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Funerary art

 

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Funerary art



 
 
Funerary art is any work of art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
 forming or placed in a repository for the remains of the dead
Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a life organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby....
. Tomb
Tomb

For the New York prison see The Tombs.A tomb is a repository for the remains of the death. The term generally refers to any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes....
 is a general term for the repository, while grave goods
Grave goods

Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods....
 are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside. Such objects may include the personal possessions of the deceased, or objects specially created for the burial, or miniature versions of things needed in an afterlife
Afterlife

The afterlife is the concept of a continued existence for the soul, spirit or mind of a being after biological death. The major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics....
.






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Funerary art is any work of art
Art

Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music and literature....
 forming or placed in a repository for the remains of the dead
Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a life organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby....
. Tomb
Tomb

For the New York prison see The Tombs.A tomb is a repository for the remains of the death. The term generally refers to any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes....
 is a general term for the repository, while grave goods
Grave goods

Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods....
 are objects—other than the primary human remains—which have been placed inside. Such objects may include the personal possessions of the deceased, or objects specially created for the burial, or miniature versions of things needed in an afterlife
Afterlife

The afterlife is the concept of a continued existence for the soul, spirit or mind of a being after biological death. The major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics....
. Our knowledge of several cultures is drawn largely from these sources.

Funerary art can serve many cultural functions, although generally they are an aesthetic
Aesthetics

Aesthetics or esthetics is commonly known as the study of senses or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste ....
 attempt to capture or express the beliefs or emotions about the afterlife
Afterlife

The afterlife is the concept of a continued existence for the soul, spirit or mind of a being after biological death. The major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics....
. It can play a role in burial rites, serve as an article for use by the dead in the afterlife, and celebrate the life and accomplishments of the dead, as part of practices of ancestor veneration. Funerary art can also function as a reminder of the mortality of humankind, as an expression of cultural values and roles, and help to propitiate the spirits of the dead, preventing their unwelcome intrusion into the affairs of the living. Many cultures have psychopomp
Psychopomp

Many religions include a particular spiritual being, angel, or deity whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. These creatures are called psychopomps, from the Greek language word ????p??p?? , literally meaning the "guide of souls"....
 figures, such as the Greek Hermes
Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
 and Etruscan Charun
Charun

In Etruscan mythology, Charun was the psychopomp of the underworld, not to be confused with the lord of the underworld, known to the Etruscans as Aita ....
, who help to conduct the spirit of the dead into the afterlife.

Funerary art goes back to the Neanderthal
Neanderthal

The Neanderthal , or Neandertal, is an extinct member of the Homo genus that is known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia....
s of over 100,000 years ago, and is known from almost all subsequent cultures—Hindu culture, which has little, is a notable exception. Many of the best known artistic creations of past cultures—from the Egyptian pyramids
Egyptian pyramids

File:All Gizah Pyramids.jpgFile:EgyptianPyramidsandSphinx2006.jpgThe Egyptian pyramids are ancient pyramid shaped masonry structures located in Egypt....
 and the Tutankhamun treasure
KV62

Tomb KV62 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings is the Tomb of Tutankhamun, which became famous for the wealth of treasure it contained. The tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter , underneath the remains of workmen's huts built during the Ramesside Period; this explains why it was spared from the worst of the tomb depredations of that t...
 to the Terracotta Army
Terracotta Army

The Terracotta Army are the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by several local farmers near Xi'an, Shanxi province, China near the Mausouleum of the First Qin Emperor....
 surrounding the tomb of the Qin Emperor
Qin Shi Huang

Qin Shi Huang , personal name Ying Zheng , was king of the Chinese Qin from 246 BCE to 221 BCE during the Warring States Period. He became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 BCE....
, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Sutton Hoo
Sutton Hoo

Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge, Suffolk, Suffolk, England, is the site of two Anglo-Saxons cemeteries of the 6th century and early 7th century, one of which contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of artifacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance....
 ship burial, and the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, built by Mughal Empire list of Mughal emperors Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal....
—are tombs or objects found in and around them. In most instances, specialized funeral art is mainly produced for the powerful and wealthy, although the burials of ordinary people may include simple monuments, and grave goods, usually from their possessions in life.

Common terms

A tumulus
Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of Soil and Rock s raised over a Grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, H?gelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world....
 or mound covered important burial
Burial

Burial, also called interment and inhumation, is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over....
s in many cultures, and the body may be placed in a sarcophagus
Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek language sa?? sarx meaning "flesh", and fa?e?? phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos the word came to refer to the limestone t...
, usually of stone, or a coffin
Coffin

A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of deceased remains ? either for burial or cremation....
, usually of wood. A mausoleum
Mausoleum

A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or persons....
 is a building that was erected mainly as a tomb. Stele
Stele

A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living ? inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab....
 is a term for erect stones that are often what we now call gravestones. Ship burial
Ship burial

A ship burial or boat grave is a burial in which a ship or boat is used either as a container for the dead and the grave goods, or as a part of the grave goods itself....
s are mostly found in coastal Europe, while chariot burial
Chariot burial

Chariot burials are tombs in which the deceased was buried together with his chariot, usually including his horses and other possessions.The earliest chariots known are from chariot burials of the Andronovo culture sites of the Sintashta-Petrovka culture in modern Russia, clustering along the upper Tobol river, southeast of Magnitogorsk,...
s are found widely across Eurasia
Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
. Catacombs
Catacombs

Catacombs are ancient, human-made underground passageways or subterranean cemeteries composed thereof. Many are under cities and have served during historic times as a refuge for safety during wars or as a meeting place for cults....
, of which the most famous examples are those in Rome
Catacombs of Rome

The Catacombs of Rome are ancient catacombs, or underground burial places under or near Rome, Italy, of which there are at least forty, some discovered only in recent decades....
 and Alexandria, are underground cemeteries
Cemetery

A cemetery is a place in which death body and cremation are burial. The term cemetery implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground....
 connected by tunnelled passages. A large group of burials with remaining traces above ground can be called a necropolis
Necropolis

A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial place . Apart from the occasional application of the word to modern cemeteries outside large towns, the term...
; if there are no such visible structures it is a Grave field
Grave field

A grave field is a prehistoric cemetery, typically of Bronze Age Europe and Iron Age Europe.Grave fields are distinguished from necropolis by the former's lack of above-ground structures, buildings, or grave markers....
. A cenotaph
Cenotaph

A cenotaph is a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere....
 is a memorial without a burial.

A related genre is the ancestor portrait, common in cultures as diverse as Ancient Rome and China, which is kept in the house of the descendants, rather than being buried. Memorials to, or portraits of, ancestor figures take many forms, such as the Moai
Moai

'Moai' are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui between 1250 and 1500 Common Era. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called Easter Island#Ahu around the island's perimeter....
 figures of Easter Island
Easter Island

Easter Island is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. The island is a special territory of Chile....
.

Pre-history

Paulnabrone
Most of humanity's oldest known archaeological constructions are tombs. Mostly megalithic, the earliest instances date to within a few centuries of each other, yet show a wide diversity of form and purpose. The Iberian peninsula contains tombs that through thermoluminescence
Thermoluminescence

Thermoluminescence is a form of luminescence when absorbed light is re-emitted on heating.Some mineral substances such as fluorite store energy when exposed to ultraviolet or other ionising radiation....
 indicate a date of c. 4510 B.C, while some burials at the Carnac stones
Carnac stones

The Carnac stones are an exceptionally dense collection of megalithic sites around the French village of Carnac, in Brittany, consisting of stone row, dolmens, tumulus and single menhirs....
 in Brittany
Brittany

Brittany is a former independent Celtic nations monarchy and duchy, now incorporated into France. It is also, more generally, the name of the cultural area whose limits correspond to the historic province and independent duchy....
 date back to the fifth millennium BCE. The commemorative value of such burial sites are indicated by the fact that at some stage they became elevated, and that the constructs, almost from the earliest, sought to be monumental. This effect was often sought through encapsulating a single corpse in a basic pit, surrounded by an elaborate ditch and drain. Over-ground commemoration is thought to be tied to the concept of collective memory, and these early tombs were likely intended as a form of ancestor-worship; a development available only to communities that advanced to the stage of settled livestock, and formed social roles and relationships and specialized sectors of activity.

