www.unipress.dk Cover: ”War Magic”, 1975, screenprint by the Papua New Guinean artist Timothy Aki... more www.unipress.dk Cover: ”War Magic”, 1975, screenprint by the Papua New Guinean artist Timothy Akis (deceased 1984). The picture illustrates the con-nection between warfare and social identities. In some Melanesian societies war magic is used to transform men into warriors, so that they can kill people and thereby establish group identities and social boundaries.
In this paper I assess two archaeological phenomena for Bronze to Iron Age Britain: the expanding... more In this paper I assess two archaeological phenomena for Bronze to Iron Age Britain: the expanding scale of conflict over this period and the practice of what is often called deviant burial, and I consider their possible connection. Such burials may relate to a wider pattern of social violence, given that community setbacks need to be explained away, perhaps requiring scapegoats to take the blame, who met their death as a result of being identified as ‘the enemy within’.) Although burials with weaponry occurred in the Early Bronze Age, there is little evidence of confict and few deviant burials. The Later Bronze Age and the Iron Age, by contrast, provide significant evidence at varying scales of both warfare and deviant burial practices.
The village of Deir el-Medina is the best known and most intensively studied community from ancie... more The village of Deir el-Medina is the best known and most intensively studied community from ancient Egypt. In its heyday (the 19th and 20th Dynasties, c. 12901070 BC) it consisted of around sixty-eight houses and families, tucked away in a side valley at western Thebes, within ...
... With contributions by Mark Brennand, Bernard Champness, David Cranstone, Peter Davey, Andrew ... more ... With contributions by Mark Brennand, Bernard Champness, David Cranstone, Peter Davey, Andrew Fielding, David George, Elizabeth Huckerby, Christine Longworth, Ian Miller, Mike Morris,Michael Nevell, Caron Newman, North West Medieval Pottery Research Group, Peter ...
This interesting and informative volume arises from a conference held in 2012. Fourteen papers de... more This interesting and informative volume arises from a conference held in 2012. Fourteen papers derive from those presented at the conference itself, with the addition of a thoughtful chapter by Vandkilde providing an overview and something of a counterpoint to several of the others. In their introduction (Chapter 1), Horn and Kristiansen state the key aim of the book as being to argue “that the Bronze Age represents the global emergence of a militarized society” (p. 1), global in this case meaning Eurasia. The emphasis here is clearly intended to be on social aspects of warfare, moving beyond the useful, but inherently limited, past approach dominated by studies of weaponry and fortifications.
moted as ‘the longest Mesolithic sequence of dates in Britain’, an apparent virtue that leads to ... more moted as ‘the longest Mesolithic sequence of dates in Britain’, an apparent virtue that leads to the deployment of that useful cover-all whereby such sites must have been a ‘persistent place’ returned to repeatedly over long periods as ‘a culturally determined and desired locale’ (page ). It is the overlap of some of these dates with Stonehenge that has unleashed the sort of feverish speculation already referred to. The specialist chapters steer admirably clear of this. Most space is devoted to the lithic assemblages, but here again it is clear that the typochronology ismixed.Oneeye-catchingcomponent among this is the presence of at least one flint, ‘Horsham Point’, most of the analogues for which occur further to the south and east in England, but also in the Somme valley for example, a potential connection that isoverlooked. Instead,muchspace is wasted on a dodgy fragment of slate, illustrated no less than three times, and ‘most likely to come from parts of northern or western Britain’ (page ) which – it is tentatively surmised –might also be a Horsham Point. That it might be intrusive is not even considered, nor thought given as to why such points would have been imported or made of intractable slate when better quality flint was locally abundant. A note of caution must also be inserted about the apparent significance of the weird pink flint. This colouration is an effect of an algal encrustation on unworked flints found in thewatersof anearbyspring-fedpool that turnpink when dried, an effect that reverts after a limited period, and such flints have not been encountered in the archaeological deposits.While this is a remarkablephenomenonthatmay indeedhave lent