Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period

For too long graveyard studies have been seen as an eccentric byway rather than a specialist subject area with as much to contribute as the study of ceramics, building types or faunal remains. As a category of material evidence with variety of form, decoration and text, it is suitable for many forms of analysis. Graveyard memorials form a rich seam of archaeological evidence, but publication is often in a local format. The situating of mortuary studies within the local is both valuable and stimulating, but it can mean that valuable studies of interest to others are not discovered. This practical volume focuses on the study of historic burial ground monuments but also covers some below ground archaeology, as some projects will involve the study of both. The linking between above and below ground data has rarely been achieved, and the integration of graveyard data within settlement and landscape archaeology has also been likewise rarely attempted. Some areas covered are: -A brief history and theoretical approached to historic mortuary archaeology; -Attitudes to death, the body and remembrance; -How to carry out a study; -Conservation, education, and display. Mortuary Monuments and Burial Grounds of the Historic Period will be an incomparable source for academic archaeologists, cultural resource and heritage management archaeologists, government heritage agencies, and upper-level undergraduate and graduate students of archaeology focused on the historic or post-medieval period, as well as forensic researchers and anthropologists.