funerary rituals and wealth consumption. Detailed study of burial
practices over the long-term (Late Neolithic through to Late Uruk) will isolate major
trends in funerary consumption over time. This will situate the phenomenon of large-
scale accumulation within a wider social matrix. The analogous treatment of human
remains and artefacts in Late Neolithic funerary contexts highlights complex
relationships between persons and objects. Late Neolithic funerary consumption
suggests that acquisitive behaviour was morally sanctioned by interaction with the dead.
The decreasing importance placed on funerary consumption during the fifth-millennium
is reflected in the separation of the adult dead from habitation areas, inhibiting contact
with the living. Goods were now channelled through households, and underwent ritually
mediated (intramural infant burials) processes of transformation into new commodity
forms. Trajectories of accumulation reinforced through provisioning ancestral cults and
personal display in death developed during the Early-Middle Uruk period, only to be
reversed with the onset of the Urban Revolution. The profound social changes that
accompanied the urban expansion transformed conceptions of persons and things. The
dead were expelled from the context of the living and the flow of commodities was now
regulated by new forms of religious institution.

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Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to my supervisors, Dr. David Wengrow and Prof. Stephen Shennan,
who provided invaluable guidance and support throughout the course of my research. I
would like to thank my parents for their patience and support throughout my academic
endeavours. I should also like to thank James Wright for assistance with database
design, and especially Emily Lewith for assistance with illustrations, and for her
constant encouragement and support. The sources of information used in this thesis
were facilitated by the University College Libraries. This research was made possible
by a studentship awarded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

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Contents
Declaration ....................................................................................................................... 2
Abstract ............................................................................................................................ 3
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................... 4
Contents ............................................................................................................................ 5
1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 27
1.1 Reinstating the role of funerary practices in the development of complex
societies in Mesopotamia ............................................................................................ 27
1.2 The Uruk World System ................................................................................... 28
1.2.1 World-systems theory, capital accumulation and its application to early
complex societies. ................................................................................................... 34
1.2.2 Capital accumulation in Uruk Mesopotamia: tracing its socio-cultural
origins 36
1.2.3 The influence of ideology and ritual upon economic behaviour: a
Weberian approach to long-term social transformations ........................................ 39
1.3 Research question, theoretical considerations and methodology ..................... 43
1.3.1 The research question ................................................................................ 43
1.3.2 Current approaches to wealth consumption and moral economies ........... 44
1.3.3 Methodological considerations and structure of the thesis ....................... 50
2 Approaches to the funerary archaeology of the Near East from the PPN to the Early
Bronze Age...................................................................................................................... 68
2.1 Current approaches to the funerary archaeology of the Early Neolithic (Pre-
Pottery Neolithic) in the Near East ............................................................................. 68
2.1.1 Symbolic/Cognitive Approaches .............................................................. 69
2.1.2 Functionalist Perspectives ......................................................................... 72
2.2 Current approaches to the funerary archaeology of the Late Neolithic through
to the Late Chalcolithic periods in Greater Mesopotamia .......................................... 74
2.2.1 General syntheses of the burial record ...................................................... 75
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2.2.2 Social evolutionary approaches................................................................. 77
2.2.3 Alternative interpretations of the burial record ......................................... 79
2.3 Themes and issues in the funerary archaeology of the third-millennium BC .. 80
2.3.1 Broader patterns of burial in third-millennium southern Mesopotamia and
their interpretation ................................................................................................... 81
2.3.2 Sacrificial economies and the expression of elite power .......................... 82
2.3.3 Patterns of burial, emergent complexity and secondary urbanization in
Upper Mesopotamia ................................................................................................ 84
