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 9
... mourners in burial ritual ( i.e. the grave may say more about the mourners than the deceased ) as well as the symbolic and historical context of mortuary expressions ( Cannon 1989 ; Lucy 1998 ; Pader 1980 ; 1982 ; Samson 1987 ) ...
... mourners in burial ritual ( i.e. the grave may say more about the mourners than the deceased ) as well as the symbolic and historical context of mortuary expressions ( Cannon 1989 ; Lucy 1998 ; Pader 1980 ; 1982 ; Samson 1987 ) ...
Page 10
... mourners interact with each other , with the dead and with the supernatural . For instance , a key guiding idea behind the sacrifice of animals in many societies is the expectation that their spirits might serve as guides for the ...
... mourners interact with each other , with the dead and with the supernatural . For instance , a key guiding idea behind the sacrifice of animals in many societies is the expectation that their spirits might serve as guides for the ...
Page 12
... mourners (e.g. Meskell 1996) and in particular the role of emotion in influencing their context, character and form (Tarlow 1999; 2002). Expressions of emotion might be seen as personal grief and therefore a matter of psychology. Alter ...
... mourners (e.g. Meskell 1996) and in particular the role of emotion in influencing their context, character and form (Tarlow 1999; 2002). Expressions of emotion might be seen as personal grief and therefore a matter of psychology. Alter ...
Page 17
... mourners through the ritual process from live individual to dead ancestor. Similarly, van Gennep conceptualised death as a rite de passage comparable to other lifecycle rites in which the dead person moves through rites of separation, a ...
... mourners through the ritual process from live individual to dead ancestor. Similarly, van Gennep conceptualised death as a rite de passage comparable to other lifecycle rites in which the dead person moves through rites of separation, a ...
Page 18
... mourners and their understand- ings of death and the past , and serving as a focal point for social tensions and conflict ( Connor 1995 ) . Melanesian ethnographies have explored in detail the relationship between con- cepts of the ...
... mourners and their understand- ings of death and the past , and serving as a focal point for social tensions and conflict ( Connor 1995 ) . Melanesian ethnographies have explored in detail the relationship between con- cepts of the ...
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...