special importance to the area in prehistory, how will we ever know?Other reports, one after another, do little to flesh out more than quite banal expectations (for example, flint axes were used to work wood; aurochs and flint were local; the immediate environmentwaswatery;geophysical surveywas inconclusive). Organic preservation was poor and there was noMesolithic pollen record, nor any recognisableartefactsofbone,antlerorwood.Structuralevidence is absent (tree-throws and other features nearby, in the higher level Trench , may hint at this, but discussion and description of results from this trench is still ‘interim’). An unresolved curiosity – despite the absence of hearths – is the presence of substantial quantities of nonartefactual burnt flint, perhaps an indication of cooking/feasting. The presence of pine marten is of interest, though; but, like the well-travelled dog, is represented by just one tooth. Much is therefore left, understandably, to speculation and this is mostly kept in check until the final chapter. Here, for example, it is wondered if the pits in the Stonehenge car park and elsewhere might have held posts intended to mark and predict auroch movements over sacred hunting grounds; and, unable to resist trying to invoke ‘new insights’ into Stonehenge itself, there is an excursion into concepts of animism and totemism, and continuity through the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition and beyond. After all the dry detail preceding it, this is certainly the most entertaining part of the book. The Mesolithic perspective that Blick Mead adds to recent revelations emerging from the World Heritage site is very welcome and, though very challenging to excavate and interpret, the site is undoubtedly of significance. The prompt and thorough publication is applauded – even if it is unclear why an interim statement in this form was necessary when the journal article has already served this purpose well enough (and from which large parts of the monograph’s discussion have been lifted verbatim). There are several signs that the book was put together hurriedly – including careless repetition, irritating misspelling of peoples’ names, citations omitted from the bibliography and a main text padded out with indigestible methodological statements and oversized illustrations. What next though? Apart from mention of some DNA analysis, there is no sense of the direction the project might now take. One certainly hopes that it can go from strength to strength and continue to report its findings just as diligently in future volumes of this new series.
www.unipress.dk Cover: ”War Magic”, 1975, screenprint by the Papua New Guinean artist Timothy Aki... more www.unipress.dk Cover: ”War Magic”, 1975, screenprint by the Papua New Guinean artist Timothy Akis (deceased 1984). The picture illustrates the con-nection between warfare and social identities. In some Melanesian societies war magic is used to transform men into warriors, so that they can kill people and thereby establish group identities and social boundaries.
In this paper I assess two archaeological phenomena for Bronze to Iron Age Britain: the expanding... more In this paper I assess two archaeological phenomena for Bronze to Iron Age Britain: the expanding scale of conflict over this period and the practice of what is often called deviant burial, and I consider their possible connection. Such burials may relate to a wider pattern of social violence, given that community setbacks need to be explained away, perhaps requiring scapegoats to take the blame, who met their death as a result of being identified as ‘the enemy within’.) Although burials with weaponry occurred in the Early Bronze Age, there is little evidence of confict and few deviant burials. The Later Bronze Age and the Iron Age, by contrast, provide significant evidence at varying scales of both warfare and deviant burial practices.
The village of Deir el-Medina is the best known and most intensively studied community from ancie... more The village of Deir el-Medina is the best known and most intensively studied community from ancient Egypt. In its heyday (the 19th and 20th Dynasties, c. 12901070 BC) it consisted of around sixty-eight houses and families, tucked away in a side valley at western Thebes, within ...
... With contributions by Mark Brennand, Bernard Champness, David Cranstone, Peter Davey, Andrew ... more ... With contributions by Mark Brennand, Bernard Champness, David Cranstone, Peter Davey, Andrew Fielding, David George, Elizabeth Huckerby, Christine Longworth, Ian Miller, Mike Morris,Michael Nevell, Caron Newman, North West Medieval Pottery Research Group, Peter ...
