Funnelbeaker culture: Encyclopedia II - Funnelbeaker culture - Religion and graves

Funnelbeaker culture - Religion and graves

The houses were centered around a monumental grave, a symbol of social cohesion. Burial practices were varied, depending on region and changed over time. Inhumation seems to have been the rule. The oldest graves consisted of wooden chambered cairns inside long barrows, but later in the form of passage graves and dolmens. Originally, the structures were probably covered within a heap of dirt and the entrance was blocked by a stone. The Funnelbeaker culture marks the appearance of megalithic tombs at the coasts of the Baltic and of the North sea. The megalithic structures of Ireland, France and Portugal are somewhat older and have been connected to earlier archeological cultures of those areas.

The graves were probably not intended for every member of the settlement but only for an elite. At graves the people sacrificed ceramic vessels that probably contained food, and axes and other flint objects.

Axes and vessels were also deposed in streams and lakes near the farmlands, and virtually all Sweden's 10 000 flint axes that have been found from this culture were probably sacrificed in water.

They also constructed large cult centres sourrounded by pales, earthworks and moats. The largest one is found at Sarup on Fyn. It comprises 85,000 m² and is estimated to have taken 8000 workdays. Another cult centre at Stävie near Lund comprises 30,000 m².

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Religion and graves", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki