What would I want to be included in my own burial to tell archaeologist about my identity? The real question is do I want archaeologist to know the person I am right now or the person I want people to think I am right now. My current identity is essentially consumed as being a stereotypical ‘student’, very little money, very little free time, service industry worker, lives at home, over run by books and paper. The person I want to present myself as is someone that is well established, has free time to have hobbies, can afford to travel, etc. Being an anthropology student I would want future archaeologist to be able to see as much about my life and culture as they could. If I was consciously picking items based on this requirement, I would have to make sure I am putting objects in that do not disappear in the archaeological record. But, what would this tell archaeologist… that I am obsessed with synthetic materials? Or that my culture was dependant on unnatural items?
This question is becoming incredibly complex and difficult to answer. I have been thinking about it for almost a week and still cannot come up with a definitive answer. I have never planned on being buried. I personally would prefer to have my ash spread at sea, and have no plot or marker in a cemetery. I asked my boyfriend what he would put in my grave and his first answer was noting you don't want one, so yay he knows me. But I wanted to know if I was buried what he would want in there, and he said "your necklace, some mementos from our travels, and some family pictures." Which is interesting because half of that would disappear from the archaeological record and future archaeologist would be unlikely to even see it. I didn't ask my parents what they would put in because they would think its to morbid to talk about. I think if I died right now, I'm almost positive I would be buried the family plot with grave goods that remind my parents and siblings of me.
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