Session: #1188

Content:

The way we excavate and document burial sites profoundly influences our understanding of past practices, customs, beliefs, and identities. Since the late 1970s, archaeothanatology has provided a toolkit to conduct rigorous excavations of human remains, further enhancing our ability to more comprehensively study how people in the past handled and interacted with the deceased, regardless of their discovery context. As a result, archaeothanatology is now widely recognised within archaeology as a discipline in its own right.
Attaining a method that crosses disciplinary and geo-temporal boundaries is a great achievement; however, in the process, its core essence can be lost or altered. Given the growing ambiguity surrounding archaeothanatology as a discipline, it is now time to pause and return to the fundamentals of the method.
This session aims to reflect on what has been accomplished over the past decades through archaeothanatology, and how this method is key to bridge the gap between theoretical and scientific approaches to the study of death and burials. The goal is to foster discussion on the potentials of its current applications, and how to further advance the discipline while preserving its original scope and principles. We invite submissions that address the fundamental question of defining archaeothanatology, while exploring the ways that various fields within/outside archaeology, such as GIS, forensics and experimental research, feed into this discipline and create new ways of reflecting on ancient burial practice.
We also encourage papers looking at the less studied effects of different climates on the taphonomic history of burials, and research integrating archaeothanatology within a broader theoretical/methodological framework. Case studies from diverse geographical and temporal contexts, active fieldwork as well as those (re)examining post-excavation documentation are welcome.

Session: #1188

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