History

  I found this interesting site dedicated to Bio archaeology and mortuary archaeology – now there is a niche specialism! Apparently you can learn a lot about the funeral from the bones once they have been burned. The colouring, completeness and the warping of the of the remains – can reveal fire temperature, how the [...]

  Memorial jewellery is not a new idea, the tradition appears to date back to the medieval times. I found this little piece in my beloved BBC History magazine, the brief article said that ‘Mourning rings’ popular principally in England became more commonplace in the 16th century and lasted into the early 1900s. This is [...]

Archaeologists have uncovered a bronze aged cremation urn (known as a Cist) from a site on Whitehouse Hill in Dartmoor. The urn is a stone chest and what was unusual about this find was the contents could be distinguished. Apart from the cremated remains the box contained a woven bag or basket and amber beads. [...]

Orgins of cremation ashes and rites: The Trojan war is coming to it’s final stages Achilles’ friend Patroclus is killed by by the hero Hector. Achilles is devastated he puts on new armor and reenters the fight eventually killing Hector. For Achilles revenge is not enough, his grief is so exreme he can not bare [...]

The origins of scattering cremated ashes, as one might imagine, are claimed by a number of customs and religions. A few weeks ago I wondered whether Norse Mythology came first, since then I have had a couple of people suggesting different origins and describing where this custom might also have originated. The Jat tribes of [...]

Many cultures that use cremation instead of burial will scatter the ashes, but cremation is a ‘fairly’ new phenomena in the modern western society and scattering ashes, particularly in the UK, is even more recent. I was wondering where the western origins of the tradition might lie. So far I have come across one opinion [...]