West Kennet Long Barrow

• West Kennet is an early neolithic long barrow.
• 50 bodies were found here, all but one of them were disarticulated. This means that the bodies must have been excarnated.
• The area between the inside and the outside of the long barrow could be a liminal zone between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
• The long barrow would have been very visible and would have been seen from far away because it was covered in chalk. This is significant as the people that made it wanted it to be seen, showing that it may have had some religious aspect much like a cathedral.
• There has been a recent discovery of a link between the bones found at west Kennet and windmill hill, this means it was likely that bodies were excarnated at windmill hill then buried at west Kennet. The journey to west Kennet could have been symbolising the journey to the world of the spirits/ancestors.
• There were 5 chambers which the remains were spread across this could mean that the bodies were split into family groups however there is evidence that the bones had been moved around so this theory is uncertain. It is also possible that the bodies were in hierarchy and were split into different chambers according to status.
• Gave goods/votive offerings were found at west Kennet these included bones tools, flint tools and shell pendants. These would have been very precious at the time as shells would have been rare due to west kennet's distance from the sea.
• These objects could have been an offering to the ancestors as the people here had a belief in ancestor worship
• It is clear that this long barrow was used to worship the dead however it appears that there wasn't much disturbance of the chambers and as they were so small at just 1m and the large end chamber 2m very few people would have been able to fit inside the chamber at one time.
• This means that ceremonies must have taken place outside of the long barrow in the forecourt, here large amounts of people could gather for special ceremonies for the dead or rites of passage ceremonies such as marriage. This tells us that there must have been a religious leader possibly more than one to carry out the rituals inside or in front of the people in the forecourt.