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 4
... landscape itself was formed in this period. The patterns of settlements, fields, routes, boundaries and territories of later cen- turies can often be shown to owe their roots to the period between the end of Roman Britain and the Norman ...
... landscape itself was formed in this period. The patterns of settlements, fields, routes, boundaries and territories of later cen- turies can often be shown to owe their roots to the period between the end of Roman Britain and the Norman ...
Page 12
... landscape and monumental contexts of commemoration (e.g. Bradley 1998b; Thomas 1999; Tilley 1994; 1996b), as well as the 'biographies' of commemorative monuments as they are built, used and reused in different contexts over time ...
... landscape and monumental contexts of commemoration (e.g. Bradley 1998b; Thomas 1999; Tilley 1994; 1996b), as well as the 'biographies' of commemorative monuments as they are built, used and reused in different contexts over time ...
Page 15
... landscape the boundaries of such gifts. Against this background, the study of social memory in early medieval Europe has been a developing focus of research over recent decades, closely connected to considering the complex and ...
... landscape the boundaries of such gifts. Against this background, the study of social memory in early medieval Europe has been a developing focus of research over recent decades, closely connected to considering the complex and ...
Page 16
... landscape (Moreland 2001). Complementing this rise in early medieval studies of memory are new perspec- tives on early medieval death. Victoria Thompson's (2004) innovative and interdis- ciplinary study of dying, death and burial in ...
... landscape (Moreland 2001). Complementing this rise in early medieval studies of memory are new perspec- tives on early medieval death. Victoria Thompson's (2004) innovative and interdis- ciplinary study of dying, death and burial in ...
Page 18
... landscape . A parallel development in social anthropology's approaches to death is to consider the relationship between emotion , the treatment of the body in death and social memory , as discussed by Loren Danforth and Nadia ...
... landscape . A parallel development in social anthropology's approaches to death is to consider the relationship between emotion , the treatment of the body in death and social memory , as discussed by Loren Danforth and Nadia ...
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...