For our group case studies, my group is looking at Early Bronze Age Ireland. Specifically looking at difference amongst three different burial types: wedges, cists and tumuli (more commonly known as mounds). We want to see if there is any general geographical pattern occurring in the differing burial types, in addition to differences in cremation and inhumation. Pictured below are pictures of the three types we are looking into (as I'm sure most of you don't know the diff, I sure didn't until further research!).
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| Parknabinna Wedge Tomb in Clare County, Ireland |
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| Knowth burial mound, created around 2000BC |
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| A cist tomb courtesy of Wikipedia |
After Friday's class, in which Erin lectured about specific burials in the Valley of the Kings, I started thinking about why people bury their dead in specific ways. I remembered that the Egyptians changed the form of burial for Royalty from a highly visible venue (the Great Pyramids of Giza) to a far less obvious resting spot. They consciously made the choice to bury their royalty in what may seem a less grandeur way in an attempt to stop thieves from raiding the valuable grave goods. It's fascinating the variety of ways we, as humans, choose to bury our dead. It's easy to forget that the whole 6 feet under in a standardized plot isn't the way it has always been. Even in Early Bronze Age Ireland, in a relatively small span of time (approximately 500 years) and in a small geographical area, there was a variety of ways in which people changed the landscape in order to dispose of the dead. Learning about what some of the other groups are doing for their projects further enlightens this notion: humans are pretty creative in a plethora of ways!
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