There is substantial evidence from Iron Age sites across Britain that the dead were not simply buried and forgotten but were maintained as presences within the community — as sources of authority, identity, and connection that the living could invoke and consult.

The elaborate architectural investment in Iron Age mortuary sites, the evidence of repeated use and reopening of burial locations, and the presence of human remains in settlement contexts all point toward communities in which the boundary between the living and the dead was understood as permeable.

The question of whether the brain removal could represent cannibalism is raised in the study and requires honest engagement rather than dismissal.

The researchers note that brain removal could relate to cannibalism, but they also note that there is no corroborating evidence — no chemical signatures of cooking, no patterns of bone modification consistent with the processing of food — that would support a cannibalism interpretation beyond the brain removal itself.