Haniwa: One of Japan's Many National Treasures

For the final blog post here, I decided to post something related to the research project I am also doing for this class. I am researching the Haniwa, well-known Japanese grave goods that are found outside the massive burial mounds of the elite in Japan from the 3rd to 5th Century CE (Miki 1974). They are unique in the fact that they are outside the burial chambers, almost to guard the deceased individuals. They also have highly debated origins, as archaeological evidence does not match up entirely with the written evidence. But what I find most fascinating about these little clay sculptures is the varying subject matter and the detail put into each one.

Haniwa Dog

Depicted above is the image of a clay Haniwa dog. As Fumio Miki points out in his book "Haniwa", the dog sculptures that are found take on more of a loveable appearance, that portrays man's connection and companionship found with the animal (1979). Yes, this relates back to my previous post about being buried with my dog, but that's not so much what I mean to get at here.

Haniwa horse

Compare that image with the one above, here. This was a Haniwa horse and it has a completely different feel to it. Animals in Haniwa were not popular until the 5th century so both these sculptures must've been made relatively within the same time period (1979). The dog has almost a cartoon like characteristic, whereas the horse has more of a lifelike, perhaps more serious, appearance to it. It seems almost that the items had more than just symbolic value, but almost as if the deceased knew what was going to be in the grave with him.

This third depicts a house. Also mentioned in Miki's book, the Haniwa houses often were replicas of the sorts of houses that the deceased would've lived in while alive (1979). They are great indications of the wealth and status that the person attained in life.
As you can see from these three examples, the possibilities for types of Haniwa were abundant and the detail and variation between each one was massive. Today Haniwa are displayed in numerous museums around the world, they are seen as national treasures to Japan. A lot of the literature available on the Haniwa, in fact, are catalogues of museum collections. However, for the further reading on the history and use of the Haniwa, Fumio Miki's book has been the more resourceful in my research so far.

Could Animal remains be on the same plane as human remains?

Today in class we were discussing the difference between having the remains of humans on display and the remains of an animal on display, whether one was more appropriate than the other. It really got me thinking, as I'm sure that many other of the students were thinking too, about the loveable animals in my life and what would happen if their remains were put on display.

As mentioned in a previous post, many of my friends said that I should be buried with my dog. Of course, he's a huge part of my life but the timing is off as I anticipate (and hope) to be alive much longer than he will. But if his remains were put on display, taking out of the context of his eternal home in the grave alongside me, I would be mortified. (Given, I'd be dead, but I'm fairly certain by descendants would also be mortified). The idea of being buried alongside your precious valuables is nothing new, and although rare today, the idea of being buried with a furry companion can also be seen archaeologically.

Here's a pic of my fur-ball to provide some visual aid.

I typed in "animals as grave goods" into google and found an interesting article on a human-fox burial in the Levant. This burial dates to the Epipaleolithic (23,000-11,600 cal BP), a period before the Natufian period (Maher et al. 2011). Other burials from this time period indicate that animal-human burials were fairly common practice. What's interesting about this fox burial in particular, is the fact that it dates before the domestication of the dog (Maher et al. 2011). 

Images of the Fox's jaw found in the burial.

So, do we have an innate ability to form close bonds with our animals that eventually define who we are.. so much so, that it is necessary for us to be accompanied by these furry friends into the afterlife? Although it was hard for me to comprehend the significance behind a horse found in a Viking burial, as in discussed in class today, as soon as I replaced horse with my family dog, I instantly understood the important connections between man and animal. A connection that has provided beyond more than just a food source, but vital companionship.

