Anthropology is one subject I love. I love learning how the human developed culture, how cultures spread, and DNA is enhancing our understanding of human migration, ethnicity, and race..
I love knowing this life I lead is so much of the times. Can I even really imagine the world of my great grandparents? The ancient Greeks? The life of a tribe in the Amazon? Well, could they in their lives imagining air travel or rock and roll?
With anthropology we can try on what it was to live in another time and place, since we cannot yet actually TIME TRAVEL for a look-see. But besides living there is dying.
Along with Anthropology, there is Archeology (digging evidence up and applying scientific methods and analysis to it), the two often going hand in hand. One of the things that the Anthropologists and Archeologists look at is BURIALS.
Burials tell us so much about the person, the people. The posture they are buried in, if they have a shroud, if there are tools or jewelry buried with them, or perhaps their pet cat... if they were laid into the earth, had stones put on top of them, had a carved wood casket, were embalmed, had ordinary clothing on or were naked, and what direction they - and others in that graveyard - were facing; all of this telling.
One time I asked an Archeology professor, if so many millions of people had died on this earth in the past, why were there not MORE burials, more evidence of their lives. He said most people were not buried. They were cremated, or left out for the vultures, or otherwise exposed. Also many burials are now deep under the earth or the graves were robbed. So when a burial is found and explored it can be a wealth of information.
Some of the more exciting burials I've learned about are in museums. I saw an exhibit at the Getty in Malibu, California that had the painted cases that some ancient Greeks had been buried in, though living in Egypt. Each had a painting of the person's face, as to be remembered in life. This was a time and place burial, influenced by both Greek and Egyptian notions.
Then there are the burials found in Hungary in which the people inside beautifully painted caskets, many who had died of TB, were found to be naturally preserved mummies. Scientists of medicine are studying TB through these mummies.
Take a look at the stack of beautiful coffins at this link VAC HUNGARY - NATURAL MUMMIES - NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
Reading around these Hungarian mummies, I've learned that they are known people, for whom there are records, and descendants alive.
I don't know about you, but I personally do not think I would want to see any of my dead relatives dug up so I could see what they look like, but did you know that a son of the Big Bopper, the 1950's rock and roller who died in a plane crash, did just that, before having him cremated?
Can you tell that it's that time of year... that Halloween and All Souls Day are not so far away?
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