Glantane East Wedge Tomb
In Neolithic
Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
 and Bronze Age
Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is, with respect to a given prehistory, the period in that society when the most advanced metalworking included smelting copper and tin from naturally-occurring outcroppings of copper and tin ores, creating a bronze alloy by melting those metals together, and casting them into bronze artifact s....
 societies a great variety of tombs are found, with tumulus
Tumulus

A tumulus is a mound of Soil and Rock s raised over a Grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, H?gelgrab or kurgans, and can be found throughout much of the world....
 mounds, megaliths and pottery as recurrent elements. In Eurasia, Dolmen
Dolmen

File:paulnabrone.jpgFile:KilclooneyDolmen1986.jpgA dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more megalith supporting a large flat horizontal capstone ....
s seem often to be the exposed stone framework for a chamber tomb
Chamber tomb

A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interree than a simple grave ....
 originally covered by earth to make a mound which no longer exists. Stones may be carved with geometric patterns (petroglyph
Petroglyph

Petroglyphs are s created by removing part of a Rock surface by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images....
s), for example Cup and ring mark
Cup and ring mark

Cup and ring marks or cup marks are a form of prehistoric art found mainly in Northern England and Scotland as well as Ireland, Brittany North West Italy, Alps , Thessalia Central Greece and North West Spain although similar forms are also found throughout the world including Mexico, Brazil, Greece, and India ....
s. Group tombs were made, the social context of which is hard to decipher. Urn burials, where bones are buried in a pottery container, either in a more elaborate tomb, or by themselves, are widespread, by no means restricted to the Urnfield culture
Urnfield culture

The Urnfield culture was a late Bronze Age culture of central Europe. The name comes from the custom of cremation the dead and placing their ashes in urns which were then buried in fields....
 which is named after them, or to Eurasia. Menhir
Menhir

A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top....
s, or "standing stones", seem often to mark a grave, while the later runestones and image stones often are cenotaph
Cenotaph

A cenotaph is a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been interred elsewhere....
s, or memorials detached from the grave itself; these continue into the Christian period.

Ancient Egypt

Egyptian funerary art was inseparably connected to the belief that life continues after death and that in order to make the journey between this and the next, images and memorabilia should be preserved. The Valley of the Kings
Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th century BC to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the Pharaoh and powerful nobles of the Conventional Egyptian chronology#New Kingdom ....
 was built as a necropolis for royal and elite tombs from about 1500 BCE, while the Theban Necropolis
Theban Necropolis

The Theban Necropolis is an area of the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes, Egypt in Egypt. It was used for ritual burials for much of Ancient Egypt times, especially in the New Kingdom of Egypt....
 was later an important site for Mortuary temple
Mortuary temple

Mortuary temples were temples constructed adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and New Kingdom periods of Ancient Egypt....
s and mastaba
Mastaba

A mastaba was a kind of Ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular with outward sloping sides that marked the burial site of many eminent Egyptians of Egypt's History of Egypt....
 tombs. Individual portraiture of the deceased is found extremely early on. The intention was to commemorate the life of the tomb owner, provide supplies necessary for the afterlife, depict performance of the burial rites, and in general present an environment that would be conducive to the tomb owner's rebirth. There is a special category of Ancient Egyptian funerary texts
Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts

The literature that make up the Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts are a collection of religious documents that were used in Ancient Egypt, usually to help the spirit of the concerned person to be preserved in the afterlife....
, which clarify the purposes of the burial customs. The Egyptian mummy
Mummy

A mummy is a corpse whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness, very high humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs....
, encased in one or more layers of coffin, is famous; the Canopic jar
Canopic jar

Canopic jars were used by the Ancient Egyptians during the mummy process to store and preserve the viscera of their own for the afterlife. They were commonly either carved from stone or were made of pottery....
s contained several internal organs.

Lower citizens used common forms of funerary art—including shabti figurines (to perform any labour that might be required of the dead person in the afterlife), models of the scarab beetle
Dung beetle

Dung beetles are beetles that feed partly or exclusively on feces. All of these species belong to the superfamily Scarabaeoidea; most of them to the subfamilies Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae of the family Scarabaeidae....
 and books of the dead—which they believed would protect them in the afterlife. During the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, miniature wooden or clay models depicting scenes from everyday life became popular additions to the tomb. In an attempt to duplicate the activities of the living in the afterlife, these models show laborers, houses, boats, and even military formations which are scale representations of the ideal ancient Egyptian afterlife.

Ancient Greece


The ancient Greeks did not generally leave elaborate grave goods, except for a coin to pay Charon
Charon's obol

Charon's obol is an Allusion term for the coin placed in or on the mouth of a dead person before burial. The custom is primarily associated with the ancient Greeks and ancient Rome, but examples are found earlier in the Near East, and later in Western Europe#Classical antiquity and medieval origins, particularly in the regions inhabited by...
, the ferryman to Hades
Charon (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon was the ferryman of Hades who carried souls of the newly deceased across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead....
, and pottery; however the epitaphios or funeral oration
Funeral oration (ancient Greece)

A funeral oration or epitaphios logos is a formal speech delivered on the ceremonial occasion of a funeral. Funerary customs comprise the practices used by a culture to remember the dead, from the funeral itself, to various monuments, prayers, and rituals undertaken in their honour....
 (from which epitaph
Epitaph

An epitaph is a short text honoring a deceased person, strictly speaking that inscribed on their tombstone or plaque, but also used figuratively....
 comes) was regarded as of great importance, and animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice

Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature....
s were made. Those who could afford them erected stone monuments, which was one of the functions of kouros
Kouros

A kouros is the modern term given to those representations of male youths which first appear in the Archaic period in Greece. The term kouros, meaning youth, was first proposed for what were previously thought to be depictions of Apollo by V....
 statues in the Archaic period
Archaic period in Greece

The archaic period in Greece is a period of Ancient Greece history. The term originated in the 18th century and has been standard since. This term arose from the study of Greek art, where it refers to styles mainly of Decorative art and Plastic arts, falling in time between Geometric Art and the art of Classical Greece....
 before about 500 BCE. These were not intended as portraits, but during the Hellenistic period realistic portraiture of the deceased were introduced and family groups were often depicted in bas-relief on monuments, usually surrounded by an architectural frame. The walls of tomb chambers were often painted in fresco
Fresco

Fresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins....
, although few examples have survived in as good condition as the Tomb of the Diver
Tomb of the Diver

The Tomb of the Diver is an important archaeological monument, found by the Italian archaeologist Mario Napoli, on 3 June 1968, during his excavations of a small necropolis about 1,5 Km south of the Ancient Greece city of Paestum in Magna Graecia, now Southern Italy....
 from southern Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
. Almost the only surviving painted portraits in the classical Greek tradition are found in Egypt
Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
 rather than Greece. The Fayum mummy portraits
Fayum mummy portraits

Mummy portraits or Fayum mummy portraits is the modern term for a type of realistic painted portraits on wooden boards attached to mummy from History of Roman Egypt ....
, from the very end of the classical period, were portrait faces, in a Graeco-Roman style, attached to mummies
Mummy

A mummy is a corpse whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness, very high humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs....
.

