Antiquity 79 (305)

Although ancient Egyptians are thought to have been the only people in the Old World who were practicing mummification in the Bronze Age (c. 2200-700 BC), a series of finds from Cladh Hallan on the island of South Uist in the Western Isles indicates that ancient Britons were performing similar, if less elaborate, practices of bodily preservation. Evidence of mummification is usually limited to a narrow range of arid or frozen environments which are conducive to soft tissue preservation. The authors show that a combination of microstructural, contextual and AMS 14C analysis of bone allows the identification of mummification in more temperate and wetter climates where soft tissues and fabrics do not normally survive. Skeletons from the site were buried several hundred years after death, and provide evidence of post mortem manipulation of body parts. The possibility is considered that these practices were widespread in mainland Britain during the Bronze Age.

On the development of lidar as a new resource in archaeological survey. Working with Forest Research, staff of the Unit for Landscape Modelling explain the technique, and demonstrate its application to woodland, showing how it can be used to see through the trees. The prehistoric hillfort at Welshbury Hill, Gloucestershire, is used as an example. An article by Bewley et al (pages 636--647 of the same issue) shows the technique applied to the Stonehenge landscape.

Response by the author to K Kristiansen (see pages 679--691 of the same issue, and also Kristiansen's reply on pages 694--695).