Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 6 of 6
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
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 …
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.
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.