Regional variations in burial practices emerged in Neolithic Britain, with long barrows common in southern England and stone chambers in western Britain. Burial mounds were often located prominently overlooking settlements. Collective burials containing disarticulated remains suggested excarnation. Later, megalithic tombs with stone passages and chambers covered by mounds appeared in Ireland, Wales, Scotland. Beaker burials around 4700 years ago featured crouched inhumations under round barrows. Wealthier Bronze Age burials from around 4200 years ago contained continental-style grave goods indicating a warrior elite.

1. Transitions
Changing Burial Practices,
Neolithic-Iron Age• Large collective monuments for the dead began to appear on the coastal fringes of Western Europe (including
most of Britain) at this period. In inland Europe the Mesolithic tradition of burial in simple earth graves continued.
• The areas in which these large monuments were constructed correspond with the densely populated regions of
the Mesolithic and may have been built as markers of territory between the new and old populations.
• They represented a permanent link between the community, the ancestral dead, and the land which they
occupied, generally being placed close to settled areas in dominant positions. A good example is the West Kennet
long barrow (Wiltshire) which dominates the skyline.
• There is some suggestion that the shape of tombs is related to the type of housing favoured in an area (round,
rectangular, trapezoid or irregular). Houses of the dead were usually more permanent than those of the living,
because the ancestors represent the community and the tombs were shrines to these supernatural beings.
• On the chalklands and lowlands of southern and eastern England, long mounds were often piled up on wooden
structures. This type is concentrated in Wessex and is often close to another type of ritual monument, the
causewayed enclosure. Tombs are usually positioned on uplands and at heads of valleys, perhaps above valley
settlements for which no evidence survives. Examples include a very large long barrow at Maiden Castle, Dorset,
at one extreme, and a number of long barrows in Norfolk (West Rudham, Harpley, Ditchingham) at the other.
• In the Cotswolds-Severn region, internal stone-built chambers are located under wedge-shaped mounds faced
with local limestone. These are in prominent positions overlooking the Severn Valley to the north, although the
settlements were probably to the south on the shallow slopes of the escarpments. For example, West Kennet,
Wiltshire, uses limestone brought from the Cotswolds.
• In western Britain, dolmens and cromlechs, large stone chambers possibly covered by earth or stone mounds, are
the dominant form. A good example is Lanyon Quoit, Cornwall (right).

2. Regional Variations
• On the chalklands and lowlands of southern and eastern England,
long mounds were often piled up on wooden structures.
• concentrated in Wessex
• close to causewayed enclosure.
• Tombs usually positioned on uplands and at heads of valleys, perhaps
above valley settlements for which no evidence survives.
• In the Cotswolds-Severn region, internal stone-built chambers are
located under wedge-shaped mounds faced with local limestone.
These are in prominent positions overlooking the Severn Valley to the
north, although the settlements were probably to the south on the
shallow slopes of the escarpments. For example, West Kennet,
Wiltshire, uses limestone brought from the Cotswolds.
• In western Britain, dolmens and cromlechs, large stone chambers
possibly covered by earth or stone mounds, are the dominant form.

3. Tombs and causewayed Enclosures
• The tombs may have had several functions aside from that of disposal of
the dead, in the same way that a parish church is not simply a burial place.
• Generally these tombs contain several bodies, with an average in Wessex
of six per tomb.
• In most cases the bodies are disarticulated and incomplete, with some
degree of erosion or animal gnawing, suggesting that the bodies were
exposed to the elements before burial. This practice is known as
excarnation.
• In some cases it seems likely that the first structure on a site was a timber
mortuary enclosure which may have been used for exposure. This was
later burnt down and covered by a mound, with some charring of the
human remains inside. Deliberate complete cremation is rare.
• In Wessex, excavation of causewayed enclosures such as Hambledon Hill
has shown that these monuments may also have acted as mortuary
enclosures.
• The ditches are filled with feasting debris, particularly bones of cattle,
sheep and pigs, broken pottery, and disarticulated human remains. Skulls
were placed at the bottom of ditches soon after they were dug, and
deposits continued throughout the natural silting of the ditches.

4. Late Neolithic
• Collective burial continued, but the bodies were undisturbed
after burial and survive as intact articulated crouched
skeletons. There was also an increase in the use of
cremation. Both types were buried under mounds, eg,
Duggleby Howe.
• Megalithic passage graves were constructed in Ireland, North
Wales and northern and western Scotland. The most famous,
from each of these regions respectively, are Newgrange and
Maes Howe. Groups of tombs were located in prominent and
hilltop situations. They consist of chambers at the end of
stone-lined passages with corbelled roofs, covered with large
round mounds or stone cairns, c.15-80m diameter.
• Some Scottish examples have stalls rather than chambers,
e.g. Mid Howe, and some of these were even double-decked.

