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Chapter Eleven - Violence and Ritual in Late Bronze Age Britain: Weapon Depositions and Their Interpretation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2018

Christian Horn
Affiliation:
Christian-Albrechts Universität zu Kiel, Germany
Kristian Kristiansen
Affiliation:
Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden
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Summary

This chapter takes a fresh look at bronze weaponry from Late Bronze Age depositions in Great Britain. Such contexts have previously been interpreted as "personal", "merchant's" or "founder's hoards" explicitely excluding a ritualistic background. By analysis the spatial distribution, associated finds and treatment of the objects, it is argued that the concealment of these weapons should be understood as deliberate cultic acts, and, secondly, that they were immediately connected to the actions of warriors. The ritual deposition and sometimes observable intentional destruction of weaponry is perhaps linked to a desire to set times of conflict in a Turnerian sense apart from times of normal living.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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