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Wooden brazier used for recreational cannabis use. Source: Xinhua Wu / Science Advances
13 June, 2019 - 13:58 ashley cowie

Ancient Chinese Death Rituals Involved Smoking Cannabis Specifically “To Get High”

Archaeological evidence gathered at the excavation of ‘eight ancient Chinese tombs’ has finally determined that people were indeed smoking cannabis 2,500 years ago, just to “ get high ”. The eight...
Cleaned skulls stacked under a tree in the cemetery as per tradition on Skull Island, Trunyan, Bali. Source: dani3315 / Adobe Stock.
7 June, 2019 - 23:00 dhwty

The Decomposing Bodies of Skull Island: The Unique Funerary Custom of Trunyan

Trunyan (also spelled as Terunyan) is a village located on the Indonesian island of Bali. This village is known colloquially as the ‘Skull Island’, due to its unique funerary practice , known as...
Huangmenyan cave, site of the squatting burial found in China.
2 May, 2019 - 13:57 Ed Whelan

Cave With 25,000 Years of Human History Now Delivers Headless Squatting Woman

In China , archaeologists have made an extraordinary discovery from over 13,000 years ago according to the State News Agency. During excavations in a cave, they have unearthed the headless remains of...
2500-year-old eggs found in China.
29 March, 2019 - 22:00 ashley cowie

Tomb Raiders Discover 2,500-Year-Old Eggs From Ancient Chinese Death Ritual

A team of Chinese archaeologists from the Nanjing Archaeological Institute and the Liyang Museum have made a highly-unusual discovery inside a tomb in eastern China near the ancient capital city of...
Skull cup, found in Gough's cave, Somerset, England. About 14,700 years old, this skull bears cut marks inflicted shortly after death to remove soft tissues and shape the skull into a cup.
29 March, 2019 - 13:01 Ed Whelan

Human Skull ‘Cups’ and Butchered Bones Lead Archaeologists to One Conclusion – Neolithic Cannibals

Archaeologists in Spain have made a grim discovery in a deep cave in the south-west of the country. They believe that they have found the remains of some Stone Age people who were butchered and...
Tibet Death Ritual is practiced by experienced lamas not novice monks.
23 March, 2019 - 17:55 isav

The Beauty of Death, Dying and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhist Rituals

In Tibet they have a lot of interesting beliefs and rituals regarding death and the world beyond. There is even a ritual exclamation which a lama who officiates makes near the body of the deceased in...
The Inca artifact found in Florida.
23 January, 2019 - 14:01 ashley cowie

Ancient Inca Artifact Discovered in Florida Points to a $4 billion Sunken Treasure Hoard

In a confidential location at sea near Melbourne, Florida, explorers and treasure recovery experts have found an ancient Peruvian funeral mask which they think is evidence of a sunken treasure worth...
Detail of a mural around a niche in one of the Roman tombs found at Beir Al-Shaghala archaeological site in Egypt’s Dakhla Oasis.
17 January, 2019 - 13:54 Alicia McDermott

Roman Tombs Found in Egyptian Oasis Reflect Cultural Blending Evident in Burial Practices

If they stayed almost any length of time, the ancient Romans left a cultural mark on the place they visited, conquered, and/or had extensive trade with. One way this makes itself known in Egypt is in...
‘Hercules Fighting Death to Save Alcestis’ (1869-1871) by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton. Many ancient death rituals seem very odd or macabre to modern minds.
10 November, 2018 - 19:01 ashley cowie

Bizarre, Brutal, Macabre And Downright Weird Ancient Death Rituals

Any parent must agree that one of the greatest hardships experienced around the death of a family member is having to explain to children what happened and what happens next? Should you tell them the...
Artist’s reconstruction of the Young Prince found in Arene Candide cave, Liguria, Italy.
11 September, 2018 - 19:02 Mark Oliver

Arene Candide: Ice Age Cave Reveals Rituals to Say Goodbye to Our Dead 12,000 Years Ago

Broken stones buried 12,000 years ago have been found at Arene Candide, a cave that was used as a graveyard during the last Ice Age. In the Paleolithic era, Arene Candide was a sort of early...
Ancient human remains.
28 July, 2018 - 22:59 ancient-origins

Nine Weird and Wonderful Facts about Death and Funeral Practices

It might not be something you want to think about very often, but it turns out that the way we treat our dead in the modern age is heavily influenced by the way our ancestors treated theirs. When you...
Amiternum funerary procession relief.
16 July, 2018 - 22:58 Mark Oliver

Mimes, Paid Grievers, and Masks: The Insane Theatrics of Ancient Roman Funerals

Two thousand years ago, funerals weren’t the quiet, somber affairs we have today. They were loud, boisterous shows that started with a massive procession of people parading down the streets, pounding...
A Pachacamac mummy/ Peter Eeckhout with burial face mask.
25 May, 2018 - 18:59 Ed Whelan

Exceptional Mummy Unearthed Giving Insights into the Incan Rule

A team of archaeologists from the Université libre de Bruxelles's has uncovered a 1000-year-old mummy at an excavation in Pachacamac, on Peru’s Pacific coast. After a dig of nine weeks the team at...
ANU Archaeologist Dr Catherine Frieman & co-director James Lewis with funerary pot in situ.
21 May, 2018 - 22:57 ancient-origins

Cornish Barrow Dig Uncovers 4,000-year-old Human Burial

An archaeologist from The Australian National University (ANU) has hailed her excavation of a Bronze Age burial mound in south west England a huge success with the discovery of an intact 4,000 year...
Top image: Archaeologists looking at aerial photography found what they thought to be a hidden long barrow, or Neolithic burial chamber, hidden beneath a wheat field.
22 November, 2017 - 02:02 ancient-origins

No Bones Provides a New Perspective for ‘House of the Dead’

This summer, the University of Reading Archaeology Field School excavated one of the most extraordinary sites we have ever had the pleasure of investigating. The site is an Early Neolithic long...
Famadihana reburial, ‘turning of the bones’ in Madagascar
27 October, 2017 - 01:59 aprilholloway

Plague Epidemic in Madagascar May be Spread by Dancing with the Dead Ritual

The Malagasy people of Madagascar have built a way of life around death – during the dry winter months, famadihana ceremonies, known as “the turning of the bones” and “dancing with the dead”, take...

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