Phenomenon of Ritual Killing in the First Dynasties Worldwide

De Siena, Annamaria

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Phenomenon of Ritual Killing in the First Dynasties Worldwide

De Siena, Annamaria

Abstract

The phenomenon of ritual deaths is identifiable and practiced only at the dawn of new socio-political organization, coinciding with their 1st dynasty. The topic of this thesis is the comparison of the phenomenon of ritual sacrifice in the context of the Sumerian civilization, specifically in the city of Ur of the Protodynastic Period IIIA, at the time of the 1st dynasty (2550-2340 BC ca.); Up to that moment such an act had never been found in the whole Middle East, especially in the Sumerian cultural alone. Then it will be compared with other civilizations in which the same phenomenon has been traced. The analysis will argue about the in three superior civilizations: Sumerian city of Kish where, in Cemetery Y, three tombs dating back to the Protodynastic I-II (2900-2600 BC) were unearthed; Egypt and the Thinite dynasties (2920-2650 BC) with the necropolises of Abydos and Saqqara, given the good state of conservation of the burials; China and the Shang period, (second millennium BC) with the necropolis of Hsi-pei-kang. Then the analysis moves to the Scythians, a nomadic people of breeders originating from Upper Persia, whose few architectural testimonies include the kurgans, funerary structures in which many bodies were housed. Finally, the research will end with the funeral practices of the Kingdom of Buganda, constituted of a federation of large patrilineal. In the city-state of Ur, the ritual was traced in the tombs of the 1st dynasty, in Egypt the main testimonies date back to the period of the early dynasty, when the pharaohs unified the country, while in China this custom can be traced back for the first time when an organization capable of administering a vast territory consisting of several cities was formed. One of the triggers that led the cultures to elaborate staging the deaths of people affiliated with the ruling classes, such as prisoners and slaves, may be the series of social, political and religious changes which these societies, in a certain period of their history, have implemented.