Thanatology Project

My name is Frances and I am a theology student with a specialization in thanatology (the science of death). I am curating posts relevant to how death is portrayed on social media for academic research.  If you have any stories or perspectives on death you would like to share, send me a DM or ask!  My askbox is also open for questions!    Look under each of my pages for more content!      pfp by Hilma af Klint, a 19th century artist and mystic

[satanasaeternus]

Lauren Marx

[furordinaricvs]

Some of the skulls in ossuary of Neamt Orthodox monastery are painted with small portrait of the person it belonged to during life, others simply state the names of the monks and their dates of birth and death.

Photos by: Mick Palarczyk.

[deathandmysticism]

Memento mori ring, late 17th century

[pwlanier]

MEMENTO MORI MAHOGANY COFFIN WITH FULLY ARTICULATED BONE SKELETON, 19TH CENTURY

Sotheby’s

[frostflowers-deactivated2018120]

Victorian heart mourning ribbons 

[unexplained-events]

Girl buried with a crown of ceramic flowers. Patras, 300-400 B.C. 

Can be seen at the Museum of Patras (Greece)

[acrosscenturiesandgenerations]

▪︎ Memento Mori Pendant.

Date: 1540-1550

Place of origin: England

[thatlittleegyptologist]

Only thing getting me through today is the thought of Starred Egyptian Tomb Ceilings

[thatlittleegyptologist]

Calming stars my beloved

[rudjedet]

I see your stars of Nefertari and I humbly add Sennefer’s grape vines

[thatlittleegyptologist]

And all the patterns for the ceilings in Nebamun and Ipuky's tomb (TT181):

[rudjedet]

Or in Qenamun’s tomb (TT93):

[23-tiny-wishes]

Or the ceiling from Malqata

[fymodernflapper]

Victorian Tear Catchers

During the Victorian era, mourners sometimes collected their tears in gold decorated “tear bottles” to keep as a remembrance for the next of kin. It has also been said that the widows would go to the grave on the anniversary of the first year of death and sprinkle the tears on the grave to signify the end of the first year of mourning.

[cryptonature]

Vultures are holy creatures.

Tending the dead.

Bowing low.

Bared head.

Whispers to cold flesh,

“Your old name is not your king.

I rename you ‘Everything.’”

[charlesoberonn]

[sunshine-tattoo]

fun fact!

Vultures are also responsible for keeping diseases at bay.

Vulture stomach acid is so powerful that it can kill anthrax and many other deadly diseases.

So when they consume the carcass of a creature that has died of disease, they actually destroy the disease within it too!

So yes vultures are 100% holy creatures because they not only eat the dead, but protect the living from death.

[english-history-trip]

Resting place of Celtic kings revealed as discovery sheds light on King Arthur era

Discovery will shed fresh light on the era associated with the legend of King Arthur

Prior to the new research, only one final resting place of an indigenous British monarch from that era [the 5th-6th centuries] was known, along with half a dozen other potentially royal graves.

But now, at least 20 probable royal burial complexes (each containing up to five graves) have been tentatively identified – with a further 11 potentially royal burial complexes under consideration.

(An excavated 'enclosed grave', a possible royal burial, at Plas Gogerddan, Wales; Ken Murphy/Dyfed Archaeological Trust)

The new discoveries are in Wales, Cornwall, Devon and Somerset. The newly published research suggests that they are royal final resting places because they have very unusual designs that are quite different and clearly much more high status than the thousands of other dark age British graves. Indeed some key examples are associated with high status probably royal Celtic locations – and have similarities with Irish royal tombs.

Although the names of the monarchs buried in these graves are, on the whole, not yet known, they appear to have been kings, sub-kings or other royals associated with the British kingdoms of Gwynedd (northwest Wales), Dyfed (southwest Wales), Powys (central east Wales), Brycheiniog (modern Breckonshire) and Dumnonia (now southwest England).

[likaoniar]

bugs go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[harritudur]

french word of the day:

𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚙𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚎𝚞𝚛

[ from greek thanato (death) and praxie (to do/to make), literally the making of the dead ] is the practicioner of mortuary science and art to perserve human remains by treating them to forestall decomposition. english translation: embalmer

[3y3]

Memento Mori, Welder Wings

[laveneredissepolta]

[ducissatenebrarum]

Cadaver tomb in Winchester Cathedral, Hampshire, England. The tomb belongs to Bishop Richard Fox (1501-1528).

A cadaver tomb or transi (or “memento mori tomb”, Latin for “reminder of death”) is a type of gisant (recumbent effigy tomb) featuring an effigy in the macabre form of a decomposing corpse.

[sonnearchive-deactivated2022120]

Memento Mori ring

[generato-r]