2.4 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................... 89
3 Greater Mesopotamia c.6400-5400 BC .................................................................. 91
3.1 The archaeological record of the Hassuna, Samarra and pre-Halaf periods c.
6400-6000 BC ............................................................................................................. 91
3.1.1 Settlement and subsistence ........................................................................ 91
3.1.2 Spatial organisation and architecture ........................................................ 94
3.1.3 Aspects of material culture ....................................................................... 99
3.2 The archaeological record of the „Halaf phenomenon‟ c. 6000-5300 cal. BC
102
3.2.1 Settlement and subsistence ...................................................................... 102
3.2.2 Spatial organization and architecture ...................................................... 105
3.2.3 Aspects of material culture ..................................................................... 108
3.3 Patterns of burial during the Late Neolithic period c. 6400-5400 cal. BC ..... 111
3.3.1 The Late Neolithic burial data c. 6400-5400 cal. BC: preliminary
comments .............................................................................................................. 112
3.3.2 Long-term patterns in funerary consumption c. 6400-5400 cal. BC ....... 119
3.3.3 Grave-good types c. 6400-5400 cal. BC ................................................. 127
3.3.4 Long-term patterns in the spatial context of burials c. 6400-5400 cal. BC
129
3.3.5 Long-term trends in burial methods c. 6400-5400 cal. BC: .................... 131
3.3.6 Concluding remarks and patterns to be addressed in Chapter 4 ............. 134
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4 Moral economies and consumption strategies during the Late Neolithic ............. 136
4.1 Personifying objects and objectifying the dead .............................................. 136
4.1.1 Bodies, vessels and container imagery.................................................... 137
4.1.2 Fragmented bodies and broken objects ................................................... 144
4.2 Divergent consumption strategies during the Late Neolithic ......................... 151
4.2.1 Funerary consumption at Late Neolithic Tell es-Sawwan in central Iraq, c.
6350 cal. BC .......................................................................................................... 152
4.2.2 Sealing practices and consumption strategies in northern Mesopotamia c.
6200 cal. BC ......................................................................................................... 161
4.2.3 Death, discard and riddance in the Late Neolithic .................................. 174
4.3 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................... 187
5 Greater Mesopotamia c. 5400 - 4400 BC ............................................................. 191
5.1 The „Ubaid‟ period in Greater Mesopotamia: problems of definition ........... 191
5.2 The Ubaid archaeological record.................................................................... 194
5.2.1 Settlement and subsistence ...................................................................... 194
5.2.2 Settlement organisation and architecture ................................................ 196
5.2.3 Aspects of material culture ..................................................................... 200
5.3 Patterns of burial during the Ubaid „Horizon‟ c. 5400-4400 cal. BC............. 202
5.3.1 The Ubaid burial data c. 5400-4400 cal. BC: preliminary comments .... 203
5.3.2 Long-term patterns in funerary consumption c. 5400-4400 cal. BC ....... 210
5.3.3 Grave-good types c. 5400-4400 cal. BC ................................................. 217
5.3.4 Long-term patterns in spatial context of burials c. 5400-4400 cal. BC .. 219
5.3.5 Long-term trends in burial methods c. 5400-4400 cal. BC ..................... 221
5.3.6 Concluding remarks and points to address in Chapter 6 ......................... 223
6 Burial rites, household production and the circulation of goods c. 5400-4400 BC
225
6.1 Standardisation in burial practices and restricted spheres of consumption .... 226
6.1.1 Tell Arpachiyah ....................................................................................... 228
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6.1.2 Tell Kashkashok II .................................................................................. 230
6.1.3 The Ubaid cemetery at Ur ....................................................................... 233
6.1.4 Eridu ........................................................................................................ 234
6.1.5 Discussion ............................................................................................... 238
6.2 Networks of interaction, household production and the circulation of goods 240
6.2.1 The development of complex metallurgy during the fifth millennium BC
241
6.2.2 Domestic metal production and intramural burial practices at
Değirmentepe ........................................................................................................ 246
6.2.3 Secondary farming, dietary diversification and burial rites .................... 253
6.3 Dominant households and intramural child burials ........................................ 258
6.3.1 Intramural child burials at Tell Abada .................................................... 259
6.3.2 Phases of construction and interments at other fifth millennium sites.... 266
6.3.3 Social conceptions of children and house histories................................. 270
6.4 Concluding remarks ....................................................................................... 275
7 Local trajectories of change and emergent complexity c. 4400-3600 BC (LC1-
LC3) .............................................................................................................................. 277
