My Burial

To present myself and what I believed in, I would like to include objects and certain items that are very precious to me. I did have a close family member that passed away and what we did with her was to bury her in her favourite clothes. I would like to do that.. but to think of it, I would like someone close to me to have that with them. I would like to be buried with my "second" choice of clothing, perhaps a picture of myself and family(if science improves and are able to preserve my picture FOREVER). I will try to send that I am a very family based person (so having something that belongs to each family member material to be dear to me as well!) I can't live without a laptop, so perhaps my laptop? And later, if my loved one (perhaps husband in the future?) if he passes away, I would like to be buried next to him and later the whole family. Heck, I would buy a whole cemetery for my family! haha!

When I took the time to put it on facebook, I got a few jokes such as a banana, chopsticks and a llama. A friend even suggested putting my boyfriend... Some said that I should put beauty supplies and make up so that I can dress up even afterlife. Really close friends of mine suggested that I should be buried with a camera (since I take pictures of everything I do, eat, etc.), jam a classic old school Beyonce (a CD), and lastly noodles/pasta (since I cannot live without them, I need to take them with me to afterlife!)
The grave goods I picked out and my friends picked out are completely different. I think I was more thinking of a family based, and wanted what was so dear to me, but my friends thought of things that "literally" represented me, such as my favourite foods, singer, activities etc. There would be a conflict in the future when they do dig my grave up, because they would be able to know who I was in relations to the things I liked, but not WHO I was as a person.

Egyptian Mummy Hairstyle Coming Back?

I found this funny, because I am very interested in fashion and style. My friends and I always joke about the styles that were in the 70's and 80's that are coming back and that those styles are recylcled in the future.
At McGill University's Redpath Museum, researchers did a CT scans of a young woman and recreated a hairstyle that was popular in Roman-ruled Egypt, almost 2,000 years ago. There were twists and braids shown just like the model that they built to illustrate the style. I guess we are for sure going back to the basics!

http://www.archaeology.org/news/477-montreal-mummy-hairstyle-recreated

Mummy found in Italian Church?

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/mummy-discovery-italian-church-110628.htm


According to Donato Labate and colleagues from the Archaeological Superintendency of Emilia Romangna, they found about 100 mummies, that could have been an entire community who lived in the area from the mid-16th to the 18th centuries. Church of Roccapelago is in a remote mountain village in north-central Italy and about one-third of the mass grave, turned out to be mummies.

The mummies look as if they are praying, since most of them had their hands clasped together. The bodies were dressed with tunics, thick socks and caps. The mummies themselves had intact skin, tendons and hair. The clothes seem to reveal a simple lifestyle when checked with Lolanda Silvestri and Marta Cuoghi Costantini, ancient textile experts of the Institute for Cultural and Artistic Heritage of Emilia-Romagna. "Forget silk or elaborate embroidery, these people were dressed for the mountains," the researchers said. Clothes were made from wool, linen, and cotton of different thickness and often featured simple laces with geometrical patterns at the wrists and neck.

Bodies were accompanied by personal items such as rings, necklaces, religious medallions and crucifixes in various materials - gold, silver, wood, stone and grass. Also found were mummified mice, which died because of the toxic miasma generated by the mass burial.

They also found a letter that seems to be an agreement between God and the deceased.

Two openings in church's wall ensured a constant airing within the crypt and helped the process of natural mummification. Researchers believe that the crypt was a traiditional grave, with bodies buried in the ground but later period, dead people were dropped from a trap door in the floor of the church above, which helps the idea of the unusual postures the bodies were found in. It seems like the odd positions are from dropping with the trap door above.


It is quite interesting to find how even recently the bodies are accidentally mummified. It give us a great outlook into the past without only searching in a textbook of how they could have dressed. Most of the clothing we know of in that area were people in a wealthy family, and the fancy jeweleries, but the mummies show the modern civilians and how they were presented and the DNA analysts can find the diet of these past humans.

Bluestonehenge

Source: http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=23928

The recent discovery of the "Bluestonehenge" site has claims that it is similar to the Woodhenge and Stonehenge burial rituals of Neolithic England (Sacred Stones, 2010). The reason for this was that Madagascar people did not build houses with stones and the archaeologists felt that the only purpose for this monument was for the dead.There are still few ancestor worship practices done in Madagascar and that it is believed to be spiritual and honouring the dead.

Personally, because my project is on dolmens itself, I learned few of the meanings interpreted cross culturally. The claim of putting a universality belief of the ancestor stones in every context of dolmens are not right. The blogger replied with a responsing to Mike Parker Pearson's theory. He says, "[Pearson is] looking for a reason to label the bluestones as sacred or special, and then by extension to justify the imagined stone collecting expeditions to West Wales." I agree with this blogger and his insights on that just because the structures might be similar, not all cultures have the same meaning behind it. Learning more about the dolmens cross culturally, all the countries had different reasoning behind their stone structures. For example, Korea was more associated with hierarchy and social status, whereas in Jordan, the structures had to do with the astronomical and mytholocial side to it. Archaeologists should see what the stone structures are like in Madagascar and find historical backgrounds to it, without comparing cross culturally and thinking that these stone structures have the same meaning as a culture that is across the seas.

Me, Myself, and I.

Hi!

My name is Bona Yun and I am in my third year, majoring in Anthropology. I started out with a history major in mind, but that was a big mistake! (I didn't enjoy it as much as I do in Anthropology).  I am so glad I took Anth 100 with Erin in my first year, which lead me to change my major! I grew up on Salt Spring Island and graduated from there! I enjoy naps and eating to pass time and have tendency to take picture of myself eating constantly. I am not much of a writer, if you couldn't tell... I am looking forward to this class!

Cheers,
Bona