Burial practices at titriş, höyük, Turkey: An interpretation

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

Volumn 66, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 241-266

  Laneri, Nicola ^a  

^a IsIAO Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente   (Italy)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61949296783     PISSN: 00222968     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/524179     Document Type: Article

References (169)

1. See my I costumi funerari della media vallata dell'Eufrate durante il III millennia a.C., Dissertationes 4 (Naples, 2004)
2. E. Peltenburg, "The Living and the Ancestors: Early Bronze Age Mortuary Practices at Jerablus Tahtani," in G. Del Olmo Lete and J.-L. Montero Fenollós, eds., Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates: The Tishrin Dam Area, Aula Orientalis, Supplementa 15 (Sabadell, Spain, 1999), pp. 427-42
3. and A. Porter, "The Dynamics of Death: Ancestors, Pastoralism, and the Origins of a Third-Millennium City in Syria," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (BASOR) 325 (2002): 1-36
4. G. Algaze, "The Prehistory of Imperialism: The Case of Uruk Period Mesopotamia," in M. S. Rothman, ed., Uruk Mesopotamia and Its Neighbors: Cross-Cultural Interactions in the Era of State Formation (Santa Fe, New Mexico, 2001), pp. 27-84
5. G. Algaze, The Uruk World System: The Dynamics of Expansion of Early Mesopotamian Civilization (Chicago, 1993), pp. 98-109
6. and G. Stein, "Structural Parameters and Sociocultural Factors in the Economic Organization of North Mesopotamian Urbanism in the Third Millennium B.C.," in G. M. Feinman and L. M. Nichols, eds., Archaeological Perspectives on Political Economies (Salt Lake City, Utah, 2004), pp. 64-67
7. It is clear from the archaeological data that the northern Mesopotamian sites never reached extensions similar to the southern ones (see T. Wilkinson, "The Structure and Dynamics of Dry-Farming States in Upper Mesopotamia," Current Anthropology 35 [1994]: 483-505)
8. G. Algaze, "Trends in the Archaeological Development of the Upper Euphrates Basin of Southeastern Anatolia during the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages," in Del Olmo Lete and Montero Fenollós, eds., Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates, pp. 535-72
9. T. McClellan, "Urbanism on the Upper Syrian Euphrates," in ibid., pp. 413-25
10. and P. Wattenmaker, Household and State in Upper Mesopotamia: Specialized Economy and the Social Uses of Goods in an Early Complex Society (Washington, D.C., 1998), pp. 19-26
11. Stein, "Structural Parameters and Sociocultural Factors," pp. 61-63
12. and H. Weiss et al., "The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization," Science 261 (1993): 995-1004
13. A. Archi, "The City of Ebla and the Organization of the Rural Territory," in E. Aerts and H. Klengel, eds., The Town as Regional Economic Centre in the Ancient Near East (Leuven, 1990), pp. 15-20
14. M. Van De Mieroop, A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000-323 BC (Oxford, 2004), pp. 43-53
15. Wilkinson, "Structure and Dynamics of Dry-Farming States," pp. 487-91
16. N. Yoffee, Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, Slates, and Civilizations (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 42-90
17. A. Archi and M. G. Biga, "A Victory over Mari and the Fall of Ebla," Journal of Cuneiform Studies 55 (2003): 1-35
18. and J. N. Postgate, Early Mesopotamia: State and Economy at the Dawn of History (London, 1992), pp. 250-56
19. F. Pinnock, "About the Trade of Early Syrian Ebla," MARI 4 (1985): 85-92
20. M. Tosi, "The Problem of Turquoise in Protohistoric Trade on the Iranian Plateau," Memorie dell 'Istituto Italiano di Paleontología Umana 2 (1974): 148-62
21. and Postgate, Early Mesopotamia, pp. 206-22
22. Algaze, "Trends in the Archaeological Development," pp. 546-51
23. A. Archi, "About the Organization of the Eblaite State," Studi Eblaiti 5 (1982): 201-20
24. and Weiss et al., "The Genesis and Collapse," pp. 996-99
