Links with the Past: Pervasive 'Ritual' Behaviour in Roman Britain

Fulford, Michael

doi:10.2307/526956

Cited by 81 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Such large religious complexes are found in a number of regions, such as Hayling Island in Hampshire or Gosbecks in the Colchester complex. However, this should not distract from the fact that large amounts of deliberate deposition of animals and small objects took place in towns, such as Silchester or London, or forts like Newstead in Scotland (Fulford, 2001). As Fulford makes clear, Romano-British deposition represents a clear continuity with late (and possibly even early) Iron Age practices.…”

Section: Genealogymentioning

confidence: 94%

What Do Objects Want?

Gosden

2005

J Archaeol Method Theory

350

144

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper develops an argument for the agency of objects, looking at the effects objects have on people. Groups of related objects, such as pots or metal ornaments, create stylistic universes which affect producers and users of new objects, bound by the canons of style. For an object to be socially powerful in a recognized manner, the form of the object lays down certain rules of use which influence the sensory and emotional impacts of the object. Formal properties of artifacts are influenced by the genealogy of the object class, including historical continuities and changes, and also its perceived source. The forms of objects, the historical trajectories of the class of objects and their perceived sources combine to have social effects on people, shaping people as socially effective entities. Britain's incorporation into the Roman Empire between 150 BC and AD 200 provides an excellent case study through which to look at the changing corpora of objects, which had continuities and changes in form, a set of subtle attributions of sources and a complex range of social effects. KEY WORDS: effects; form; Roman Britain.My attempt in this article is to explore what might be called an object-centered approach to agency. It is often assumed that society is created and reproduced through the actions of human agents who are shaped and constrained by the broader society in which they live. For the prehistorian, the active human subject is a problematical entity, but artifacts are often abundant, although not totally unproblematical as we shall see. There are a number of strands of thought within archaeology and outside which explore the effects that things have on people and I would like to use these to start thinking about the obligations objects place upon us when they are operating as a group. I shall use the incorporation of Britain into the Roman Empire as a brief case study within which to explore these ideas a little more. Periods of change are important in bringing out the relationships

show abstract

Section: Genealogymentioning

confidence: 94%

What Do Objects Want?

Gosden

2005

J Archaeol Method Theory

350

144

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…At burned-offering sites (Brandopferplätze) in southern Bavaria, we also find continuity of practice, as Zanier (1999b) demonstrates in his analysis of the deposits at Forggensee. These patterns show that people maintained many of their traditional ritual practices for generations after the Roman conquest, as also has been shown for Roman Britain (Fulford, 2001).…”

Section: Native Styles and Traditions On Roman Sitesmentioning

confidence: 75%

Creating an Imperial Frontier: Archaeology of the Formation of Rome?s Danube Borderland

Wells

2005

J Archaeol Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

For investigating the formation of frontier zones, study of changes in small communities that constituted the majority of earlier populations provides a different perspective from a focus on major centers. A network model applied to settlement and cemetery sites on Rome's Danube River frontier in Bavaria, Germany, shows that many communities, through participation in regional and long-distance circulation systems, played significant roles in creating the dynamic and culturally heterogeneous character of that landscape. This approach offers a model applicable to analysis of the formation and functioning of frontier regions in all cultural contexts.

show abstract

“…16 Fulford andHolbrook (2011) 330-32. 17 Barber andBowsher (2000); Barber and Hall (2000); Museum of London (n.d.).…”

Section: Fieldwork and Its Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…71 Niblett (1999) 404;Fulford (2001) cites other examples. 72 Butler (2006) 38-44;Burnham et al (2006) 419.…”

Section: Artefact Assemblages From Grave Fills and Beyondmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Grave. Excavating the Dead in the Late Roman Provinces

Pearce¹

2015

Field Methods and Post-Excavation Techniques in Late Antique Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent decades have been fruitful for the gathering of new evidence, and for the establishment of new methods and theoretical perspectives in Late Roman funerary archaeology. This paper reflects on three aspects of the new data, distribution, character and dissemination, using examples from Britain and beyond. Grave distribution is strongly biased towards urban contexts, with consequences for socio-cultural and demographic analysis. Opportunities to advance understanding of burial as a process rather than a single depositional moment are discussed, including funerary rituals, commemorative activity, grave marking and the disturbance of human remains. A fuller exploitation of digital dissemination is advocated, in particular to allow one of the richest pre-modern skeletal samples to achieve an impact commensurate with its scale and quality.

show abstract

Links with the Past: Pervasive 'Ritual' Behaviour in Roman Britain

Cited by 81 publications

References 38 publications

What Do Objects Want?

What Do Objects Want?

Creating an Imperial Frontier: Archaeology of the Formation of Rome?s Danube Borderland

Beyond the Grave. Excavating the Dead in the Late Roman Provinces

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About