Cemeteries and tombs, as physical places of rest, define a funerary landscape and become a place of collective and individual memory and remembrance, as well as of social differentiation, legitimation and visualisation of the elites. These spaces have taken many material forms over the centuries, from simple graves to large funerary monuments, from mass graves to unique or reusable tombs. Rituals, offerings, grave goods, clothing, etc. denote care for the deceased as well as their position in the community. On the other hand, not being entitled to funeral practices implies exclusion from a social group.
The bodies of the dead are not just abandoned anywhere; they have their own space. Since the Neanderthals, 40,000 years ago, humans have been combining burial and cremation to care for their dead. Inhumation is burial in a pit, niche or container, usually in a designated area known as a necropolis or cemetery. Cremation refers to the burning of the body to turn it into ashes.
