Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
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- Ethnic group
- Italian
See:
https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2017/04/can-houses-die-iron-age-longhouses-were.html
"From the Bronze Age until the Viking Age, burial mounds could be placed on top of the remains of three-aisled longhouses. The internal posts that served as roof-supporting beams were sometimes removed before the house was set on fire. Once the house had burned to the ground, one or more burial mounds were placed on top of its remains."
"The custom of setting houses on fire and placing burial mounds over of the house remains may be reminiscent of a cremation. Eriksen argues that the burial mounds may equally well mark the cremation and burial of a house – not necessarily a human being.
"In some cases we have been unable to find human remains, even in places where we could expect such remains to have been preserved. Nevertheless, archaeologists have more or less implicitly assumed that somewhere or other, there must be a deceased individual."
"This connection between bodies and houses may have led them to think that a house has some kind of essence, some kind of soul, Eriksen says.
This may have been the reason why people at that time wanted to give their house a proper funeral when it had served its purpose, and that is perhaps why it was set on fire."
Could this be connected to the burning of houses in the Balkans?
https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2017/04/can-houses-die-iron-age-longhouses-were.html
"From the Bronze Age until the Viking Age, burial mounds could be placed on top of the remains of three-aisled longhouses. The internal posts that served as roof-supporting beams were sometimes removed before the house was set on fire. Once the house had burned to the ground, one or more burial mounds were placed on top of its remains."
"The custom of setting houses on fire and placing burial mounds over of the house remains may be reminiscent of a cremation. Eriksen argues that the burial mounds may equally well mark the cremation and burial of a house – not necessarily a human being.
"In some cases we have been unable to find human remains, even in places where we could expect such remains to have been preserved. Nevertheless, archaeologists have more or less implicitly assumed that somewhere or other, there must be a deceased individual."
"This connection between bodies and houses may have led them to think that a house has some kind of essence, some kind of soul, Eriksen says.
This may have been the reason why people at that time wanted to give their house a proper funeral when it had served its purpose, and that is perhaps why it was set on fire."
Could this be connected to the burning of houses in the Balkans?