Early Greek burials were frequently marked above ground by a large piece of pottery
Pottery of Ancient Greece

Thanks to its relative durability, pottery is a large part of the archaeological record of Ancient Greece, and because we have so much of it it has exerted a disproportionately large influence on our understanding of Greek society....
, and remains were also buried in urns. Pottery continued to be used extensively inside tombs and graves throughout the classical period. The larnax
Larnax (Archaeology)

A larnax is a type of small closed coffin, box or "ash-chest" often used as a container for human remains in ancient Greece, either a body or cremation ashes....
 is a small coffin or ash-chest, usually of decorated terracotta. The two-handled loutrophoros
Loutrophoros

A loutrophoros is a distinctive type of Pottery of Ancient Greece Packaging and labelling characterized by an elongated neck with two Handle s....
 was primarily associated with weddings, as it was used to carry water for the nuptial bath. However, it was also placed in the tombs of the unmarried, "presumably to make up in some way for what they had missed in life." The one-handled lekythos
Lekythos

A lekythos is a type of Pottery of Ancient Greece used for storing oil, especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel....
 had many household uses, but outside the household its principal use was for decoration of tombs. Scenes of a descent to the underworld
Descent to the underworld

The descent to the underworld is a mytheme of comparative mythology found in the religions of the Ancient Near East up to and including Harrowing of hell....
 of Hades
Hades

Hades refers both to the ancient Greek underworld, the abode of Hades, and to the god of the underworld. Hades in Homer referred just to the god; the genitive case , Haidou, was an elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades"....
 were often painted on these, with the dead depicted beside Hermes
Hermes

Hermes is the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology. An Twelve Olympians, he is also the patron of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of thieves and road travelers, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures, of invention, of general commerce, and of the cunni...
, Charon
Charon

Charon may refer to:Ancient world*Charon , in Greek mythology, the ferryman who ferried the dead to the underworld*Charon of Lampsacus, ancient Greek logographer ...
 or both — though usually only with Charon. Small pottery figurines are often found, though it is hard to decide if these were made especially for placing in tombs; in the case of the Hellenistic Tanagra figurines this seems probably not the case. But silverware is more often found around the fringes of the Greek world, as in the royal Macedonian
Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
 tombs of Vergina
Vergina

Vergina is a small town in northern Greece, located in the prefecture of Imathia Prefecture, Central Macedonia. The town became internationally famous in 1977, when the Greek archaeologist Manolis Andronikos unearthed what he claimed was the burial site of the kings of Macedon, including the tomb of Philip II of Macedon, father of Alexander...
, or in the neighbouring cultures like those of Thrace
Thrace

Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. Today the name Thrace designates a region spread over southern Bulgaria , northeastern Greece , and European Turkey ....
 or the Scythians.

Etruscan

Banditaccia Sarcofago Degli Sposi
Objects connected with death, in particular sarcophagi
Sarcophagus

A sarcophagus is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly carved or cut from stone. The word "sarcophagus" comes from the Greek language sa?? sarx meaning "flesh", and fa?e?? phagein meaning "to eat", hence sarkophagus means "flesh-eating"; from the phrase lithos sarkophagos the word came to refer to the limestone t...
 and cinerary urns, form the basis of much of our knowledge of the ancient Etruscan civilization
Etruscan civilization

Etruscan civilization is the modern English name given to the culture and way of life of a people of ancient Italy and Corsica whom the ancient Romans called Etrusci or Tusci....
 and its art
Etruscan art

Etruscan art was the form of figurative art produced by the Etruscan civilization in northern Italy between the 9th century BC and 2nd century BC BC....
, which once competed with the culture of ancient Rome
Culture of ancient Rome

Ancient Rome culture evolved throughout the almost 1200-year history of that civilization. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which, at peak, covered an area from Cumbria and Morocco to the Euphrates....
, but was eventually absorbed into it. The sarcophagi and the lids of the urns often incorporate a reclining image of the deceased. The reclining figures in some Etruscan funerary art are shown using the mano cornuta to protect the grave.

The motif of the funerary art of the 7th and 6th centuries BCE was typically a feasting scene, sometimes with dancers and musicians, or athletic competitions. Household bowls, cups, and pitchers are sometimes found in the graves, along with foodstuffs such as "actual eggs, pomegranates, honey, grapes and olives" for their use in the afterlife." From the 5th century, the mood changed to more somber and gruesome scenes of parting, where the deceased are shown leaving their loved ones, often surrounded by underworld demons such as Charun
Charun

In Etruscan mythology, Charun was the psychopomp of the underworld, not to be confused with the lord of the underworld, known to the Etruscans as Aita ....
 or the winged female Vanth
Vanth

Vanth is a chthonic figure in Etruscan mythology shown in a variety of forms of funerary art, such as in tomb paintings and on sarcophagi. Vanth is a female demon in the Etruscan underworld that is often accompanied either by additional Vanth figures or by another demon, Charun ....
. The underworld figures are sometimes depicted as gesturing impatiently for a human to be taken away. The handshake was another common motif, as the dead took leave from the living. This often took place in front of or near a closed double doorway, presumably the portal to the underworld. Evidence in some art, however, suggests that the "handshake took place at the other end of the journey, and represents the dead being greeted in the Underworld".

Ancient Rome

The burial customs of the ancient Romans were influenced by both of the first significant cultures whose territories they conquered as their state expanded, namely the ancient Greeks and the Etruscans. The original Roman custom was cremation
Cremation

Cremation is the process of reducing human remains to basic Chemical element in the form of bone fragments through flame, heat, and vaporization....
, after which the burnt remains were kept in a pot, ash-chest or urn, often in a columbarium
Columbarium

A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of Cremation urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons; see dovecote....
; pre-Roman burials around Rome often used hut-urns—little pottery houses. From about the second century  CE, inhumation (burial of un-burnt remains) in sarcophagi, often elaborately carved, became more fashionable for those who could afford them. Greek-style medallion portrait sculptures on a stela, or small mausoleum for the rich, housing either an urn or sarcophagus were often placed in a location such as a roadside where it would be very visible to those still living, and perpetuate the memory of the dead. Often a couple are shown, which signifies a longing for reunion in the afterlife, rather than a double burial.

In later periods, life-size sculptures of the deceased reclining as though at a meal or social gathering are found; a common Etruscan style. Family tombs for the grandest late Roman families were large mausoleums with facilities for visits by the living, including kitchens and bedrooms. The Castel Sant'Angelo
Castel Sant'Angelo

The Mausoleum of Hadrian, usually known as the Castel Sant'Angelo, is a towering cylindrical building in Rome, initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family....
, built for Hadrian
Hadrian

Publius Aelius Hadrianus , as emperor Imperator Caesar Divi Traiani filius Traianus Hadrianus Augustus, and Divus Hadrianus after his apotheosis, known as Hadrian in English language, was Roman Emperor of Roman Empire from AD 117 to 138, as well as a Stoicism and Epicureanism philosopher....
, was later converted into a fortress. Compared to the Etruscans, though, there was less emphasis on provision of a life-style for the deceased, although paintings of useful objects or pleasant activities, like hunting, are seen. Ancestor portraits, usually in the form of wax masks, were kept in the home, apparently often in little cupboards, although grand patrician families kept theirs on display in the atrium
Domus

A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some middle class families owned in ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the Roman Empire....
. They were worn in the funeral processions of members of the family by persons wearing appropriate costume for the figure represented, as described by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 and Polybius
Polybius

Polybius was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic Period noted for his book called The Histories covering in detail the period of 220–146 BC....
. Pliny also describes the custom of having a bust-portrait of an ancestor painted on a round bronze shield (clipeus
Clipeus

In the military of classical antiquity, a clipeus was a large shield worn by the Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome as a piece of defensive armor, which they carried upon the arm, to secure them from the blows of their enemies....
), and having it hung in a temple or other public place. No examples of either type have survived.

