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I've spent
a lot of time looking at earthen barrows either in the field or research
via books, maps and the internet, particularly those that occur in the
east of the country with an emphasis on those found in Yorkshire and
Lincolnshire. One of the books that has been a constant companion is
'British barrows: A record of the examinations of sepulchral mounds
in various parts of England' written by Rev. William Greenwell and published
in 1877 in which he documents his examination of hundreds of barrows,
mostly in the north and east of the country. At the end of the book
is a section provided by George Rolleston a noted physician and zoologist
of the Victorian era who provides a critical examination of some of
the skull remains recovered by Greenwell. I had omitted to read much
of this section partly because of the technical medical language used
in the descriptions and partly because of the Victorian interest in
the use of 'craniology' as a tool to promote racial stereotypes that
could at best be described today as distasteful. However while flicking
through this section I was struck by the images of skull remains, some
of which were from round barrows which I had already visited or researched.
Here at last were the actual people who were laid to rest beneath these
mounds of earth, a face almost put to the text written over 130 years
ago. In the first image on this page the caption reads "Skull of
a man advanced in years" and I couldn't help but wonder about the
life story of this man, in a way these images are a link between standing
on a hillside looking at barrow remains and the sometimes dry excavation
reports produced by antiquarians and archaeologists. The images have
a poignancy and power that reminds us of not only of our own mortality
but of the lives that have gone before us - these indeed are the ancestors,
the ancients, the human story behind prehistory.
I've added the images from the book 'as is' with no explanatory text, the images speak to me, at least, just as they are - meet the ancestors. |
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