tour 1 of 5
Religion and ritual in Iron Age Britain
Religion and ritual in Iron Age Britain
The only direct evidence for religion in Iron
Age Britain is through archaeology. The Romans wrote little about
British religion, and evidence from the religions of other
Celtic-speaking peoples who lived in different countries or in
later times might be
misleading.
Iron Age
British religion did not need images of their gods in human or
animal form. Funeral ritual probably involved allowing the body to
naturally decay, rather than either burial or cremation. However,
at different times a few parts of Britain did break with this
tradition, and burial and cremation were
practised.
Britons did not
worship in temples or special religious buildings. Rather, the
evidence shows they worshipped on the farm or out in the landscape.
Many of the objects in this tour are thought to have been offerings
to gods, spirits or ancestors. Rivers, lakes and bogs were the
sites of offerings of weapons; animals and everyday objects such as
pots, querns and tools were offered at houses and farmyards, while
offerings of torcs or chariot harnesses were made at land away from
farms.
Humans could also be
offered. The man found at Lindow Moss was probably a human
sacrifice made in a bog. Other human remains from farms and rivers
might come from sacrifices or special rituals involving parts of
dead people.
Many of these
rites were probably carried out by Druids, the special priests in
Britain and France at the end of the Iron
Age.
Other
views:
1. Hoard L at
Snettisham under excavation
2. Rubbish from a
feast or sacrifice? Cattle bones in a pit at Burton Agnes, East
Yorks.