![]() In early Roman Britain, cremation was usual but diminished by the 4th century. The rise of Christianity saw an end to cremation in Europe, though it may have already been in decline. According to Cicero, burial was considered the more archaic rite in Rome. The Rigveda contains a reference to the emerging practice, in RV 10.15.14, where the forefathers "both cremated ( agnidagdhá-) and uncremated ( ánagnidagdha-)" are invoked.Ĭremation remained common but not universal, in both ancient Greece and ancient Rome. 1900 BCE), considered the last phase of Indus Valley Civilisation and beginning of the Vedic civilization. Cremation in India is first attested in the Cemetery H culture (from c. Hinduism and Jainism are notable for not only allowing but prescribing cremation. The pyre is to the left, near a river, the lead mourner is walking in front, the dead body is wrapped in white and is being carried to the cremation pyre, relatives and friends follow. Surrounding him are a necklace of jade and gold, an ornament of quetzal feathers, a copilli (crown), his name glyph, and three sacrificial vassals to accompany him in the afterlife.Ĭriticism of burial rites is a common aspersion by competing religions and cultures, including the association of cremation with fire sacrifice or human sacrifice.Īn 1820 painting showing a Hindu funeral procession in South India. The Aztec emperor Ahuitzotl being cremated. This may be an anachronism, as during Mycenaean times burial was generally preferred, and Homer may have been reflecting the more common use of cremation at the time the Iliad was written, centuries later. ![]() Homer's account of Patroclus' burial describes cremation with subsequent burial in a tumulus, similar to Urnfield burials, and qualifying as the earliest description of cremation rites. In the Iron Age, inhumation again becomes more common, but cremation persisted in the Villanovan culture and elsewhere. The custom became dominant throughout Bronze Age Europe with the Urnfield culture (from c. 2000 BCE) in the Pannonian Plain and along the middle Danube. ![]() In Europe, there are traces of cremation dating to the Early Bronze Age (c. Around the mid-Republic inhumation was almost exclusively replaced by cremation, with some notable exceptions, and remained the most common funerary practice until the middle of the Empire, when it was almost entirely replaced by inhumation. In Rome's earliest history, both inhumation and cremation were in common use among all classes. Until the Christian era, when inhumation again became the only burial practice, both combustion and inhumation had been practiced, depending on the era and location. Cremation appeared around the 12th century BCE, probably influenced by Anatolia. From the Cycladic civilization in 3000 BCE until the Sub- Mycenaean era in 1200–1100 BCE, Greeks practiced burial. Phoenicians practiced both cremation and burial. The Babylonians, according to Herodotus, embalmed their dead. This was also widely adopted by Semitic peoples. The ancient Egyptians developed an intricate transmigration-of-soul theology, which prohibited cremation. Cultural groups had their own preferences and prohibitions. In the Middle East and Europe, both burial and cremation are evident in the archaeological record in the Neolithic era. Īlternative death rituals which emphasize one method of disposal – burial, cremation, or exposure – have gone through periods of preference throughout history. ![]() Further information: Secondary cremation Bronze container of ancient cremated human remains, complete with votive offeringĬremation dates from at least 17,000 years ago in the archaeological record, with the Mungo Lady, the remains of a partly cremated body found at Lake Mungo, Australia. ![]()
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