Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:23:05.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Theatres of Closure: Process and Performance in Inhumation Burial Rites in Early Medieval Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2020

Sue Harrington ,
Stuart Brookes Open the ORCID record for Stuart Brookes [Opens in a new window] ,
Sarah Semple Open the ORCID record for Sarah Semple [Opens in a new window]  and
Andrew Millard
Sue Harrington
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, LondonWC1H 0PYUK Email: s.harrington@ucl.ac.uk
Stuart Brookes
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, LondonWC1H 0PYUK Email: s.brookes@ucl.ac.uk
Sarah Semple
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Durham University, DurhamDH1 3LYUK Email: s.j.semple@durham.ac.uk
Andrew Millard
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Durham University, DurhamDH1 3LYUK Email: a.r.millard@durham.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Inhumation burials are recorded in Britain and Europe during excavations in a standardized way, especially graves of early medieval date. Just a limited number of attributes are usually foregrounded and these mainly concern skeletal identification, the grave plan and, when a burial is furnished, a list of objects, particularly metalwork, as well as occasional reference to burial structures, if present. In this paper, we argue that concealed within these recorded details are attributes that often receive little attention, but which can provide evidence for community investment in the individual funerary rite. These include grave orientation, grave morphology, the body position and the empty spaces in the grave, as well as categories of material culture. We argue here that these factors enable us to define communal burial profiles and can facilitate the identification of group perceptions and actions in dealing with death. By capitalizing on these additional aspects of funerary ritual, archaeologists can move away from a general dependency on well-furnished burials as the main stepping-off point for discussion of social and cultural issues. This has particular relevance for regions where unfurnished burial rites are the norm and where furnished rites do not rely on a wealth of metalwork.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , August 2020 , pp. 389 - 412
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banham, D. & Faith, R., 2014. Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhreathnach, E., et al. , 2010. http://www.mappingdeathdb.ie/login (accessed 9 December 2019).Google Scholar
Blair, J., 2009. The dangerous dead in early medieval England, in Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, eds Baxter, S., Karkov, C., Nelson, J.L. & Pelteret, D.. Farnham: Ashgate, 539–59.Google Scholar
Boyle, A., Jennings, D., Miles, D. & Palmer, S., 1998. The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Butler's Field, Lechlade, Gloucestershire. (Thames Valley Landscapes 10.) Oxford: Oxford Archaeological Unit.Google Scholar
Brookes, S., 2007. Economics and Social Change in Anglo-Saxon Kent AD 400–900. Landscapes, communities and exchange. (BAR British series 431.) Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brookes, S. & Harrington, S., 2008. The Anglo-Saxon Kent Electronic Database. (ADS Special Collections.) http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/archive/asked_ahrc_2008/ (accessed 9 December 2019).Google Scholar
Brookes, S. & Harrington, S., 2013. Electronic census: enhancing or masking individuality in the early Anglo-Saxon past?, in Individual and Individuality. Approaches towards an archaeology of personhood in the first millennium AD, ed. Ludowici, B.. (Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 4.) Hanover: Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, 21–6.Google Scholar
Brookes, S., Harrington, S. & Welch, M., 2006. Documenting the dead: creating an on-line census of Anglo-Saxon burials from Kent. Archaeology International 2005/2006, 28–31.Google Scholar
Carver, M.O.H., 1998. Sutton Hoo: Burial ground of kings. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Carver, M.O.H., 2000. Burial as poetry: the context of treasure in Anglo-Saxon graves, in Treasure in the Medieval West, ed. Tyler, E.M.. York: York Medieval Press, 25–48.Google Scholar
Carver, M.O.H., 2005. Sutton Hoo: A seventh-century princely burial ground and its context. (Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquarians in London 69). London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, R. & Wylie, A., 2018. Evidential Reasoning in Archaeology. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar
