Jar burial

Jar burial is a human burial custom where the corpse is placed into a large earthenware container and then interred. Jar burials are a repeated pattern at a site or within an archaeological culture. When an anomalous burial is found in which a corpse or cremated remains have been interred, it is not considered a "jar burial".

Jar burial can be traced to various regions across the globe. It was practiced as early as 4500 BCE,^[1] and as recently as the 15th–17th centuries CE.^[2] Areas of jar burial excavations include India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Palestine, Taiwan, Japan, Cambodia, Iran, Syria, Sumatra, Egypt, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vanuatu, and Vietnam. These different locations had different methods, accoutrements, and rationales behind their jar burial practices. Cultural practices included primary^[3][4] versus secondary burial,^[5][2][6] burial offerings (bronze or iron tools and weapons; bronze, silver, or gold ornaments; wood, stone, clay, glass, paste) in or around burials,^[2][7] and social structures represented in the location and method of jar placement.^[7]

Among many cultures,^[which?] a period of waiting occurs between the first burial and a second burial which often coincides with the duration of decomposition. The origin of this practice is considered to be the different concepts of death held by these cultures. In such societies, death is held to involve a slow change, a passage from the visible society of the living to the invisible one of the dead. During the period of decomposition, the corpse is sometimes treated as if it were alive, provided with food and drink, and surrounded by company. For example, some groups^[which?] on the island of Borneo attach mystical importance to the disintegration of the body, sometimes collecting and carefully disposing of the liquids produced by decomposition.