Wiktionary
n. (plural of grave good English)
Wikipedia
Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body.
They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a type of votive deposit. Most grave goods recovered by archaeologists consist of inorganic objects such as pottery and stone and metal tools but organic objects that have since decayed were also placed in ancient tombs. Funerary art is a broad term but generally means artworks made specifically to decorate a burial place, such as miniature models of possessions including slaves or servants for "use" in the afterlife.
Where grave goods appear, grave robbery is a potential problem. Etruscans would scratch the word śuθina, Etruscan for "from a tomb", on grave goods buried with the dead to discourage their reuse by the living. The tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun is famous because it was one of the few Egyptian tombs that was not thoroughly looted in ancient times.
Grave goods can be regarded as a sacrifice intended for the benefit of the deceased in the afterlife. Closely related are customs of ancestor worship and offerings to the dead, in modern western culture related to All Souls' Day ( Day of the Dead), in East Asia the " hell bank note" and related customs. Also closely related is the custom of retainer sacrifice, where servants or wives of a deceased chieftain are interred with the body. As the inclusion of expensive grave goods and of slaves or retainers became a sign of high status in the Bronze Age, the prohibitive cost led to the development of "fake" grave goods, where artwork meant to depict grave goods or retainers is produced for the burial and deposited in the grave in place of the actual sacrifice.
Usage examples of "grave goods".
As the procession went into the tomb darkness swallowed it all, men and grave goods alike—.
Other lives or no, he wanted her to have grave goods, like the princess she should have been.
A band of them whom Gest had come upon this morning did tell him that King Sigurdh had borne off the body of his foe King Harald, to give it a barrow and grave goods at Uppsala for the sake of his own honor.
Some of them were beautifully decorated, and two had contained their original grave goods - not as rich as those of the princesses, but full of interest.
Some of them were beautifully decorated, and two had contained their original grave goods &mdash.
A few sparks of that flame had fluttered down to lie in the muddy grave like golden offerings to match the grave goods already in place, jars and ewers of mead and oil, loaves of bread, a fine sword in a gilded scabbard, pottery statues of the gwerbret's favourite horses, all set around the wicker-work chariot.
The grave goods included a few crude stelae with incised crosses and other Christian insignia, proving what we had suspected from the nature of the burials themselvesthat they were those of Copts.
A few sparks of that flame had fluttered down to lie in the muddy grave like golden offerings to match the grave goods already in place, jars and ewers of mead and oil, loaves of bread, a fine sword in a gilded scabbard, pottery statues of the gwerbrets favourite horses, all set around the wicker-work chariot.
We understand and respect our descendants' desire for knowledge, but do not understand why our bones are being disturbed and our grave goods stolen by one who does not respect us or desire knowledge.
The rubble you saw, Sir Edward, is the remains of the queen's original grave goods.
This tore - neckring - is most probably grave goods or perhaps an offering to the spirit of a special spring or a marsh or a river.
Neolithic hunting societies sometimes buried their members with amber grave goods.
The tombs were small and poor in grave goods, but even they had been robbed and the bones of their occupants scattered.
You'll want time alone-or more time alone-and Elegos has learned of the Alderaanian ritual of leaving grave goods in the Graveyard.