THURSDAY, APRIL 19 12-1 p.m.

Ling-Yu Hung, Department of Anthropology

“Investigating mortuary practices with GIS: the late Neolithic Yangshan cemetery in NW China”

This presentation focuses on the use of GIS (Geographic information systems) to examine 218 burials uncovered at the Yangshan cemetery (ca. 4300-4000 BP) of the Majiayao Culture in northwestern China. The abundant mortuary data at Yangshan are valuable sources for investigating its social organization. However, mortuary practices at Yangshan appears to be very complicated, including single and multiple burials, primary and secondary burials, extended and flexed burials, burials of people with different ages and sexes, and burials furnished with different types of grave goods. GIS provides a powerful tool to spatially analyze and illustrate different mortuary practices over time in this Neolithic community.

Remote connection also available via Adobe Acrobat Connect:

Join the meeting through Adobe Connect. After the presentation, recordings will be posted on the IDAH website’s brown bag page: Please join us! Feel free to bring your lunch. To receive a reminder and an abstract of upcoming IDAH presentations, send an email to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it with nothing in the subject line and the following text in the message body: sub IDAH_BROWNBAG-L Your Full Name