Burial mounds and cremation on TV
Last week, the BBC series A History of Ancient Britain examined ancient burial mounds and funeral practices of our ancestors 5000 years ago. These were people who built structures to rank alongside the Egyptian Pyramids.
The new chapel building at Harbour View is based upon the concept of these ancient burial mounds; click this link to see the famous mounds at Knowth in Ireland, which is where the BBC programme was partly filmed: http://www.knowth.com/
Of particular interest in the programme was the insight into early cremation. Until 1900 cremation had not been practiced in Britain for 2000 years. Prior to this it was a common practice and if the archaeologists are correct, it was the preserve of the ruling elite. Burials of cremated remains were found at these and similar mounds.
The process of cremation 5000 years ago would not, of course, resemble what we do now; the process was more like the cremation pyre as is still practiced in, for example, India.
The television presenter, Neil Oliver decided to demonstrate how such a cremation would take place by building a log pile and with the help of a dead pig. I was quite alarmed at what, at first, seemed like sensational television but Oliver delicately talked his viewers through what he perceived as a highly profound experience for our ancestors; that they would watch (as he was watching with the pig) their loved one be cremated over a period of some hours, no doubt believing in a release of the soul to the sky or their Gods.
This caused me to question the sanitised way in which the western world cremates its dead; have we got it right? Are we guarding ourselves from unnecessary discomfort or are we trying to distance ourselves from the reality that we must accept. We say goodbye to our departed as we leave the crematorium chapel but I doubt if many of us dwell upon what happens next. I liken it to the ‘grass’ matting we use to dress a grave with so that mourners cannot see the open Earth: why has this practice evolved? Is this is a dishonest practice in trying to hide the reality of a burial?