Burial Tombs

People all over the world have their own different views of death and definition of the Afterlife. Influences from the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures are strong enough to last up until our age, but in some civilizations, practices and beliefs changed as their own societies declined. How the New Stone Age people treat their dead was considered to be a vital part of their religious growth. Evidences, through unearthed human skulls at Jericho showed traces of early ancestor worship. As views about death evolved, ancient civilizations developed their own, often elaborate, ways of bridging life with the world beyond.

As part of their practices, many cultures place their dead in burial tombs.
In the case of individual burials, the chamber in burial tombs is thought to signify a higher status for the “interree” than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could also serve as places for storage of the dead from one family or social group and were often used over long periods for multiple burials. There are numerous terms for them depending on the period, design and region in question. Most were constructed from large stones or megaliths and covered by cairns, barrows or earth, but the term is also applied to tombs cut directly into rock and wooden-chambered tombs covered with earth barrows. Grave goods are a common characteristic of chamber tomb burials.

In Neolithic and Bronze Age Europe stone-built examples are known by the generic term of megalithic tombs.

Burial tombs, especially chamber tombs, are often distinguished by the layout of their chambers and entrances or the shape and material of the structure that covered them, either an earth barrow or stone cairn. A wide variety of local types has been identified, and some designs appear to have influenced others.