Death in the Mesolithic. What the rituals of death tell us about Mesolithic people and their lives

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Department of Archaeology in collaboration with the Society of Antiquaries 2026 Summer Lecture

How can archaeologists understand the human experience of death in the deep past? More specifically, how can the archaeological record, consisting of fragmented material traces of past people’s actions when faced with death, provide real insights into past lives? The lecture will embrace themes of belief, ritual, cosmology, the dead, emotion, and concepts of body and self. Through a focus on the physical handling of the dead human body – including cremation, inhumation, manipulation, and even mummification – the approach opens a window into past lived experience where death is understood within its context, and in turn provides insights into the hunter-gatherer-fisher world more broadly. Drawing on archaeological and anthropological theories inspired by practice theory, ritual theory and body theory, and the analytical method “archaeothanatology” this lecture explores a classic archaeological challenge: how can we archaeologically approach human experience beyond the material?

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