Puzzling Past Beliefs

from Digging Our Faith - Looking at our religious heritage

Places Visited

Burying the Dead

“the care shown to the dead made us realise that belief in an afterlife was as common in the past as it is now.” On our visit to the National Museum in Dublin we learnt that bodies buried in bogs were preserved so you could still see hair, skin and even fingernails. Archaeologists think these people were killed and buried as part of rituals to please their gods. Watery places seem to have been special as lots of objects such as weapons and jewellery have been found in lakes and bogs and we saw some of these amazing things too.

The mummy we saw was of Queen Tentdinebu, who lived in the 22nd Dynasty, nearly 3,000 years ago. Her body was prepared for an afterlife by first having her heart, liver and lungs removed, which were put in canopic jars. Then, her body was treated with salt to preserve it and filled with sand or linen to give it shape. Tentdinebu was wrapped in linen bandages and placed in a gilded coffin ready for burial in her tomb. Her tomb included many objects for her to use in her afterlife. The Egyptians believed that their queens and kings were living gods and treated them with great reverence both in life and death.

At the same time as the Egyptians were mummifying bodies, people in Ireland were cremating their dead. They placed the cremated bone in special pots called cinerary urns. Sometimes the urns were placed in stoned lined pits called cists; but urns have also been found in simple pits in the ground. Cremation burial only ceased with the coming of Christianity when the dead were placed in graves.

Cremation cemeteries have been found at Loughbrickland and Dromore during recent upgrades to the A1 road. We made our own cist burials with the Belfast YAC. This was very messy but great fun.

4 Digging Our Faith YAC in Dublin

Egyptian mummy

At Belfast YAC

Excavation of cist grave, Closkelt, Co Down. Photography Ulster Museum, courtesy the Trustees of National Museums Northern Ireland Making cist burials with Belfast YAC

Downpatrick & Belfast YAC at Queen’s University, Belfast

Digging Our Faith 5

Puzzling Past BelieFs

Way of Life and Beliefs “It surprised us that people in the past were just like us.” We visited the Navan Centre, Co Armagh to find out how people lived in Ireland before the coming of Christianity. We learnt that a temple built of wood once stood at nearby Navan Fort and was burned down in 94BC. Archaeologists believe the temple was an important religious site during the Iron Age (500BC – 400AD), and that people gathered here to worship the goddess Macha. Navan in Irish is Emain Macha, the height of Macha. At this time, Navan was an important royal site, where the King of Ulster lived.

We met an Iron Age warrior and his family who invited us to visit their house. The house was round so that the wind could not blow it down. The roof was pointed and thatched with straw, and straw was also stuffed in between the wattle walls to keep draughts out and heat in. The family slept close to the fire, and lay on a bedding of straw and animal skins to keep warm.

The family told us that they grew crops and kept animals. They made their own clothes, dishes and spoons, and their own weapons. The warrior had a long wooden spear and a wooden shield to protect himself from his enemies.

They prayed to their gods and celebrated events such as mid-summer, bringing in the harvest, and the winter equinox. The people believed that lakes, bogs and rivers were sacred gateways to the next world.

Iron Age people didn’t have money but exchanged goods instead. Salt was needed to preserve food to make it last the winter. A farmer was considered rich by the amount of cattle he had. Sometimes farmers kept slaves, as slavery was the common punishment for criminals. People captured during warfare were also kept as slaves.