Burning questions: learning to see cremation in the long Iron Age of northern Britain

Direct evidence for cremation as a funerary rite in early medieval Scotland and northern England has historically been difficult to find, and remains under-reported in previous work, including by the author. However, early medieval cremated human remains deposited in significant locations, and often associated with prehistoric monuments, are increasingly being recognised through broader radiocarbon dating programmes. In the light of recent reassessments of the evidence from Scotland and Ireland, a new look at the data revealed several more examples. It is argued that these form a continuum with later prehistoric deposits of cremated human bone, and a ‘long Iron Age’ perspective is adopted to cut through the ideological baggage weighing down narratives of cremation in the archaeological literature around early medieval mortuary practice.