Ancient Grave Looting Reinterpreted: Reopened Xiongnu Tombs from the 3rd century BC to 2nd century AD in Mongolia and Russia

Tombs from various areas in the world have been reopened in antiquity. In this thesis the reopened Xiongnu period (200BC – 150 AD) graves are reinterpreted in different ways to compare them with ‘pristine’ graves. The goal of this thesis is to get insight in the degree in which reopened graves differed from intact graves and explore the existence patterns of that show in which way these graves are different from each other. The size and type of a tomb and what coffin type was inside were compared to the difference in human remains and artefacts in the grave. These were set against the space in which they were found, which gives insight in the (distribution) patterns. For the artefacts both a quantitative and qualitative analysis was made. The burial size and the age category of the deceased proved to be closely linked with each other. The graves that became the target of a reopening contained of both adult and child burials. The burials of adults did not contain human remains, while...Show moreTombs from various areas in the world have been reopened in antiquity. In this thesis the reopened Xiongnu period (200BC – 150 AD) graves are reinterpreted in different ways to compare them with ‘pristine’ graves. The goal of this thesis is to get insight in the degree in which reopened graves differed from intact graves and explore the existence patterns of that show in which way these graves are different from each other. The size and type of a tomb and what coffin type was inside were compared to the difference in human remains and artefacts in the grave. These were set against the space in which they were found, which gives insight in the (distribution) patterns. For the artefacts both a quantitative and qualitative analysis was made. The burial size and the age category of the deceased proved to be closely linked with each other. The graves that became the target of a reopening contained of both adult and child burials. The burials of adults did not contain human remains, while the child burials did contain portions of the skeleton. Which might be related to a different treatment of graves from different age categories. The quantitative analysis of artefacts showed that reopened adult burials contained a relatively lower amount of grave goods, compared to the other graves as well as the amount of artefacts inside the other tomb spaces. The qualitative approach provided an overview of the difference between reopened tombs and pristine tombs. They differ in that the pristine adult burials that did not contain cart parts and belt plaques, while the reopened adult burials did contain these objects. This difference probably explained by a different gender status. The other goal was to show who was responsible for the reopening and when this happened, but the data for this was to thin.Show less

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Ancient Grave Looting Reinterpreted: Reopened Xiongnu Tombs from the 3rd century BC to 2nd century AD in Mongolia and Russia