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- Mortuary Archaeology - Early Medieval (9)
- Anglo-Saxon (6)
- Cremation (4)
- Early medieval (4)
- Memory (4)
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- Mortuary practice (4)
- History and Theory of Archaeology (3)
- Mortuary practices (3)
- Anglo-Saxons (2)
- Cemetery (2)
- Cinerary urns (2)
- History of archaeology (2)
- Monument reuse (2)
- Mortuary Archaeology - Medieval and Modern (2)
- Mortuary Archaeology - Themes (2)
- Personhood (2)
- Stokenham (2)
- Agency (1)
- Alemannia (1)
- Barrow-burial (1)
- Boat grave (1)
- Bones (1)
- Britons (1)
- Burial (1)
- Burials (1)
- Cemeteries (1)
- Churchyard survey (1)
- Combs (1)
- Community (1)
- Community archaeology (1)
Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Evaluating Community Archaeology In The Uk, Faye Simpson, Howard M. R. Williams
Evaluating Community Archaeology In The Uk, Faye Simpson, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
Does community archaeology work? In the UK over the last decade, there has been a boom in projects utilising the popular phrase ‘community archaeology’. These projects can take many different forms and have ranged from the public face of research and developer-funded programmes to projects run by museums, archaeological units, universities, and archaeological societies. Community archaeology also encapsulates those projects run by communities themselves or in dialogue between ‘professional’ and ‘amateur’ groups and individuals. Many of these projects are driven by a desire for archaeology to meet a range of perceived educational and social values in bringing about knowledge and …
A Viking Boat Grave With Gaming Pieces Excavated At Skamby, Östergötland, Sweden, Martin Rundkvist, Howard M. R. Williams
A Viking Boat Grave With Gaming Pieces Excavated At Skamby, Östergötland, Sweden, Martin Rundkvist, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
In the summer of 2005 the authors directed the excavation of a flat stone setting with a boat-shaped central depression at Skamby, Kuddby parish, Östergötland, Sweden. The stone setting covered a small and poorly preserved boat inhumation, dated by the artefacts recovered to the early Viking period (9th century ad). This is the first excavation of a boat inhumation in the province of Östergötland. The paper reports on the excavations including the discovery of an exceptional collection of 23 amber gaming pieces, which provide a new perspective on Viking-period gaming. The data from this boat grave are considered in relation …
Anglo-Saxonism And Victorian Archaeology: William Wylie’S Fairford Graves, Howard M. R. Williams
Anglo-Saxonism And Victorian Archaeology: William Wylie’S Fairford Graves, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
William Wylie’s Fairford Graves is prominent among a series of publications dating from the mid-nineteenth century reporting the discovery of early medieval cemeteries and defining their national and racial significance for English history. This paper discusses interpretative themes in Wylie’s text and images. It is argued that Fairford Graves was more than a set of descriptive observations upon the excavations and finds. The paper shows how Fairford Graves was a statement about Wylie’s identity as well as the imagined Teutonic origins of the English. Seen in this light, the investigation, interpretation and publication of the early medieval burials from Fairford …
Digging For The Dead: Archaeological Practice As Mortuary Commemoration,, Howard M. R. Williams, Elizabeth Williams
Digging For The Dead: Archaeological Practice As Mortuary Commemoration,, Howard M. R. Williams, Elizabeth Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
Archaeologists have yet to fully appreciate the complex interactions between archaeological practice and contemporary responses towards death and commemoration in the UK. The paper reflects upon the experience of working with the local community during archaeological fieldwork in and around an English country churchyard at Stokenham in the South Hams district of Devon in southwest England during 2005 and 2006. Using this case study, it is argued that the current theories and parameters of both mortuary archaeology and public archaeology fail to adequately engage with the diverse community perceptions and concerns over mortality and commemoration. At Stokenham, the archaeological research …
The Emotive Force Of Early Medieval Mortuary Practices, Howard M. R. Williams
The Emotive Force Of Early Medieval Mortuary Practices, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
No abstract provided.
"Burnt Germans", Alemannic Graves And The Origins Of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, Howard M. R. Williams
"Burnt Germans", Alemannic Graves And The Origins Of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
No abstract provided.
Forgetting The Britons In Victorian Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, Howard M. R. Williams
Forgetting The Britons In Victorian Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
No abstract provided.
