#burial practices

This headdress was crafted from leather and gold foil, and it dates back to 350-300 BCE. It was discovered in the frozen barrows of Pazyryk, Siberia, where unique conditions allowed the organic material to remain almost perfectly preserved for more than two millennia.

According to this publication:

The headdress is sewn from felt and leather, and topped with a ram’s head with a cock-like bird standing between its horns. The bird is detachable, its legs are made of whittled sticks, and its wings were made separately on a rod frame. The peak of the mask is decorated with seven fish made of gold foil.

Many other horse masks and headdresses have been found at Pazyryk:

Some were peaked and open at the front, while others were closed and entirely covered the horse’s face. All had side flaps tied under the chin with small straps, and ear cases that allowed the mask to sit more securely on the head. They had felt bases covered in leather and were horned.

Together with their mane covers and tail cases, these masks appeared to transform the horses into fantastic mythical creatures resembling the horned griffins depicted on Pazyryk chieftains’ tattoos and plaques from Peter the Great’s Siberian Collection.

Above: another horse headdress from Pazyryk, c.450 BCE

All of these headdresses were made by ancient Altaic nomads, who formed part of the larger group of cultures that are collectively referred to as the Scythians or Scytho-Siberian peoples.

Above: horse mask/headdress with antlers, harness, and bridle, from Pazyryk, c.350 BCE

Each costume was found on or near a horse's body, but researchers believe that the costumes were created and used for ceremonial purposes throughout the horse's life, as this article explains:

It is clear the costumes were not made specifically for the burial: all horse costumes, even the most elaborate, were well-worn and in some places mended, indicating regular use. Because these costumes are impractical for everyday use, they probably were reserved for ceremonial use – and due to their being well-worn, such use was common. As with contemporary Mongolian pastoralists, perhaps these costumes were reserved for the Pazyryk’s seasonal changes of camp, or perhaps for other alternate or additional ceremonies significant to the community.

Above: a full ceremonial costume from Pazyryk, c.400-300 BCE

Several other artifacts from Pazyryk have previously been featured on my blog, including an elaborate horse headdress equipped with antlers, an ancient saddle blanket, and a 2,300-year-old plush bird.

Sources & More Info:

Scythians: Warriors of Ancient Siberia: Horse Headgear

World Archaeology: Do the Clothes Make the Horse? Roles, Statuses, and Identities in the Pazyryk World

Hermitage Museum: Horse Headdresses 2, 3, and 4

University of Washington: Artifacts from Southern Siberia/Pazyryk

Perspectives and Studies in Ethnozooarchaeology: Killing (Constructed) Horses: Interspecies Elders, Empathy, Emotion, and the Pazyryk Horse Sacrifices

University of Leicester: At Home, with the Good Horses (PDF) (this is a really great paper)

Jedi burn their dead. Qui Gon was given a pyre not a grave.

In (some?) cultures that do the grave thing, undead are basically those who crawl out of their graves, half-rotted.

Obi Wan defeated Anakin and left him, essentially, in a pyre.

Anakin clawed his way out, half-burnt.

Roman sarcophagus with strigliata decoration, Carrara marble, used for the burial of Archbishop Bartolomeo d'Antiochia in 1311

Wars - bodies of hylians are typically set in open pits where they will be burned, if they have any personal items, they get those placed on the rim of the pit. The idea is that when the spirit stays in the body until it's destroyed so they want the body to be destroyed quickly. After the funeral is done, the items are collected and repurposed, it will be no use to them. The pit is either refilled or left for when the next person dies. Older families have thick layers of ash. 

Sky - bodies are placed on the edge of the island where they decay and are scavenged by corpse eaters. Their loftwing's feathers (if they had one) are buried next to the body. There aren't a lot of materials or space, early on, they just chucked the bodies off the edge but that took materials out of their little closed system up in the clouds, better to repurpose a body respectfully 

 Time - bodies are buried in the ground, markers are made, either carved stones or cairns of stones. The idea is that it keeps the spirits from stirring, the graves have to be deep or the body broken up. Some people have the tradition of burying kids on the edge of the Lost Woods, they think their spirits will move on and play in the woods with the immortal children, protected by the woods 

 Hyrule - there is a city of the dead, miles and miles of headstones and spirits nipping at the heels of trespassers. Superstition that if a body isn't physically clean then the spirit gets angry and won't pass on. HC That a lot of the downfall's religious practices are based on cleanliness so family members or sometime even strangers will do their bests to clean the body before it starts to rot. I don't have much else to say here other than I really like the idea that pets get buried too. 

 Legend - a lot like Hyrule but less city of the dead, more local graveyards, fewer spirits to come mess with you. They're happier places for picnics and remembering