25. P. Matthiae, Ebla: An Empire Rediscovered (London, 1980), pp. 65-79
26. P. Steinkeller, "Early Political Development in Mesopotamia and the Origins of the Sargonic Empire," in M. Liverani, ed., Akkad: The First World Empire (Padua, 1993), pp. 116-27
27. Wattenmaker, Household and State in Upper Mesopotamia, pp. 200-202
28. and R. L. Zettler et al., Subsistence and Settlement in a Marginal Environment: Tell es-Sweyhat, 1989-1995: Preliminary Report (Philadelphia, 1997), pp. 169-71
29. T. Matney and G Algaze, "Urban Development at the Mid-Late Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük in Southeastern Anatolia," BASOR 199-200 (1995): 33-52
30. S. Pollock, Ancient Mesopotamia: The Eden That Never Was (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 117-23
31. P. Michalowski, "Memory and Deed: The Historiography of the Political Expansion of the Akkad State," in Liverani, ed., Akkad, pp. 69-90
32. The term "household" has been widely used in anthropological literature. For a general reference, see A. Barnard and J. Spencer, eds., Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology (London, 1996), pp. 285-88
33. In this specific case, the term "private household" refers to social units that are probably larger than nuclear families and not directly connected to either religious or secular authorities, whose members reside together and act as single units of production and consumption (see I. J. Gelb, "Household and Family in Early Mesopotamia," in E. Lipiński, ed., State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East [Leuven, 1979], pp. 1-98
34. and M. Van de Mieroop, The Ancient Mesopotamian City [Oxford, 1997], pp. 1-19)
35. G. Pettinato, "Il commercio internazionale di Ebla: economia statale e privata," in Lipiński, ed., State and Temple Economy, pp. 184-85
36. Pollock, Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 117-48
37. As demonstrated by archaeological surveys in the Titriş area, this system was based on three- or four-tiered hierarchical settlement patterns, with Titriş as the prime center, other smaller secondary towns located at a distance of about 10-15 km from the prime center (such as Lidar Höyük, located along the left bank of the Euphrates, 11 km north of Titriş, in addition to other smaller villages and hamlets (G. Algaze et al., "Titriş Höyük, A Small EBA Urban Center in SE Anatolia: The 1994 Season," Anatolica 21 [1995]: 13-17)
38. G. Algaze and J. Pournelle, "Climatic Change, Environmental Change, and Social Change at Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük," in M. Özdoǧan et al., eds., From Village to Cities: Early Villages in the Near East (Istanbul, 2003), pp. 103-28
39. Matney and Algaze, "Urban Development," p. 46
40. It is important to note that archaeologists dug only a small section belonging to this specific archaeological phase (G. Algaze et al., "Research at Titriş Hövük in Southeastern Turkey: The 1999 Season," Anatolica 27 [2001]: 46, fig. 17)
41. D. Honça and G. Algaze, "Preliminary Report on the Human Skeletal Remains at Titriş Höyük: 1991-1996 Seasons," Anatolica 24 (1998): 104
42. Algaze et al., "Research at Titriş Höyük," pp. 23-106
43. Furthermore, the total area occupied by the main site and the nine suburban areas during the MEBA should correspond to an area of about 43 ha (Algaze and Pournelle, "Climatic Change," p. 106)
44. G. Algaze, A. Misir, and T. Wilkinson, "Şanhurfa Museum/University of California Excavations and Surveys at Titriş Höyük, 1991: A Preliminary Report," Anatolica 18(1992): 37-38
45. Rituals associated with animal sacrifices during the construction of important buildings of the mid-third millennium seem to characterize several settlements of this region, as demonstrated by a donkey burial found in the construction fill of Building 6 at Tell Banat (Period III; see MacClellan, "Urbanism on the Upper Syrian Euphrates," p. 418)
46. T. Matney, "Urban Planning and the Archaeology of Society at Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük," in D. C. Hopkins, ed., Across the Anatolian Plateau: Readings in the Archaeology of Ancient Turkey (Boston, 2002), pp. 24-27