Chavarría Arnau, A. 2019. Early medieval burials and settlements: some reflections on Northern Italian archaeological evidence, in Polity and Neighbourhood in Early Medieval Europe, eds Escalona, J., Vésteinsson, O. & Brookes, S.. Turnhout: Brepols, 83–120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chavarría Arnau, A. & Brogiolo, G.. 2013. http://www.beniculturali.unipd.it/www/ricerca/linee-di-ricerca/progetto-camis-cimiteri-altomedievali-dellitalia-settentrionali/ (accessed 9 December 2019).Google Scholar
Craig, E., 2010. Burial Practices in Northern England c. A.D. 650–850: A Bio-cultural Approach. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.Google Scholar
Cramp, R., 2005. Wearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites. Volume 1. Swindon: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Drinkall, G. & Foreman, M., 1998. The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Castledyke South, Barton-on-Humber. (Sheffield Excavation reports 6.) Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Duday, H., 2009. The Archaeology of the Dead. Lectures in archaeothanatology. (Studies in Funerary Archaeology 3.) Oxford/Oakville: Oxbow.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evison, V.I., 1987. Dover: The Buckland Anglo-Saxon cemetery. (HBMCE Archaeological Report 3.) London: Historic Buildings & Monuments Commission for England.Google Scholar
Faull, M., 1977. British survival in Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, in Studies in Celtic Survival, ed. Laing, L.. (BAR British series 37.) Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1–23.Google Scholar
Filmer-Sankey, W. & Pestell, T., 2001. Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery: Excavations and surveys 1824–1992. (EAA 95.) Ipswich: East Anglian Archaeology.Google Scholar
Foreman, M., 1998. Mortuary practices, in The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Castledyke South, Barton-on-Humber, eds Drinkall, G. & Foreman, M.. (Sheffield Excavation Reports 6.) Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gilchrist, R. & Sloane, B., 2005. Requiem: The medieval monastic cemetery in Britain. London: Museum of London Archaeology Service.Google Scholar
Halsall, G., 2003. Burial writes: graves, texts and time in early Merovingian northern Gaul, in Erinnerungskultur im Bestattungsritual, eds Jarnut, J. & Wemhoff, M.. Munich: Wilhelm Fink, 61–74.Google Scholar
Härke, H., 1990. ‘Warrior Graves’. The background of the Anglo-Saxon weapon burial rite. Past and Present 126, 22–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrington, S., 2007. Soft furnished burial. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 14, 110–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrington, S. & Brookes, S., 2019. Beyond the Tribal Hidage Data. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/early-medieval-atlas/map-data/beyond-tribal-hidage-dataGoogle Scholar
Harrington, S. & Welch, M., 2014. The Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms of Southern Britain AD 450–650: Beneath the tribal hidage. Oxford: Oxbow.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haughton, C. & Powlesland, D., 1999. West Heslerton: The Anglian cemetery. Yeddingham: Landscape Research Centre.Google Scholar
Hawkes, S.C., 1976. Orientation at Finglesham: sunrise dating of death and burial at an Anglo-Saxon cemetery in East Kent. Archaeologia Cantiana 92, 33–51.Google Scholar
Hawkes, S.C., 1982. Anglo-Saxon Kent c. 425–725, in Archaeology in Kent to 1500, ed. Leach, P.. (CBA Research Report 48.) London: Council for British Archaeology, 64–78.Google Scholar
Hawkes, S.C. & Grainger, G., 2006. The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Finglesham, Kent. (Monograph 64.) Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Hirst, S.M., 1985. An Anglo-Saxon Inhumation Cemetery at Sewerby, East Yorkshire. (York University Archaeological Publications 4.) York: University of York Department of Archaeology.Google Scholar
Klevnäs, A.M., 2013. Whodunnit? Grave robbery in Anglo-Saxon England and the Merovingian kingdoms. (BAR International series S2582.) Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knüsel, C. & Outram, A., 2009. Fragmentation of the body: comestibles, compost or customary rite?, in Social Archaeology of Funerary Remains, eds Gowland, R. & Knüsel, C.. Oxford: Oxbow, 253–78.Google Scholar
Leclerc, J., 1990. La notion de sepulture [The idea of burial]. Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris n.s. 2(3–4), 13–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucy, S. 2000. The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.Google Scholar