China


Funerary art varied greatly across Chinese history: tombs of early rulers rival the ancient Egyptians for complexity, and the value of the grave goods, and have been equally pillaged over the centuries by tomb robbers. For a long time literary references to Jade burial suit
Jade burial suit

A Jade burial suit is a ceremonial suit made of pieces of jade in which some nobility in Han Dynasty China were buried. The Chinese believed that jade had magical properties and would prevent the decay of the body....
s were regarded by scholars as fanciful myths, but a number of examples were excavated in the 20th century, and it is now believed that they were relatively common among early rulers. Knowledge of pre-dynastic Chinese culture has been expanded by spectacular discoveries at Sanxingdui
Sanxingdui

Sanxingdui is the name of an archaeological site in China, now believed to be the site of an History of China city. The previously unknown Bronze Age culture was re-discovered in 1987 when archaeologists excavated remarkable Artifact , that radiocarbon dating dated as being from the 12th-11th centuries BCE....
 and other sites. Very large tumuli could be erected, and later mausoleums. Several special large shapes of Shang dynasty
Shang Dynasty

The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was according to traditional sources the first Dynasties in Chinese history. They ruled in the northeastern region of the area known as "China proper", in the Yellow River valley....
 bronze ritual vessels may have been made for burial only; the Tomb of Fu Hao
Tomb of Fu Hao

The Tomb of Fu Hao is an archaeological site at the ruins of the ancient Shang Dynasty capital of Yin . It was discovered in 1976 in archaeology and identified as the final resting place of the queen and military general Fu Hao, likely the Lady Hao inscribed on oracle bones by king Wu Ding and one of his many wives....
 is one of the few undisturbed royal tombs of the period to have been excavated—most funerary art has appeared on the art market without archaeological context.

The Complex of Goguryeo Tombs
Complex of Goguryeo Tombs

The Complex of Goguryeo Tombs lies in North Korea. In July 2004 it became the first UNESCO World Heritage site in the country. The site consists of 30 individual tombs from the later Goguryeo kingdom, one of Three Kingdoms of Korea, located in the cities of Pyongyang and Nampo....
, from a kingdom of the 5th to 7th centuries, which included modern Korea
Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
, are especially rich in paintings. Only one of the Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties
Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties

Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties is the designation under which the UNESCO has included several tombs and burial complexes into the list of World Heritage Sites....
 has been excavated, in 1956, with such disastrous results
Ming Dynasty Tombs

The Ming Tombs are located some 50 kilometers due north of urban Beijing at a specially selected site. The site was chosen by the third Ming Dynasty emperor Yongle Emperor of China , who moved the capital of China from Nanjing to the present location of northwest Beijing....
 for the conservation of the thousands of objects found, that the current policy is to leave them undisturbed. The Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum
Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum

The Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum Chinese language ?????) is composed of an ancient brick tomb and of an museum adjacent to it. It is located at 41 Tonkin Street, in Sham Shui Po District, in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula of Hong Kong....
 in Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Hong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a territory located in Southern China in East Asia, bordering the province of Guangdong to the north and facing the South China Sea to the east, west and south....
 displays a far humbler middle-class Han dynasty
Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the family known as the Liu clan who had peasant origins....
 tomb.

Sculptures of guardian figures, whether the terracotta army
Terracotta Army

The Terracotta Army are the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang the First Emperor of China. The terracotta figures, dating from 210 BC, were discovered in 1974 by several local farmers near Xi'an, Shanxi province, China near the Mausouleum of the First Qin Emperor....
 or later Buddhist deity figures, are common. Early burial customs show a strong belief in an afterlife, and a spirit path to it that needed facilitating. Funerals and memorials were also an opportunity to reaffirm important cultural values such as filial piety
Filial piety

In Confucianism ideals, filial piety is one of the virtues to be held above all else: a respect for the parents and ancestors. The Confucian classic Xiao Jing or Classic of Xi?o, thought to be written around 470 B.C.E., has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of xi?o / "filial piety"....
 and "the honor and respect due to seniors, the duties incumbent on juniors" The common Chinese funerary symbol of a woman in the door may represent a "basic male fantasy of an elysian afterlife with no restrictions: in all the doorways of the houses stand available women looking for newcomers to welcome into their chambers" Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the family known as the Liu clan who had peasant origins....
 inscriptions often describe the filial mourning for their subjects, for example this portion of the text from a funeral stele
Stele

A stele is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living ? inscribed, carved in relief , or painted onto the slab....
 for the daughter of a scholar-official of the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the family known as the Liu clan who had peasant origins....
:, which described the "hurt and grief" of her two sons:
Haniwahorse
???? She did not enjoy old age
???? With long years
???? She is gone and will not return,
???? She has sunken deep into the great darkness.
???? Alas, sorrowful indeed!
???? Tables and mats are set but unused,
???? The curtains and canopies have been put out in vain.
???? Her things are still there,
???? We do not see her person.
???? Her ghost drifts about.
???? How could we pacify her spirit?


The Americas

Unlike many Western cultures, Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica or Meso-America is a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, within which a number of pre-Columbian society flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and 16th centuries....
 is generally lacking in sarcophagi, with a few notable exceptions such as that of Pacal the Great
Pacal the Great

K'inich Janaab' Pakal was ruler of the Maya civilization polity of Palenque in the Late Classic period of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican chronology....
 or the now-lost sarcophagus from the Olmec
Olmec

The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in what are roughly the modern-day Mexican state of Veracruz and Tabasco....
 site of La Venta
La Venta

La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco....
. Instead, most Mesoamerican funerary art takes the form of grave goods and, in Oaxaca
Oaxaca

The Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca }} is one of the 31 Mexican state of Mexico, located in the southern part of the country, west of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec....
, funerary urns.

Two well-known examples of Mesoamerican grave goods are those from Jaina Island, a Maya site off the coast of Campeche
Campeche

The State of Campeche is a state in the south-east region of the Mexico. It is bordered by the Mexican states of Yucat?n to the north east, Quintana Roo to the east, and Tabasco to the south west....
, and those associated with the Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition
Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition

The Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition or shaft tomb culture refers to a set of interlocked cultural traits found in the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and, to a lesser extent, Colima to its south, roughly dating to the period between 300 Common Era and 400 Common Era, although there is not wide agreement on this end-date...
.

Jaina Island graves are noted for the abundance of clay figurines found there. Human remains within the roughly 1,000 excavated graves on the island (out of 20,000 total) were found to be accompanied by glassware, slateware, or pottery as well as one or more ceramic figurines, usually resting on the occupant's chest or held in their hands. The function of these ceramic figurines is not known: due to gender and age mis-matches, the figurines are unlikely to be portraits of the grave occupants, although the later figurines are known to be representations of goddesses.

The so-called shaft tomb tradition of western Mexico is known almost exclusively from grave goods, which include hollow ceramic figures, obsidian and shell jewelry, pottery, and other items (see for a reconstruction). Of particular note are the various ceramic tableaux including village scenes, for example, players engaged in the Mesoamerican ballgame
Mesoamerican ballgame

The Mesoamerican ballgame was a sport with ritual associations played for over 3000 years by the pre-Columbian peoples of Mesoamerica. The sport had different versions in different places during the millennia, and a modern version of the game, Ulama game, is still played in a few places by the local Native American ....
. Although these tableaux may merely depict village life, it has been proposed that they instead (or also) depict the underworld. Ceramic dogs are also widely known from looted tombs, and are thought by some to represent psychopomp
Psychopomp

Many religions include a particular spiritual being, angel, or deity whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. These creatures are called psychopomps, from the Greek language word ????p??p?? , literally meaning the "guide of souls"....
s, or soul guides, although it should also be noted that dogs were often the major source of animal protein in ancient Mesoamerica.

