particularized times. Cemeteries in the Qujing valley are built from accreted layers of soil to form large mounded features and require discrete spatial order to accommodate successive generations of inhumations (Figure 6) (Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology et al. 2002). Each earthen layer is constructed to achieve a sufficient thickness, thus enabling successive exhumations of vertically stacked pits. An unevenly erected layer would presumably offset the sequence that is the pretext for cemetery expansions and future interments. Coordination among the living to maintain mound integrity is evident in the consistent thickness of individual layers maintained across construction sequences at Hengdalu and Batatai, which allowed the exhumation of individual pits to an average depth of 50–80 centimeters below surface (Figure 6). Interments of this depth avoided crosscutting of grave chambers. This careful articulation of individual graves and cemetery form depicts what I refer to as vernacular architecture for the dead. The positioning of individual bodies along the same cardinal alignment was also crucial to articulating this structured cemetery space as shown in Batatai (Figure 7). Beginning with the earliest inhumations, mourners across the three valleys placed the deceased in tombs oriented along a strict east-west axis, aligning their bodies with the valley floor. Taken together, this nested order and concerted repetition reveal techniques of mourning distinctively attendant to the corporeality of the deceased. By the imperial period, the coordination of these funerary processes becomes increasingly difficult to uphold. The construction of earthen layers is halted after the second century BC in Qujing valley, limiting the expansion of cemetery space while forcing new burials to cut into earlier graves. In response to these spatial and depth constraints, mourners begin to dig shallower graves with pits measuring only 20 centimeters in depth at Batatai (Figure 6). The decline in frequency and rate of burial activity thus coincides with an inability to emplace the
particularized times. Cemeteries in the Qujing valley are built from accreted layers of soil to form large mounded features and require discrete spatial order to accommodate successive generations of inhumations (Figure 6) (Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology et al. 2002). Each earthen layer is constructed to achieve a sufficient thickness, thus enabling successive exhumations of vertically stacked pits. An unevenly erected layer would presumably offset the sequence that is the pretext for cemetery expansions and future interments. Coordination among the living to maintain mound integrity is evident in the consistent thickness of individual layers maintained across construction sequences at Hengdalu and Batatai, which allowed the exhumation of individual pits to an average depth of 50–80 centimeters below surface (Figure 6). Interments of this depth avoided crosscutting of grave chambers. This careful articulation of individual graves and cemetery form depicts what I refer to as vernacular architecture for the dead. The positioning of individual bodies along the same cardinal alignment was also crucial to articulating this structured cemetery space as shown in Batatai (Figure 7). Beginning with the earliest inhumations, mourners across the three valleys placed the deceased in tombs oriented along a strict east-west axis, aligning their bodies with the valley floor. Taken together, this nested order and concerted repetition reveal techniques of mourning distinctively attendant to the corporeality of the deceased. By the imperial period, the coordination of these funerary processes becomes increasingly difficult to uphold. The construction of earthen layers is halted after the second century BC in Qujing valley, limiting the expansion of cemetery space while forcing new burials to cut into earlier graves. In response to these spatial and depth constraints, mourners begin to dig shallower graves with pits measuring only 20 centimeters in depth at Batatai (Figure 6). The decline in frequency and rate of burial activity thus coincides with an inability to emplace the
ECS-Mar.-11-paper.docx