EAA 2023: Abstract

The study of human remains provides us with our most direct window onto the Iron Age population in Wales. However, burial evidence from Wales has been understudied compared to areas such as Yorkshire and Wiltshire. This is due in part to poor preservation as acidic soils destroy much of the osteological material—for example, Rowan Whimster (1981) identified only eight records of Iron Age burial in the whole country. This led to the popular assumption that the lack of human bone means that the majority of burial rites were “archaeologically invisible”, particularly excarnation within hillforts. However, a more recent reappraisal of the published and unpublished literature on excavations of Iron Age sites by Oliver Davis (2017) has shown that the corpus of burial material in Wales is much larger than previously recognised. This provides an opportunity to asses funerary rites and treatment of the dead, mortality profiles, health, diets and origins of the Iron Age population in Wales.
This paper presents the results of recent radiocarbon, histological and isotope analysis from two sites with the largest assemblages – RAF St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan and Dinorben in Conwy. By combining contextual study of this material with isotopic and micro taphonomic analysis, the aim of the project is to directly address how we understand mortuary practices, but also to reveal new insights into life through diet and origins of later prehistoric populations in Wales.

Iron Age Wales, Funerary archaeology, Histology, Bone diagenesis, Taphonomy, Death and burial

Oral presentation

  Abstract (PDF)

Adelle Bricking^1,2

Oliver Davis²
Richard Madgwick²