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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.
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.