Houses for the dead​…what about the living?

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BuckyE B
BuckyE Sep 9, 2010 03:19:23
Replying to Sanctuary

Sanctuary wrote:
... a Chieftain that had died about 20 years previously and was propped up in a makeshift chair on this shelf of stone outside...
Not having seen the show, I don't know exactly what this means. But it doesn't sound like the sadly disarticulated ancestors were living in the house, right? So, even in this intimate situation, the ancestors had their own place, so to speak! Kind of a mother-in-law apartment type of arrangement?

So even here the dead have their place, and the living theirs. There aren't many extant examples of Neolithic houses, but comparing the couple I've seen (Scara Brae, Cambous) to barrows (West Kennet, Isbister, Stony Littleton, multiple sites in Brittany, etc.) the actual construction doesn't really seem that similar. It's perhaps reminiscent, in the sense it may use similar techniques, but to me the barrows don't look like particularly nice houses.

R Resonox
Resonox Sep 9, 2010 05:28:39
Replying to BuckyE

BuckyE wrote:
So even here the dead have their place, and the living theirs. There aren't many extant examples of Neolithic houses, but comparing the couple I've seen (Scara Brae, Cambous) to barrows (West Kennet, Isbister, Stony Littleton, multiple sites in Brittany, etc.) the actual construction doesn't really seem that similar. It's perhaps reminiscent, in the sense it may use similar techniques, but to me the barrows don't look like particularly nice houses.
Yes I'd have to agree that known "graves" aren't at all practical for everyday living...as commonplace observations and coming and goings are a tad restricted(I mentioned one in Carnac in another thread...apparently this was used as a hideout for rebels....again not the most practical place for if it had been discovered there was no easy escape route)...though I recall one grave excavation(can't recall where it was) on television,it was almost to all extents and purposes a "house" where even the table had been laid as for a meal and the body was arranged on the bed with the deceased's wordly goods on him or close by..the lack of widows and firehearth were the only indications that this this wasn't a habitation, just a facsimile for a dead warrior. I'm no archeo...and perhaps houses were at some point built without window openings and heating/cooking facilities...but does anyone really think so??

S Sanctuary
Sanctuary Sep 9, 2010 06:08:06
Replying to BuckyE

BuckyE wrote:
Sanctuary wrote:
... a Chieftain that had died about 20 years previously and was propped up in a makeshift chair on this shelf of stone outside...
Not having seen the show, I don't know exactly what this means. But it doesn't sound like the sadly disarticulated ancestors were living in the house, right? So, even in this intimate situation, the ancestors had their own place, so to speak! Kind of a mother-in-law apartment type of arrangement?

So even here the dead have their place, and the living theirs. There aren't many extant examples of Neolithic houses, but comparing the couple I've seen (Scara Brae, Cambous) to barrows (West Kennet, Isbister, Stony Littleton, multiple sites in Brittany, etc.) the actual construction doesn't really seem that similar. It's perhaps reminiscent, in the sense it may use similar techniques, but to me the barrows don't look like particularly nice houses.

Yes BuckyE, the dead ancestors were outside. The tribe lived at the base of this mountain/hill which had a shelved section (natural I assumed) about 6' above the ground only yards away from the huts they lived in. It was the most bizzare and sort of spooky thing to witness these three ancestor's remains in varying states of disarticulation just sitting (well one was) with the others just piles of bones on the ground.
They quite obviously had a strong belief in the Afterlife to still be talking to a dead person like he was still alive. I must try and find out what the programme was called as it was quite something to watch.