47. P. M. M. G. Akkermans and G. M. Schwartz, The Archaeology of Syria: From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies (c. 16,000-300 BC) (Cambridge, 2003), p. 259, fig. 8.17
48. e millénaire av. notre ère en Haute Mésopotamie," in K. R. Veenhof, ed., Houses and Households in Ancient Mesopotamia (Istanbul, 1996), pp. 129-36, fig. 3
49. T Matney et al., "Early Bronze Age Urban Structure at Titriş Höyük, Southeastern Turkey: The 1998 Season," Anatolica 25 (1999): fig. 3
50. and P. Pfalzener, "Activity Areas and the Social Organization of Third Millennium BC Households," in Veenhof, ed., Houses and Households in Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 117-28
51. T. Matney, G. Algaze, and H. Pittman, "Excavations at Titriş Höyük in Southeastern Turkey: A Preliminary Report of the 1996 Season," Anatolica 23 (1997): 61-84
52. See my Costumi funerari, pp. 137-40
53. Honça and Algaze, "Preliminary Report," pp. 108-9
54. Matney and Algaze, "Urban Development," p. 47
55. H. Hauptmann, "Vier Jahrtausende Siedlungsgeschichte am mittleren Euphrat," Deutsche Archaeologie im Ausland 1 (1993): 10-15
56. C. Marro and B. Helwing, "Vers une chronologie des cultures du Haut-Euphrate au troisième millénaire/ Untersuchungen zur bemalten Keramik des 3. Jt. am oberen und mittleren Euphrat," in U. Finkbeiner, R. Dittmann, and H. Hauptmann, eds., Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte Vorderasiens: Festschrift für Rainer Michael Boehmer (Mainz, 1995), pp. 341-84
57. T. Efe and D. M. Ay-Efe, "Küllüoba: An Early Bronze Age Settlement in North-West Anatolian Hinterland: An Overview on the Archaeological Work Done between the Years 1996-2000," Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi Arkeoloji Dergisi 4 (2001)
58. and C. Renfrew, The Emergence of Civilisation: The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium BC (London, 1972), pp. 417-26, fig. 19.4
59. Matney, Algaze, and Pittman, "Excavations at Titriş Höyük," pp. 61-84
60. See my article "Intramural Tombs: A Funerary Tradition of the Middle Euphrates Valley during the IIIrd Millennium BC," Anatolica 25 (1999): figs. 2-6
61. Akkermans and Schwartz, Archaeology of Syria, pp. 246-53, E. Carter and A. Parker, "Pots, People and the Archaeology of Death in Northern Syria and Southern Anatolia in the Latter Half of the Third Millennium BC," in S. Campbell and A. Green, eds., The Archaeology of Death in the Ancient Near East (Oxford, 1995), pp. 96-116
62. A. S. Jamieson, "The Euphrates Valley and Early Bronze Age Ceramic Traditions," Abr-Nahrain 31 (1993): 36-92
63. e millénaires. Varia Anatolica 9 (Paris, 2000), pp. 167-92
64. This particular vessel has generally been associated with the distribution and consumption of wine throughout contemporary Anatolia and northern Syria (M. Korfmann, "Troia als Drehscheibe des Handels im 2. und 3. vorchristlichen Jahrtausend," in Troia: Traum und Wirklichkeit [Stuttgart, 2001], pp. 361-68, figs. 398-99)
65. M. J. Mellink, "Anatolian and Foreign Relations of Tarsus in the Early Bronze Age," in K. Emre et al., eds., Anatolia and the Ancient Near East: Studies in Honor of Tahsin Özgüç (Ankara, 1989), pp. 324-28
66. and V Şahoǧlu, "The Anatolian Trade Network and the Izmir Region during the Early Bronze Age," Oxford Journal of Archaeology 24 (2005): 340-45
67. G. Algaze, ed., Town and Country in Southeastern Anatolia (Chicago, 1990), pp. 344-45
68. and Mainey, "Urban Planning," p. 20
69. The key role played by Anatolia in the Old Akkadian tradition will be part of epical texts of the second and first millennium in which the military expeditions of Sargon and Naram-sin of Akkad to this area are narrated; these expeditions focus mainly on freeing the city of Burushanda that, according to the most recent literature, should most likely correspond to the modern site of Acemhöyük in central Anatolia and the Old Akkadian merchants from local Anatolian rulers (M. Van De Mieroop, "Sargon of Agade and his Successors in Anatolia," Studi Micenei ed EgeoAnatolici 42 [2000]: 133-59)
