The conference in Manchester in 1992 which this book came out of was organised to raise the profile of the study of mortuary remains in the Ancient Near East. Thirty papers from the conference are published here, covering a wide variety of regions and periods, from Epipalaeolithic to modern. Many different aspects are examined: physical anthropology, burial goods, social structure, ethoarchaeology, etc. This volume has a wide relevance not only to the areas specifically addressed, but also in the interpretation of burial remains and the evolution of society.