‘Problematic stuff’: death, memory and the interpretation of cached objects

Büster, Lindsey

doi:10.15184/aqy.2021.81

Cited by 8 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Its unburnt state provides confirmation that the implement was not burnt with the deceased. Moreover, given its short use-life, the axehead was unlikely to have been a treasured personal possession, or an object with inalienable ties to the deceased, although it may have become 'problematic' through association to the deceased during life (Büster 2021). Instead, we favour the interpretation that the axehead was commissioned after death, to be made and used specifically for the post-raising and deposition.…”

Section: Biography Of An Axeheadmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Recent works have also problematized such an approach by revealing the often blurred and overlapping boundaries between depositional practices usually studied separately (e.g. grave goods, hoards, cenotaphs, structured deposits) and the significance of 'body-less' object deposits in their own right, beyond symbolic markers of missing bodies (Büster 2021;Cooper et al 2020). A posthuman approach urges us to reconsider the dynamic forces that flow between and emerge from assemblages of substances, things and organic matter, including, but not prioritizing, people (Bennett 2010;Braidotti 2013;Crellin & Harris 2021).…”

Section: Post-human Cremation Assemblagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bridlington Boulevard Revisited: New Insights into Pit and Post-hole Cremations in Neolithic Britain

Rowland,

Thompson

2024

CAJ

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The majority of excavated human remains from Neolithic Britain emanate from monumental sites. However, it is increasingly recognized that multiple funerary practices are often attested within these monuments, and that diverse treatment of the dead is evident contemporaneously at non-monumental sites. In this paper, we highlight such variation in non-monumental funerary practices in Neolithic Britain (c. 4000–2500 bc) through the biographical study of an assemblage from a large post-hole at Bridlington Boulevard, Yorkshire. Through osteological and taphonomic analysis of the human bones and technological and microwear analysis of the accompanying axehead, we infer complex funerary processes, with the expediently manufactured axehead potentially featuring in the funerary rites and subsequent post-raising before being deposited in the feature. Bridlington Boulevard represents one element of a varied funerary complex—cremations in pits and post-holes—at a time when most individuals were not deposited in monuments, or indeed were not deposited at all. Compiling these non-monumental cremations across Britain causes us to look beyond categorizing these assemblages as funerary contexts, and instead suggests important cosmological associations and forces were brought together in pit and post-and-human cremation deposits.

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Section: Biography Of An Axeheadmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Post-human Cremation Assemblagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bridlington Boulevard Revisited: New Insights into Pit and Post-hole Cremations in Neolithic Britain

Rowland,

Thompson

2024

CAJ

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“…The use of different classificatory terms for cached objects in funerary and nonfunerary contexts is an important one, reflecting the different trajectories of each subdiscipline within archaeology. It has, however, as I have suggested elsewhere (Büster 2021b), hindered interpretation of this latter category of material.…”

Section: Ancestors and Objectsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The rise of 'death cleaning' movements (Magnusson 2017), where people are encouraged to sort out their affairs long before their death, and the increasing popularity of 'tidying experts' (e.g., Kondo 2014), suggest that these are not isolated stories and that 'problematic stuff' (Büster 2021b) need not be restricted to the belongings of the dead. Indeed, there are attics, cupboards, garages and basements bursting with cassette tapes from teenage years that can no longer be played and baby clothes that no longer fit.…”

Section: Ancestors and Objectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Human Remains to Powerful Objects: Ancestor Research from a Deep-Time Perspective

Büster

2022

Genealogy

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Family history research has seen a surge in popularity in recent years; however, is this preoccupation with who we are and where we come from new? Archaeological evidence suggests that ancestors played crucial and ubiquitous roles in the identities and cosmologies of past societies. This paper will explore how, in the absence of genealogical websites and DNA testing, kinship structures and understandings of personhood beyond genealogy may have influenced concepts of ancestry. Case studies from later prehistoric Britain will demonstrate the ways in which monuments, objects and human remains themselves created bonds between the living and the dead, prompting us to reflect on genealogy as just one aspect of our identity in the present.

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“…Comparisons with contemporary rock art 'ethnographies' (e.g. Alberti and Fowles 2018, Nash 2010, Goldhahn et al 2021, as well as insights from thoughts on nonhumans or objects (Domanska 2006, Petursdottir 2012), the strange (Farstadvoll 2019), 'problematic stuff' (Büster 2021), the apparently 'meaningless' (Olsen 2011), on wonder (Stengers 2011) and, in this context, perhaps especially on art (Porr 2019), may generate novel approaches and appreciations of rock art. If it is possible to take it as far as envisaging that some or even all of the Alta rock art were made for no consequential reasons, outside a formal and symbolic frame of reference, is it not too simple an approach to make sense of the past?…”

Section: Alternativesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning

Tansem¹

2022

Norwegian Archaeological Review

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Since its discovery in the 1970s, the rich rock art assemblage of Alta, Northern Norway, has been increasingly examined and interpreted. Central to the interpretations are topics such as ritual, circumpolar cosmology, landscapes and communication. The interpretative frame of reference has grown steadily, while discussions and disagreements have been surprisingly few. This paper argues that the outcome of this is a broad but still closely related set of understandings that define the kind of interpretations that qualify as likely or eligible. The paper offers a critical view on how ethnographic sources as well as concepts such as circumpolarity, rituals, and shamanism are mobilized in this interpretative formation. It also questions the increasingly more profound and intricate understandings of the rock art as a world-shaping and mediating tool. The interpretative imperative of finding a 'deeper meaning' is discussed and alternative approaches to rock art suggested.

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‘Problematic stuff’: death, memory and the interpretation of cached objects

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 8 publications

References 25 publications

Bridlington Boulevard Revisited: New Insights into Pit and Post-hole Cremations in Neolithic Britain

Bridlington Boulevard Revisited: New Insights into Pit and Post-hole Cremations in Neolithic Britain

From Human Remains to Powerful Objects: Ancestor Research from a Deep-Time Perspective

Always Ritual, Symbolic and Religious? An Essay on the Alta Rock Art and the Archaeological Quest for Meaning

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