The Zapotec civilization
Zapotec civilization

The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca of southern Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows their culture goes back at least 2500 years....
 of Oaxaca is particularly known for its clay funerary urns, such as the "bat god" shown at right. Numerous types of urns have been identified—while some show deities and other supernaturals, others seem to be portraits. Art historian George Kubler
George Kubler

George Alexander Kubler was an USA Art history and among the foremost scholars on the art of Pre-Columbian America and Ibero-American Art. Kubler was born in Hollywood, California, but most of his early education was in Europe....
 is particularly enthusiastic about the craftmanship of this tradition:

No other American potters ever explored so completely the plastic conditions of wet clay or retained its forms so completely after firing…[they] used its wet and ductile nature for fundamental geometric modelling and cut the material, when half-dry, into smooth planes with sharp edges of an unmatched brilliance and suggestiveness of form.


The Maya Naj Tunich
Naj Tunich

Naj Tunich is a natural cave and an important archaeological site in Guatemala.The discovery of the Naj Tunich caves, in Popt?n southern Pet?n Basin, Guatemala, in 1979 initiated the interest for Cave Archeology among the Mayanist....
 cave tombs and other sites contain paintings, carved stelae, and grave goods in pottery, jade
Jade

Jade is an ornamental stone.The term jade is applied to two different metamorphic rocks that are made up of different silicate minerals:...
 and metal, including death mask
Death mask

In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person's face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits....
s.

In dry areas many ancient textiles have been found in graves from South America's Paracas culture
Paracas culture

File:Paracas mantle.jpgThe Paracas culture was an important Andean society between approximately 750 BCE and 100 CE, with an extensive knowledge of irrigation and water management....
, which wrapped its mummies tightly in several layers of elaborately patterned cloth. Elite Moche
Moche

The 'Moche' civilization flourished in northern Peru from about 100 C.E. to 800 C.E., during the Cultural periods of Peru. While still the subject of some debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state but rather as a group of autonomous polities that shared a common elite cu...
 graves, containing especially fine pottery, were incorporated into large adobe
Adobe

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, and water, with some kind of fibrous or organic material , which is shaped into bricks using frames and dried in the sun....
 structures also used for human sacrifice
Human sacrifice

Human sacrifice is the act of killing human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general....
s, such as the Huaca de la Luna
Huaca de la Luna

Huaca de la Luna is a large adobe brick structure built mainly by the Moche people of northern Peru. It, with the Huaca del Sol, is part of Huacas de Moche, the remains of an ancient Moche Capital called Cerro Blanco by modern archaeologists....
. Andean cultures
Cultural periods of Peru

This is a chart of Cultural periods of Peru and the Andean Region developed by Edward Lanning and used by some archaeologists studying the area....
, such as the Sican
Sican Culture

The Sican Culture is the name archaeologist Izumi Shimada, founder of the , gave to a culture that predated the Inca in what is now the north coast of Peru between about 750-1375 AD....
, often practiced mummification, and left grave goods in precious metals with jewels, including tumi
Tumi

Tumi is a manufacturer of suitcases and bags for travel. The company was founded in 1975 and is named for a Peruvian tumi used for sacrifices. The products are known for their black-on-black ballistic nylon....
 ritual knives and gold funerary masks, as well as pottery.

The Mimbres of the Mogollon culture buried their dead with bowls on top of their heads and ceremonially "killed" each bowl with a small hole in the center so that the deceased's spirit could arise to another world. Mimbres funerary bowls show scenes of hunting, gambling, planting crops, fishing, making love and giving birth.

Christianity

The Catacombs of Rome
Catacombs of Rome

The Catacombs of Rome are ancient catacombs, or underground burial places under or near Rome, Italy, of which there are at least forty, some discovered only in recent decades....
 contain most of the Christian art
Christian art

Christian art is art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity. Virtually all Christian groupings use or have used art to some extent....
 of the Early Christian period, mainly in the form of fresco
Fresco

Fresco is any of several related painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco which derives from the adjective fresco , which has Latin origins....
s and sculpture. This shows a Christian iconography
Iconography

Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Ancient Greek e???? and ??afe?? ....
 emerging, initially from Roman popular decorative art, but later borrowing from official Imperial and pagan motifs. For several centuries, Christians avoided portraits of the deceased and sarcophagi were decorated with ornament, Christian symbols like the Chi-Rho monogram and, later on, religious scenes. The Early Christian habit, after the end of persecution, of building churches, most famously St Peter's, Rome, over the burial place of martyr
Martyr

The term martyr is most commonly used today to describe an individual who sacrifices his or her life in order to further a cause or belief for many....
s who had originally been buried discreetly, or in a mass grave, perhaps led to the most distinctive feature of Christian funerary art, the church monument
Church monument

A church monument is an architecture or sculpture memorial to a death person or persons, located within a Christian church . It can take various forms, from a simple Commemorative plaque to a large and elaborate structure which may include an effigy of the deceased person and other figures of familial or symbolic nature....
, or tomb inside a church. The beliefs of many cultures, including Judaism and Hinduism
Hinduism

'Hinduism' is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as , a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal dharma", by its practitioners....
, consider the dead ritually impure
Ritual purification

Ritual purification is a feature of many religions. The aim of these rituals is to remove specifically defined uncleanliness prior to a particular type of activity, and especially prior to the worship of a deity....
 and avoid mixing temples and cemeteries (though see above for Moche, and below for Islamic culture).

Christians believed in a bodily Resurrection of the dead
Resurrection of the dead

Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam all variously describe a resurrection of the dead, usually of all people to face God on Judgment Day....
 at the Second Coming of Christ, and the Catholic Church only relaxed its opposition to cremation in 1963. Although mass ossuaries have also been used, burial has always been the preferred Christian tradition, at least until recent times. Burial was, for as long as there was room, usually in a graveyard
Graveyard

A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones. It is usually located near and administered by a Church ....
 adjacent to the church, with a gravestone or horizontal slab, or for the wealthy, or important clergy, inside it. "Wall tombs" in churches strictly include the body itself, often in a sarcophagus, while often the body is buried in a crypt
Crypt

In terms of European architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a church usually used as a chapel or burial vault possibly containing sarcophagus, coffins or relics....
 or under the church floor, and there is a monument on the wall. Important people, especially monarchs, might be buried in a free-standing sarcophagus, perhaps surrounded by an elaborate enclosure using metalwork and sculpture; grandest of all of these were the shrine
Shrine

A shrine, from the Latin scrinium is a holy or sacred place which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor veneration, hero, martyr, saint or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are veneration or worshipped....
s of saints which were the destinations of pilgrimage
Pilgrimage

File:Supplicating Pilgrim at Masjid Al Haram. Mecca, Saudi Arabia.jpgIn religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long quest or search of great moral significance....
s. The monument to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I of Habsburg was Holy Roman Empire from 1508 until his death, but had ruled jointly with his father for the last ten years of his reign, from circa 1483....
 in the Hofkirche, Innsbruck
Hofkirche, Innsbruck

The Hofkirche Innsbruck, Austria, is a Gothic architecture church built 1553–1563 by Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor as a memorial to his grandfather Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor , whose cenotaph within boasts a remarkable collection of German Renaissance sculpture....
 took decades to complete, whereas the tomb of Saint Dominic
Arca di San Domenico

The Arca di San Domenico is a monument containing the remains of Saint Dominic. It is located in Dominic?s Chapel in the Basilica of San Domenico in Bologna, Italy....
 in Bologna
Bologna

Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Po Valley , between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, exactly between the Reno River and the S?vena River....
 took several centuries to reach its final form.

