Medieval and Modern Burial Strategies in the North of Portugal
Department
Social Sciences
Presentation Location
Clark Memorial Library, Room 207
Presentation Start Date and Time
7-3-2024 4:00 PM
Presentation End Date and Time
7-3-2024 5:00 PM
Brief Abstract
Burial practices are an answer to the most inexorable truth of human condition, death, and have very different manifestations depending on the different temporal and cultural framework of human communities. The expansion of Christianity had as consequence a change in the funerary practices, becoming, also in this field, an uniformizer of the cult rites, not only in Europe but also in other regions of the world to where the Church expanded. The funerary ritual of inhumation became the pattern, and burials began to take place around or inside the temples. In this presentation, I will address the strategies of occupation of the funerary space during the Medieval and Modern periods using as an example the Monastery of Vilar de Frades (Barcelos, Portugal), looking simultaneously at the archaeological and historical records. By crossing these two types of sources, we can better understand the complexity of the organization of the funerary space and how this is subdivided into two different, but intertwined, layers: the symbolic and the physical space. This study showed that burial strategies were established in a way to optimize the burial space available. Most importantly, it also showed that only a combination of both the archaeological and historical records allows for a more complete understanding of these funerary practices.
Recommended Citation
Faure, Francisco, "Medieval and Modern Burial Strategies in the North of Portugal" (2024). Faculty Research and Teaching Expo. 2.
https://digitalcommons.shawnee.edu/ffa/Faculty_Presentations_2024/March_7_2024/2
Medieval and Modern Burial Strategies in the North of Portugal
Clark Memorial Library, Room 207
Burial practices are an answer to the most inexorable truth of human condition, death, and have very different manifestations depending on the different temporal and cultural framework of human communities. The expansion of Christianity had as consequence a change in the funerary practices, becoming, also in this field, an uniformizer of the cult rites, not only in Europe but also in other regions of the world to where the Church expanded. The funerary ritual of inhumation became the pattern, and burials began to take place around or inside the temples. In this presentation, I will address the strategies of occupation of the funerary space during the Medieval and Modern periods using as an example the Monastery of Vilar de Frades (Barcelos, Portugal), looking simultaneously at the archaeological and historical records. By crossing these two types of sources, we can better understand the complexity of the organization of the funerary space and how this is subdivided into two different, but intertwined, layers: the symbolic and the physical space. This study showed that burial strategies were established in a way to optimize the burial space available. Most importantly, it also showed that only a combination of both the archaeological and historical records allows for a more complete understanding of these funerary practices.