Maldonado, A., 2011. What does early Christianity look like? Mortuary archaeology and conversion in Late Iron Age Scotland. Scottish Archaeological Journal 33(1–2), 39–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maldonado, A., 2013. Early medieval burial in Scotland: new questions. Medieval Archaeology 57(1), 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, W.H., 1985. Catalogue of the Romano-British Iron Tools, Fittings and Weapons in the British Museum. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Mortimer, R., Sayer, D. & Wiseman, R., 2017. Anglo-Saxon Oakington: a central place on the edge of the Cambridgeshire fen, in Life on the Edge: Social and political frontiers in early medieval Europe, eds Semple, S., Orsini, C. & Mui, S.. (Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 6.) Braunschweig: Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, 305–16.Google Scholar
Mui, S., 2015. Life after death: shrouded burials in later Anglo-Saxon England. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 30(1), 150–56.Google Scholar
Mui, S., 2018. Dead Body Language: Deciphering Corpse Positions in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Unpublished PhD thesis, Durham University.Google Scholar
NAA, 2002. Excavations at Hollow Banks Quarry, Scorton, North Yorkshire (unpublished report).Google Scholar
Pader, E.-J., 1982. Symbolism, Social Relations and the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains. (BAR International series S130.) Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Parfitt, K. & Brugmann, B., 1997. The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery on Mill Hill, Deal, Kent. (Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 14.) London: Society for Medieval Archaeology.Google Scholar
Petts, D., 2002. Cemeteries and boundaries in western Britain, in Burial in Early Medieval England and Wales, eds Lucy, S. & Reynolds, A.. (Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph 17.) Leeds: Society for Medieval Archaeology, 24–46.Google Scholar
Price, N., 2010. Passing into poetry: Viking-Age mortuary drama and the origins of Norse mythology. Medieval Archaeology 54, 123–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, C., 2014. Human remains, in Archaeology in Practice. A student guide to archaeological analyses, eds Balme, J. & Paterson, A.. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 300–335.Google Scholar
Roberts, C. & Cox, M., 2003. Health & Disease in Britain: From prehistory to the present day. Gloucester: Sutton Publishing.Google Scholar
Samson, R., 1987. Social structures from Reihengräber: mirror or mirage? Scottish Archaeological Review 4(2), 116–26.Google Scholar
Sayer, D. & Wienhold, M., 2013. A GIS-investigation of four early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries: Ripley's K-Function analysis of spatial groupings amongst graves. Social Science Computer Review 31(1), 70–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Semple, S. & Williams, H., 2015. Landmarks for the dead: exploring Anglo-Saxon mortuary geographies in The Material Culture of the Built Environment in the Anglo-Saxon World, eds Clegg Hyer, M. & Owen-Crocker, G.R.. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 137–61.Google Scholar
Semple, S., Buchanan, B., Harrington, S., Oliver, D. & Petts, D., 2017. Power at the edge: Yeavering, Northumberland, England, in Life on the Edge: Social and political frontiers in early medieval Europe, eds Semple, S., Orsini, C. & Mui, S.. (Neue Studien zur Sachsenforschung 6.) Braunschweig: Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, 91–112.Google Scholar
van Gennep, A., 1960. The Rites of Passage. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Williams, H., 2001. Death, memory and time: a consideration of the mortuary practices at Sutton Hoo, in Time in the Medieval World, eds Humphreys, C. & Ormrod, W.M.. York: York Medieval Press, 35–71.Google Scholar
Williams, H., 2006. Death and Memory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Williams, H., 2011. Archaeologists on contemporary death. Mortality 16(2), 91–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, H., 2014. Memory through monuments: movement and temporality in Skamby's boat graves, in Med hjärta och hjärna. En vänbok till professor Elisabeth Arwill-Nordbladh, eds Alexandersson, H., Andreeff, A. & Bünz, A.. Göteborg: Göteborgs Universitet, Institutionen för historiska studier, 397–414.Google Scholar
Williams, P. & Newman, R. (eds), 2006. Market Lavington, Wiltshire: An Anglo-Saxon Cemetery and Settlement. Excavations at Grove Farm, 1986–90. (Wessex Archaeology Report 19.) Salisbury: Wessex Archaeology.Google Scholar