This book is one of two major publications resulting from my involvement in the ‘Changing Beliefs of the Human Body’ research project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. It is a companion to Cherryson, Crossland and Tarlow (forthcoming). Whereas Cherryson, Crossland and Tarlow is a more descriptive and data-rich survey of archaeological evidence relating to death and disposal in Britain and Ireland over the last 500 years, this book is an interpretive and inter-disciplinary study of beliefs about the dead human body. I am grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for funding the project and to the universities of Leicester and Cambridge for supporting its administration and resourcing. Zoe Crossland and Annia Cherryson, my colleagues in this research, have been invaluable sources of information, ideas, critiques and support at every stage. Many other individuals and organisations have offered their advice, drawn our attention to sites and made available their archives. A fuller list of our collective debts of gratitude is in Cherryson, Crossland and Tarlow (forthcoming), but here I would like to record my personal thanks to colleagues on the ‘Changing Beliefs’ project, especially John Robb and Oliver Harris, for productive and challenging discussions. Maryon Macdonald, Oliver Harris and Annia Cherryson read a draft of the whole manuscript, and I thank them heartily for their useful suggestions, as I also thank the two anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press. Many thanks to Nick Pearson of On-Site Archaeology and Andrew Chamberlain of Sheffield University, who discussed the York Barbican site with me and provided photographs.