TC Lethbridge | The Sons of TC-Lethbridge

Dead Souls

14th Sep 2007

“The Past, though it may seem romantic now, was full of dirt, boredom, discomfort and disease, which is hard to understand today.” T.C. Lethbridge – Herdsmen and Hermits p. xvi

One only has to read the Introduction to T.C. Lethbridge’s ‘Herdsmen and Hermits’ to discover the working of a truly imaginative mind. His unconventional, but intuitive opening is provocative yet appealing, and this approach enables his reader to put the past into a present-day context. His ability to demystify aspects of ancient history allows us to perceive our ancestors, not as barbarians and savages, but as real people who shared many of the hopes and fears we experience today. However, his vision of the past was not that of a romantic, for his ability to comprehend reality painted a sometimes disturbing, but intriguing picture of past lives that are contrary to current systems and beliefs.

One aspect of prehistoric life that fascinated Lethbridge was the number of contracted skeletons found in burials during the Beaker period. His conjecture was that the corpses had been trussed and hung up to dry over slow burning fires immediately after death. But what was the reasoning behind this strange, unconventional ritual?

Lethbridge believed that this rite had begun purely as a practical measure. The Beaker tradition of burying their dead under great mounds could only be carried out when large numbers of people were on hand to carry out the work. During periods of summer grazing, it was the likelihood that such manpower would not have been available and was considered therefore necessary, to preserve the recently deceased until the family groups reconvened after seasonal migration.

The smoking and drying of the corpse would have enabled their kin to preserve, or carry the body long distances, trussed on the back of a pony. On their travels, they would have met analogous hunting groups with their own smoke-dried mummifications and on convening they would have united to bury their kin within a single mound. Lethbridge surmised, that this drying procedure was only a single stage from actual cremation. At some point, this observation was made and it would have become obvious that complete incineration and the gathering and transporting of the ashes, would have been more conducive than the lugging of a full corpse over long distances. Lethbridge jovially suggested: “It was much nicer to look at a pot full of ashes, than a grisly, dried face grinning over the back of a pony.” In turn this act of cremation would have become a solemn religious rite enabling the deceased’s soul to be released, yet by retaining the ashes it ensured the vestiges remained earthbound. The process shades from inhumation to charred skeletons and thus, to complete cremation.

Lethbridge realised that the act of establishing a funeral pyre would also have been a modest method of deforestation. It is likely that such rites lifted people’s spirits and dancing and revelry would undoubtedly ensued thus reliving people of their sad loss. He acknowledged that this process was indeed an inconvenience to archaeologists, for there was no way of restoring cremated bones so that their shapes could be measured. The spread of cremation throughout the Beaker period – to every corner of Britain – suggested that the various tribes were already combining together to form a single race.

Lethbridge’s ability to tease commonsense ideology from his observations led many to criticise his conjecture, but as he states in his opening gambit: “These ideas are not only archaeological; they include suggestions about historical, anthropological, geographical and even geological problems.” He continued: “The whole book is lamentably full of question marks, and doubtless errors, not only of grammar, which I never succeeded in learning at school, but also of interpretation. I am not ashamed of the second type, for archaeology is like a detective story and we all follow up the wrong clues at times.”

Many were quick to condemn him for having nostalgia of the past. His reply was curt, expressing: “This is not so at all. I look on the present age as every bit as exciting as any age that proceeded it.” Well aware of the idiosyncrasies of the past, his vision was not tinted by rose-coloured spectacles, for he was astutely aware of modern day comforts and benefits that were elusive and alien to those he studied.

welbourn TEKH – Grantham – September 2007