Rituals & Archaeology MLK's Two Burial Places

By definition, archaeologists do not have access to data on the full range of the culture of the people who left behind the remains they investigate.

Archaeological data is particularly unlikely to preserve details about the rituals* of past peoples. Some aspects of rituals may be preserved, but most are cultural—they are behaviors and beliefs, and not things—and in particular not things that will not rot or decompose. Therefore, rituals do not preserve well archaeologically, and are thus lost unless preserved through repetition or oral memories.