A mortuary enclosure is a term given in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

to an area, surrounded by a wood, stone or earthwork barrier, in which dead bodies are placed for

excarnation In archaeology and anthropology, the term excarnation (also known as defleshing) refers to the practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead before burial. Excarnation may be achieved through natural means, such as leaving a dead body expo ...

and to await secondary and/or collective burial. There are some parallels with

mortuary house In archaeology and anthropology a mortuary house is any purpose-built structure, often resembling a normal dwelling in many ways, in which a dead body is buried. Proper treatment and placing of the dead has always been of great concern to people a ...

s although the two are the products of different cultural practices and traditions regarding the treatment of the dead. The mortuary enclosures of the British

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

were sub-rectangular banks with external ditches and raised platforms of stone or wood within them, thought to be used for the exposure of corpses prior to burial elsewhere. Remains of mortuary enclosures of this period are often found under

long barrow Long barrows are a style of monument constructed across Western Europe in the fifth and fourth millennia BCE, during the Early Neolithic period. Typically constructed from earth and either timber or stone, those using the latter material repres ...

s. Evidence from mortuary sites in Britain suggests that in the

era bodies were often defleshed and disarticulated with specific bones such as skulls or thigh bones separated and relocated apart from the body. There is considerable academic debate on the reason for these practices.

External links

A possible mortuary enclosure at Handley Down in Dorset

References

{{Reflist Burial monuments and structures Archaeology of death