BURIALS

Bring out your dead

Disposal of the dead in Britain seems, on evidence, to be a hit and miss affair. Each tribal area appears to have a different approach to the laying out of the body. Some tribes bury whole. Some lay the body out to decompose then bury the bones. Others cremate the body and put in the ground with grave goods. Whilst in some areas, there do not appear to be any bodies at all!

Ordinary deaths did not seem to attract a great deal of ritual. Bodies were often just thrown into rubbish pits for disposal. Very few grave goods are associated with this kind of burial.
	There are burials of important people, like this one, where the body was cremated and expensive grave goods buried with the ashes.
	Reconstruction of a burial. Staged for TV, at Butser Ancient Farm, November 2000
The most spectacular of all are the chariot burials of East Yorkshire, where the bodies of warriors were put in the ground with chain mail, weapons, food, and a dismantled chariot complete with horses.