Life and Death in the Bronze Age

Book excerpt: This is a great work by one of the pioneers of modern archaeology. The period covered is from 1700 to 700 B.C. and is mainly concerned with the author’s field work in western Britain. It deals with burial ritual – dances, processions, "houses of the dead", the objects deposited, the building of the barrow; and it shows by line drawings and photographs how scientific excavation nowadays is planned and executed. The book gathers together an immense amount of research completed over a long span of years on burials and the ceremonial which attended them. Originally published in 1959.