Neolithic burial rites

Finds of red ochre sprinkled on old stone age human remains tell us that the early humans were emotionally affected by death and had introduced rites associated with burial. By the time of the neolithic cultures, ritualised acts had become been the norm.

What can we learn by looking more closely at Neolithic Burials?

We can look at the direction of burial, the grave goods,or lack of them, how the body was placed in the grave, its depth and what later happended to the site. All these points can help to lead us to conclusions about what Neolithic peoples thought about death.

The direction of burial is a great starting point. If all graves are found with the head pointing in the same direction we would be confident in saying that there is a tradition at play here. Unfortunately the evidence for a tradition of grave orientation really doesn't come in to play until the late Roman period, and even then, it is not in any way a global phenomenon.

This is an important point to pick up. When we talk about 'neolithic practices we are starting from a point of seeingthe peoples of that time as a single coherent culture. When we look at grave goods, it is easy to be seduced by this idea. The 'beaker' culture seems to have been a europe-wide ritual act of burial with a particularly styled beaker.