Substances: ‘Following the material’ through two prehistoric cases

Weismantel, Mary J; Meskell, Lynn

doi:10.1177/1359183514546803

Cited by 34 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…In a first move to explore how reworking bodies into depositional objects simultaneously transformed persons and places in later prehistory, I wish to think more deeply about the social and relational transformation that follows the manufacture of a body-object. Following contemporary materiality studies (Weismantel and Meskell 2014), I wish to 'follow the material' and unpack the sequence of people, technologies, places, materials and moments involved in producing headobjects ( Figure 4).…”

Section: Transforming Persons: a Chaîne Opératoirementioning

confidence: 99%

‘Body-objects’ and personhood in the Iron and Viking Ages: processing, curating, and depositing skulls in domestic space

Eriksen

2020

World Archaeology

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This article explores practices of processing, displaying, and depositing human and animal crania in built environments and wetlands in the long Iron Age of Scandinavia. The paper first reports on a dataset of a range of practices targeting heads over the first millennium CE, with a particular focus on deposition of crania in built environments. I subsequently present a two-fold analysis of these data: an exploration of how reworking bodies into cranial objects transformed personhood in complex ways, and a discussion of how the particular practices afforded to the head connects with practices of placemaking and atmospheric intervention. I consider reworked, displayed and deposited heads as 'body-objects'a different kind of being than 'person', 'animal' or 'thing' that breaks open some existing assumptions of the constitution of bodies and persons in Iron and Viking Age Scandinavia.

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Section: Transforming Persons: a Chaîne Opératoirementioning

confidence: 99%

‘Body-objects’ and personhood in the Iron and Viking Ages: processing, curating, and depositing skulls in domestic space

Eriksen

2020

World Archaeology

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“…Almost 17 boxes, each a cubic foot, of clay objects were collected at Jarmo (Matson , 63), including clay figurines, tokens, shapes and lumps. The seemingly casual manufacture, baking and disposal of these clay objects gives weight to the suggestion that the power of the object was in the making, not in its retention (Broman Morales , 392–3; Weismantel and Meskell , 240). Rapidity of making, tactility, portability and impermanence were common features of these small clay objects.…”

Section: Bestansur: a Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Pre‐Pottery Clay Innovation in the Zagros Foothills

Richardson

2018

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary Neolithic material engagements transformed the ways in which communities interacted with the physical world and one another. Based on evidence from the flanks of the Zagros Mountains, in western Iran and north‐eastern Iraq, Robert Braidwood initially proposed his ‘Hilly Flanks’ hypothesis for the origins of agriculture and sedentism. The evidence for multi‐centred developments in domestication has demonstrated that elements of these practices spanned south‐west Asia in the Early Neolithic. The Zagros Mountains (and the eastern branch of the Fertile Crescent as a whole) constituted an area of vibrant engagement with new ideas, materials, experimentation and innovation, participating in the networks of interaction and exchange that facilitated the spread of alternative lifeways. This research examines how engagements with clay influenced the development and spread of new ways of thinking about the physical world, highlighting the role of clay as a transformational material through sites in the Central Zagros.

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“…To represent is to refer to something else, but the materiality of the figurines also converts them into new entities (Meskell et al 2008, 141;Nanoglou 2009, 157;Weismantel & Meskell 2014). These figurines were more than mere representations, because they helped the people who created and used them to understand and negotiate their own world; they influenced people's lives and decisions and embodied social norms (Clark 2009, 232).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%