Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Celtic Culture

The Bronze Age Landscapes of the Pipeline to the West , 2007

Cremation was the predominant rite in the treatment of human remains during the Bronze Age in Ireland. It is evident that this process formed a very significant and highly symbolic aspect of the funerary ritual. This chapter integrates osteological and environmental (charcoal and plant macro-fossil) information from archaeological sites along the Gas Pipeline to the West in Ireland. This analysis highlights the incredibly intricate and variable physical treatment of the dead and discusses the use and manipulation of human bone during the funerary process.

Death and the Body in Bronze Age Europe: From Inhumation to Cremation, 2023

This volume offers new insights into the radical shift in attitudes towards death and the dead body that occurred in temperate Bronze Age Europe. Exploring the introduction and eventual dominance of cremation, Marie-Louise Stig Sørenson and Katharina Rebay-Salisbury apply a case-study approach to investigate how this transformation unfolded within local communities located throughout central to northern Europe. They demonstrate the deep link between the living and the dead body, and propose that the introduction of cremation was a significant ontological challenge to traditional ideas about death. In tracing the responses to this challenge, the authors focus on three fields of action: the treatment of the dead body, the construction of a burial place, and ongoing relationships with the dead body after burial. Interrogating cultural change at its most fundamental level, the authors elucidate the fundamental tension between openness towards the 'new' and the conservative pull of the familiar and traditional.

Sørensen, M. L. S., and K. Rebay. 2008. "From substantial bodies to the substance of bodies: analysis of the transition from inhumation to cremation during the Middle Bronze Age in Central Europe," in D. Borić and J. Robb (eds) Past Bodies. Body-Centred Research in Archaeology. 59-68. Oxford: Oxbow.

2011

This work studies religious change through the archaeology of death and burial. In the period after the fall of Rome and before the Vikings, Scotland became a Christian society, but there are few historical documents to help understand how this happened. The process of conversion to Christianity in Scotland has long been a contentious issue, but until recent years, there was simply not enough reliable archaeological evidence to test the accepted narrative of conversion by missionaries from Ireland and Gaul. A number of key excavations over the last two decades have created the opportunity to reassess the evidence and test existing models. The earliest inhumation cemeteries in Scotland emerge in the period c. AD 400-650, and a large number of radiocarbon dates from these sites now provide a sturdy chronological framework for studying the effects of the conversion to Christianity. This is the first full-length study of the early medieval burial evidence from Scotland, and the first comprehensive revision of the archaeological evidence for early Christianity since the work of Charles Thomas in 1971.

Bioarchaeology International, 2017

This study explores the burial practices and secondary funerary rites at the Carrowkeel Neolithic passage tomb complex in County Sligo in northwest Ireland. An osteological and taphonomic reassessment of cremated and unburned human bones recovered from the complex during an archaeological excavation more than a century ago has produced significant new insights into how the people of Carrowkeel perceived death and how they maintained and manifested social links with their ancestors. In addition to the rite of cremation, a complex post-mortem burial practice is further attested by the presence of cut marks on several of the unburned bones, which indicate that the bodies of the dead were dismembered before they were placed in the tombs. It is argued that both cremation and dismemberment (and possible defleshing) may have been physical expressions of similar objectives, relating to excarnation and removal of flesh from the bodies of the deceased. Processing the bodies and thereby assisting the dead to transcend to an extra-bodily realm of existence may have been the main focus of the burial rite. The passage tombs at Carrowkeel should perhaps be viewed as places of curation, transformation , and regeneration of enduring ancestors that enabled both a physical and spiritual interaction with the dead and allowed for their omnipresence among the living.

Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, 2014

Mythological Background This mythic old woman appears under various names, most derived from Cailleach (Carlene, Cally, Cally Berry, Gy-Carling), a word generally translated as "hag" but which can also be rendered as the more contemporary "crone." She is also known by personal names that refer to geographical regions (Garravogue, Echthge, Duineach, Corca Dhuibhne, Bronach, Nicnevin, Boí). Among many Irish geographical sites named for the Cailleach is the Ceann na Cailleach ("Head of the Cailleach"), also known as the Cliffs of Moher. Local legend holds that Cailleach was pursuing a young man with sexual intent, when her speed carried her over the edge of the cliffs and into the sea. Supposedly, her face can be seen on the most southerly of the cliffs. The deadly cliffs suggest something about the psychology of Cailleach's ancient goddess legends here, paradoxically combining erotic excitement with end-of-life anguish. Many ancient goddesses included life and death in their scope (Fig. 1). The Cailleach probably descends from a pre-Celtic divinity; she is not found among the Patricia Monaghan: deceased.

Rebay-Salisbury, K. 2012. "Inhumation and Cremation: how burial practices are linked to beliefs," in M.L.S. Sørensen and K. Rebay-Salisbury (eds) Embodied Knowledge: Historical Perspectives on Technology and Belief. 15-26. Oxford: Oxbow., 2012