The pyre and the grave: early medieval cremation burials in the Netherlands, the German Rhineland and Belgium

This paper problematizes grand-narrative thinking in continental, north western European early medieval (450–800 CE) burial archaeology. Using the existing research history and current debate on early medieval cremation burials, I demonstrate that European early medieval burial archaeology has focused on explaining the development of the furnished inhumation burial since the discipline’s conception. This has led to a misrepresentation of the diversity of early medieval burial practices and reinforced broad, unsatisfactory explanatory models. By including other burial types, like cremation burials, the overall model is changed in terms of what early medieval burial practices comprised, enabling a better understanding of the development of early medieval society.