Towards a Chronology of Megaliths: Understanding Monumental Time and Cultural Memory

Holtorf, Cornelius

doi:10.1179/096576696800688051

Cited by 45 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Such processes exploited cultural memory, transforming places with existing social resonance but transmuting what that locale meant in the present (cf. Holtorf 1996). Such utilisation of earlier monuments is well recognised for Early Medieval assembly, where it represented elites exploiting sites of ancestral power (Semple and Sanmark 2013, p. 531).…”

Section: Oppida As Assembly Placesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternatives to Urbanism? Reconsidering Oppida and the Urban Question in Late Iron Age Europe

Moore

2017

J World Prehist

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The mega-sites of Late Iron Age Europe (traditionally known as oppida) provide an important dataset for exploring how complex social systems can articulate power in novel ways. The question of whether these can be described as 'urban' has overshadowed a deeper understanding of the development and role of such sites, with many studies examining this issue almost wholly against peculiarly classical concepts of urbanism, isolating Iron Age studies from wider debate. Rather than seek to redefine 'towns', this paper explores how and why oppida diverge from traditional concepts of urbanism, arguing that the form of oppida reflects their focus on particular aspects-assembly, theatricality, and the household-which reflect the nature of Late Iron Age societies. It will be suggested that oppida are comparable to a range of mega-sites and low-density settlements recognised throughout the world that represent alternative solutions to the social complications urbanism seeks to address.

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Section: Oppida As Assembly Placesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alternatives to Urbanism? Reconsidering Oppida and the Urban Question in Late Iron Age Europe

Moore

2017

J World Prehist

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“…The material products of antiquarian and archaeological practice (ancient mortuary monuments and material cultures) have been reused and replicated in profusion within contemporary death-ways (e.g. Holtorf, 1996;Holtorf & Williams, 2006;.…”

Section: Mortuary Archaeology Contributes To Contemporary Deathmentioning

confidence: 99%

Archaeologists on contemporary death

Williams

2011

Mortality

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“…I explore how archaeological themes pervade the design and use of memory groves. In this commemorative environment, prehistoric and historic mortuary monuments are reused and made anew (see also Holtorf, 1996;Holtorf & Williams, 2006). In this regard, my paper dovetails with Back Danielsson's (2011) where she considers the role of archaeology in configuring Swedish mortuary and commemorative practice over the longue durée since the sixteenth century.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Williams

2011

Mortality

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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.

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Towards a Chronology of Megaliths: Understanding Monumental Time and Cultural Memory

Cited by 45 publications

References 13 publications

Alternatives to Urbanism? Reconsidering Oppida and the Urban Question in Late Iron Age Europe

Alternatives to Urbanism? Reconsidering Oppida and the Urban Question in Late Iron Age Europe

Archaeologists on contemporary death

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

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