This is true everywhere. The real numbers of people interred in tombs and those FOUND in them is not the same, least of all the numbers of people alive at the time. In a huge passage grave they only found 9 people in all? Hard to believe. I believe dolmenic constructions were used as flexible 'mortuary houses', places which were opened at various stages, emptied and refilled as part of regeneration ceremonies once a year. Many isolated or group burials do even date from later Bronze Age rituals.
I agree on the de-fleshing business. It may even have been done by buzzards, as in other cultures where the spirit was transported to the skies after being left to rot in the open.
"3) being removed from the tomb and placed in the water to return to the sea from whence it came."
That is interesting, maybe it was not only a spiritual link but a physical one too. For Eire-land and other Sea Cultures it is certainly possible, but I doubt that places like the moors had sufficient water, (even dry up, as BlueGloves says). Or maybe, as you say, it was done once a year, in winter. I tend to believe the streams were nearby for ritual (in terms of cleansing) and practical purposes. It is also interesting to note that many graves are at the affluence of streams, right up there, as if watching them come together down below.
But I am with you on this one. During my time round the Iberian megalithic zones, I have almost reached the conclusion that each one of them can be termed according to their river areas, more than anything else. Not to say that there were other geological aspects to take into account, like mountains, but the rivers were one of the strong spiritual centres (pragmatic and spiritual went hand-in-hand in the past) around which the different tribes lived and built their dolmens. Dry areas in the East of Iberia with no rivers are almost totally empty of megalithic evidence. Strangely enough, these are the places where the tourists flock nowadays in their rush for an intoxicating booze-up.
Just as well.
|
