Bring up the bodies: skeletal memorials from around the world – in pictures
From bone-festooned burial caves in Indonesia to smoking skulls in Bolivia, photographer Paul Koudounaris’s macabre images of decorative human remains and ossuaries reveal that, in many parts of the world, the dead remain among us
- Memento Mori by Paul Koudounaris is published by Thames & Hudson on 16 March
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One of many skulls - or Ñatitas - found in homes in La Paz, Bolivia. They are used as good luck charmsAll photographs by Paul Koudounaris
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Konrad II, Basilica Minor of St Michael, Mondsee, Austria
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St Pancratius, Church of St Nicholas, Wil, Switzerland
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A smoking skull in a home in La Paz, Bolivia
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Mummified Buddhist monk Luang Por Ruam, Wat Kiriwongkaram, Koh Samui, Thailand
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Capuchin monastery, Burgio, Sicily
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A large ossuary tomb beneath the town church in Lampa, Peru
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Sicilian mummy from Burgio, Gangi
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Oppenheim ossuary, Oppenheim, Germany
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A decorative skull in the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand
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Santa Maria della Concezione, Rome
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Sedlec ossuary in Sedlec, Czech Republic
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