10 Extraordinary Burials

Out of curiosity this past weekend, I decided to look at some burial practices from around the world. I found this page that listed 10 burials from various locations around the world. It's fascinating how other cultures and religion act when it comes to death. It's hard not to let our own cultural ways taint our thinking when we read about these. Specifically what comes to mind is the act of leaving the deceased outside for nature to take care of the body, found in both the Mongolian and Tibetan burials. The idea of having a wild animal finish off the remains of a loved one is hard to fathom in our western culture, until you believe that the body is just a shell for the soul and personality of your loved one. Perhaps it is hard for our culture to distinguish the people we know from their body because our culture is so focused on looks. Every aspect of the Mongolian funerary rituals are as meticulous and as serious as our western ceremonies, every care is taken to ensure that the soul of the person has a smooth and safe journey into the afterlife. In Buddhist tradition, the body doesn't hold the same importance as the soul of a person and so it's not treated in the same manner.

Above is an image of a bone pounder during the Buddhist burial ceremony in Tibet.

Kofun Burials, an analysis of a website

This weeks blog prompt is to analyze a website featuring the same ideas that we have chosen for our final group project. We created marking rubrics and are to look at this website in the same light as we would be marked on our final websites. I chose this site with detailed analysis of ancient Japanese Kofun burials, a key component to our group project. Kofun burials are ancient mounds constructed for deceased elite. My particular section of the project focuses on the Haniwa, clay grave goods commonly associated with these massive burials. The site under analysis, is more broad, looking at the entire Kofun culture instead of just at grave goods. This plays more into our entire group project, rather than just my section of the grave goods.

The first section of our marking rubric references and citation styles. The site itself doesn't have many references stating where they got their content information from, however it does contain quite a few "suggested readings". All articles are clearly and correctly referenced in a particular style, I would give this a: 3/4. Although you do not know particularly where the website content came from, the suggested readings are properly referenced and enhance the information provided on the website.

The second section relates to the first, as it is about quality of research. The suggested readings mentioned on this site are all from academic journals, leading me to believe that the content in the body of the website also came from academic journals. I would give this 3/4 as well, the content is consistent with other analyses and the further readings are academic.

Section three is about pictures. Unfortunately this page contains no pictures. Pictures are crucial to this topic, as it discusses grave goods and the size and scale of the tombs are important in understanding their scope in society at the time: 0/4.

The text on the website is fairly clear and concise, however a little monotonous without the addition of pictures. Also some of the text is feels overly wordy and clumsy: 3/4

Grammar and spelling on the website appear to be fairly good, at least no distracting mistakes that I could detect: 3/3

Appearance of the website is fairly simple, but easy to navigate. Despite the absence of pictures, the page is broken up by easy to read charts that help give a visual aid to the time periods and various types of tomb shapes: 2/2

It appears that this page was written by one person, so flow and coherency is not an issue. The text, however, is broken up into clear sections and thoughts, that have flow to them: 2/2.

Total: 16/24 (66%)

This might appear to be a harsh mark, however the scale of these tombs is massive and without visual representations the implications behind the making these tombs is lost. I attached a picture below, just taken from a National Geographic page I found on google, to help stress the importance of imaged when discussing this topic. Also because so far, this blog post has no pictures.

How do you tell your child about death?

Our society seems to be fascinated by the mystery of death, our morbid curiosity sparks shows like CSI and Bones, we even have a fascination with the undead and zombies. However, even with so much dead around us on the daily basis, dealing with death from a child's perspective can still be excruciatingly difficult.

I remember when I was a child, my grandparent's cats disappeared and went to live in a farm! A Farm! They will get to run around and catch all the mice they want. Then when I got older I found out just what "farm" is a euphemism for, the big sunny farm in the sky. When family members close to me actually died, I was old enough to understand exactly what was happening, so I never really had to be faced with death when I was younger. But why should we sugar coat the idea of death to young children? I don't have children, so I will likely know the answer to this question once I have my own.

I typed in "Children and Death" into google and found a plethora of websites dedicated to giving tips and pointers on how to have that talk with your young one. This is definitely not something that is addressed in schools, and that is probably how it should be, as a child's first encounter with death is likely going to be with something close to them. These sites say to be honest, which is a shift from "the Farm". Use literal and basic terms for really young children, and encourage questions. 

