Material and Spiritual Engagements: Britain and Ireland in the First Age of Metal
The Rhind Lectures 2011 by Dr Stuart Needham
29th April 2011 to 1st May 2011

Lecture 1: Funerary conundrums
This funerary phenomenon spans a millennium, embracing the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age, and embodies a complex pattern of change. The cumulative result was many remarkable aggregations of burials, yet these still only represent a minority of the population. The scene is set with an account of this phenomenon’s constituent components and history of development, including the much-debated issue of origins. Earlier ideas that social ranking can be read from the labour invested and grave goods offered have given way to a greater focus on the role mourners had in constructing the individual burial rite. But what then is the meaning of standardised burial modes, or death personae, characterised by specific artefacts, body treatment and inter-burial relationships? First we must address the high degree of selectivity of these burials, then contemplate their capacity not only to convey powerful messages to the living but also to engage materially and spiritually with the Otherworld.

The Lectures
Britain and Ireland abound with burials of the early metal age. Many individuals were accorded special treatment on death, interred in finely constructed chambers or deep graves or honoured by cremation and committal to the ground in highly ornamented pottery vessels. Distinctive or exotic grave goods may accompany the burial and the sites themselves came to be memorialised through the construction of impressive mounds and ring works. These conspicuous and pervasive archaeological contexts have come to define a funerary phenomenon and an era. They give the impression of a society totally preoccupied with the dead and their funerary passage and of a comprehensive burial policy. That funerary practices were endemic in most regions is inescapable, but how many people actually received formal burial, who were they and how were they presented in death? In addressing these questions, we will consider the purpose of this phenomenon and interpret anew the meanings of definable burial modes.

The Lecturer
Following his first degree and postgraduate research at University College, Cardiff, Dr Stuart Needham spent thirty years as Curator of the European Bronze Age collections at the British Museum. He is currently an independent researcher and an Honorary Research Fellow of National Museum Wales.

Recorded at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.