Glossary Tombs and burial
Funerary feasting
Also called: funerary feast
Eating and drinking by mourners at a funeral, known from animal bones and serving vessels left in or beside tombs.
The clearest Cypriot evidence comes from Early Bronze Age Vounous, where cattle, sheep and goat bones and large bowls, some holding smaller ones, suggest that animals were killed and eaten at the cemetery. In Late Bronze Age tombs, sets of Base Ring jugs and cups are often read as drinking equipment used at the funeral. Scholars such as Priscilla Keswani have argued that these feasts gave families an occasion to display wealth and compete for standing.
Related terms
- Grave goods
Objects placed with the dead at burial, such as pots, tools, weapons, jewellery and food.
- Libation
A ritual pouring of a liquid, such as wine, oil, milk or water, as an offering to a god or to the dead.
- Collective burial
The use of one tomb for many burials made over years or generations, typically by a family or kin group.