The Dead and their Possessions: The Declining Agency of the Cadaver in Early Medieval Europe

Brownlee, Emma

doi:10.1017/eaa.2020.3

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…In the seventh and eighth centuries, a large shift occurs in funerary practices across western Europe, generally termed the 'final phase' of furnished burial (Brownlee 2020;Welch 2011). Finglesham is one of the cemeteries where these shifts can be seen.…”

Section: Location and Early Medieval Archaeology Of Finglesham And Its Surroundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration and cultural integration in the early medieval cemetery of Finglesham, Kent, through stable isotopes

Leggett

2021

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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Debate over migrations to Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries AD is still rampant in archaeological discourse. Stable carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotope values from multiple tissues in individuals buried at Finglesham in Kent during the first millennium AD demonstrate not only migration of individuals to the region but also highlight community integration through foodways and refute previous models of ‘invasion’ and replacement. This case study community suggests gendered differences in mobility into early medieval England, with males more likely to be migrants from cooler regions than women. It also challenges traditional narratives of social status in these furnished cemeteries being linked to diet or migrant status with no clear correlations found between funerary treatment and isotopic signatures. This multi-tissue and multi-isotope study tracks dietary changes in this multi-origin community throughout their lives and shows that they may have even changed their diets to adapt to Christianising influences in the region.

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Section: Location and Early Medieval Archaeology Of Finglesham And Its Surroundsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration and cultural integration in the early medieval cemetery of Finglesham, Kent, through stable isotopes

Leggett

2021

Archaeol Anthropol Sci

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“…What was done with a body after death is revealing of how that person was considered and understood by the gathered community. Of course, the corpse itself affected those understandings—for the mourners must have taken actions appropriate for that ‘type’ of body (Brownlee 2020; Haughton 2018). Therefore burials reflect the remembrance of children through the lens of a community's shared ideals of childhood (Baxter 2005c).…”

Section: Childhood and The Bronze Agementioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing Children in Prehistory: A View from Bronze Age Ireland

Haughton

2021

CAJ

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Despite growing strength in recent decades, an archaeology of childhood has often been overlooked by those studying prehistory. This is concerning because communities are enlivened by their children, and conversations with and about children often provide a critical arena for the discussion of aspects of societies which prehistorians are comfortable addressing, such as social structure, identity and personhood. Through an exploration of childhood as expressed in the Earlier Bronze Age burials from Ireland, this article demonstrates that neither written sources, artistic depictions nor toys are necessary to speak of children in the past. Indeed, an approach which tacks between scales reveals subtle trends in the treatment of children which speak to wider shared concerns and allows a reflection on the role of children in prehistory.

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“…Many different potential explanations have been proposed for the widespread adoption of unfurnished burial, ranging from the influence of the Church and changing commemoration strategies, to the emergence of social hierarchies (e.g. Geake 1997;Williams 2006;Halsall 2010;Scull 2015); I have suggested elsewhere changing perceptions of the corpse as another potential factor (Brownlee 2020). The causes of the transition from furnished to unfurnished burial, however, are undoubtedly complex.…”

Section: Understanding Burial Changementioning

confidence: 99%