Changing Assemblages: Vibrant Matter in Burial Assemblages

Abstract

In this paper the notion of assemblage, as derived from the work of Gilles Deleuze, is explored in order to consider change in prehistory. An assemblage-based The study of change is arguably one of the most important things that archaeology has to offer the humanities: changes in materials, communities, identities, environments and ideas can be studied over the very long term by archaeologists. Yet we rarely explicitly theorize the study of change. Too often we seek to characterize large blocks of time (whether that is the Neolithic, the Late Neolithic or 3000-2600 BC) as having a certain set of characteristics that differ drastically from what came before and that which comes after. We draw boxes around these blocks of stasis and label them periods, representing what happens within them as relatively static and what happens at the end of them as more dynamic. This has two consequences: firstly, I believe that we create a false picture of radically opposed periods of time and ways of life. Secondly, and as a result, when we study 'big changes' in the archaeological record, I suggest, we often seek some external 'cause' for change. Often that cause is singular and located in one moment in time in the 'transition' between periods (but see Robb 2013 for an excellent, different approach). Discussing periods of stasis interrupted by transitions of radical change is a very satisfying way to think about the past; we can easily and quickly talk about large periods of time and contrast them with other periods and go on to point our finger at that thing which causes the world to alter radically. In spite of this, I argue that we need a more complex understanding of change, one which more accurately captures the complex and messy nature of the world. The ideas proposed suggest that change is constant in all materials and as a result that the many heterogeneous assemblages that make up our world are always in motion. This theoretical approach does not deny that change happens at different scales and speeds, nor does it seek to create an undifferentiated past, but instead offers us a new way to map and understand change.

Constructing and deconstructing the Gokstad mound

“…Thus, it is illogical to assume that after the burial chamber was covered with birch bark or moss placed over the deck, there were insufficient supplies of these materials for use elsewhere. The placement of earth-sourced materials in a particular order in the mound-and within the ship itself-created and changed associations and references to the wider landscape, and between the community and the deceased (Crellin 2017). What is more, these materials were separated and ordered, implying cultural notions of permissible associations, and the use of these to sculpt memory.…”

“…New theoretical approaches, however, offer important insights into the interpretation of burial mounds, with current perspectives embracing sensorial, emotive and referential aspects of objects and monuments, as well as the deceased (e.g. Hamilakis 2013Hamilakis : 92-101, 2017Crellin 2017). The challenge to deconstruct our notion of the nature-culture divide (e.g.…”

Reflections in shadow: Excavating the personal archives of Paul Jacobsthal and EM Jope

“…Jane Bennett's (2010) concept of 'vibrant matter' has been adapted into archaeological theory since its inception (e.g. Crellin, 2017), and has instigated a shift in how we think about apparently 'inert' matter which, rather, is in a continuous state of flux. Illustrating this, several pages of an early typescript for Early Celtic Art in the British Isles in the Jope archive (Jope box 3a) bear marks where their original metal paperclips have oxidized, depositing rust.…”

Assemblages of practice. A conceptual framework for exploring human–thing relations in archaeology

“…Not all assemblages of practice enact changes in the larger meshwork or structure; some perdure and persist, whereas others cease. How some assemblages of practice create change in structures can be likened to a rock thrown into a pond; some ripples quickly fade from sight while others of greater amplitude may exert transformative change on near or distant shores (Anderson 2015, 223;Swenson 2018, 81) and at different temporal scales (see Crellin 2017). At the core of such changes are entanglements between humans and things because 'the conjunction of temporalities from anywhere within entanglements can produce events that elicit response and change' (Hodder 2012, 160).…”