70. See my article "Intramural Tombs," fig. 8
71. Algaze et al., "Research at Titriş Höyiik," pp. 69-70, fig. 29
72. and Matney et al., "Early Bronze Age Urban Structure," pp. 189-90, fig. 5
73. It is also interesting to note that it was a late third-millennium custom to bury and/or pile the corpses of dead enemies on top of one another (see A. Westenholz, "berūtum, damtum, and Old Akkadian KI.GAL: Burial of Dead Enemies in Ancient Mesopotamia," Archiv für Orientforschung 23 [1978]: 27-31)
74. P. Metcalf and R. Huntington, Celebrations of Death: The Anthropology of Mortuary Rituals (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 62-75
75. P. Dils, "Wine for Pouring and Purification in Ancient Egypt," in J. Quaegebeur, ed., Ritual and Sacrifice in the Ancient Near East: Proceedings of the International Conference Organized by the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven from the 17th to the 20th of April 1991 (Leuven, 1993), pp. 119-22
76. J. Postgate, Early Mesopotamia, p. 120
77. L. Milano, "Vino e birra in Oriente: confini geografici e confini culturali," in L. Milano, ed., Drinking in Ancient Societies: History and Culture of Drinks in the Ancient Near East (Padua, 1994), pp. 421-40
78. Algaze et al., "Titriş Höyük, A Small EBA Urban Center," pp. 30-31
79. N. F. Miller, in G. Algaze et al., "The Chicago Euphrates Archaeological Project 1980-1984: An Interim Report," Anatolica 13 (1986): 87-89
80. Zettler et al., Subsistence and Settlement, pp. 43-46
81. and R. L. Zettler and N. E Miller, "Searching for Wine in the Archaeological Record of Ancient Mesopotamia of the Third and Second Millennia BC," in P. E. McGovern et al., eds., The Origins and Ancient History of Wine (Amsterdam, 1996), pp. 125-26
82. Carter and Parker, "Pots, People and The Archaeology of Death," p. 100
83. It is important to mention the presence of a depas in one of the intramural tombs discovered at the site of Selenkahiye (for Tomb T, see M. N. van Loon et al., Selenkahiye: Final Report of the University of Chicago and University of Amsterdam Excavations in the Tabqa Reservoir, Northern Syria, 1967-1975 [Istanbul, 2001], flg. 4A.12B4)
84. M. A. Powell, "Wine and the Vine in Ancient Mesopotamia: The Cuneiform Evidence," in McGovern et al., eds., The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 106-14
85. and Zettler and Miller, "Searching for Wine," pp. 127-30
86. During this period, the best wine was produced at Carchemish under the patronage of King Aplahanda (S. Dalley, Mari and Karana: Two Old Babylonian Cities [London, 1984], pp. 90-91)
87. A. H. Joffe, "Alcohol and Social Complexity in Ancient Western Asia," Current Anthropology 39 (1998): 303-5
88. D. Collon, "Banquets in the Art of the Ancient Near East," in R. Gyselen, ed., Banquets d'Orient, Res Orientales 4 (Bures-sur-Yvette, 1992), pp. 23-25, figs. 2-3
89. P. Fronzaroli, Testi rituali della regalità (archivio 2769), Archivi reali di Ebla 11, Missione archeologica italiana in Siria (Rome, 1993), p. 12
90. The importance of the production of wine at Ebla is also available from the administrative texts (Archi, "Organization of the Eblaite State," pp. 213-20)
91. T. Jacobsen, The Treasures of Darkness: A History of Mesopotamian Religion (New Haven, 1976), p. 62
92. D. Katz, The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources (Bethesda, Maryland, 2003), p. 174
93. the most ancient version of this Sumerian mythological text is based on tablets and fragments discovered in the ancient cities of Nippur and Ur and dates back to the Old Babylonian period (ca. 1750 B.C.; see D. Wolkstein and S. N. Kramer, Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer [New York, 1983], pp. 127-35)
94. Moreover, Inanna's Descent is one of four myths following a similar pattern (B. Alster, "On the Interpretation of the Sumerian Myth 'Inanna and Enki'," in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 64 [1974]: 30)
95. Katz, Image of the Netherworld, p. 174
