Death and Continuity

Abstract

This article suggests that the common appearance of cultural ('midden') material under barrows of the Trichterbecher culture is interpreted as the purposeful metaphor of continuity of the small-scale society that has just suffered the loss of one or more of its actors. The three stages of rites de passage as outlined by van Gennep are used to explain the mortuary rituals further. Separation was signified by the enclosure (ditch or palisade) around the future barrow site and a 'facade'. The liminal stage may be marked archaeologically by the 'cleansing' of fire or dismantling of facades at the barrow entrance, and sometimes by ploughing, which destroyed the cultural material on the site. Reintegration was the 'planting' of the deceased under soil and the erection of the barrow. The paper concludes with implications for the growth of a lineage organisation of society.

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