Death, Hair and Memory: Cremation’s Heterogeneity in Early Anglo- Saxon England

• Authors: Howard Williams

Title variants

PL

Śmierć, włosy i pamięć: Różnorodność kremacji we wczesno-anglosaskiej Anglii

• Languages of publication: EN PL

Abstracts

EN

This article reconsiders and extends the interpretation of the heterogeneity of early Anglo-Saxon (c. AD 425/50–570) cremation practices and their mnemonic and ideological significance. Cremation burials frequently contain grooming implements (combs, tweezers, razors and shears), often unburnt and sometimes fragmented. The addition of these items to graves can be explained as a strategy of ‘catalytic commemoration’ which assisted in choreographing the transformation and selective remembering and forgetting of the dead by the survivors. This article explores new evidence to reveal the varied character and fluctuating intensity of these practices among cremating communities across southern and eastern England during the fifth and sixth centuries AD. The evidence suggests new insights into how and why cremation was selected as an ideology of transformation linking the living and the dead.

Keywords

EN

Anglo-Saxon; combs; cremation; grooming implements; memory

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Rzeszowski. Instytut Archeologii Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego. Muzeum Okręgowe w Rzeszowie
• Journal: Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia
• Year: 2015
• Volume: 10
• Pages: 29–76

Dates

issued

2015

Contributors

author

Howard Williams

• Department of History and Archaeology, University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester CH1 4BJ, United Kingdom