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Elemental archaeologies
Title
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Title:
Elemental archaeologies
Series
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Series:
World Archaeology
Volume
Volume number and part
Volume:
40 (2)
Publication Type
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Publication Type:
Journal
Editor
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Editor:
Robin Osborne
Issue Editor
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Issue Editor:
Nyree Finlay
Publisher
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Publisher:
Routledge Journals
Year of Publication
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Year of Publication:
2008
Note
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Note:
Is Portmanteau: 1
Source
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Source:
BIAB (The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
Relations
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Relations:
URI:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713699333
Created Date
The date the record of the pubication was first entered
Created Date:
27 Jun 2008
Please click on an Article link to go to the Article Details.
Article Title
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Abstract
Elemental archaeologies
0
Special issue on the theme of the relationship between human beings and the elements -- earth, water, fire and air -- as revealed in the archaeological record. Contributions include
What lies beneath?; Perceptions of the ontological paradox of water
Zena Kamash
224 - 237
the paper discusses the paradox that the element water is both vital to life and yet can also kill. It is argued that this paradox was more apparent to humans than is often assumed in the modern Western world where water is usually viewed as pure and cleansing. The paper attempts to break this assumption down using three case studies. The first two use evidence from the imagery and inscriptions associated with dams and bathhouses in the Roman Near East to analyse the potential of water to flood and pollute. The third explores how votive deposition was linked conceptually to the transmutable, liminal nature of water, focusing on the Roman rural religious centre at Marcham/Frilford, England. These examples are used to illustrate the complex negotiations with the inherent paradox of water, which are manifested in protective symbols (to prevent flooding, illness and death) and votive deposition
Elemental interplay: the production, circulation and deposition of Bron...
Fay Stevens
238 - 252
the paper considers how people were compellingly engaged with, and drew upon, their elemental world in the Bronze Age (c. 2000--800 bc). It takes into account the production, circulation and deposition of metalwork and presents a number of themes concerned with the social construction of objects, places and people in the Bronze Age, while exploring how elements are drawn upon to facilitate this. The case study focuses on evidence from Britain and Ireland, although the interpretative themes presented can be applied to a wider geographical dataset. In particular, it considers how elements are interplayed in order to bring about and articulate wider social and material transformations taking place in the Bronze Age
Flames of transformation: the role of fire in cremation practices
Tim Flohr Sørensen
Mikkel Bille
253 - 267
the paper explores the transformative power of fire, its fundamental ability to change material worlds and affect human experience of its materiality. The paper examines material transformations related to death as a means of illustrating the powerful property of fire as a materially destructive yet socially generative and creative element. While fire has been widely discussed archaeologically as a technological element, and recently coupled with the social and symbolic powers of pyrotechnology, the authors focus on the sensuous staging of fire in disposal practices. The paper employs two case studies focusing on cremation burial from Bronze Age (c.1300--1100 bc) and modern Denmark in order to demonstrate widely different sensuous engagements with fire and its experiential significance in a cremation context
Elemental bodies: the nature of transformative practices during the ...
Gavin MacGregor
268 - 280
a range of social practices during the late third and second millennium bc in Scotland is explored in the paper. The nature of the elemental is also considered and it is suggested that certain practices may have been conceived as elementally transformative in nature due to their perceived ability to effect material changes. The interrelationship between practices in the context of contemporary mortuary and funerary and burnt-mound traditions is examined using a case study from southwest Scotland. The traditional views of what these practices constituted are founded on contemporary terms of reference, such as their function as burial monuments or as locales for cooking. Here, consideration of the evidence suggests that in these different social arenas such practices were in part understood through the ways in which the body was transformed and, in certain circumstances, conceived to be as transformatively potent as other elemental categories
