Sapo’s admission that he wants to be fossilised after shuffling off this mortal coil reminded me of a question I had.
When Mrs. Piper and I were in Ireland a few years ago, we saw a few barrows that had been used for burial chambers eons ago. The construction looked like a stone beehive, with a chamber large enough for a body or two, and then the beehive had been covered up with soil, so it looked like a large mound, 10 or 15 feet high, incidentally covering up the entrance in the side of the barrow.
Supposing I wanted to be buried in a barrow. How much would it cost to make one nowadays? (Setting aside cost of land, which can vary tremendously). I’m just thinking of design costs, parts and labour. Doesn’t have to be technologically identical to an ancient Irish barrow, just look like one once I’m snug inside. So would it be possible to use concrete slabs instead of stone slabs, for example?
oh, and it goes without saying that we needn’t take into account the cost of a barrowblade or an elvish sword, although if any of you have any you’d like to donate to the cause…
Well, there seems to be some dispute, but it appears that the Lusehøj barrow, would take about 32,900 bronze-age person-hours to complete.
At 5 bucks an hour, that’d be $164,500 in labor costs.
Fill is cheap, and front end loaders are incredibly more efficient than bronze-agers with wooden shovels, but stone can be pricey, as can stone-layers. Then there’s ensuring everything is built to code…
true, but I think the neighbours would object to the smell of a corpse with only a thin layer of soil in that size of a barrow… plus, I wouldn’t want my eternal resting place to be that mobile. I want stability and permanence, dammit!