7.1 The archaeological record of the early-fourth millennium BC c. 4400-3600 cal.
BC 277
7.1.1 Settlement and subsistence ...................................................................... 277
7.1.2 Settlement organisation and architecture ................................................ 282
7.1.3 Aspects of material culture ..................................................................... 284
7.2 Patterns of burial during the Late Chalcolithic period c. 4400-3000 cal. BC 288
7.2.1 The Late Chalcolithic burial data c. 4400-3000 cal. BC: preliminary
comments .............................................................................................................. 289
7.2.2 Long-term patterns in funerary consumption c. 4400-3000 cal. BC ....... 294
7.2.3 Grave-good types c. 4400-3000 cal. BC ................................................. 302
7.2.4 Long-term patterns in the spatial context of burials c. 4400-3000 cal. BC
304
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7.2.5 Long-term trends in burial types c. 4400-3000 cal. BC .......................... 306
7.2.6 Concluding remarks and points to be addressed in Chapter 8 and Chapter
9 307
8 Mortuary rites, funerary consumption and wealth transmission during the early-
mid fourth millennium BC ............................................................................................ 310
8.1 Emergent complexity and funerary consumption during the early-mid fourth
millennium BC .......................................................................................................... 310
8.1.1 Burial rites and wealth consumption at Late Chalcolithic Tepe Gawra.. 311
8.1.2 The consumption of wealth through burials at other early-mid fourth
millennium sites .................................................................................................... 337
8.1.3 Current interpretations of „rich‟ early-fourth millennium burials ........... 340
8.2 „The afterlife is where we come from‟: wealth transmission and the
inalienability of infants ............................................................................................. 342
8.2.1 Property transmission in later Mesopotamian societies .......................... 346
8.2.2 Making ancestors: trajectories of accumulation and bodily display in death
349
9 Cultures of capital accumulation in the Late Uruk period .................................... 355
9.1 „Uruk‟ contact and expansion c. 3600-3000 (LC4-5) .................................... 355
9.1.1 Settlement and subsistence ...................................................................... 356
9.1.2 Settlement organisation and architecture ................................................ 359
9.1.3 Aspects of material culture ..................................................................... 371
9.2 Long-term trends in funerary consumption c. 6400-3000 cal. BC ................. 375
9.3 From adorned bodies to the absent dead: a social evolutionary anomaly? .... 381
9.4 Capital accumulation and changing conceptions of objects and persons during
the Uruk Expansion ................................................................................................... 388
10 Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 392
Volume II ..................................................................................................................... 403
11 Appendix A ........................................................................................................... 404
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11.1 Map of Greater Mesopotamia showing the location of the principal sites
used for the analysis .................................................................................................. 404
11.2 Late Neolithic chronological framework .................................................... 405
11.3 Late Ubaid chronological framework ......................................................... 409
11.4 Late Chalcolithic chronological framework ............................................... 413
12 Appendix B ........................................................................................................... 416
12.1 Site data quality and publications used ....................................................... 416
12.1.1 Abu Dhahir .............................................................................................. 416
12.1.2 Abu Salabikh ........................................................................................... 416
12.1.3 Al-'Ubaid ................................................................................................. 417
12.1.4 Arpachiyah .............................................................................................. 418
12.1.5 Arslantepe ............................................................................................... 418
12.1.6 Boztepe .................................................................................................... 419
12.1.7 Çavi Tarlası ............................................................................................. 419
12.1.8 Chagar Bazar ........................................................................................... 420
12.1.9 Choga Mami ............................................................................................ 421
12.1.10 Choga Mish ......................................................................................... 422
12.1.11 Değirmentepe ...................................................................................... 422
12.1.12 Djaffarabad .......................................................................................... 423
12.1.13 Domuztepe ........................................................................................... 424
12.1.14 Eridu .................................................................................................... 425
12.1.15 Farukhabad .......................................................................................... 426
12.1.16 Girikihaciyan ....................................................................................... 426
12.1.17 Grai Resh ............................................................................................. 427
12.1.18 Hacinebi Tepe ...................................................................................... 427
12.1.19 Hammam et-Turkman ......................................................................... 428
12.1.20 Hamoukar ............................................................................................ 429
12.1.21 Jebel Aruda .......................................................................................... 430
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