Inhumation in Iron Age Britain: exploring the evidence from East Yorkshire and south-west England.

The funerary archaeology of Iron Age East Yorkshire and Dorset have been extensively studied through the years, though usually in isolation through regionally- focussed studies. This thesis builds upon previous work by applying a comparative approach set within a post processual theoretical framework. Then through applying the theoretical framework to the analysis of the data, the project aims to explore gender, age, and social hierarchy in these two Iron Age societies. The thesis also aims to understand how people in Iron Age Britain used inhumation to relate to the dead, how both regions compare in terms of funerary practices, and to increase understanding of society and how it functioned in both regions. The results show that age, gender, one’s role in society, and the manner of one’s death all impacted the funerary rites used within the sphere of inhumation. As well as that, social exclusion, perhaps due to the manner of death, was indicated through orientation. There is more of a strict set of burial rites observed in East Yorkshire, as well as a more enforced gender binary. Dorset on the other hand appeared to have more of a focus on an age of majority, being around the ages of 15-18.