This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Grave goods" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR(February 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
The gilded throne of Pharaoh Tutankhamun is but one of the treasures found within his tomb.
Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are items buried along with a body.
They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into an afterlife, or offerings to gods. Grave goods may be classed by researchers as a type of votive deposit. Most grave goods recovered by archaeologists consist of inorganic objects such as pottery and stone and metal tools, but organic objects that have since decayed were also placed in ancient tombs.[1] If grave goods were to be useful to the deceased in the afterlife, then favorite foods or everyday objects were supplied. Oftentimes, social status played a role in what was left and how often it was left.[2] Funerary art is a broad term but generally means artworks made specifically to decorate a burial place, such as miniature models of possessions - including slaves or servants - for "use" in an afterlife. (Ancient Egypt sometimes saw the burial of real servants with the deceased.[3] Similar cases of human sacrifice of slaves, retainers and wives feature in graves in (for example) the Americas, ancient Germania, and ancient Mesopotamia.[4] Compare suttee.)
Where grave goods appear, grave robbery is a potential problem. Etruscans would scratch the word śuθina, Etruscan for "from a tomb", on grave goods buried with the dead to discourage their reuse by the living.[5] The tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun is famous because it was one of the few Egyptian tombs that was not thoroughly looted in ancient times.
Grave goods can be regarded as a sacrifice intended for the benefit of the deceased in the afterlife. Closely related are customs of ancestor worship and offerings to the dead, in modern western culture related to All Souls' Day (Day of the Dead), in East Asia the "hell bank note" and related customs.[6][7][8] Also closely related is the custom of retainer sacrifice, where servants or wives of a deceased chieftain are interred with the body.[9] As the inclusion of expensive grave goods and of slaves or retainers became a sign of high status in the Bronze Age, the prohibitive cost led to the development of "fake" grave goods, where artwork meant to depict grave goods or retainers is produced for the burial and deposited in the grave in place of the actual sacrifice.[10]
^Ian Morris, Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (Cambridge, 1992; ISBN 0-521-37611-4)
^"Grave Goods in Ancient Egypt". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
^hooverre (2014-02-06). "Ancient Egyptian Grave Goods". Rise of Civilization. Archived from the original on 2021-01-18. Retrieved 2020-10-02.
^
Taylor, Timothy (2004). The Buried Soul: How Humans Invented Death. Beacon Press. ISBN 9780807046722. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
^Giuliano Bonfante and Larissa Bonfante The Etruscan Language: an Introduction (Univ. Manchester Press, 2002. ISBN 0-7190-5540-7); several examples collected
Gravegoods, in archaeology and anthropology, are items buried along with a body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's...
There have been many discoveries of gold gravegoods at Grave Circles A and B in the Bronze Age city of Mycenae. Gold has always been used to show status...
Gravegoods are utilitarian and ornamental objects buried with the deceased. "Pabaon", as present day Filipinos know, is the tradition of including the...
departed with goods that denoted their social status. It was common to leave gifts with the deceased. Both men and women received gravegoods, even if the...
kingdom, it contained the remains of a deceased individual and their gravegoods, now mostly in the British Museum. It is often referred to in archaeology...
The Vix Grave is a burial mound near the village of Vix in northern Burgundy. The broader site is a prehistoric Celtic complex from the Late Hallstatt...
the age of ten or eleven. Gravegoods accompanying her burial were typical of the local culture of the period. Gravegoods were ubiquitous in early medieval...
Shetelig in 1904–1905. The grave also contained two female human skeletons as well as a considerable number of gravegoods. Scientific dating of the ship...
buried in a boat-shaped coffin with a standing wooden pole above it. Her grave had not been disturbed since her burial when it was found by archeologists...
The grave was furnished with gravegoods in addition to the ship itself: three small boats, a tent, a sledge, and riding equipment. Other gravegoods were...
"royal" tombs based on their size and structure, variety and richness of gravegoods, as well as the existence of artifacts associated with mass ritual. The...
of the Kisalian phases stems predominately from the gravegoods at these sites. Common gravegoods included ceramic, iron, copper, bone, and ivory. Long...
or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as the tomb for the dead and the gravegoods, or as a part of the gravegoods itself....
crouched fetal-position, they were wrapped in layers of pelt-cloaks. Gravegoods often included weapons, stone axes, ochre, white clay, stone flakes,...
mummifying the body, casting magic spells, and burials with specific gravegoods thought to be needed in the afterlife. The ancient burial process evolved...
nobility dressed. Found with her in the burial tapestry was a collection of gravegoods: bowls, pins, and figurines made of gold, silver, and shell. According...
Shorwell on the Isle of Wight in southern England. It was one of the gravegoods of a high-status Anglo-Saxon warrior, and was found with other objects...
shrouds, coffins, grave liners, and burial vaults, all of which can slow decomposition of the body. Sometimes objects or gravegoods are buried with the...
gender are marked by gravegoods and position, and in some areas, elite individuals are buried with complete wooden wagons. Gravegoods are more common in...
revealed something of the Celtic woman through artefacts (particularly gravegoods), which can provide clues about their position in society and material...
unclear whether a paucity of gravegoods in the female burial record represents a true lack of gravegoods. Female gravegoods may have been disproportionately...
although the burials of ordinary people might include simple monuments and gravegoods, usually from their possessions. An important factor in the development...
artifacts. Merovingian graves in France and Germany and Anglo-Saxon graves in England contain many metal gravegoods, mostly of iron. Grave robbers often leave...
Norway inside of a well-preserved Viking ship, along with numerous other gravegoods and two female bodies. The Oseberg find was excavated in the summer of...
The gravegoods of the primary burial are rare and prestigious. There is a large "beaker" pot and a copper dagger, common items found in graves of the...
departed from the body to the land of Mot (Death). Bodies were buried with gravegoods, and offerings of food and drink were made to the dead to ensure that...
Global Information
