Under the Hills near the Moravia River
She lay there midst
Mammoth, reindeer, and wolf bones;
Diadem of fox teeth round her brow
Ocher under her hips
26,640 plus or minus 110 years before "now".
Burnt reindeer-pelvis bone bits
in her mouth,
Bones of two men lying by her side,
one each side.
A poem written by Gary Snyder about a 20,000 year old burial of three teenagers. Snyder had romanticised it of course, the actual archaeological story though was just as fascinating and can be found here under 'The Triple Burials'
So my daughter sent me a link this morning to a mixed Roman/Saxon cemetery found recently near Leeds at a town called Garforth. You could tell the difference between the burials, Roman's East/West, Saxons North/South. There is a somewhat startling photo in this BBC article of two skeletons close together, as if in death they could not be parted.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-64917979
Those multiple burials are fascinating. Sometimes it just seems to be husband and wife, which makes us wonder if one was sacrificed for the other - like the suti funeral pyres.
ReplyDeleteIn East Yorkshire there was a small immigrant tribe that buried the dead person with his chariot and ponies. It would be interesting to know with these multiple burials whether maybe the wives poisoned themselves to be with their partners as you suggest happens with the suttee pyres.
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