Burial Practices In Iron Age Britain

In this volume, Harding examines the deposition of Iron Age human and animal remains in Britain and challenges the assumption that there should have been any regular form of cemetery in prehistory, arguing that the dead were more commonly integrated into settlements of the living than segregated into dedicated cemeteries.

This study investigatespotential regional patterns of Iron Age burial practices and the culturalimplications thereof. It is a literary-based assessment of 100 sites that datebetween the Late Bronze Age and the Late Iron Age, all containing human remains.The study illustrates a temporal relationship with the manner of disposal thatis regionally distinct. It addresses other repeated Iron Age burial themes,such as differential treatment of infants, reuse of earlier monuments, bonesmarking liminal and economic spaces, and deposits adhering to a specificspatial pattern with buildings. It demonstrates that the processing of thecorpse and the spatial context of the human remains deposit are central forunderstanding the community's perception of the bones and, thus, the meaning ofthe deposition. The core concept is that Iron Age communities practised variousritual processes, each with a different purpose, but using the same medium -human remains.

The Finnish people of the late Iron Age left behind several distinct types of cemetery employing disparate funerary rituals and symbolic texts. Comparison of these sites with ethnohistoric data about eschatology, funerary practice and social organization on the one hand and with the preserved oral tradition of pre-Christian myths and heroic tales on the other suggests that the prehistoric Finns were a shamanistic society deeply immersed in a culture of ancestor worship and belief in spirit beings. This work explains the variation in mortuary ritual and defines the beliefs behind the rites. Economic and sociopolitical factors are considered in delineating the proposed development of the pagan Finnish world view. The place of research on prehistoric religion within the general framework of medieval archaeology is discussed, and lines of inquiry by which interdisciplinary studies may enable and enhance our understanding of proto- and prehistoric ideological systems within cultural continuities are suggested.

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang2057{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Calibri;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Verdana;}}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs22 The British chariot burials, mainly concentrated in East Yorkshire, reveal a strong link with continental Europe, which has led some scholars to believe that this burial rite was introduced by immigrants from northern Gaul. Other scholars do not accept migration as the key explanation for cultural changes and argue that new rites and customs may also be adopted through social networks that often stretch over great distances. To determine which model best explains the introduction of new burial rites in East Yorkshire in the third century BC, this book describes the similarities and differences between the British chariot burials and those of contemporary chariot burials in northern Gaul. The comparison shows that elite networks, and possibly religious networks, lie at the basis of the emergence of new burial rites in East Yorkshire. This book also discusses various types of long-distance contacts that can forge and maintain social networks.\par\f1\fs17\par}

This volume is part of a two volume set: ISBN 9781407389592 (Volume I); ISBN 9781407389608 (Volume II); ISBN 9780860541363 (Volume set).

This edited volume contains twelve papers that present evidence on non-normative burial practices from the Neolithic through to Post-Medieval periods and includes case studies from some ten countries. It has long been recognised by archaeologists that certain individuals in a variety of archaeological cultures from diverse periods and locations have been accorded differential treatment in burial relative to other members of their society. These individuals can include criminals, women who died during childbirth, unbaptised infants, people with disabilities, and supposed revenants, to name but a few. Such burials can be identifiable in the archaeological record from an examination of the location and external characteristics of the grave site. Furthermore, the position of the body in addition to its association with unusual grave goods can be a further feature of atypical burials. The motivation behind such non-normative burial practices is also diverse and can be related to a wide variety of social and religious beliefs. It is envisaged that the volume will make a significant contribution towards our understanding of the complexities involved when dealing with non-normative burials in the archaeological record.