Justin Kruczek
830793223
Paper 1
Residential Burial Sites

Residential Burial Sites Upon conducting my research, I found multiple sites that I will be referencing in my paper. The main purpose of this paper is to inform people about the residential burial methods used in Thailand and Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. In one of the articles I found it describes residential burials by saying, “Residential burial” or “intramural burial” has often been used to denote subfloor or other types of burials within residential structures, such as those within structure walls. (Residential Burial in Global Perspective Ron L. Adams Simon Fraser University and Stacie M. King Indiana University, PG. 3) This is to give a basic idea on what will be further discussed in this paper. In the article that was found, there were multiple burial sites where archeologists found remains and burial methods all over Thailand. These places in Thailand where they found these residential burial sites are, “The mortuary remains from most of these low mound sites including Ban Kao (Sørensen 1967), Non Nok Tha (Bayard 1984, 1996–97), Ban Na Di (Higham and Kijngam 1984a, 1984b, 1984c), Khok Phanom Di (Higham and Thosarat 1994:23), Nong Nor (Higham and Thosarat 1998), Ban Wang Hai (Pautreau et al. 2001), Ban Lum Khao (Higham and O’Reilly 2004:301), Noen U-Loke (Talbot 2007:305), and Ban Non Wat (Higham 2008, 2009a; Higham and Thosarat 2006), have all been discussed explicitly in terms of being “cemeteries” (Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand, PG 60) According to the article, “Occupations fall within the time range of just before 2000 B.C.E. to about C.E. 500.” (Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand, PG 60) Based on the research of this article, the people that lived in this time period were people that were “In the general category of middle range societies (more complex than simple hunter-gatherers and less complex than states. (Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand, PG 60) The people that lived in this time period were not necessarily “Hunter-Gatherers”, but also not as advanced as we are today. Referencing the lectures from class, it said that “Big game hunting is much more important.” (Module 4, Lecture 2) It did not say specifically if these people were big game hunters or how advanced they were when it came to hunting but they were better hunters than just simple hunters. It also was not very specific on what origin the people were from because some of the evidence got lost during the preceding time period (middle Holocene). The type of site was a residential burial ground. The article it explains how they knew if the burial ground was a rich burial ground from a rich family or a poor burial ground from a poor family. According to the article, “Assessment of variation in grave wealth in mortuary remains recovered from the low mound sites has revealed undoubted social differentiation. Graves range from “poor” (no grave objects) to “rich” (dozens of pots, hundreds of ornaments). (Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand, PG 61) The archeologists that found these sites were there over a period of years. “Ban Chiang’s excavation records carefully document mortuary and occupation features at two separate excavation locales each deposited over the course of more than two millennia and each spanning the bronze and iron ages.” (Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand, PG 63) There were no specific dates on when the archeologists were present and when they were doing all of their excavation but, by reading the article anyone could tell that they were there for a span of many years uncovering the old society.
When the archeologist, over the years, were excavating these residential burial sites, they found multiple artifacts that related that burial site to the time period those people were from and when those people may have been alive along with many other facts. One of the artifacts found in the sites were, “Elephant hide” pottery, made by pressing clay into a large coarse basket.” (Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand, PG 66) They also many other types of pots and ornaments depending on how rich or poor the people were inside the burial site. The archeologists, I believe, reached the conclusion that, “Thailand, we argue, was the practice of residential burial.” (Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand, PG 71) The archeologists use these residential burial grounds to try and piece together the time period in which these people once lived.
Another article and residential burial ground study I would like to reference would be the Early Post classic Residential Burial in Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico. There was a place in the Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico where this residential burial ground was first found. The evidence that the archeologist found about the time period in which these people lived was around “The Middle Formative to the Classic period (500 B.C.E.–C.E.800) (Remembering One and All: Early Post classic Residential Burial in Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico PG. 44) While they were excavating different sites around the valley they found multiple sites that were different in nature. Some burial sites had people that were buried with artifacts, others that had no artifacts. The archeologists found out that the bodies of these people buried in these sites were mostly buried in the same position, head to the south, with arms resting either alongside the torso or crossed on the abdomen. (Remembering One and All: Early Post classic Residential Burial in Coastal Oaxaca, Mexico PG. 46) The archeologists concluded in their search that burial rituals and burial grounds ranged differently from adults to children. Mostly residential burials are a way for the living people to remember the ones that have passed away.
In conclusion, residential burial methods and residential burial sites, I believe, were key in finding out what type of people were part of a certain time period. Based on the type of people they found, artifacts they found buried with the people, how the people were buried, etc. the archeologists were able to piece together how these people were buried and why they were buried that way. Residential burials interested me because we are now able to see how these people lived just based on the way they were found in their burial sites. One other thing I found interesting is how archeologists classify body’s to see what region and time period they were from. The four aspects are, “Skin color, nose shape hair texture and body proportions.” (The past in Perspective PG48.) I think in the future it would have been interesting to see what future archeologists find about our society today and what they think about our burial rituals.

Works Cited Page

Works Cited Page: SAA Format

Adams, Ron L.
2010 Residential Burial in Global Perspective. American Anthropological Association 20(1):1-16.

Feder, Kenneth L. 2014 The Past in Perspective. 6th ed. Oxford University Press, New York.

King, Stacie M.
2010 Remembering One and All: Early Postclassic Residential Burial in Coastal Oaxaca,
Mexico. American Anthropological Association 20(1):44-58.

White, Joyce C.
2010 Residential Burial and the Metal Age of Thailand. American Anthropological Association 20(1):59-78.