Irregular burials

Irregularities in burial customs

West Heslerton cemetery, North Yorkshire

Early mediaeval cemetery focusing on a prehistoric monumental complex.

Various individuals were denied the burial procedures of other community members. It is argued that the placing of large stone blocks over the grave of a female child, or the placing of the body of a sub-adult (15-20 yrs) in a prone position with the legs apparently tied behind her back, suggests these were feared individuals whose treatment served to both render their funerals different. By analogy with later Mediaeval literary evidence it is tempting to see these potentially revenant graves as attempts to contain the dead within their grave.

This interpretation can be extended to the supposed 'live burial' at nearby, contemporary cemetery at Sewerby, East Yorkshire. Here a clothed adult female was found sprawled prone in a shallow grave-cut overlying an earlier supine extended and wealthy furnished female burial. The excavator suggested it was a live burial. This is uncertain yet the individual cetainly had a stone placed over the shoulder blades and a fragment of quernstone placed on her lower back, perhaps as a gesture to prevent her from rising as a revenant.

Itis ossible that such burials were not primarily a way of insulting or punishing the dead. Their placement in community cemeteries suggest these were individuals that retained the respect of the community. Instead it may be a response by mourners unable to manage the emotions caused by death. Perhaps if the transformation of the dead failed, the cadaver needed distinctive mortuary provisions to deal the the situation.

Source

WILLIAMS, H. (2007) The emotive force of early medieval mortuary practices. IN: Stevenson A. & White N.C.C. (ed) Archaeology Review from Cambridge: the materiality of burial practices. Vol 22.1, pp.117-119.