The Visible Dead
: A New Approach to the Study of Late Iron Age Mortuary Practice in South-Eastern Britain

  • Alison Brookes

    Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

    Abstract

    The principal aim of the thesis is to investigate the mortuary practices of the late Iron Age period in south-eastern Britain, focusing on identification of the wider sequence of activity. It is evident that the deposition of the calcined remains and associated objects are just one element in a more complicated pattern of behaviour. A number of contemporary inhumation burials and mortuary-related features drawn from an increasing number of sites illustrate the wider practices in operation.

    The identification of pyre-related features and debris lies at the core of this study providing an opportunity to advance understanding of pyre technology as well as the mortuary rituals. This study provides an opportunity to advance late Iron Age mortuary studies in relation to the cosmological, political and ideological structure (Fitzpatrick 1997; Pearce 1997a; 1997b; 1999; McKinley 2000).
    Date of AwardDec 2003
    Original languageEnglish

    Keywords

    • mortuary practices
    • Late Iron Age
    • Britain: South East
    • mortuary rituals

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