Death and Memory in Early Medieval BritainHow 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
Page 44
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
Page 45
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
You have reached your viewing limit for this book.
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
| 1 | |
2 | 36 |
Figure 217 The disc brooch with animaldecoration and a runic | 71 |
3 | 79 |
4 | 117 |
5 | 145 |
6 | 179 |
7 | 215 |
Common terms and phrases
adult female archaeological archaeologists artefacts associated back-filling barrow Beowulf Berinsfield Boddington 1996 body bones Bronze Age brooches burial mound burial rites cadaver cairn Carver century Christian cists coffin commemoration complex context corpse cremation Cwichelm dead death deceased difficult discussed display early Anglo-Saxon early medieval burial early medieval cemeteries early medieval graves early medieval mortuary early medieval period elements evidence excavations fifth fig Filmer-Sankey & Pestell final find first focus focusing funeral funerary furnished burial grave structures H¨arke Halsall Harford Farm identified identity influenced inhumation instances interred landscape Lundin Links Martin Carver material culture medieval Britain mnemonic monuments mourners objects past Pictish placed Plas Gogerddan portable artefacts posture prehistoric pyre Raunds Raunds Furnells redrawn by S´ean reflect remembering and forgetting reuse ritual role S´ean Goddard Saxon sequence served seventh seventh-century significance sixth-century Snape social memory specific suggests Sutton Hoo Swallowcliffe symbol stones Taplow Court theme transformation weapons west–east
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...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Death and Memory in Early Medieval Britain Cambridge Studies in Archaeology |
| Author | Howard Williams |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press, 2006 |
| ISBN | 1139457934, 9781139457934 |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |