Tactile engagements: the world of the dead in the lives of the living... or ‘sharing the dead’

When excavating mortuary remains, we are invariably, at least when dealing with the Prehistoric Near East, left with dry, sterile bones which represent past lives, burial practices and ‘ritual’ activity. This paper will discuss how an approach which considers tactile and sensory interpretations of the material may be beneficial in examining bodily perspectives during this period of perceived social change, and discusses what an examination of mortuary practices might reveal about changing attitudes to the body, people’s identities, and their engagements with their worlds around them. Drawing on case studies of mortuary practices from the Natufian to the late Neolithic, this paper will examine relationships between the living and the dead, and the role that treatment of the dead might play in the lives of the living. Methodological questions of large-scale vs. ‘bottom-up’ approaches will also be examined, looking into how social change may be played out through the mortuary domain, and questioning whether the concept of social change is the most useful framework for investigating the evidence, or whether there may be other, more fruitful, avenues for discussion.