Funerary traditions and death worship in the church of the Borgia in Gandía: interpretations from archaeology

Abstract

The study of funerary customs in antiquity has enjoyed a long tradition in archaeology. By contrast, there has been little research of such a kind from the late Middle Ages onwards. This paper attempts to demonstrate what archaeology can contribute to the knowledge of funerary and death-worship practices, by analysing practices undertaken between the thirteenth and eighteenth century in the collegiate church and cemetery apud ecclesiam of Gandía in Valencia.

Keywords:

• Funerary traditions
• death worship
• Christian cemeteries
• material culture
• Gandía

Acknowledgements

I should like to thank Robin Osborne for all his help with this paper and also Sherryn Ciavaglia for her improvement of the English text.