The Cemetery Surveyor Application: Non-paper data Collection Methods in Luxembourg Burial Grounds

in Mytum, Harold; Veit, Richard (Eds.) Innovation and implementation. Critical Reflections and New Approaches to Historc Mortuary Data Collection, Analysis and Dissemination (2023)

Sepulchral culture-science requires detailed fieldwork, focusing on minutiae and spatial attributes, yielding cumbersomely large data sets. For a study on material cultures in the Luxembourg region’s ... [more ▼]

Sepulchral culture-science requires detailed fieldwork, focusing on minutiae and spatial attributes, yielding cumbersomely large data sets. For a study on material cultures in the Luxembourg region’s spaces of remembrance, we developed the Cemetery Surveyor Application (CSA) and Web Cemetery Surveyor (WCA) for Android devices and desktop computers respectively, aiming to streamline diverse data collection methodologies. The multi-platform applications provide varying affordances, benefits and limitations. The android application, operating off-line, allows the association of photographs to grave features directly, while the desktop version, accessed online, allows simultaneous collaboration. This paper describes how the tools responded to a need, their development and design process, the justifications for their operations, strengths, weaknesses, and makes recommendations for future implementations. [less ▲]

The Materiality and Spatiality of Death, Burial and Commemoration

Book published by Routledge (2022)

Introduction: The materiality and spatiality of death, burial and commemoration Christoph Klaus Streb and Thomas Kolnberger 1. Post-medieval burial customs in Germany – an archaeological perspective on ... [more ▼]

Introduction: The materiality and spatiality of death, burial and commemoration Christoph Klaus Streb and Thomas Kolnberger 1. Post-medieval burial customs in Germany – an archaeological perspective on materiality and spatiality Hauke Kenzler 2. Charnel practices in medieval England: new perspectives Elizabeth Craig-Atkins, Jennifer Crangle, P. S. Barnwell, Dawn M. Hadley, Allan T. Adams, Ian Atkins, Jessica-Rose McGinn, and Alice James 3. Material specificity and cultural agency: the mummies of the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo, Sicily Natalie Polzer 4. Embalming and the materiality of death (France, nineteenth century) Anne Carol 5. Ephemeral materiality: a place for lifeless infants in cemeteries Philippe Charrier and Gaëlle Clavandier 6. The unnaturalness of natural burials: dispossessing the dispossessed Anna-Katharina Balonier, Elizabeth Parsons and Anthony Patterson 7. Materiality and the body: explorations at the end of life Thorsten Benkel and Matthias Meitzler [less ▲]

Transnational soldiering, burial and commemoration across borders. The case of Luxembourgers in the French Foreign Legion

in Francia: Forschungen zur Westeuropäischen Geschichte. 3, 19./20. Jahrhundert (2022), 49

To whom do the dead belong? The French Foreign Legion exemplifies a modern military conundrum: how to reconcile loyal and patriotic duty with mercenary service or, in neutral terms, military labour. This ... [more ▼]

To whom do the dead belong? The French Foreign Legion exemplifies a modern military conundrum: how to reconcile loyal and patriotic duty with mercenary service or, in neutral terms, military labour. This article investigates soldierly funeral culture in the long nineteenth century, with a focus on the entangled histories of Luxembourg and France. The Foreign Legion’s transnational recruitment makes this armed force a unique case study to explore military commemoration across state borders, honouring the dead and the living alike. Since its establishment to fight outside mainland France, rooted in the conquest of Algeria (1830–1857), the Legion has been the only branch of the French military whose members swear allegiance not to France, but to the corps itself: its motto is Legio Patria Nostra (»The Legion is our Homeland«). As a military parallel society and temporary »ersatz nation«, the Legion has elaborated a specific death cult, which has both a corporeal (body-centred, individual) and a sur-real (transcendent, communal) dimension. The two dimensions cannot be rigidly delimited: they clearly overlap and can be shared with other nations, as the case of Luxembourg demonstrates. [less ▲]

Luxemburger als Söldner in der globalen militärischen Arbeitswelt - eine Notiz zum 19. Jahrhundert

in Kolnberger, Thomas; Niederkorn, Benoit (Eds.) Militärgeschichte Luxemburgs. Grundzüge einer transnationalen Entwicklung von Militär, Krieg und Gesellschaft (2022)

Addressing seeming paradoxes by embracing them: small state theory and the integration of migrants

in Comparative Migration Studies (2021), 9

This article examines the integration of migrants in Luxembourg within the framework of small state theory. Within the comparative scholarship on migration, small states are often presented as “success ... [more ▼]

This article examines the integration of migrants in Luxembourg within the framework of small state theory. Within the comparative scholarship on migration, small states are often presented as “success stories.” This research questions this assumption and empirical data presented here indicates that many contradictions exist within Luxembourg’s migrant integration model. The country’s “success” in fact does not reflect the levels of integration of migrants nationally as significant inequalities are present in Luxembourg. However, the analysis of Luxembourg presented here illustrates how small states have coherently embraced many paradoxes that are inherent to integration strategies throughout Europe with the goal of promoting peaceful coexistence. [less ▲]

