Thanks to @Yes2WomenBishops, I discover that an upper-class woman of Beaker Times has been found buried in a quarry in Windsor. Now let us get this straight. She may have been a "Beaker Queen" but that's not like a "Pearly Queen". She didn't have lots of little beakers sewn onto her jerkin, bodkin or tunic. She wasn't going round singing "Doin' the Avebury Walk". She was a higher-caste member of the Beaker People - inasmuch as our definition of Beaker Person is "the sort of people who were buried with Beakers".
She is a fascinating addition to our knowledge of Beaker Times. Her golden trappings mark her out as a natural ruler - I have no doubt she would have been an archdruid, the use of "bling" for the working classes being very much a feature of our troubled times.
But it all leaves me with a really worrying thought. She was found in a quarry. Richard III was dug up in a Leicester car park.The Amesbury Archer was found in a housing estate.
Is it just me, or are you also wondering why important people were always buried in major engineering works?
Does it work the other way around? Can I become important by arranging to be buried under, say, that massive new hydroelectric development planned for up north rather than in the local cemetary?
ReplyDeleteAnd how do I convince the owners of said major engineering works to agree? Local law allows cremated remains to be scattered practically anywhere except private property, which I suspect the engineering works is, where it's only allowed if you have the property owner's permission. And besides, if I'm cremated, how will the people who dig me up find my jewellery, such as it is, with which to establish my status? Cremations must annoy archeologists.
Problems, problems...
So (reading the article), women were buried with their heads pointing South and men with their heads pointing North. Is this still Beaker practice? And is there some esoteric connection with the fact that you were given the link by someone called Yes2WomenBishops? I think we should be told...
ReplyDeleteLove her cardigan, by the way!