Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
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 …
Landscapes & Memories, Cornelius Holtorf, Howard M. R. Williams
Landscapes & Memories, Cornelius Holtorf, Howard M. R. Williams
Howard M. R. Williams
No abstract provided.
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.
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 …