Burning questions: learning to see cremation in the long Iron Age of northern Britain
Name
16_BurningQuestions_Maldonado_2024.pdf
Description
visibility:open
Size
2.64 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (CRC64NVME)
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Resource type
Book chapter
Creator (person)
Maldonado, Adrià¡n
Date published
2024
Abstract
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.
Book title
Cremation in the Early Middle Ages
Editor
Williams, Howard
Lippok, Femke
Pagination
243-260
Publisher
Sidestone Press
Place of publication
Leiden, Netherlands
Rights statement
In Copyright
Additional information
Full text available via the official URL