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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
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.
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.
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.