Dealing with the Dead @ Tinkinswood
What is the relevance of a visit to a 6000-year-old burial monument to a festival ‘for the living about dying? Personal reflections on the professional and emotional bond between human remains and archaeologists
Tinkinswood
Tinkinswood is a long barrow with a chamber, giant capstone and earthen mound and was built around the thirty-seventh to thirty-sixth centuries cal. bc so about 6000 years ago. On excavation, the chamber held the remains of about fifty men, women and children who were probably placed in the tomb over a period of two to five generations (50 to 125 years). At the ‘Tours of the Tombs’ event, the visitors to the site sparked discussions about the long-dead builders of the Tinkinswood from the evidence of both the ancient and recent excavations and how archaeologists work with their remains.
The crowds gather
Archaeologists deal with the dead; generally, everyone that we study is no longer…
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