Death and ritual treatment of the dead are a constant for our species. This module is for anyone interested in approaches to understanding how past societies dealt with death and the dead. It provides an introduction to methods and approaches to understanding past mortuary practices from a range of periods and areas. The course will examine different approaches to death and mortuary practice, and the role of the deceased in the lives of the living. Key themes to be discussed include: treatment of the dead, mortuary architecture, food and animals, skull cults, secondary burial, cremations and inhumations, and the use of grave goods.