The Tomb of Antipope John XXIII
Tomb of Antipope John XXIII

The Tomb of Antipope John XXIII is the marble tomb Church monument of Antipope Antipope John XXIII , created by Donatello and Michelozzo for the Florence Baptistry adjacent to Florence Cathedral....
 in Florence
Florence

Florence is the Capital city of the Italy Regions of Italy of Tuscany and of the provinces of Italy Province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany and has a population of 364,779 ....
 is a grand Early Renaissance
Early renaissance

The early Renaissance era signaled a new generation of art. It started early 14th century and soared all the way to the 17th century where the world of art was reborn and reshaped....
 wall tomb by Donatello
Donatello

Donatello was a famous early Renaissance Italy artist and sculpture from Florence. He is, in part, known for his work in bas-relief, a form of shallow relief sculpture that, in Donatello's case, incorporated significant 15th-century developments in perspectival illusionism....
 and Michelozzo
Michelozzo

Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi was an Italy architect and sculpture....
, although classical in style, it reflects the somewhat unharmonious stacking up of different elements typical of major Gothic tombs. It has a life-size effigy lying on the sarcophagus, which was common from the Romanesque period through to the Baroque
Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
 and beyond. Ruling dynasties were often buried together, usually in monasteries; the Chartreuse de Champmol was founded for that purpose by the Valois
Valois

Valois is a district, in the city of Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada. It was once a separate village, many years ago, but was then merged with Pointe-Claire....
 Dukes of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy was a title borne by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, a small portion of traditional lands of Burgundians west of river Sa?ne which in 843 was allotted to Charles the Bald's West Franks....
 in 1383. The Scaliger tombs
Scaliger Tombs

The Scaliger Tombs is a group of five Gothic art funerary monuments in Verona, Italy, celebrating the Scaliger family, who ruled in Verona from the 13th to the late 14th century....
 in Verona
Verona

Verona is a city in Veneto, northern Italy, one of the seven provincial capitals in the region. It is one of the main tourist destinations in north-eastern Italy, thanks to its artistic heritage, several annual fairs, shows and operas, such as the lyrical season in the Arena, the ancient amphitheatre built by the Romans....
 are magnificent free-standing Gothic
Gothic art

Gothic art was a Medieval art art movement that lasted about 200 years. It began in France out of the Romanesque art period in the mid-12th century, concurrent with Gothic architecture found in Cathedrals....
 canopied tombs—they are outside the church, in a special enclosure, and so unrestricted in height. Important churches like Saint Peter's in Rome, Saint Paul's Cathedral, London, Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (twenty-five Doge
Doge

Doge is a dialectal Italian language word that descends from the Latin dux , meaning "leader", especially in a military context.The title of Doge was used for the elected chief of state in a number of Italy "crowned republics"....
s), and the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence contain large numbers of impressive monuments to the great and the good, for which the finest architects and sculptors available were employed. Local parish church
Parish church

A parish church, in Christianity, is the local church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopalian church governance churches....
es are also often full of monuments, which may include large and artistically significant ones for local landowners and notables. Often a prominent family would add a special chapel for their use, including their tombs; in Catholic countries bequests would pay for masses to be said in perpetuity for their souls. By the High Renaissance
High Renaissance

The High Renaissance, in the history of art, denotes the culmination of the art of the Italian Renaissance between 1450 and 1527. Because Pope Julius II patronized many artists during this time, the movement was centered in Rome; it had previously been centered in Florence....
, led by Michelangelo
Michelangelo

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer....
's tombs, the effigies are often sitting up, and later may stand. Often they turn towards the altar, or are kneeling facing it in profile.

In the late Middle Ages, perhaps influenced by the Black Death
Black Death

The Black Death, was one of the deadliest pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis , but recently attributed by some factors to other diseases....
 and devotional writers, explicit Memento mori
Memento mori

Memento mori is a list of Latin phrases meaning "Be mindful of death" and may be translated as "Remember that you are mortal," "Remember you will die," "Remember that you must die," or "Remember your death"....
 imagery of death in the forms of skulls or skeletons, or even decomposing corpses overrun with worms, became common in Northern Europe, and may be found in some funerary art, as well as motifs like the Dance of Death
Danse Macabre

Dance of Death, also variously called Danse Macabre , Danza Macabra , or Totentanz , is a Middle Ages allegory on the universality of death: no matter one's station in life, the dance of death unites all....
 and works like the Ars moriendi
Ars moriendi

Ars moriendi is the name of two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death and on how to "die well", according to Christianity precepts of the late Middle Ages....
, or "Art of Dying". It took until the Baroque
Baroque

In the the arts, the Baroque was a Western cultural Epoch , starting roughly at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, Italy. It was exemplified by drama and grandeur in Baroque sculpture, Baroque painting, literature, Baroque dance, and Baroque music....
 period for such imagery to become popular in Italy, in works like the tomb of Pope Urban VIII
Pope Urban VIII

Pope Urban VIII , born Maffeo Barberini, was Pope from 1623 to 1644. He was the last Pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms, and was a prominent patron of the arts and reformer of Church missions....
 by Bernini (1628–47), where a bronze winged skeleton inscribes the Pope's name on a tablet below his enthroned effigy.
Anonymous Civilian Lady Norfolk
Christian grave goods are usually restricted to clothes and the jewellery normally worn, especially rings. Kings might be buried with a sceptre
Sceptre

A sceptre or scepter is a symbolic ornamental Staff held by a ruling monarch, a prominent item of royal regalia. While some sceptres resemble a Ceremonial mace, their use is quite different....
, and bishops with a crozier, their respective symbols of office. The 7th century Stonyhurst Gospel
Stonyhurst Gospel

The St Cuthbert Gospel of St John, also known as the Stonyhurst Gospel, is a small 7th-century pocket gospel book, written in Latin, which belonged to Cuthbert of Lindisfarne of Lindisfarne, who died in 687....
, with a unique Insular
Insular art

Insular art, also known as the Hiberno-Saxon style, is the style of art produced in the sub-Roman Britain of the British Isles, and the term is also used in relation to the Insular script used at the time....
 original leather binding, was recovered from St Cuthbert's coffin, itself a significant object; it was probably Cuthbert's personal copy, which he had very likely scribed himself. The armour
Armour

Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat....
 and sword of a knight might be hung over his tomb, as those of the Black Prince still are in Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christianity structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
. The Early Christian Church, to the frustration of historians of costume, encouraged burial in a plain white winding-sheet, as being all that would be required at the Second Coming. For centuries most except royalty followed this custom, which at least kept clothing, which was very expensive for rich and poor alike, available for the use of the living. The use of a rich cloth pall
Pall

Pall may refer to:* Pall , a casket covering* Pall , a Y-shaped heraldic charge* Pall , a piece of stiffened linen used to cover the chalice at the Eucharist...
 to cover the coffin during the funeral grew during the Middle Ages; initially these were brightly coloured and patterned, only later black. They were usually then given to the Church to use for vestment
Vestment

Vestments are liturgy garments and articles associated primarily with the Christianity religions, especially the Latin Rite and other Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Methodists, and Lutheran Churches....
s or other decorations.

