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Evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Mike Parker Pearson ,
Andrew Chamberlain ,
Oliver Craig ,
Peter Marshall ,
Jacqui Mulville ,
Helen Smith ,
Carolyn Chenery ,
Matthew Collins ,
Gordon Cook  and
Geoffrey Craig
...Show all authors
Mike Parker Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4ET, UK (Email: [email protected])
Andrew Chamberlain
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4ET, UK (Email: [email protected])
Oliver Craig
Affiliation:
Centro di antropologia molecolare per lo studio del DNA antico, Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Roma, Italy
Peter Marshall
Affiliation:
ARCUS, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 4ET, UK
Jacqui Mulville
Affiliation:
School of History and Archaeology, University of Cardiff, PO Box 909, Cardiff, UK
Helen Smith
Affiliation:
School of Conservation Sciences, University of Bournemouth, Bournemouth, UK
Carolyn Chenery
Affiliation:
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
Matthew Collins
Affiliation:
Departments of Biology and Archaeology, University of York, King’s Manor, York, YO1 7EP, UK
Gordon Cook
Affiliation:
Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK
Geoffrey Craig
Affiliation:
Department of Oral Pathology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Jane Evans
Affiliation:
NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
Jen Hiller
Affiliation:
Structural Biophysics Group, School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Cardiff, PO Box 909, Cardiff, UK
Janet Montgomery
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeological Sciences, University of Bradford, Bradford BD7 1DP, UK
Jean-Luc Schwenninger
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ, UK
Gillian Taylor
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences & Civil Engineering, University of Newcastle, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Timothy Wess
Affiliation:
Structural Biophysics Group, School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Cardiff, PO Box 909, Cardiff, UK
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Abstract

Ancient Egyptians are thought to have been the only people in the Old World who were practising mummification in the Bronze Age (c. 2200-700 BC). But now a remarkable series of finds from a remote Scottish island indicates that Ancient Britons were performing similar, if less elaborate, practices of bodily preservation. Evidence of mummification is usually limited to a narrow range of arid or frozen environments which are conducive to soft tissue preservation. Mike Parker Pearson and his team show that a combination of microstructural, contextual and AMS 14C analysis of bone allows the identification of mummification in more temperate and wetter climates where soft tissues and fabrics do not normally survive. Skeletons from Cladh Hallan on South Uist, Western Isles, Scotland were buried several hundred years after death, and the skeletons provide evidence of post mortem manipulation of body parts. Perhaps these practices were widespread in mainland Britain during the Bronze Age.

Keywords

Bronze AgeBritainburial practicemummification
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 305 , September 2005 , pp. 529 - 546
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

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