- Burial and the Other World -
The Yorkshire Arras Tradition
Eastern Yorkshire presents a reversal of the typical British pattern, by containing a
prolific burial record but a settlement record still largely unexplored (Whimster 198 I:
75-128; Stead 1979). The burial record also presents another controversial example
of possible migration/invasion. Sometime during the third/fourth century Be a
tradition of burial appears on the Yorkshire Wolds (Figure 26.5) that bears many
similarities with a contemporary shift in burial rites in the Champagne/Marne area
of northern France, among people later known as Parisi. By the time of Caesar's
invasion of Britain, the people of eastern Yorkshire were also known as Parisi.
The innovative burial tradition consists of burial underneath a barrow and sur-
rounded by a square quarry ditch. Barrows vary greatly in size, and are often
arranged into long linear barrow cemeteries. Burials were generally in a tightly flexed
position, accompanied by a range of grave goods. The dead vary in apparent wealth
and status from commoners with few grave goods to warriors with weapons to
'chieftains' buried with two-wheeled carts or chariots (Figure 26.6). Secondary
burials were inserted into either the barrow or more commonly into the fill of the
quarry ditches. Males and females appear in relatively equal numbers, though young
children or infants are underrepresented. The square barrows were reserved for
'.
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c. \YORKSHIRE:
SQUARE BARROWSFigure 16.5 Distribution of square barrows recorded as crop-marks in eastern Yorkshire.
(After Whimster 1981: fig. 31.)