Brymbo Man : Burials

Brymbo Man has been of such interest to archaeologists because he is rare: a Beaker burial in Wales.

So little remains of the lives of people in prehistoric times that burial sites are more important in telling us about them than our graveyards will ever be in telling the future about us.

In their world view, death was ever present in their lives. Consequently the changing burial practices of people in the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages helps to reveal their belief and social systems.

Neolithic Burials

  • People buried in groups; children and adults together.

  • Community more important than the individual.

  • Perhaps also sited where the community felt threatened by nature or other people as a property claim

  • Long cairn found at Tan-y-coed in the Dee Valley.

  • Round cairn found at Gop Cairn, nr Prestatyn. The second largest prehistoric man-made mound in Britain. To build something so big meant that community was saying something important.

Beaker Burials

  • Time of change during the late Stone Age and early Bronze Age led to changes in societies, beliefs and customs.

  • Burials became more individualistic. People buried on their own.

  • The dead took personal belongings with them - jewellery, arrow heads, weapons such as axe-heads, flint knives and metal work. These objects reflected status and aspirations while alive. Perhaps they had symbolic rôles in the afterlife.

  • Beaker Burials are the first burials to contain personal belongings with the body.

  • The Beakers were important enough to be put in the graves.

  • These sites are smaller than the communal sites of the Stone Age and fewer have been discovered/have survived.

 

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Related links
Brymbo Man Revealed
The Reconstruction
The Evidence
The Changing Views
Burials
Understanding Prehistory
Brymbo Man for Kids
Wrexham Culture & Heritage