Publisher's Synopsis
This comprehensive treatment of the archaeological, textual and architectural evidence of the urban response to dying and death is unique both in its subject and in the way it exploits the opportunities offered for historical and geographical comparison over an unusually wide range of space and time. Using evidence of funerary objects, liturgical texts, the records of families, guilds and congregations, and the modern techniques of forensic science, the contributors have produced a book which explores some important elements of continuity and change in Western urban life.