5. Later Neolithic,continued
• Maes Howe in Orkney has a dry stone passage and corbelled chamber. The
original burials and grave goods were lost. A runic inscription records the
robbing of the tomb by Vikings in c.1150 and describes the discovery of
treasure.
• Neolithic houses in Orkney show similarities to the tomb, with passages
into central area with chambers or recesses for beds - i.e. resting places of
the dead like sleeping areas. At Skara Brae , the settlement contained the
burials of two women in a house which was set apart from the rest and
may have been a confinement place for women during menstruation.
• Astronomical features are often present. For example, a box is situated
above the Newgrange entrance for admitting light from mid-winter
sunrise, and the Maes Howe passage faced the mid-winter sunset. A
possible communal hall at the nearby village of Barnhouse faced the mid-
summer sunset, suggesting that this time of year was concerned with the
living, whilst the winter solstice concerned the dead.
• Megalithic tombs were also constructed in the South of Britain. For
example, Wayland's Smithy, Wiltshire, was altered from an earthen long
barrow to incorporate a megalithic tomb.

6. So, who was buried?
• During both the early and the later phases it is clear that there is
some selection of individuals for particular forms of burial.
• In the earlier Neolithic this may be based on the appropriateness of
the individual for inclusion in communal ritual practices, or on the
basis of age and gender, with the whole community contributing to
the building of the monuments.
• Later, the building of megalithic tombs and other monuments shows
great advances in architectural and technological terms, and the
commemoration of great ancestors suggests that wealth or status
may have been the deciding factor.
• The vast majority of the population have disappeared, perhaps as a
result of later destruction or lack of discovery, but more likely as a
result of excarnation and scattering of their bones. Perhaps the
people buried in the early tombs are merely those whose bones were
able to withstand exposure and remained to be collected for burial.

7. Bronze Age burials
• The main type of burial at this time consisted
of individual interment of firstly crouched
inhumation and later cremation burials, often
richly endowed with grave goods.

8. Beaker Burials
• A new form of burial rite, the so-called Beaker
burials, began to appear around 4700 years
ago.
• These are crouched inhumations accompanied
by a particular pottery form known as a beaker
and covered by a small round earthen mound.
• The introduction of the beaker culture is
probably due to a mixture of migration, trade
and copying of new fashions.

9. Beaker Burials and sacred spaces
• The earliest burials were located at some distance from
earlier monuments and could represent a new trend away
from the henge-building 'establishment', or perhaps at this
early stage some really were invaders.
• Later, the earlier monuments began to attract cemeteries
of round barrows - more than 260 are known within a two-
mile radius of Stonehenge. A good example is the barrow
cemetery at Winterbourne Stoke, Wiltshire.
• Such 'sacred landscapes' are spaced every 6 miles along the
eastern river valleys and may mark boundaries or meeting
places between territories. They seem to mark the limits of
zones of settlements, suggesting different regions for the
living and the dead

10. It is now common to see the Beaker culture as a
'package' of knowledge (including religious beliefs
and copper, bronze and gold working) and artefacts
(including copper daggers, v-perforated buttons and
stone wrist-guards) adopted and adapted by the
indigenous peoples of Europe to varying degrees.

11. Beaker burial, from a barrow cemetery near
Shrewton. The male skeleton was found with
Beaker pottery and a copper dagger

13. • Richer burials are known, e.g. Barnack, which contained
gold hair decorations and buttons.
• However, around 4200 years ago richer burials became
common, especially in Wessex.
• Grave goods indicate continental links of a warrior elite,
and there are no more beakers.
• The richest excavated example is Bush Barrow to the south-
west of Stonehenge, which contained a man with a large
decorated gold lozenge on his chest, three large bronze
daggers, a stone mace, and a gold-decorated baton. Cross-
channel connections and exchange of wealth for imported
goods suggests powerful and influential local leaders.

14. Bush Barrow is a site of the early British
Bronze Age (ca. 2000 BC), at the western end
of the Normanton Down Barrows cemetery. It
is among the most important sites of the
Stonehenge complex.

15. Middle to Late Bronze Age
• Burial in the Bronze Age suggests a continuing
change in emphasis towards the individual, with
burials of wealthy individuals and children with
apparently hereditary status (although their grave
goods were presumably supplied by grieving
parents and may suggest their status rather than
that of the dead child).
• There may also be a move towards concern with
family and personal history rather than the
supernatural power of the ancestors, with new
beliefs connected with water cults perhaps taking
precedence by the end of the period.

16. Later Bronze Age
• The archaeological evidence for this period suggests that the dead
were no longer at the centre of life - and that the "landscape of the
dead was replaced by a landscape of the living".
• the practice of cremation continued, but ashes were deposited in
shallow pits without a pottery vessel
• By end of BA, cremation had virtually disappeared. Very little is
known about the disposal of the dead in this period. A few
inhumations with metalwork have been found and some metal
hoards contain human bone.
• Human skulls are found in association with water deposits of
weapons in the Thames, perhaps suggesting a move towards sacred
water rites with the Thames acting as a British Ganges.
• Burials in peat and fenland areas are known in East Anglia from this
period, especially around Methwold. A few intact skeletons of this
period show evidence for violent ends.