From the early 13th century to the 16th, a popular form of monument north of the Alps, especially for the smaller landowner and merchant classes, was the Monumental brass
Monumental brass

Monumental brass is a species of engraved church monument which in the early part of the 13th century began to partially take the place of three-dimensional church monument and effigy carved in stone or wood....
, a sheet of brass on which the image of the person or persons commemorated was engraved, often with inscriptions and an architectural surround. They could be on the floor or wall, inside a church. These provide valuable evidence as to changes in costume, especially for women. Many bishops, and even some German rulers, were commemorated with brasses. The castrum doloris
Castrum doloris

Castrum doloris is a name for the structure and decorations sheltering or accompanying the catafalque or bier that signify the prestige or high estate of the deceased....
 was a temporary catafalque
Catafalque

A catafalque is a raised bier or platform, often movable, that is used to support the casket, coffin, or body of the deceased during a funeral or memorial service....
 erected around the coffin for the lying in state
Lying in state

Lying in state is a term used to describe the tradition in which a coffin is placed on view to allow the public at large to pay their respects to the deceased....
 of important people, usually in a church, the funerary version of the elaborate temporary decorations for other court festivities, like royal entries. A particular feature in Poland was the coffin portrait
Coffin portrait

A Coffin portrait was a realistic portrait of the deceased person put on coffins for the funeral and one of the elements of the castrum doloris, but removed before the burial....
, a bust-length painted portrait of the deceased, attached to the coffin but removed before burial, and often then hung in the church. Elsewhere death mask
Death mask

In Western cultures a death mask is a wax or plaster cast made of a person's face following death. Death masks may be mementos of the dead, or be used for creation of portraits....
s were used in similar fashion. Hatchment
Hatchment

A hatchment is a funeral Escutcheon or armorial shield enclosed in a black lozenge-shaped frame which used to be suspended against the wall of a deceased person's house....
s were a special lozenge-shaped painted coat of arms
Coat of arms

A coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways....
 which was displayed on the house of the deceased for a mourning period, before usually being moved to hang in the church. Like mourning clothes
Mourning

Mourning is, in the simplest sense, synonymous with grief over the death of someone. The word is also used to describe a cultural complex of behaviours in which the bereaved participate or are expected to participate....
, these fall outside a strict definition of art.

Musical settings of the Requiem
Requiem

The Requiem or Requiem Mass , also known formally in Latin as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum , is a liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, Anglo-Catholic Anglicans, and certain Lutheran Church Churches in the United States....
, or Mass
Mass (music)

The Mass, a Musical form of sacred music, is a choir composition that sets the fixed portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music. Most Masses are settings of Mass in Latin, the traditional language of the Roman Catholic Church, but there are a significant number written in the languages of non-Catholic countries where vernacular worship h...
 for the dead, have been important in Western church music
Church music

----------------Church music may be defined as music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclestiacal liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn....
, by composers such as Ockeghem
Requiem (Ockeghem)

The Requiem, by Johannes Ockeghem , is a polyphony setting of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, the Missa pro defunctis, the Mass for the dead....
 (late 15th century, the oldest polyphonic setting to survive), Lassus, Mozart
Requiem (Mozart)

The Requiem Mass in D minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in 1791. The requiem was Mozart's last composition, and is one of his most popular and most respected works....
, Berlioz
Requiem (Berlioz)

The Grande Messe des morts, opus number. 5 by Hector Berlioz was composed in 1837. The Grande Messe des Morts is one of Berlioz's best-known works, with a tremendous orchestration of woodwind instrument and brass instruments, including four antiphonal brass ensembles placed at the corners of the concert stage....
, Verdi
Requiem (Verdi)

The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic Church funeralMass . It was first performed on 22 May 1874 in music to mark the first anniversary of the death of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italy poet and novelist much admired by Verdi....
, Fauré
Requiem (Fauré)

Gabriel Faur? composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 between 1887 and 1890. This choral?orchestral setting of the Roman Catholic requiem is the best known of his large works....
, Maurice Duruflé
Requiem (Duruflé)

The Requiem, op. 9, by Maurice Durufl? was commissioned in 1947 by the France music publisher Durand and is written in memory of the composer's father....
, Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki

Krzysztof Penderecki is a Poland composer and conducting of European classical music....
, and Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt

Arvo P?rt , is an Estonian classical composer. P?rt works in a minimalist style that employs tintinnabulation and hypnotic repetitions influenced by the intellectual counterpoint elements of European jazz, but fitting into European-American classical post-modernism rather than so-called world music....
. Many of these were composed for a specific funeral or in memory of a particular person, although others were non-specific. Some other musical works have been composed in immediate response to the death of a notable person. Perhaps the most famous example is Trauermusik
Trauermusik

On 19 January 1936, Paul Hindemith travelled to London, intending to play his viola concerto Der Schwanendreher, with Adrian Boult and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Queen's Hall, on 22 January....
 for viola and orchestra, which Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith

Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and Conducting....
 composed in London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 on 21 January 1936 on hearing of the death of King George V
George V of the United Kingdom

George V was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, which he created from the British branch of the German House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha....
, and premiered that same evening.

For some time after the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe. It is thought to have begun in 1517 with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses and may be considered to have ended with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648....
, funerary works formed the majority of large-scale artworks added to Protestant churches, especially in sculpture. The English upper-classes ceased to commission altarpieces and other religious art for churches, but their tomb monuments continued to grow in size; in Lutheran countries similar trends were seen, but Calvinist
Calvinism

Calvinism is a theology system and an approach to the Christian life that emphasizes the rule of God over all things. It was developed by several theologians, but it bears the name of the French Protestant Reformation John Calvin because of his prominent influence on it and because of his role in the confessional and ecclesiastical debates t...
s tended to be more disapproving of figure sculpture. Many portraits were painted after death, and sometimes dead family members were included along with the living; a variety of indications might be used to suggest the distinction.

By the 19th century many Old World
Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of Earth known to Europeans, Asians, and Africans in the 15th century....
 churchyards and church walls had completely run out of room for new monuments, and cemeteries on the outskirts of the city, town or village became the usual place for burials. The rich developed the classical styles of the ancient world for small family tombs, while the rest continued to use gravestones or what were now usually false sarcophagi, placed over an underground coffin burial. Where burials in church crypts or floors took place, memorial stained glass
Stained glass

For the Blackford Oakes novel, see Stained Glass The term stained glass can refer to the material of coloured glass or the craft of working with it....
 windows, mostly on normal religious subjects but with a commemorative panel, are often found. War memorial
War memorial

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war....
s, other than on the site of a battle, were relatively unusual until the 19th century, but became increasingly common during it, and after World War I
World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
 were erected even in villages of the main combatant nations.

Islam

Palmyrawoman
Detail Sarcophagus Istanbul Arkeoloji Muzesi
Islamic funerary art is dominated by architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
. Grave goods are discouraged, and royalty and important religious figures are typically buried in plain stone sarcophagi, perhaps with a religious inscription. In the Persian sphere a tradition of mausoleums evolved, often in the shape of short hexagonal or octagonal
Octagonal

Octagonal is a retired champion Thoroughbred racehorse, affectionately called the big O or 'Occy'. He was sired by Zabeel, out of the broodmare Eight Carat, a descendant of Man o' War who was ranked No....
 dome
Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
d towers, like the Malek Tomb
Malek Tomb

Malek Tomb is a tower-like, octagonal, probably Ilkhanid tomb located on a hill in the center of Sonqor Town in Kermanshah Province. The top part is built out of brick; the basement is made of hewn stone....
. These developed into larger buildings in the Timurid
Timurid

Timurid may refer to:* Timur* Timurid Dynasty * Timurid Emirates...
 and Mughal
Mughal Empire

The Mughal Empire was a Muslim imperial power of the Indian subcontinent which began in 1526, ruled most of the Indian Subcontinent by the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and ended in the mid-19th century....
 Empires, like the Gur-e Amir
Gur-e Amir

The Gur-e Amir is the mausoleum of the Asian conqueror Tamerlane in Samarkand . It occupies an important place in the history of Islamic Architecture as the precursor and model for the great Mughal architecture tombs of Humayun in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra, built by Timur's descendants, the ruling Mughal Empire of North India....
 tomb of Timur
Timur

