Cremation and present pasts: A contemporary archaeology of Swedish memory groves

Abstract

I present a case study in the contemporary archaeology of death: an investigation of the minneslunden ('memory groves') of present-day Sweden. In recent decades, memory groves have been adapted and condensed from their original suburban cemetery locations and added to rural churchyard settings. Eschewing individual memorials with text or images, memory groves serve as architectonic environments that facilitate the staging of the presence of the cremated dead and encouraging ongoing relationships between the living and the dead through personal commemorative practice. I argue that memory groves choreograph commemoration through the diffusion and sublimation of ashes into landscape utopias with implicit, and sometimes explicit, archaeological themes. In rural churchyards, memory groves serve as 'present-pasts', newly-created ancient monuments and primordial sacred microlandscapes, affording the cremated dead with a collective, emotive and mnemonic material presence and simultaneously serving to revitalising the commemorative use of traditional churchyard space within a largely secular and mobile contemporary society. Using memory groves as a case study, the paper seeks to demonstrate the potential in the archaeological investigation of contemporary death and its material culture.

Death and Community Identity in the Trincheras Cremation Cemetery, Sonora, Mexico

“…The postcremation ritual practices and treatment of the cremated remains at the Cerro de Trincheras can be viewed as 'secondary rites' that present many opportunities to commemorate and sustain links between the dead, the living, the landscape and material culture (e.g., Davies, 2002, pp. 30-32;Hertz, 1960;Williams, 2011). This would especially be the case if the cemetery were an open, 'living' space as proposed.…”

Firing the Imagination: Cremation in the Museum

“…The contemporary archaeological study of cremation needs to engage criticallywith the display of cremation in the modern museum alongside its investigations of cremation memorials and landscapes in the contemporary world (e.g. Williams 2011). Recognizing the way we deal with cremation sheds light on our own attitudes and practices surrounding the cremated remains of the dead.…”

“…One can walk past monuments covering the cremated dead at the famous Isola Sacra cemetery of Ostia, Italy (Hope 1997a), and tourists can walk around the hundreds of burial mounds, many covering the cremation graves of the former occupants of the Viking town of Birka, Sweden (Gräslund 1981). Indeed, architectures and landscapes of cremation in the modern era, such as Golders Green crematorium, London, and the Stockholm South Cemetery, are themselves international heritage destinations (Williams 2011). The cremated dead also continue to connect to archaeological sites: frequently modern ashes are scattered at beauty spots including ancient monuments, thus allowing the intangible dead to diffuse into tangible and memorable places for the individual, their family, and friends.…”

Towards an Archaeology of Cremation

“…In some instances, both the individual mounds themselves and the development of barrow cemeteries indicate an evolving performative space for cremation ceremonies and burial rites (Barrett, 1990;Brittain, 2006). Alternately, the modest size of cremated remains encourages their integration into communal monuments designed to receive multiple burials: a feature applicable to many past situations but also to modern gardens of remembrance in churchyards and cemeteries (Williams, 2011a(Williams, , 2012Williams and Wessman, in preparation). Numerous examples of this phenomenon are known from the monumental tomb architecture of the ancient world, such as Roman columbaria or the wellknown roadside house tombs of Isola Sacra from the Roman port of Ostia (Hope, 1997).…”