„Dann eben in die Natur damit“ – Der neue Trend der Waldbestattung in Luxemburg: Geschichte, Beweggründe und ökologische Auswirkungen

in Thiltges, Sébastian; Solte-Gresser, Christiane (Eds.) Kulturökologie und ökologische Kulturen in der Großregion / Écologie culturelle et cultures écologiques dans la Grande Région (2020)

For the environment, humans and their way of life have become one of the most decisive factors of influence: their impact defines the geochronological era of the Anthropocene. These manmade changes ... [more ▼]

For the environment, humans and their way of life have become one of the most decisive factors of influence: their impact defines the geochronological era of the Anthropocene. These manmade changes include one specific type of sediments, namely that of human remains. In industrialized regions, the biologically degradable, organic matter of the human body is often altered by medical implants and pharmaceutical residues. Sepulchral practices may add other toxic substances. This article examines how the recent trend towards woodland burials of cremated remains in Luxembourg is embedded in ecological discourse and imagination, and asks whether it does provide an environment-friendly alternative to traditional full-body inhumations. [less ▲]

Die Pest als „die“ Pandemie der Weltgeschichte in der Geschichtsschreibung

in Mein, Georg; Pause, Johannes (Eds.) Self and Society in the Corona Crisis (2020)

Bacteria and parasites are constant companions of humankind. Usually, they are harmless. When they turn against their hosts, however, they become harbinger of diseases. It seems to be a paradox of history ... [more ▼]

Bacteria and parasites are constant companions of humankind. Usually, they are harmless. When they turn against their hosts, however, they become harbinger of diseases. It seems to be a paradox of history that diseases and their global spread may be seen as indicators for the process of civilisation. We investigate this phenomenon from two angles: the so-called Black Death and leprosy. After a short general introduction by Martin Uhrmacher and Thomas Kolnberger, the latter presents the globalization of “the plague” in three historical waves. Michel Pauly then scrutinizes the impact the second wave had in the fourteenth century on the region of today’s Luxembourg. In the last part, Martin Uhrmacher introduces leprosy, its social consequences and the history of its perception. [less ▲]

Co-Creating Ritual Spaces and Communities: An Analysis of Municipial Cemetery Tongerseweg, Maastricht, 1812-2020

in Religions (2020), 11(9), 435

Cemeteries have been viewed in opposed ways as ritual spaces that either mirror society or present an idealized model of society. In this article, we propose an analysis of cemeteries as ritual spaces ... [more ▼]

Cemeteries have been viewed in opposed ways as ritual spaces that either mirror society or present an idealized model of society. In this article, we propose an analysis of cemeteries as ritual spaces, focused on the case study of municipal cemetery Tongerseweg in Maastricht, among the most important monumental cemeteries still in active use in The Netherlands today. Drawing on historical as well as interview material, spatial and ritual studies, the authors argue for a new “Arena Model” to understand cemeteries as dynamic ritual spaces. Cemeteries do not only form an ensemble of ritual spaces that are reliant on pre-existing communities, they also evoke, produce and maintain communities. Codeterminants are the physical layout and a wide range of ritual markers that variously underscore, mitigate or even contradict the communities created by the spatial layout. Important actors pertain to municipal politics and administration as well as the users, their respective allies and service providers. The article further analyses the wide range of competing values that help to shape a cycle of cocreating plural ritual spaces as well as communities [less ▲]

Introduction: The materiality and spatiality of death, burial and commemoration

in Mortality (2019), 24(2), 117-1-22

The material culture of burial and its microgeography: A Luxembourg cemetery as a methodological example of an object-centred approach to quantitative material culture studies

in Journal of Material Culture (2019), 24(2), 1-26

This article uses a novel quantitative methodology to examine sepulchral material culture. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of social spatialization and art as agency, the authors contend that ... [more ▼]

This article uses a novel quantitative methodology to examine sepulchral material culture. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of social spatialization and art as agency, the authors contend that variations in grave designs and materiality cannot simply be explained in terms of changes in fashion and mentality. Other factors also need to be taken into account. Using a digital data collection tool, the Cemetery Surveyor Application (CSA) developed at the University of Luxembourg, they compile a set of data encompassing all the material aspects of each grave in a cemetery in Luxembourg (Western Europe), the setting of their case study. The graves are dated from the 1850s to 2015. |The authors compare the chronological evolution of the most recurrent material features with a GIS-based spatial analysis of the same features. The results of the spatial analysis not only largely confirm the chronological study, but also allow them to be more precise (dating is often problematic) and include undated graves (a third of the sample). The digital data collection tool also allows them to compare cemeteries and to highlight variations in these that cannot merely be imputed to chronology, but also to spatial proximity and material agency. [less ▲]