Spade & the Grave

death and burial through an archaeological lens


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Holiday Diaries: Death & Memorialisation in Mexico City

At the end of October, I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Mexico City with my husband, and our friends Katie and Mike, for the wedding of our dear friends, Mariana and Ramon. It was a magical experience, and none of us had ever been to Mexico before (except for the newly weds, who are in fact, from there). What a gorgeous place! We were there over Day of the Dead (Dia de Muertos), and were able to do some touristing on our trip thanks to the guidance of our local friends, and learned so much about Mexican culture and tradition surrounding Day of the Dead, as well as some archaeological sites! Lets dive in.

Reconstructed tzompantli at the Museo el Templo Mayor.
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Holiday Diaries: Exploring the History of Body-Snatching, Burial, & Mourning in Edinburgh, Scotland.

If you follow my social media, you might have gathered a few things recently. Firstly, I just got back from a lovely holiday in Scotland where I explored the morbid and macabre as one such as myself is wont to do, and secondly, I got engaged! So that is all very exciting, but because this is a death blog, I’m going to focus on the former for now.

The majority of my trip was based in the city of Edinburgh. The city is famous for being the home of the Royal Family’s Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh Castle and the Military Tattoo, and of course…Burke and Hare.

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Edinburgh & the Firth of Forth, from Calton Hill (photo by author 2019)

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