I would think it is across the board in all societies that our knowledge of death comes from our family, as a result of our first hand experiences with death. Despite the fact that our society has such a morbid curiosity and fear of death, families teach their children about death when the time is necessary. I do wonder, however, if the death talk is such a conundrum in other societies or cultures. Especially in some cultures where ancestor worship is crucial to their way of life, and so knowledge of the dead is important from a young age. It is probably as routine as the ABCs. Regardless of whether the reason is because a close relative died, or knowledge of death is important to spiritual practices, teaching children about death is important.

The First Gay Caveman?

This week's blog prompt is to google the term "Gay Caveman" and discuss our feelings and reactions to it. Before I googled the term, I was really curious as to know what exactly constituted this person as gay, under what definition of homosexuality did they use to determine that these are the remains of a homosexual?

I read three online newspaper articles discussing the gay caveman and the conclusion came from the fact that he was buried with artifacts usually reserved for female burials, jugs and pots instead of hunting equipment and such. All the newspapers pointed out that the society in which these remains were associated with took funerary rites every seriously, further supporting this idea that these remains were different. However, is sexuality really just determined by the material we are associated with?
Other thoughts on this find is that they are the remains of a transsexual. But couldn't this be someone who identifies better with women than with the men in their society. I know many men today that get along better with women than men, but however are heterosexual in orientation.
It would be amazing if there was further evidence to indicate that this is the first homosexual or transsexual, but that's just it, I feel more evidence is required to decipher this. In archaeology, all we have are material remains, but sexuality is something that is far beyond material.

These are the links of the other articles I read for this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8433527/First-homosexual-caveman-found.html
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/04/07/archaeologists-find-worlds-first-gay-caveman-near-prague/

Monument Analysis

Last week, my group project for the monument analysis focused on Ross Bay Cemetery. It's a well-known, beautiful cemetery in southern Victoria, right on the water. Our original dataset was to only look at humanoid monuments, particularly angels, however, statue-like grave markers were few and far between, so we had to adjust our dataset accordingly. We included adjacent obelisks and urn monuments contemporary with the statue monuments near it.
All the statues my group did come across were all from roughly the same time period. They were all erected in the 1800s and few had any burials more recent than the mid 1900s. They were all group burials, large families. What factor would lead a family to chose this particular kind of monument to mark their loved ones' burials? Could it have something to do with the family background? Additionally, not all the figures were religious icons. Attached below is a picture of the Deans' family memorial. The figure on the top is a female wearing a crown, an anchor sits by her left side.

The majority of the memorials featured statues belonged to families with English or Scottish last names, except for one Italian family, leading me to believe that religion did not play a huge part in whether they chose a more religious figure or not. Ross Bay cemetery itself is divided up by different religions, and our dataset was quite closely clustered together, further supporting the idea that there was little differentiation of religious observation.

Further, what is the difference between the family burials featuring a statue and the others we analysed featuring urns and obelisk? Could it be an indication of the treatment of the dead, if the urn is marking a cremation, but what if the urn does not mean cremation? Depicted on the left is an urn seen adjacent to the Deans' memorial featured above. Judging from the ground underneath the monument, it is possible that inhumations are associated with this burial. What would be the significance of an urn monument if not to mark a cremation? Perhaps this particular set of plots has a combination of inhumations and cremations.

Here is a link to another website that describes the various symbols seen in Victorian Graveyards. Although not a academic source, it helps shed light on why various objects are used as grave markers, such as the urn. However, as it is assumed, that the urn is used to symbolize cremation.

All of the monuments our group looked at indicated family burials, despite the varying grave markers. Although these monuments alone left us with numerous questions, it would be interesting to be able to compare with other Victorian cemeteries to see if similar patterns could be found. Our map of Ross Bay includes markers for the monuments we looked at, pictures of them, and the inscriptions written on the monuments.

Further, this article describes the evolution of Victorian cemeteries in BC, specifically referring to Ross Bay and its famous family monuments. The article speaks of how monuments were used for  individuals families in the late 1880s, similar to the ones in our dataset.