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Among the numerous human remains found in circular pits belonging to the fourth millennium BCE cultures north of the Alps, there are many examples of bodies laid in random (or unconventional) positions. Some of these remains in irregular configurations, interred alongside an individual in a conventional flexed position, can be considered as a ‘funerary accompaniment’. Other burials, of isolated individuals or multiple individuals buried in unconventional positions, suggest the existence of burial practices outside of the otherwise strict framework of funerary rites. The focus of this article is the evidence recently arising from excavation and anthropological studies from the Upper Rhine Plain (Michelsberg and Munzingen cultures). We assume that these bodies in unconventional positions were not dumped as trash, but that they were a part of the final act of a complex ritual. It is hypothesised that these bodies, interpreted here as ritual waste, were sacrificial victims, and a number of possible explanations, including ‘peripheral accompaniment’ or victims of acts of war, are debated.
. Several storage pits, a truncated occupation layer and a gully were identified. These were extremely well preserved and relatively undisturbed. There are no other recorded examples of Iron Age (or prehistoric) cut features within the centre of Stratford-upon-Avon. As such, they represent an unusual survival within a developed urban town and have contributed significantly to our understanding of the
-medical intervention would all have happened in the past, as would the post-mortem taking of relics: at Cladh Hallan it was the whole ‘knee’ joint that was sought out and curated. What should one do with such limbs? Detached body parts would have had symbolic meanings lost to us but also a disquieting and uncanny force that might have required their individualised ‘burial’ in a pit (seen extensively in the Wessex storage pit tradition, see Cunliffe 1992 ; Aldhouse-Green 2002 ) or as here, in the bog. The case of Lindow Man Lindow Man represents the remains identified as
year (Synnott 2010 ). The same preservative properties that produced the bog bodies extended the use life of perishables and consumables placed in the bog. Analysis has suggested butter reaches its ‘bog constituency’ within a couple of years (Cronin et al . 2007 ). In the UK, the Iron Age marks a considerable period of underground experimentation with cold storage: the fogoues of Cornwall and the souterrains of Ireland and Scotland, for example (Christie et al . 1978 ; Armit 1999 ; Mudie et al . 2007 ). The subterranean storage pit, such as those of Wessex
storage tanks Three large square brick structures were identified on site. One of these was east of the hall building in the area of the garden ( Figures 5.7 and 5.10 ), the second was within the redeveloped kitchen/pantry (F5; Figure 5.7 ) and the third was recorded further to the east along Chapel Lane. These large brick structures were probably storage pits
(underground storage pits), trenches or the faint traces that ground-level or sunken-featured buildings leave in the subsoil; contemporary ground surfaces are rarely conserved. Stone was occasionally used in some regions as a drystone base for superstructure or to build high-status buildings and rural churches. 4 In the village of Berslingen in northern Switzerland, for example, the only stone building was the church constructed in the Carolingian or Ottonian period. 5 This often leaves the archaeologist with evanescent traces that have to be combined, more or less
ancient Roman storage pits to, at one point, even the Shrine of the Báb. 210 Tudor Pole continued to act as a liaison bringing together ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and his followers, both in the British Isles and Palestine, on the one hand, and representatives of His Majesty’s government, also in both countries, on the other. Soon after the occupation of Haifa he visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and made every effort to work on his behalf, securing support of the British military governors in the area. 211 In addition, Tudor Pole’s experience in