17. There is evidence of a relatively large scale disruption of cultural patterns which some
scholars think may indicate an invasion (or at least a migration) into Southern Great
Britain around the 12th century BC. This disruption was felt far beyond Britain, even
beyond Europe, as most of the great Near Eastern empires collapsed (or experienced
severe difficulties)
Cremation was adopted as a burial practice, with cemeteries of urns containing cremated
individuals appearing in the archaeological record.

18. The standard farming household consisted of
two houses, a main living house and an out-
house for cooking and textile production. The
dead were cremated, and buried in small
cemeteries behind each settlement. The large
burial sites of the early Bronze Age were a
thing of the past, as the land was now needed
for agriculture.

19. Iron Age ( Celtic)
• associated with an increase in the power of
tribal chieftains and an age of tribal warfare,
with a greater degree of continental influence
and the introduction of another new
metalworking technology.
• Burial practices in this period show a
continuing tradition of cremation from the
late Bronze Age, with later inhumation and
richly furnished burials up to the Roman
period.

21. the discovery of this unknown stone circle may well be confirmation of the
Stonehenge Riverside Project's theory that the River Avon linked a 'domain of the
living' – marked by timber circles and houses upstream at the Neolithic village of
Durrington Walls– with a 'domain of the dead' marked by Stonehenge and this new
stone circle.
“Bluestonehenge”: A new stone circle near Stonehenge

23. The barrow cemetery at
Winterbourne Stoke is
focused on the early Neolithic
long barrow, visible close to
the modern roundabout in
this photograph.

24. Woodhenge likely to have been a free-standing
setting of posts rather than a roofed building.
The burials may have been sacrifices or
offerings to mark the use of the monument.
The posts and entrance appear to have a
similar alignment to that at Stonehenge.
Woodhenge is a Late Neolithic monument
originally made up of a series of concentric
circles of wooden posts within a circular bank
and ditch. It is of similar size to Stonehenge
1920s excavations led to the discovery of a
young child skeleton, buried near the centre of
the monument. Another adult burial was
found within the outer ditch. Finds included
large amounts of Grooved Ware pottery,
carved chalk objects and flint tools.

28. Early Iron Age
• little is known about the disposal of the dead in this period. Cremation
and scattering of the ashes is one possibility, cremation and burial in a
pit or under a barrow is another. Crouched inhumations in stone cists
of Late Bronze to Late Iron Age date seem to have been the prevalent
rite in the south-west peninsula and Wales.
• A number of burials have been found in settlement sites such as
Gussage All Saints, Dorset, and hill forts such as Danebury in
Hampshire.
• These include skeletons with parts missing, and burials of individual
bones, especially skulls, at the bottom of pits in hill forts. There may
have been selection of particular bones after exposure for use in ritual
prior to burial.
• But only a small part of the population was involved. Some may have
been killed in war, others may have been human sacrifices.

29. Middle Iron Age
• The Arras culture of Yorkshire -large cemeteries with
graves under mounds surrounded by rectangular ditched
enclosures. These include men, women and children. Eg,
Wetwang Slack
• The culture is an elite burial tradition involving the
interment of a two-wheeled vehicle with the body. The
burials are generally of men, but at least one woman is
known.
• the crouched position is native to Britain, suggesting
emulation of exotic behaviour.
• Other types of burial in this period include bog bodies,
an example of the ritual deposition of bodies in water.

31. Removal of Bones?
• There is some evidence to suggest that bones were
removed from tombs to be used in ritual activities.
Skulls are common in enclosures, but generally
under-represented in tombs.
• Sorting of bones within the tombs is also common,
and it is likely that tombs were periodically cleaned
out for reuse.
• Adult bones are more common in tombs, but there
are more children in causewayed enclosures. This
could be a result of scattering of smaller remains
by animals so that they were not collected for
burial.

32. • Burial in a long barrow may have been reserved for individuals of high
status, but there are other possibilities. People may have been selected
for their relevance to the rituals in which they were being used, such as
shamans, transvestites, wise women, people who died in a certain way,
had a certain spiritual type, representatives of each family in a group, etc.
• Grave goods or display items were sometimes present, for example
pottery, shale beads, bone scoops, flint tools and arrowheads.
• Not everyone was buried in long barrows. A few isolated flat graves have
been found of this date, for example a female with an Abingdon-type bowl
at Pangbourne, Dorset. These are sometimes marked by a post, and as
similar animal burials have also been found it may be that the post and
not the burial was the important feature,possibly as a totem pole. Casual
burials are also found in the ditches of causewayed enclosures and in the
shafts of flint mines. Over 250 burials are known from caves in Britain, and
these consist of a much larger proportion of children than is found in long
barrows, perhaps because they are undisturbed.