Invoking the high quality and quantity of the data yielded by funerary anthropology, certain scholars have in the past chosen to leave aside any consideration concerning the actual rites, supposed to be largely or totally out of reach for archaeologists. This paper deals precisely with the rites as they may be comprehended by archaeology. We remind the reader that, with a few theoretical adjustments, A. van Gennep’s concept of “rites of passage” is still a powerful heuristic tool for researchers in this discipline, and especially when it comes to recreating a dynamic sequence of funerary gestures from the static physical remains left in the grave. In illustration of the potential of the “rites of passage” approach, we present a “critical but non-polemical” re-examination of the global interpretation included in the publication of the burial site of Lamadelaine (Luxembourg).