This interesting and informative volume arises from a conference held in 2012. Fourteen papers de... more This interesting and informative volume arises from a conference held in 2012. Fourteen papers derive from those presented at the conference itself, with the addition of a thoughtful chapter by Vandkilde providing an overview and something of a counterpoint to several of the others. In their introduction (Chapter 1), Horn and Kristiansen state the key aim of the book as being to argue “that the Bronze Age represents the global emergence of a militarized society” (p. 1), global in this case meaning Eurasia. The emphasis here is clearly intended to be on social aspects of warfare, moving beyond the useful, but inherently limited, past approach dominated by studies of weaponry and fortifications.
moted as ‘the longest Mesolithic sequence of dates in Britain’, an apparent virtue that leads to ... more moted as ‘the longest Mesolithic sequence of dates in Britain’, an apparent virtue that leads to the deployment of that useful cover-all whereby such sites must have been a ‘persistent place’ returned to repeatedly over long periods as ‘a culturally determined and desired locale’ (page ). It is the overlap of some of these dates with Stonehenge that has unleashed the sort of feverish speculation already referred to. The specialist chapters steer admirably clear of this. Most space is devoted to the lithic assemblages, but here again it is clear that the typochronology ismixed.Oneeye-catchingcomponent among this is the presence of at least one flint, ‘Horsham Point’, most of the analogues for which occur further to the south and east in England, but also in the Somme valley for example, a potential connection that isoverlooked. Instead,muchspace is wasted on a dodgy fragment of slate, illustrated no less than three times, and ‘most likely to come from parts of northern or western Britain’ (page ) which – it is tentatively surmised –might also be a Horsham Point. That it might be intrusive is not even considered, nor thought given as to why such points would have been imported or made of intractable slate when better quality flint was locally abundant. A note of caution must also be inserted about the apparent significance of the weird pink flint. This colouration is an effect of an algal encrustation on unworked flints found in thewatersof anearbyspring-fedpool that turnpink when dried, an effect that reverts after a limited period, and such flints have not been encountered in the archaeological deposits.While this is a remarkablephenomenonthatmay indeedhave lent special importance to the area in prehistory, how will we ever know?Other reports, one after another, do little to flesh out more than quite banal expectations (for example, flint axes were used to work wood; aurochs and flint were local; the immediate environmentwaswatery;geophysical surveywas inconclusive). Organic preservation was poor and there was noMesolithic pollen record, nor any recognisableartefactsofbone,antlerorwood.Structuralevidence is absent (tree-throws and other features nearby, in the higher level Trench , may hint at this, but discussion and description of results from this trench is still ‘interim’). An unresolved curiosity – despite the absence of hearths – is the presence of substantial quantities of nonartefactual burnt flint, perhaps an indication of cooking/feasting. The presence of pine marten is of interest, though; but, like the well-travelled dog, is represented by just one tooth. Much is therefore left, understandably, to speculation and this is mostly kept in check until the final chapter. Here, for example, it is wondered if the pits in the Stonehenge car park and elsewhere might have held posts intended to mark and predict auroch movements over sacred hunting grounds; and, unable to resist trying to invoke ‘new insights’ into Stonehenge itself, there is an excursion into concepts of animism and totemism, and continuity through the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition and beyond. After all the dry detail preceding it, this is certainly the most entertaining part of the book. The Mesolithic perspective that Blick Mead adds to recent revelations emerging from the World Heritage site is very welcome and, though very challenging to excavate and interpret, the site is undoubtedly of significance. The prompt and thorough publication is applauded – even if it is unclear why an interim statement in this form was necessary when the journal article has already served this purpose well enough (and from which large parts of the monograph’s discussion have been lifted verbatim). There are several signs that the book was put together hurriedly – including careless repetition, irritating misspelling of peoples’ names, citations omitted from the bibliography and a main text padded out with indigestible methodological statements and oversized illustrations. What next though? Apart from mention of some DNA analysis, there is no sense of the direction the project might now take. One certainly hopes that it can go from strength to strength and continue to report its findings just as diligently in future volumes of this new series.
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