Enclosed cremation cemetery is a term used by archaeologists to describe a type of

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

found in north western

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

during the late

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 p ...

and early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

. They are similar to

urnfield The Urnfield culture ( 1300 BC – 750 BC) was a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe, often divided into several local cultures within a broader Urnfield tradition. The name comes from the custom of cremating the dead and p ...

burial grounds in that they consist of a concentration of pits containing cremated remains which have usually also been placed into pottery vessels. However they are also surrounded by a circular or oval bank and outer ditch which gives them their name. The most famous example is Stonehenge which functioned as such a cemetery during its early use when it was a simple earthwork enclosure. They are interpreted as being variations on the ritual and funerary practice of enclosing significant sites of activity during the period, also exhibited by

henge There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...

s and stone circles.

External links

English Heritage Monument Class Description
European archaeology Cemeteries Cremation {{Europe-archaeology-stub