Based on a cursory glance at the Time Team Stonehenge Special, I've discovered that the ancient Beaker People of Stonehenge, when they died, were left on mortuary platforms for the birds to peck off the flesh, and then the bones were buried in a sarsen tomb.
Sounds a bit messy, but if it's authentic...
Obviously, in these days of lightweight and convenient building materials, it's a lot easier to erect these ritual constructions than it used to be. So tomorrow morning we're off up the Builders Merchants for some breeze blocks for the round barrow and some decent 2x4 to build the mortuary platform. There's nobody in the Beaker Folk actually planning on dying in the near future, but best to be well-prepared. And it's probably better we get in early as we're going to have to try and get this form of burial past the Mid Beds Council planning people as well. And you know what those people are like. It could take weeks to get permission.
At the risk of being an utter spoil-sport, I might suggest that getting a council permit may not be completely authentic. I suspect it is at least possible that the original Beaker folk never got council permission. But I could be wrong, of course.
ReplyDeleteFr Sean, you're probably right.
ReplyDeleteBut if the predecessors of English local councils were around 4,000 years ago imagine how annoying they would have been.
"You've got to fill this form in, in triplicate. What do you mean, we've not developed writing yet? Is that *my* fault?"