Rest in pieces: exploring evidence for Bronze Age curation of the dead

below Why was this human femur carved to create a musical instrument, which was then placed in the grave of a different Bronze Age individual who had lived and died some years later?

November 8, 2020

Around 3,700 years ago, an elaborate funeral was taking place. The Bronze Age man being commemorated appears to have been well-respected by his community, as he was laid to rest beneath an imposing burial mound some 121ft in diameter and 11ft high (the largest of the 19 barrows of the Wilsford cemetery, which stood around 13 miles from Stonehenge), accompanied by an impressive array of artefacts. These included stone and bronze axes, a small bone plate perforated with two holes, a boar’s tusk, a grooved stone, and a unique pronged object made of bronze. Another of the grave goods was even more striking, however: a musical instrument carefully crafted from a human thigh bone. One end of

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