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Breaking and Making the Ancestors: Piecing Together the Urnfield Mortuary Process in the Lower-Rhine-Basin, Ca. 1300 - 400 Bc - Couverture rigide

Louwen, Arjan

 
9789464280012: Breaking and Making the Ancestors: Piecing Together the Urnfield Mortuary Process in the Lower-Rhine-Basin, Ca. 1300 - 400 Bc
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 9464280018 ISBN 13 : 9789464280012
Editeur : Sidestone Press, 2021

Synopsis

Towards the capstone of the European Bronze Age, in an area stretching from the Carpathians in the East to the North Sea in the West, vast cremation grave cemeteries occur that are perhaps better known as ‘urnfields.’ Today some 700 of these burial sites have come to light in the Netherlands alone.

In this corner of Europe, also known as the ‘Lower-Rhine-Basin,’ these cemeteries are often characterised by vast collections of small burial mounds under which the cremated remains of decedents were buried in small shaft-like pits. In many a case the cremated remains had been put in urns first, providing these cemeteries with their very name.

Though rich in numbers, urnfield graves are often described as ‘poor’ and ‘simple’ as only in rare occasions decedents were provided with grave gifts. However, when close attention is paid to the actions involved in the creation of these seemingly simple graves, they in fact reveal a richness in funerary practices that on their turn hint a complex and intricate mortuary process.

This book delves into the wealth of funerary practices reflected in more than 3,000 urnfield graves excavated throughout the Netherlands in order to reconstruct the mortuary process associated with the urnfields in this particular part of Europe. Together these graves tell interesting stories about how the dead related to each other, how plain and simple objects could be used as metaphors in the creation of relational and ancestral identities and how the dead were inextricably linked to the land.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Bits and pieces
2 The whole is more than the sum of its parts
3 Dissecting the urnfield funeral
4 The body and the urnfield mortuary process
5 Objects and the urnfield mortuary process
6 Assembling the ancestors
7 The related dead
8 Ancestral landscapes
9 Breaking and making the ancestors

Appendix I: Inventory of sites

Appendix II: Radiocarbon dates

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Arjan Louwen (1986) studied archaeology at Leiden University. During his time at Leiden, while specializing in the late prehistory of North-Western Europe, he developed a keen interest in the archaeology of the Urnfield period (1200 - 500 BC). He also took part in multiple barrow excavations (Oss-Zevenbergen, Apeldoorn-Echoput, and Apeldoorn-Wieselseweg) of the 'Ancestral Mounds' project led by Dr. David Fontijn (Leiden University).

After graduation he started working as a research assistant in the Ancestral Mounds project and took part in the excavation of a large urnfield in the southern Netherlands (Uden-Slabroekse Heide). From the start of 2011 until the end of 2012, he worked in commercial archaeology, carrying out archaeological fieldwork throughout the Netherlands.

Since November 2012, Arjan is working at Leiden University again. He is currently replacing Dr. David Fontijn for several of his teaching tasks. In addition, he is working on the publication of the latest barrow excavation of the Ancestral Mounds project.

In cooperation with the Municipality of Apeldoorn, he also started the new project Beyond and Before Barrows that took off in June 2013.

À propos de la quatrième de couverture

Towards the capstone of the European Bronze Age, in an area stretching from the Carpathians in the East to the North Sea in the West, vast cremation grave cemeteries occur that are perhaps better known as ‘urnfields.’ Today some 700 of these burial sites have come to light in the Netherlands alone.

In this corner of Europe, also known as the ‘Lower-Rhine-Basin,’ these cemeteries are often characterised by vast collections of small burial mounds under which the cremated remains of decedents were buried in small shaft-like pits. In many a case the cremated remains had been put in urns first, providing these cemeteries with their very name.

Though rich in numbers, urnfield graves are often described as ‘poor’ and ‘simple’ as only in rare occasions decedents were provided with grave gifts. However, when close attention is paid to the actions involved in the creation of these seemingly simple graves, they in fact reveal a richness in funerary practices that on their turn hint a complex and intricate mortuary process.

This book delves into the wealth of funerary practices reflected in more than 3,000 urnfield graves excavated throughout the Netherlands in order to reconstruct the mortuary process associated with the urnfields in this particular part of Europe. Together these graves tell interesting stories about how the dead related to each other, how plain and simple objects could be used as metaphors in the creation of relational and ancestral identities and how the dead were inextricably linked to the land.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Bits and pieces
2 The whole is more than the sum of its parts
3 Dissecting the urnfield funeral
4 The body and the urnfield mortuary process
5 Objects and the urnfield mortuary process
6 Assembling the ancestors
7 The related dead
8 Ancestral landscapes
9 Breaking and making the ancestors

Appendix I: Inventory of sites

Appendix II: Radiocarbon dates

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Sidestone Press
Date d'édition
2021
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
9464280018
ISBN 13 
9789464280012
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
280
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
GPSR Kontakt
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