2022
DOI: 10.1017/ppr.2022.2
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Funerary Diversity and Cultural Continuity: The British Beaker Phenomenon Beyond the Stereotype

Abstract: The Beaker phenomenon in Britain is typically represented by a particular form of pottery and its inclusion in graves with flexed or crouched inhumations referred to as Beaker burials. Analysis of the full range of burial evidence, however, reveals a high degree of variability in funerary rites including cremation and skeletal disarticulation. Summed probability distribution analysis of radiocarbon dates provides evidence for continuity of these other, atypical rites from the pre-Beaker Late Neolithic (c. 3000… Show more

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Cited by 4 publications
(3 citation statements)
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“…Evidence from Early Bronze Age Britain indicates that children, and indeed women, seldom went to the grave alone. Here, multiple burials were the most usual form of burial for both adults and subadults 71,72 . Between 30 and 40% of child burials from Scotland, Yorkshire, and Wiltshire were buried with an adult, with a bias towards burial with females 57,58 .…”
Section: A Widespread Phenomenon In Third Millennium Bc Western Eurasiamentioning
confidence: 96%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…Evidence from Early Bronze Age Britain indicates that children, and indeed women, seldom went to the grave alone. Here, multiple burials were the most usual form of burial for both adults and subadults 71,72 . Between 30 and 40% of child burials from Scotland, Yorkshire, and Wiltshire were buried with an adult, with a bias towards burial with females 57,58 .…”
Section: A Widespread Phenomenon In Third Millennium Bc Western Eurasiamentioning
confidence: 96%
“…Increased diversity in burial rites, particularly double and triple burials with infants, and the appearance of child burials with elaborate grave goods suggests that at least in death, children had become increasingly important 57,81 . Both women and children may have been regarded as of relational importance in death as in life, symbols of fertility or status, or responsible for creating and cementing transgenerational links between and within communities, even linking past and present 71 . This link may also explain the frequent occurrence of the disarticulated remains of children found buried with adults in the early Bronze Age.…”
Section: A Widespread Phenomenon In Third Millennium Bc Western Eurasiamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Burial practices in Britain's Bronze Age (2200-750 bce) are certainly well known, notably the inhumation and cremation rites of the Beaker period (2450-1800 bce) (Parker Pearson et al 2019;Bloxam and Parker Pearson 2022) and the burial of cremated remains in ceramic urns during the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2200-1150 bce) (Caswell and Roberts 2018). Even so, the archaeologically visible dead must represent only a tiny proportion of the population; by the Late Bronze Age (1150-750 bce) the vast majority of the dead are archaeologically invisible.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%