Tangible remains play an important role in our relationships with the dead; they are pivotal to how we remember, mourn and grieve. The chapters in this volume analyse a diverse range of objects and their role in the processes of grief and mourning, with contributions by scholars in anthropology, history, fashion, thanatology, religious studies, archaeology, classics, sociology, and political science. The book brings together consideration of emotions, memory and material agency to inform a deeper understanding of the specific roles played by objects in funerary contexts across historical and contemporary societies.

Zahra Newby is Reader in Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick. Her research interests lie in the field of Roman art, and she has published numerous papers on Roman funerary art, as well as on ancient athletics, art and tet, and the uses of myth in Roman art.

Ruth E. Toulson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, with research interests, thematically, in death, the emotions, and material culture, and, geographically, in Southeast Asia and Mainland China.