Ossuaries and Charnel Houses: Death, Resurrection and the Living

Authors

  • Laura Tradii University of Aberdeen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2218/tu.v3i2.506

Abstract

During my studies on the connections between Black Death and culture during the Renaissance, I have come across more than once with a  less known aspect of Renaissance Europe which has particularly attracted my attention. I am speaking about the concept/place of “ossuary”, a room or set of rooms containing hundreds of human bones (often arranged in the most peculiar forms) gradually becoming places of cult charged with symbolic meaning. In this brief article, I would like to illustrate the ways in which ossuaries reflect conceptions of death and resurrection through two relevant examples. 

Author Biography

  • Laura Tradii, University of Aberdeen
    Anthropology student at University of Aberdeen with a keen interest on all Black-Death/disease related topics (above all, the cultural impact and declinations of the above mentioned elements).

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Published

18-Dec-2013

Issue

Section

ESSAYS II

How to Cite

Ossuaries and Charnel Houses: Death, Resurrection and the Living. (2013). The Unfamiliar, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.2218/tu.v3i2.506