Depicting The Dead: Commemoration Through Cists, Cairns And Symbols In Early Medieval Britain, Howard M. R. Williams
Depicting The Dead: Commemoration Through Cists, Cairns And Symbols In Early Medieval Britain, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
This article develops recent interpretations of mortuary practices as contexts for producing social memory and personhood to argue that early medieval cairns and mounds served to commemorate concepts of gender and genealogy. Commemorative strategies are identified in the composite character, shape and location of cairns and in their relationship with other commemorative monuments, namely Class I symbol-stones. The argument is developed through a consideration of the excavations of early medieval cists and cairns at Lundin Links in Fife.
Landscapes & Memories, Cornelius Holtorf, Howard M. R. Williams
Landscapes & Memories, Cornelius Holtorf, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
No abstract provided.
Keeping The Dead At Arm's Length, Howard M. R. Williams
Keeping The Dead At Arm's Length, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
Archaeologists have identified two kinds of furnished graves dating to the late fifth and sixth centuries AD from southern and eastern England: inhumation and cremation. While the ‘weapon burial rite’ is a frequent occurrence for inhumation graves, weapons are rarely found in cinerary urns. This article argues that this divergence may relate to the contrasting roles of cremation and inhumation as mortuary technologies of remembrance linked to alternative strategies for managing the powerful mnemonic agency of weapons.
Review Article: Rethinking Early Medieval Mortuary Archaeology, Howard M. R. Williams
Review Article: Rethinking Early Medieval Mortuary Archaeology, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
No abstract provided.
Potted Histories: Cremation, Ceramics And Social Memory In Early Roman Britain,, Howard M. R. Williams
Potted Histories: Cremation, Ceramics And Social Memory In Early Roman Britain,, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
Archaeologists have identified the adoption of new forms of cremation ritual during the early Roman period in south-east Britain. Cremation may have been widely used by communities in the Iron Age, but the distinctive nature of these new rites was their frequent placing of the dead within, and associated with, ceramic vessels. This paper suggests an interpretation for the social meaning of these cremation burial rites that involved the burial of ashes with and within pots as a means of commemoration. In this light, the link between cremation and pottery in early Roman Britain can be seen as a means …
Death Warmed Up: The Agency Of Bodies And Bones In Early Anglo-Saxon Cremation Rites, Howard M. R. Williams
Death Warmed Up: The Agency Of Bodies And Bones In Early Anglo-Saxon Cremation Rites, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
It is argued that recent archaeological theories of death and burial have tended to overlook the social and mnemonic agency of the dead body. Drawing upon anthropological, ethnographic and forensic analogies for the effects of fire on the human body, together with Gell’s theory of the agency of inanimate objects, the article explores the cremation rites of early Anglo-Saxon England. As a case study in the archaeological study of the mnemonic agency of bodies and bones it is suggested that cremation and postcremation rites in the 5th and 6th centuries AD in eastern England operated as technologies of remembrance. Cremation …
Material Culture As Memory: Combs And Cremation In Early Medieval Britain, Howard M. R. Williams
Material Culture As Memory: Combs And Cremation In Early Medieval Britain, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
This paper argues that mortuary practices can be understood as ‘technologies of remembrance’. The frequent discovery of combs in early medieval cremation burials can be explained by their mnemonic significance in the post-cremation rite. Combs (and other objects used to maintain the body’s surface in life) served to articulate the reconstruction of the deceased’s personhood in death through strategies of remembering and forgetting. This interpretation suggests new perspectives on the elationships between death, material culture and social memory in early medieval Europe.
Placing The Dead: Investigating The Location Of Wealthy Barrow Burials In Seventh Century England, Howard M. R. Williams
Placing The Dead: Investigating The Location Of Wealthy Barrow Burials In Seventh Century England, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
No abstract provided.
Monuments And The Past In Early Anglo-Saxon England,, Howard M. R. Williams
Monuments And The Past In Early Anglo-Saxon England,, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
Recent research on both old and new excavation data from Anglo-Saxon burial sites reveals a widespread and frequent practice of reusing monuments of earlier periods. Both Roman and prehistoric structures provided the focus of cemeteries, burial groups and single graves between the late fifth and early eighth centuries AD. It is argued that this practice was central to the symbolism of Anglo-Saxon mortuary practices, and was important for the construction and negotiation of origin myths, identities and social structures.