96. Jacobsen, Treasures of Darkness, pp. 62-63
97. Porter, "Dynamics of Death," pp. 2-6
98. H. Moore, "Problems in the Analysis of Social Change: An Example from the Marakwet," in I. Hodder, ed., Archaeology as Long-term History (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 85-104
99. T. Efe, "Küllüoba and the Initial Stages of Urbanism in Western Anatolia," in M. Özdoǧan et al., eds., From Village to Cities, pp. 265-82
100. J. Mellaart, "Archaeological Evidence for Trade and Trade Routes between Syria and Mesopotamia and Anatolia during the Early and the Beginning of the Middle Bronze Age," Studi Eblaiti 5 (1982): 15-32
101. and Şahoǧlu, Anatolian Trade Network, pp. 339-61
102. Akkermans and Schwartz, Archaeology of Syria, pp. 246-52
103. It is also important to note that the construction of "above-ground mortuary 'houses' (mausolea)" for the burial of high-ranking individuals appears to be also a a late third-millennium (cf. post-Akkadian/Ur III period) custom at the southern Mesopotamian site of Ur (P. R. S. Moorey, "Where Did They Bury the Kings of the IIIrd Dynasty of Ur?" Iraq 46 [1984]: 1-18)
104. This process is evident in numerous cases from the Middle Euphrates River Valley context, such as the "Chamber Tomb Complexes" discovered at Gre Virike (T. A. Ökse, "Early Bronze Age Chamber Tomb Complexes at Gre Virike (Period IIA) on the Middle Euphrates," BASOR 339 [2005]: 21-46, figs. 2-3)
105. the monumental tumulus "T 302" found at Jerablus-Tahtani (E. Peltenburg et al., "Jerablus Tahtani, Syria, 1992-94: Preliminary Report," Levant 27 [1995]: 7-15, figs. 8-17)
106. the "Hypogaeum" discovered at Tell Ahmar (A. Roobaert and G. Bunnens, "Excavations at Tell Ahmar," in Olmo Lete and Montero Fenollós, eds., Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates, pp. 164-66, flg. 2)
107. the 'Cultic Compound' discovered at the site of Qara Quzaq (C. Valdés Pereior, "Tell Qara Quzaq: A Summary of the First Results," in Olmo Lete and Montero Fenollós, eds., Archaeology of the Upper Syrian Euphrates, pp. 120-21, flg. 2.b)
108. the "White Monument," conical in shape measuring 100 m in diameter and 20 m in height, and the other "mortuary monuments" found at the Syrian site of Tell Banat (Porter, "The Dynamics of Death," figs. 4-10)
109. the monumental tomb in Area D at Tell Hadidi (R. H. Dornemann, "Tell Hadidi: A Millennium of Bronze Age City Occupation," Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research 44 [1979]: 118)
110. and the massive funerary structure of Tell Bi'a/Tuttul, near the modern Syrian town of Raqqa (E. Strommenger and K. Kohlmeyer, Tall Bi'a/Tuttul I: Die altorientalischen Bestattungen [Saarbrücken, 1998], pp. 47-77, pls. 55-57)
111. Other examples located some distance from the Syrian Euphrates River Valley include the monumental funerary complex discovered at Umm el-Marra, a site halfway between the Euphrates and Aleppo (G. M. Schwartz et al., "A Third Millennium B.C. Elite Tomb and Other New Evidence from Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria," American Journal of Archaeology 107 [2003]: 330-41, figs. 5-22)
112. and, probably, the Hypogeum G 4 found about 5 m under the western section of Palace G at Tell Mardikh/Ebla (P. Matthiae, "Where Were the Early Syrian Kings of Ebla Buried?," Altorientalische Forschungen 29 (1997): 339-54, figs. 1-2)
113. It is also important to consider that many of these monumental funerary structures were used for a long period of time and, therefore, had a stronger impact on the social and religious structures of the communities (see Peltenburg et al., "Jerablus Tahtani, Syria, 1992-94," pp. 7-15)
114. In this case, the written evidence can support the inference from the available archaeological data. For example, some of the ritual tests found in the royal archive of Ebla's Palace G document the pre-coronation pilgrimage performed by new royal couples to a mausoleum ("é ma-dim" in Eblaite) in which the corpses of the previous queens and kings were deposited (Fronzaroli, Testi rituali della regalità, p. 12)
