Last week Melissa submitted her PhD dissertation titled “Transformation in Death: The Archaeology of Funerary Practices and Personhood in the Bronze Age Levant.”
Her study focused on burial practices in the Levant during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages (c. 2000–1200 BCE) with special attention to artifacts and finds from Tel Megiddo. Through this she examined the role of the deceased in these ancient societies.
Melissa, who has been part of the Megiddo team since 2008 told us “we can learn a lot about the living through the high diversity in burial customs during the Second Millenia BCE.” By combing archaeological and textual evidence Melissa’s work provides new insights not only on burial practices but also on the way people were reintegrated into society as ancestors.
“In my work I combine theoretical frameworks of personhood and embodiment with methods derived from mortuary archaeology, specifically funerary taphonomy, biological profiles of age and sex, and distributions of burial type, architecture, context, and grave goods.” All of which produced a wonderful and exciting new results.
We would all like to once again congradulate Melissa and can’t wait for the full publication of her work.
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