Jar burial

[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.

During the period of decomposition, the corpse is sometimes treated as if it were alive, provided with food and drink, and surrounded by company.

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.

Primary burial refers to the acts performed on the body immediately after death.

In Cretan societies, the dead body would be bound tightly to fit into the desired jar.

This was believed to be originally intended for infants and small children, but evolved to include larger categories of adults.

[3] Adult burial, however, required much larger jars, deeper graves, and more manpower.

Funerary offerings are sometimes placed in or around the jars, revealing more information about the value people attributed to certain items.

In ancient Greece, pithoi were typical storage jars, and were commonly used for burials.