Angela
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Some scientists are claiming that intentional mummification was widely practiced in Bronze Age Britain, either by smoking the bodies or intentionally putting them in peat bogs or letting them dry out in the sun. It's the first time I've heard of it.
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/bronze-age-britain-mummies-study-1.511248
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...ety-how-bronze-age-britons-mummified-the-dead
Some of the speculation as to the context seems, well, very speculative.
"Researchers who saw signs of mummification in the bones of individuals from Kent to Cladh Hallan said the practice seemed to be “widespread”, if not always successful at preserving whole bodies.
In some cases, mummification was apparently only partially effective, preserving an arm here and a leg there. On occasion, the best-preserved parts from different people were cobbled together to form a composite body that was buried later on.
“It is highly possible they were curated for some time,” said Tom Booth, an archaeologist who conducted the bone study at the University of Sheffield. “In other cultures they could be kept for ancestor worship, or used as a conduit to speak to the dead.”
In bronze age Britain, the intensification of agriculture and social changes that put more power into the hands of the elite, may have given the mummies a posthumous role in settling land disputes. “Bringing out your dead ancestor who farmed the piece of land is better than producing a land deed,” said Booth, whose work appears in the journal, Antiquity."
Can any conclusions be drawn anthropologically?
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/news/nr/bronze-age-britain-mummies-study-1.511248
http://www.theguardian.com/science/...ety-how-bronze-age-britons-mummified-the-dead
Some of the speculation as to the context seems, well, very speculative.
"Researchers who saw signs of mummification in the bones of individuals from Kent to Cladh Hallan said the practice seemed to be “widespread”, if not always successful at preserving whole bodies.
In some cases, mummification was apparently only partially effective, preserving an arm here and a leg there. On occasion, the best-preserved parts from different people were cobbled together to form a composite body that was buried later on.
“It is highly possible they were curated for some time,” said Tom Booth, an archaeologist who conducted the bone study at the University of Sheffield. “In other cultures they could be kept for ancestor worship, or used as a conduit to speak to the dead.”
In bronze age Britain, the intensification of agriculture and social changes that put more power into the hands of the elite, may have given the mummies a posthumous role in settling land disputes. “Bringing out your dead ancestor who farmed the piece of land is better than producing a land deed,” said Booth, whose work appears in the journal, Antiquity."
Can any conclusions be drawn anthropologically?
