1.4 Burials in Prehistory

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 1

1. The Age of Hunters and Farmers

1.4 Burials in Prehistory

Fill in the names of your group members (first + last name)

Which Age are we studying in this Unit?

What is this lesson about?

Burials from prehistoric times give insight into how people lived during that period. They had different ways of burying dead people, varying from simple graves or urns to elaborate megalithic tombs. Sometimes the dead person would have grave goods with him. Grave goods indicate the status a person had in society. When a grave was large and filled with many gifts, it means that this person must have been important during his life.

What you will learn in 

this lesson

• which ways of burying people were used in prehistory
  
• that grave goods show differences in social hierarchy of society
  
• what megalithic tombs are
  
• how to give examples of different ways of burying people in prehistory
  

Word Duty

Bog people: perfectly preserved bodies, that were buried a long time ago in layers of peat

Burial mounds: special hills to bury people in

Grave goods: objects that are placed next to the person that died

Afterlife: the life after death

Dolmen: a type of megalithic tombs

Megalithic tombs: tombs made of very big stones to bury people under

Link to WRTS wordlist for all the other difficult words: WRTS HISTORY

KEY WORDS

Below you see the grave of Trijntje. Can you still recognise some of her bones?

skull

foot

legs

ribs

arm

Trijntje was buried squatting on her side in a foetal position. Think of a reason why prehistoric people might have buried her in this way.

Why is it impossible for us to know this for sure?

Read "A shallow grave" . What are graveyards?

1. places where people are buried
2. places where animals are buried
3. places where waste is piled up
4. places where archaeologists have found prehistoric tools

What is another word for graveyard?

1. cemetery
2. graveplace
3. Churchhof
4. seminary

Archaeologists do not always find human remains when they are excavating a prehistoric campsite of hunter-gatherers. Why not? Give two reasons.

Which conditions are helpful in preserving human remains? Choose the correct answers: You can still find a body after a long time when...

A: it lies under water

1. TRUE
2. FALSE

Which conditions are helpful in preserving human remains? Choose the correct answers: You can still find a body after a long time when...

B. it is buried in a bog

1. TRUE
2. FALSE

Which conditions are helpful in preserving human remains? Choose the correct answers: You can still find a body after a long time when...

C. it is buried in the sand

1. TRUE
2. FALSE

Which conditions are helpful in preserving human remains? Choose the correct answers: You can still find a body after a long time when...


D. it is buried under clay

1. TRUE
2. FALSE

Read "Burial mounds".

Bog people are called like that, because:

1. because they always lived near bogs in ancient times
2. because they made a living by selling dried peat
3. because they had their own culture
4. because their bodies were preserved well in the bog

The men that found the Tollund man believed he had only been dead for a short time. Can you explain why they thought so?
Copy the sentence from the text.

How do we know that hunter-gatherers buried their dead in shallow graves?

1. We found these graves alongside the migration routes they were following
2. We have not found burial mounds for them
3. They probably did not think it was necessary to make a grave because they were going to move on
4. They did not have tools to dig a deep grave

Study the source. The picture shows jewellery from
prehistoric graveyards found in Germany.

This picture shows that:

1. prehistoric people believed in an afterlife
2. some prehistoric people were richer than others
3. only farmers could afford this kind of jewellery
4. someone’s belongings were buried separately from his dead body

Read "Burial mounds". In this exercise you will practice skill 2: Change and continuity (see TB p. 150).
Choose the correct answer.

A. Burial mounds replaced simple graves.

1. CHANGE
2. CONTINUITY

Read "Burial mounds". In this exercise you will practice skill 2: Change and continuity (see TB p. 150).
Choose the correct answer.

B. For hundreds of years, people were buried alone in a burial mound.

1. CHANGE
2. CONTINUITY

Read "Burial mounds". In this exercise you will practice skill 2: Change and continuity (see TB p. 150).
Choose the correct answer.

C. Later, people were also cremated before burying.

1. CHANGE
2. CONTINUITY

Read "Burial mounds". In this exercise you will practice skill 2: Change and continuity (see TB p. 150).
Choose the correct answer.

D, Around some mounds, a ditch was dug out.

1. CHANGE
2. CONTINUITY

Mention two ways that prehistoric people used to treat
their dead, that are still in use today.

In prehistoric graves many different types of
grave goods have been found. Archaeologists
argue that these goods were items that were
used during daily life. According to the text,
what proof is there for that?
A. Copy the sentence from the text.

The Funnel Beaker Culture must have had a certain level of knowledge:

1. because they knew how to travel through the bogs
2. because they knew how to build dolmen
3. because they knew how to make certain objects of stone
4. because they knew how to travel though Europe

Grave goods were put in the grave because:

1. only rich people could afford these goods
2. the deceased persons could use them again in the afterlife
3. otherwise family members would take them
4. the deceased persons asked them to do that

B. Why would a dead person need freshly sharpened axes?

Which of the following statements about graves is not true?

1. Grave goods found in prehistory were always rare or special, buried with special people.
2. In wet areas it is easier to find graves since the remains of people are well preserved there.
3. Another name for Hunebed is Dolmen.
4. Grave goods indicate that people in prehistory probably believed in an afterlife.

Read "Dolmen". How did prehistoric people build the megalithic tombs? Drag each phrase (left) into one of the numbered boxes in correct order, representing the steps of the process.

Transport the stones to the building site.

Cover the stones with sand to create a hill.

Search for big stones in the area.

Erect the big stones.

Stack the stones on top of each other.

congratulations