An Assessment of the Evidence for the Widespread Practice of Mummification at Prehistoric British Sites. (original) (raw)

The human remains discovered at Cladh Hallan, South Uist demonstrated numerous features that strongly suggested they had been mummified (Parker Pearson et al. 2005; 2007). This has the potential to dramatically alter conventional views of mortuary rites in British prehistory. Therefore, there is speculation over how widespread these rites were over both a spatial and temporal scale. This study examined the literature of geographically broad sites from the Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age. Additionally, remains from two sites were sampled in order to examine their diagenetic patterns. These analyses were performed to search for mummification criteria established at Cladh Hallan. The literature demonstrated indefinite evidence for the practice of mummification from all of these periods. However, the thin section analysis on two sites from the Bronze Age was highly suggestive towards mummification. The geographical locations of these sites also advocate that this was occurring on a wide spatial scale. This conclusion substantiates similar future investigations in this period on mainland Europe. Although evidence from the Neolithic and Iron Age is not conclusive the Bronze Age thin section results encourage further, more concise investigations.