Timur , among his other names, commonly known as Tamerlane in the West, was a 14th century Turko-Mongol conqueror of much of western and Central Asia, and founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, which survived until 1857 as the Mughal Empire of India....
 at Samarkand
Samarkand

Samarkand , is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province.The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study....
, and the famous Mughal tombs, which culminate in the Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal

The Taj Mahal is a mausoleum located in Agra, India, built by Mughal Empire list of Mughal emperors Shah Jahan in memory of his favorite wife, Mumtaz Mahal....
. The Mughal tombs are mostly set in a large walled garden, with a gatehouse, and often pavilion
Pavilion

Pavilion may refer to:*Pavilion , a type of building*Pavillion, Wyoming, a town*Pavilion, New York, a town*Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...
s at the corners, and may have minaret
Minaret

Minarets are distinctive architectural features of Islamic mosques. Minarets are generally tall spires with onion dome, usually either free standing or much taller than any surrounding support structure....
s although they do not normally function as mosque
Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, ? . The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, "collective" mosque ,...
s. The Tomb of Jahangir
Tomb of Jahangir

Tomb of Jahangir, is the mausoleum built for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir who ruled from 1605 to 1627. The mausoleum is located near the town of Shahdara Bagh in Lahore, Pakistan....
 lacks a dome completely, and the Tomb of Akbar the Great
Tomb of Akbar the Great

The Tomb of Akbar the Great is an important architectural masterpiece set in 48 Ha of grounds in Sikandra a suburb of Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India....
 has only small decorative ones. Other Islamic Indian rulers built similar tombs, of which the Gol Gumbaz
Gol Gumbaz

Gol Gumbaz is the mausoleum of Mohammed Adil Shah of the Adil Shahi dynasty of Indian sultans, who ruled the Bijapur Sultanate from 1490 to 1686....
 is perhaps the most remarkable.

In all this tradition the contemporary architectural style for mosques is adapted for a building with a smaller main room, and usually no courtyard. Decoration is often tilework, and can include pietre dure inlays in semi-precious stone, painting, and decorative carving. The sarcophagus may be in a small inner chamber, dimly visible through a grille of metal or stone, or may stand in the main room. Money would be bequeathed to pay for continuous readings of the Qu'ran in the mausoleum, and they were normally open for visitors to pay their respects. The Mausoleum of Khomeini
Mausoleum of Khomeini

The Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini houses the tomb of Ruhollah Khomeini. It is located to the south of Tehran in the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery....
, still under construction in a Tehran
Tehran

Tehran is the capital and largest city of Iran, and the administrative center of Tehran Province. Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Alborz mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in Western Asia....
 cemetery, and intended to be the centre of a huge complex, continues these traditions.

The tradition evolved differently in the Ottoman
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
 world, where smaller single-roomed türbe typically stand in the grounds of mosque
Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, ? . The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, "collective" mosque ,...
 complexes, often built by the deceased. The sarcophagi (often purely symbolic as the body is below the floor) may be draped in a rich pall, and surmounted by a real cloth or stone turban
Turban

The turban is a headgear consisting of a long scarf-like single piece of cloth wound around either the head itself or an inner hat. The word "turban" is a common umbrella term, loosely used in English to refer to several sorts of head wrap....
, which is also traditional at the top of ordinary Turkish
Turkish people

The Turkish people , also known as "Turks" are defined mainly as citizens of the Republic of Turkey. An early history text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey, whatever his faith who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal is a Turk." This ideal...
 gravestones (usually in stylised form). Two of the most famous are in the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul
Istanbul

Istanbul is the largest city in Turkey, List of metropolitan areas in Europe by population, and List of cities proper by population in the world with a population of 12.6 million....
; the Yesil Türbe
Yesil Türbe

The mausoleum of the fifth Ottoman Dynasty, Mehmed I, known as Yesil T?rbe was built by his son and successor Murad II following the death of the sovereign in 1421 in Bursa, Turkey....
 of 1421 is an unusually large example in Bursa, and also unusual in having extensive tile work on the exterior, which is usually masonry, whereas the interiors are often decorated with brightly-colored tiles.

In the Arab world mausoleums of rulers are more likely to be a side-room inside a mosque, or form part of a larger complex containing perhaps a hospital, madrasa or library. Large domes, elaborately decorated inside, are common. The tomb-mosque of Sultan Qaitbay
Qaitbay

Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din Qa'it Bay was the eighteenth Burji dynasty Mamluk Sultan of Egypt from 872-901 Islamic calendar . He was Circassian by birth, and was purchased by the ninth sultan Barsbay before being freed by the eleventh sultan az-Zahir Sayf-ad-Din Jaqmaq ....
 (died 1496) is a famous example, one of many in Cairo
Cairo

Cairo , which means "the triumphant", is the Cairo and largest city of Egypt.It is the most populous metropolitan area in Egypt and is also one of the most populous in the world....
, though here the tomb chamber is unusually large compared to the whole.

Modern period

Funerary art tends to be conservative in style, and many grave-markers in various cultures follow rather traditional patterns, while others reflect Modernism
Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
 or other more recent styles. Public monuments to the dead continue to be erected, again some are fairly traditional, while others like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national war memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors members of the Military of the United States who fought in the Vietnam War and who died in service or are still unaccounted for....
, and in particular several Holocaust memorials
Holocaust memorials

A number of organizations, museums and monuments are intended to serve as memorials to the Holocaust and its millions of victims.They include:* The Ani Ma'amin Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem...
 such as Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem

File:Yad Vashem BW 3.JPGYad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe
Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe , also known as the Holocaust Memorial , is a memorial in Berlin to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, designed by architect Peter Eisenman and engineer Buro Happold....
 and the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial
Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial

The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial also known as the Nameless Library stands in Judenplatz in the first district of Vienna. It is the central memorial for the Austrian victims of the Holocaust and was designed by the British artist Rachel Whiteread....
 reflected contemporary art. These are in notable contrast to the style of most war memorials to the military of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

Many large mausoleums have been constructed for political leaders, including Lenin's Mausoleum
Lenin's Mausoleum

Lenin's Mausoleum also known as Lenin's Tomb, situated in Red Square in Moscow, is the mausoleum that serves as the current cemetery of Vladimir Lenin....
 and those for Atatürk
Anitkabir

Anitkabir is the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk, the leader of Turkish War of Independence and the founder and first president of the Turkey....
, Jinnah
Mazar-e-Quaid

Mazar-e-Quaid or the National Mausoleum refers to the tomb of the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah. It is an iconic symbol of Karachi throughout the world....
, Kim Il-Sung
Kumsusan Memorial Palace

The Kumsusan Memorial Palace, sometimes referred to as the Kim Il-sung Mausoleum, is a large building located northeast of downtown Pyongyang, the capital city of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ....
, Che Guevara
Mausoleo Che Guevara

The Che Guevara Mausoleum is a mausoleum in Santa Clara, Cuba. It houses the remains of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and sixteen of his fellow combatants killed in 1967 during Guevara's attempt to spur an armed uprising in Bolivia....
 and several Presidential memorials in the United States.

In several cultures goods for use in the afterlife as still interred or cremated, from Hell bank notes (and now credit cards) in Chinese communities to papier-mache
Papier-mâché

Papier-m?ch? , sometimes called paper-m?ch?, is a construction material that consists of pieces of paper, sometimes reinforced with textiles, stuck together using a wet paste ....
 cars and other goods in parts of Africa.

See also

  • List of mausolea
  • Death in Norse paganism
    Death in Norse paganism

    Death in Norse paganism was associated with varying customs and beliefs. There were not only different manners of performing a Viking funeral, but there were also several notions of the soul and of where the dead went in their afterlife, such as Valhalla, F?lkvangr, Hel and #Helgafjell....


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External links