A mortuary enclosure is a term given in archaeology and anthropology to an area, surrounded by a wood, stone or earthwork barrier, in which dead bodies are placed for excarnation and to await secondary and/or collective burial. There are some parallels with mortuary houses although the two are the products of different cultural practices and traditions regarding the treatment of the dead.
The mortuary enclosures of the British Neolithic were sub-rectangular banks with external ditches and raised platforms of stone or wood within them, thought to be used for the exposure of corpses prior to burial elsewhere. Remains of mortuary enclosures of this period are often found under long barrows.
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A possible mortuary enclosure at Handley Down in Dorset (http://csweb.bournemouth.ac.uk/proj_cran/manorsh.htm)
A mortuaryenclosure is a term given in archaeology and anthropology to an area, surrounded by a wood, stone or earthwork barrier, in which dead bodies are placed for excarnation and to await secondary and/or collective burial.
The mortuaryenclosures of the British Neolithic were sub-rectangular banks with external ditches and raised platforms of stone or wood within them, thought to be used for the exposure of corpses prior to burial elsewhere.
Remains of mortuaryenclosures of this period are often found under long barrows.
The mission also stumbled upon a second mud-brick mortuaryenclosure of king Hur-Aha the founder of the first dynasty along with three rectangular tombs with wooden ceiling covered with reed matting.
Within the former cemetery street, another part of Aha's mortuaryenclosure wall has been found and excavations inside it reveal remains of an interior cultic chapel, analogous to chapels known from others of the first and second dynasties.
In addition to the new enclosure of king Aha, excavation inside the former street of the modern cemetery revealed a segment of the northeast wall of the enclosure of an unknown king of Dynasty zero discovered along with donkey burials during the 2002-2003.
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