Symbolism, Social Relations and the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains

Symbolism, Social Relations and the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains PDF Author: Ellen-Jane Pader
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description

Symbolism, Social Relations and the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains

Symbolism, Social Relations and the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains PDF Author: Ellen-Jane Pader
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description


Transformation by Fire

Transformation by Fire PDF Author: Gabriel Cooney
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
ISBN: 0816531145
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 332

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Book Description
Transformation by Fire offers a current assessment of the archaeological research on the widespread social practice of cremation. Editors Ian Kuijt, Colin P. Quinn, and Gabriel Cooney chart a path for the development of interpretive archaeology surrounding this complex social process.

Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England

Dying and Death in Later Anglo-Saxon England PDF Author: Victoria Thompson
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 1843837315
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
Study of late Anglo-Saxon texts and grave monuments illuminates contemporary attitudes towards dying and the dead. Pre-Conquest attitudes towards the dying and the dead have major implications for every aspect of culture, society and religion of the Anglo-Saxon period; but death-bed and funerary practices have been comparatively and unjustly neglected by historical scholarship. In her wide-ranging analysis, Dr Thompson examines such practices in the context of confessional and penitential literature, wills, poetry, chronicles and homilies, to show that complex and ambiguous ideas about death were current at all levels of Anglo-Saxon society. Her study also takes in grave monuments, showing in particular how the Anglo-Scandinavian sculpture of the ninth to the eleventh centuries may indicate notonly the status, but also the religious and cultural alignment of those who commissioned and made them. Victoria Thompson is Lecturer in the Centre for Nordic Studies at the University of the Highlands and Islands.

Regional Approaches to Mortuary Analysis

Regional Approaches to Mortuary Analysis PDF Author: Lane Anderson Beck
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1489913106
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
In this volume, archaeologists offer a new direction for burial research by expanding the models for mortuary analysis from a site-specific to a regional level. Contributors explore how regional mortuary approaches allow the introduction of new questions about peer polity interactions and regional alliances-extending traditional settlement system and exchange analyses. This volume features case studies examining mortuary sites as components of the archaeological landscape.

The Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains

The Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains PDF Author: Rebecca Gowland
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1782972706
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
Human bones form the most direct link to understanding how people lived in the past, who they were and where they came from. The interpretative value of human skeletal remains (within their burial context) in terms of past social identity and organisation is awesome, but was, for many years, underexploited by archaeologists. The nineteen papers in this edited volume are an attempt to redress this by marrying the cultural aspects of burial with the anthropology of the deceased.

Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages

Merovingian Mortuary Archaeology and the Making of the Early Middle Ages PDF Author: Bonnie Effros
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520928180
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Clothing, jewelry, animal remains, ceramics, coins, and weaponry are among the artifacts that have been discovered in graves in Gaul dating from the fifth to eighth century. Those who have unearthed them, from the middle ages to the present, have speculated widely on their meaning. This authoritative book makes a major contribution to the study of death and burial in late antique and early medieval society with its long overdue systematic discussion of this mortuary evidence. Tracing the history of Merovingian archaeology within its cultural and intellectual context for the first time, Effros exposes biases and prejudices that have colored previous interpretations of these burial sites and assesses what contemporary archaeology can tell us about the Frankish kingdoms. Working at the intersection of history and archaeology, and drawing from anthropology and art history, Effros emphasizes in particular the effects of historical events and intellectual movements on French and German antiquarian and archaeological studies of these grave goods. Her discussion traces the evolution of concepts of nationhood, race, and culture and shows how these concepts helped shape an understanding of the past. Effros then turns to contemporary multidisciplinary methodologies and finds that we are still limited by the types of information that can be readily gleaned from physical and written sources of Merovingian graves. For example, since material evidence found in the graves of elite families and particularly elite men is more plentiful and noteworthy, mortuary goods do not speak as directly to the conditions in which women and the poor lived. The clarity and sophistication with which Effros discusses the methods and results of European archaeology is a compelling demonstration of the impact of nationalist ideologies on a single discipline and of the struggle toward the more pluralistic vision that has developed in the post-war years.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial PDF Author: Sarah Tarlow
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191650382
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 870

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Death and Burial reviews the current state of mortuary archaeology and its practice, highlighting its often contentious place in the modern socio-politics of archaeology. It contains forty-four chapters which focus on the history of the discipline and its current scientific techniques and methods. Written by leading, international scholars in the field, it derives its examples and case studies from a wide range of time periods, such as the middle palaeolithic to the twentieth century, and geographical areas which include Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia. Combining up-to-date knowledge of relevant archaeological research with critical assessments of the theme and an evaluation of future research trajectories, it draws attention to the social, symbolic, and theoretical aspects of interpreting mortuary archaeology. The volume is well-illustrated with maps, plans, photographs, and illustrations and is ideally suited for students and researchers.

Symbolic and Structural Archaeology

Symbolic and Structural Archaeology PDF Author: Ian Hodder
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521244060
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This volume presents a searching critique of the more traditional archaeological methodologies and interpretation strategies and lays down a firm philosophical and theoretical basis for symbolist and structuralist studies in archaeology. A variety of procedures, ranging from ethnoarchaeological studies and computing techniques to formal studies of artefact design variability, are utilized to provide models for archaeologists within the proposed framework and the theory and models are then applied to a range of archaeological analyses. This particular approach sees all human actions as being meaningfully constituted within a social and cultural framework. Material culture is not simply an adaptive tool, but is structured according to sets of underlying principles which give meaning to, and derive meanings from, the social world. Thus structural regularities are shown to link seemingly disparate aspects of material culture, from funerary monuments to artefact design, from the use of space in settlements, to the form of economic practices.

Are All Warriors Male?

Are All Warriors Male? PDF Author: Katheryn M. Linduff
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
ISBN: 9780759110748
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This collection of original essays presents an in-depth look at the archaeology of the Eurasian steppe--from China to Europe--and the evidence of gender roles in ancient nomadic societies.

The Body as Material Culture

The Body as Material Culture PDF Author: Joanna R. Sofaer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316584097
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Bodies intrigue us. They promise windows into the past that other archaeological finds cannot by bringing us literally face to face with history. Yet 'the body' is also highly contested. Archaeological bodies are studied through two contrasting perspectives that sit on different sides of a disciplinary divide. On one hand lie science-based osteoarchaeological approaches. On the other lie understandings derived from recent developments in social theory that increasingly view the body as a social construction. Through a close examination of disciplinary practice, Joanna Sofaer highlights the tensions and possibilities offered by one particular kind of archaeological body, the human skeleton, with particular regard to the study of gender and age. Using a range of examples, she argues for reassessment of the role of the skeletal body in archaeological practice, and develops a theoretical framework for bioarchaeology based on the materiality and historicity of human remains.