Archaeological Perspectives on Burial Practices and Societal Change : Death in Transition

by: Norstein, F.E. Selsvold, I.

Archaeological Perspectives on Burial Practices and Societal Change
Death in Transition
Edited By Frida Espolin Norstein, Irene Selsvold

Description

Archaeological Perspectives on Burial Practices and Societal Change examines the relationships between burial practices and societal transformations in the past.

This book highlights the centrality of burials as archaeological material for the understanding of societal change. It critically reassesses past approaches, and suggests new ways of understanding the relationship between burial practice and change in archaeology. Particular attention is given to archaeological periods where change was especially intense: so-called transition periods. The volume has a wide chronological and geographical scope, spanning the Early Bronze Age to the present day, and ranging geographically from Cyprus to Scandinavia. Recent developments within archaeological methods and theory have sparked discussions about the mechanisms and reasons behind societal changes in the past. This book aims to revive interest in understanding and explaining these changes, which are fundamental questions to the discipline of archaeology. The volume is organised into three thematic parts. The first, Practices, Communities, and Agents of Change, examines the roles individuals and communities play in transforming burial customs, highlighting the non-linear and often chaotic nature of these changes. The second theme, Migration, Identities, and Narratives of Change, challenges traditional narratives of migration and identity formation, proposing more nuanced understandings of how burial practices encapsulate these complex processes. The final theme, Transitions, Tempos, and Complexities, explores the multifaceted nature of societal transitions, emphasising the importance of diverse tempos and scales in understanding these shifts.

Archaeological Perspectives on Burial Practices and Societal Change is for students and researchers in archaeology, primarily mortuary archaeology and archaeological theory.

Table of Contents
1. Death and Transformation: Burial Practices and Societal Change

Frida Espolin Norstein, Irene Selsvold, and Sofia Voutsaki

Theme 1 Practices, Communities, and Agents of Change

2. Mortuary Practices and Societal Change in Early Mycenaean Greece

Sofia Voutsaki

3. Grave Participants: Rethinking Funerary Participation as Strategies for Social Change

Brian Costello and Reanna S. Phillips

4. Change and Continuity: Cremation and Inhumation During the Christianisation Period in Scandinavia (c. 800–1200 CE)

Frida Espolin Norstein

5. Dying Well in a Damaged Planet: Emergent Burial Practices and the Ecologies of the Dead

Troy Fielder

Theme 2 Migration, Identities, and Narratives of Change

6. The Urning Question: Cultural Change in Roman-Period Slovenia Seen through the Choice of Funerary Urns

Kaja Stemberger Flegar

7. The Viking-Period Burials of the Hebrides: The Maritime Landscape, Grave Goods, and Change

Joseph Thomas Ryder

8. Narrating Ethnic Identity and Competition in Lombard Southern Italy through Burial Practices (6th–7th Centuries)

Giulia Zornetta

9. Golden Funerary Masks and Societal Change Narratives in Ancient Macedonia

Jessica Clementi

Theme 3 Transitions, Tempos, and Complexities

10. Building the Christian Cemetery: Religious Evolution in Burial Practices in the North-West of the Iberian Peninsula

Patricia Valle Abad and Laura Blanco-Torrejón

11. Cypriot Burial Practices at the Close of the Bronze Age: Continuities and Changes in the Light of the 12th-Century BCE Transformations

Teresa Bürge

12. Changing Burial Practices in Late Antiquity: Embracing Complexities

Irene Selsvold

13. Rethinking Burial Practices and Period Transitions Through a Posthumanist and New Materialist Lens

Rachel J. Crellin

Concluding Remarks

14. Death Changes Everything: Archaeology and the Human Scale of Change

Liv Nilsson Stutz

Archaeological Perspectives on Burial Practices and Societal Change : Death in Transition

by: Norstein, F.E. Selsvold, I.

• ISBN-13: 9781032573458 / 978-1-032-57345-8
• ISBN-03: 1032573457 / 1-032-57345-7
• Routledge, London, 2025