115. A similar pattern can be traced in the modern communities of the Sakalava in Madagascar, where "the focus of the Sakalava monarchy is on the spiritual relationship between the royal ancestors and the people" (see G. Feeley-Harnik, "Divine Kingship and the Meaning of History among the Sakalava of Madagascar," MAN-Joumal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13 [1978]: 404)
116. K. van der Toorn, Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria and Israel: Continuity and Change in the Forms of Religious Life [Leiden, 1996], pp. 14-15
117. B. E. Hartenberger, in Algaze et al., "Research at Titriş Höyük," pp. 41-45
118. and see his "Study of Craft Specialization and the Organization of Chipped Stone Production at Early Bronze Age Titriş Höyük, Southeastern Turkey" (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 2003)
119. E. Peltenburg et al., "Jerablus-Tahtani, Syria, 1996: Preliminary Report," Levant 29 (1997): 4-7
120. A. Gilman, "The Development of Social Stratification in Bronze Age Europe," Current Anthropology 22 (1981): 1-23
121. N. F. Miller, in G. Algaze et al., "The Chicago Euphrates Archaeological Project 1980-1984
122. An Interim Report," Anatolica 13 (1986): 87-89
123. and Zettler and Miller, "Searching for Wine," in McGovern et al., eds., The Origins and Ancient History of Wine, pp. 125-26
124. These molds will be very popular also during the early second millennium; see N. Marchetti, "Workshops, Trading Routes and Divine Figures: On the Early Middle Bronze II Syro-Anatolian Lead Figurines," Orientalia, n.s., 72 (2003): 390-420
125. In fact, as correctly pointed out by Appadurai, "the critical agents for the articulation of the supply and demand of commodities have been not only rulers but, of course, traders" (A. Appadurai, "Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value," in A. Appadurai, ed., The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective [Cambridge, 1986], p. 33)
126. Gilman, "The Development of Social Stratification," p. 7
127. for a different perspective, see R. Chapman, Emerging Complexity: The Later Prehistory of South-east Spain, Iberia and the West Mediterranean [Cambridge, 1990], pp. 97-219
128. and V. Lull, "Argaric Society: Death at Home," Antiquity 74/285 [2000]: 581-90)
129. For further analysis of the social aspects of funerary rituals, see D. J. Davies, Death, Ritual and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites (London, 2002), pp. 1-23
130. and R. Hertz, Death and the Right Hand (Aberdeen, 1960), pp. 27-86
131. C. Scarre, "The Meaning of Death: Funerary Beliefs and the Prehistorian," in C. Renfrew and E. W. Zubrow, eds., The Ancient Mind: Elements of Cognitive Archaeology (Cambridge, 1994), p. SO
132. With respect to this point, the role of funerary customs for defining the relationship between people, kinship, and ownership of land should also be emphasized because, as explained by Bloch in reference to the Merina's funerary tradition, the tombs stand for the permanent unity of the people and the land (see M. Bloch, Placing the Dead: Tombs, Ancestral Villages, and Kinship Organization in Madagascar [Prospect Heights, Illinois, 1994], pp. 54-58)
133. I. Kpytoff, "Ancestors as Elders in Africa," in Africa: Journal of the International African Institute 41 (1971): 129-34
134. and Parker Pearson, The Archaeology of Death and Burial, pp. 136-41
135. Steinkeller, "Early Political Development in Mesopotamia," pp. 113-14
136. and Lull, "Argaric Society: Death at Home," pp. 581-90
137. In fact, the archaeological data provides evidence that the phenomenon of the intramural tomb is already recognizable in southern Mesopotamia since the Early Dynastic I-III period at sites such as Khafajah, Kish, Abu Salabikh, Fara, and Mari in northern Mesopotamia (ca. 2900-2350: see G. Algaze, "Private Houses and Graves at Inghara: A Reconsideration," Mesopotamia 18-19 [1983-84]: 135-94
138. P. Delougaz et al., Private Houses and Graves in the Diyala Region [Chicago, 1967], pp. 58-142
