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By the Middle Iron Age in central southern England the most archaeologically visible means of disposing of the dead were rites of secondary burial that have their origins in the Late Bronze Age. As part of these rites complete, but more often incomplete, bodies were buried within settlements. However, ’formal’ burials are being recognised more frequently in southern England, not least because of the application of radiocarbon dating to unaccompanied burials. It is clear that there was considerable variety amongst Later Iron Age mortuary rites in southern England. However, the most common Late Iron Age burial rite in south-east England was cremation burial as represented by the ’Aylesford’-type burials. As well as the adoption of the cremation rite, there are strong similarities in the pottery and other finds between Britain and France. The elite Welwyn-type burials may also be compared to well-furnished burials in Gaul. However, cremation burial seems to have been adopted in Britain considerably later than in Gaul and the earliest cremation burials in England have been found not in the south-east of England, but at Westhampnett on the south coast. ; À l’époque de l’Âge du fer moyen dans la partie centrale du Sud de l’Angleterre, les modalités archéologiquement les plus visibles du traitement des morts étaient des rites d’enterrement secondaire qui sont apparus pendant l’Âge du bronze final. En relation avec ces rites, des corps entiers, mais plus souvent non-entiers, ont été enterrés à l’intérieur des habitats. Par ailleurs, les sépultures « formelles » sont maintenant identifiées plus fréquemment, grâce à la datation au C14 des tombes sans mobilier. Il existait très clairement une large gamme de pratiques funéraires (différentes) pendant l’Âge du fer tardif. Toutefois, à l’Âge du fer final, le rite le plus fréquent, utilisé dans le Sud-Est de l’Angleterre, était la sépulture à incinération, représentée par les sépultures de type « Aylesford ». Il existe, pour cette période, de fortes ressemblances entre le ... |