ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an over view of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book begins with a hardware typology that categorizes hardware primarily by functional category: structural, decorative, and identification. Serious study of coffin hardware as a class of artifacts began in earnest in mid-1980s, with subsequent publications building off of these works, which included early typologies. In North America, mass-produced coffin hardware is made predominantly from brass, iron, Britannia metal, and white metal. By looking at the different types of hardware within these categories, shifts in function like replacement of coffin hinges by thumbscrews become more apparent. One advantage of using mass-produced coffin hardware to explore how material culture and society interact is that coffin hardware is made to be buried: deposition is an integral part of its function. Included in the description of the various types of coffin hardware are general date ranges for their introduction and, where appropriate, their disappearance.
