Prioritizing Death and Society

Assaf Nativ is a post-doctoral fellow in the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, University of Haifa, and is a staff member in the publication project of the Iron Age Fortress Mound at Tel Arad, Israel.

• List of figures, List of tables, Acknowledgements, Part I: Introduction, 1. Introduction, 2. Binary oppositions, logical gaps and thick descriptions, Part II: Chalcolithic cemeteries, 3. Chalcolithic cemeteries: winks, twitches and faked twitches, 4. Isolated in the landscape: single-cave cemeteries, 5. Multiple components: multiple-cave cemeteries, 6. Dark, damp and deep: karstic-cave systems, 7. Funerary structures, 8. Exceptions, outliers and misfits, 9. Structured deposition and depositional structures, Part III: Contemporary cemeteries, 10. An archaeology of us, 11. The raw materials: from matt to lustre, from grey to colour, 12. Tombstone morphology: communal trajectories, 13. Tombstone elaboration: personal expressions, 14. Spatial patterns: between institutional policy and interpersonal spontaneity, 15. Intersecting discourses, Part IV: Conclusion, 16. Prioritizing death and society, 17. Epilogue, Appendix: Gazetteers of cemeteries, Notes, Bibliography, Index

"A much-needed analysis of the rich dataset for Chalcolithic burials. Comparative analysis of more recent cemeteries highlights aspects of Chalcolithic activity that might otherwise have escaped comment. Nativ has made an important contribution: it deserves a wide audience." - Graham Philip, University of Durham "Elegantly illustrates the power of the comparative approach and the methods of archaeology to generate new insights into human societies of the past and present. It is essential reading for all archaeologists." - Katina T. Lillios, University of Iowa, USA "In this disciplined, boundary-transgressing study, Nativ offers archaeologists a profoundly thoughtful gift, showing how material discourses and negotiations surrounding death reveal deep truths about the societies that produced them." - Raphael Greenberg, Tel Aviv University, Israel