To extend the controversy/discussion further, has anyone got any views on why there have been so few bodies or parts of bodies found in the barrows and where the rest are?
I've heard it theorised that the barrows were for high status individuals and the rest of the populace were left for excarnation; that is left in the open air for the elements and scavengers to do the rest.

Can't help thinking though that this all a bit too obvious. It seems undoubted that there was a ritual aspect to barrow burials, perhaps they were individuals who'd dabbled in an innapropriate side of whatever magic/ritual was around then. Perhaps their bodies were buried and their souls "imprisoned" in walls of stone?

Wild speculation or reasonable theorising?