Death and Memory in Early Medieval BritainCambridge University Press, 2006 M08 31 How were the dead remembered in early medieval Britain? Originally published in 2006, this innovative study demonstrates how perceptions of the past and the dead, and hence social identities, were constructed through mortuary practices and commemoration between c. 400–1100 AD. Drawing on archaeological evidence from across Britain, including archaeological discoveries, Howard Williams presents a fresh interpretation of the significance of portable artefacts, the body, structures, monuments and landscapes in early medieval mortuary practices. He argues that materials and spaces were used in ritual performances that served as 'technologies of remembrance', practices that created shared 'social' memories intended to link past, present and future. Through the deployment of material culture, early medieval societies were therefore selectively remembering and forgetting their ancestors and their history. Throwing light on an important aspect of medieval society, this book is essential reading for archaeologists and historians with an interest in the early medieval period. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... funerary monuments. Next, the chapter introduces current approaches in mortuary archae- ology and their potential for providing new insights into death and burial in the early Middle Ages. This appraisal leads us to consider the ...
... funerary monuments. Next, the chapter introduces current approaches in mortuary archae- ology and their potential for providing new insights into death and burial in the early Middle Ages. This appraisal leads us to consider the ...
Page 4
... funerary behaviour. In combi- nation, the introduction hopes to demonstrate that a focus on social memory in the investigation and interpretation of early medieval death and burial helps us to see burials and other mortuary contexts as ...
... funerary behaviour. In combi- nation, the introduction hopes to demonstrate that a focus on social memory in the investigation and interpretation of early medieval death and burial helps us to see burials and other mortuary contexts as ...
Page 5
... funerary rituals and subsequent ' ancestral rites ' can be highly visible , theatrical and multi - sensuous series of actions and performances in which material culture can have prominent and profound roles ( Metcalf & Huntingdon 1991 ) ...
... funerary rituals and subsequent ' ancestral rites ' can be highly visible , theatrical and multi - sensuous series of actions and performances in which material culture can have prominent and profound roles ( Metcalf & Huntingdon 1991 ) ...
Page 9
... funerary contexts has often been addressed , and it is generally accepted that mortuary prac- tices are a symbolic medium , compared by some to language ( e.g. Richards 1992 ) , texts ( Pader 1980 ; 1982 ) and even to poetry and theatre ...
... funerary contexts has often been addressed , and it is generally accepted that mortuary prac- tices are a symbolic medium , compared by some to language ( e.g. Richards 1992 ) , texts ( Pader 1980 ; 1982 ) and even to poetry and theatre ...
Page 18
... funerary sequence involves the negoti- ation of memory between the living and the dead , in which shamanic trances serve as a means by which the dead person communicating with the living is ' forgotten ' as a person and is embedded in ...
... funerary sequence involves the negoti- ation of memory between the living and the dead , in which shamanic trances serve as a means by which the dead person communicating with the living is ' forgotten ' as a person and is embedded in ...
Contents
7 | |
Section 2 | 47 |
Section 3 | 53 |
Section 4 | 58 |
Section 5 | 63 |
Section 6 | 70 |
Section 7 | 71 |
Section 8 | 79 |
Section 9 | 92 |
Section 10 | 110 |
Section 11 | 145 |
Section 12 | 164 |
Section 13 | 179 |
Section 14 | 193 |
Section 15 | 203 |
Section 16 | 215 |
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Common terms and phrases
adult female ancestors archaeological archaeologists artefacts associated barrow Beowulf Berinsfield Boddington 1996 bone Bronze Age brooches burial mound burial rites cadaver cairn Carver chapter Christian cists coffin commemoration complex connected consider context corpse cremation Cwichelm dead deceased discussed display early Anglo-Saxon early medieval Britain early medieval burial early medieval cemeteries early medieval graves early medieval mortuary early medieval period elements evidence excavations Filmer-Sankey & Pestell focus focusing funeral funerary furnished burial grave structures Halsall Harford Farm Härke identified identity individuals inhumation instances interred landscape long-cist Lundin Links Martin Carver material culture medieval Britain mnemonic monuments mourners objects past placed Plas Gogerddan portable artefacts posture prehistoric pyre Raunds Raunds Furnells redrawn by Séan remembering and forgetting reuse ritual role Saxon Séan Goddard sequence served settlements seventh seventh-century significance sixth centuries Snape social memory suggests Sutton Hoo Swallowcliffe symbol stones Taplow Court theme transformation weapons
Popular passages
Page 1 - Had they made as good provision for their names, as they have done for their relics, they had not so grossly erred in the art of perpetuation. But to subsist in bones, and be but pyramidally extant, is a fallacy in duration. Vain ashes which in the oblivion of names, persons, times, and sexes, have found unto themselves a fruitless continuation, and only arise unto late posterity, as emblems of mortal vanities, antidotes against pride, vain-glory, and madding vices.
Page 1 - ... and teeth, with fresh impressions of their combustion, besides the extraneous substances, like pieces of small boxes, or combs handsomely wrought, handles of small brass instruments, brazen nippers, and in one some kind of opal. Near the same plot of ground, for about six yards...