139. M. Jean-Marie, "Les tombeaux en pierres de Mari," MARI 6 [1990]: 303-36
140. H. P. Martin, Fara: A Reconstruction of the Ancient Mesopotamian City of Shuruppak [Birmingham, England, 1988], pp. 25-42
141. and J. N. Postgate, "Early Dynastic Burial Customs at Abu Salabikh," Sumer 36/1-2 [1980]: 65-82)
142. In fact, "as a centre for production, reproduction and consumption, whether social or physical, the house is an active component in the construction of social reality" (J. Chapman, "The Living, the Dead, and the Ancestors: Time, Life Cycles and the Mortuary Domain in Later European Prehistory," in J. Davies, ed., Ritual and Rememherance: Responses to Death in Human Societies [Sheffield, 1994], p. 52)
143. Van Loon et al., Selenkahiye, pp. 4A.166-4A.191
144. Peltenburg et al., "Jerablus-Tahtani, Syria, 1996," PP. 7-9
145. C. Renfrew, The Archaeology of Cult: The Sanctuary at Phylakopi (London, 1985), pp. 21-22
146. Appadurai, "Introduction," pp. 41-56
147. K. van der Toorn, "Domestic Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia," in Veenhof, ed., Houses and Households in Ancient Mesopotamia, p. 77
148. Powell, "Wine and the Vine," p. 116
149. For the Old Assyrian trade network, see M. T. Larsen, The Old Assyrian City-State and Its Colonies (Copenhagen, 1976)
150. For the interpretation of kispum, see M. Birot, "Fragment de rituel de Mari relatif au kispum," in B. Alster, ed., Death in Mesopotamia (Copenhagen, 1980), pp. 139-50
151. G. Jonker, The Topography of Remembrance: The Dead, Tradition and Collective Memory in Mesopotamia (Leiden, 1995), pp. 187-211
152. and A. Tsukimoto, Untersuchungen zur Totenpflege (kispum) im alten Mesopotamien (Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1985)
153. During this period, as stated by Woolley, "the ordinary procedure was to construct a brick-built burialvault under the pavement of the private chapel, where the house boasted such, or failing that under the floor of the principal room or even of the central court" (Sir L. Woolley and M. Mallowan, Ur Excavations, vol. 7, The Old Babylonian Period [London, 1976], p. 33)
154. C. Castel, "Un quartier de maisons urbains du Bronze Moyen à Tell Mohammed Diyab (Djezireh Syrienne)," in Veenhof, ed., Houses and Households in Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 273-84
155. A. Haller, Die Gräber und Grüfte von Assur (Berlin, 1954), pp. 5 and 104
156. M. Mallowan, "Excavations at Brak and Chagar Bazar," Iraq 9 (1947): 84-85
157. J. Margueron, "Une tombe monumentale à Mari," MARI 3 (1984): 197-215
158. J. Margueron, "Une tombe royale sous la salle du throne du palais des Shakkannakku," MARI 6 (1990): 400-422
159. Matthiae, "Where Were the Early Syrian Kings," pp. 339-54
160. and S. Valentini, "Le pratiche e l'ideologia funeraria a Tell Barri/Kahat durante il Bronzo Medio, in relazione all'area Siromesopotamica settentrionale," Studi Micenei ed Egeoanatolici 45 (2003): 273-305
161. Y. Calvet, "Maison privées paléo-babyloniennes à Larsa: remarques d'architecture," in Veenhof, ed., Houses and Households in Ancient Mesopotamia, pp. 197-209
162. A. Haller et al., "Die Ausgrabung am Sinkashid-Palast," UVB 19 (1963): 35-36
163. B. Hrouda, "Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen in Isin," Sumer 34 (1978): 86-93
164. and Woolley and Mallowan, Ur Excavations, vol. 7, pp. 33-39
165. T. Özgüç, Kültepe Kanish/Nesha: The Earliest International Trade Center and the Oldest Capital City of the Hittites (Istanbul, 2003), pp. 113-14
166. Jonker, Topography of Remembrance, pp. 187-90
167. During the mid-late second millennium, the role of ancestors was also important for the inheritance of property, as is demonstrated in inheritance texts from Nuzi and Emar (see van der Toorn, "Domestic Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia," pp. 73-77)
168. J. Bottéro, Mésopotamie: l'écriture, la raison et les dieux (Paris, 1987), pp. 313-17
169. J. Goody, Death and the Ancestors: A Study of the Mortuary Customs of the LoDagaa of West Africa (Stanford, California, 1962), pp. 407-10