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The Useful Dead: Bodies as Objects in Iron Age and Norse Atlantic Scotland
- Source :
- European Journal of Archaeology. 15:98-116
- Publication Year :
- 2012
- Publisher :
- Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2012.
-
Abstract
- This paper discusses a group of modified human remains from Iron Age and Norse sites in Atlantic Scotland, several of which have been discovered or rediscovered over the past decade, and all of which have recently been radiocarbon dated. It investigates the ways in which these remains seem to have been recovered, used, modified and deposited by living communities, and what this may reveal about past attitudes towards the bodies of the dead. These practices are placed within a wider European later prehistoric and early historic context, to highlight how this group of evidence may add to current debates surrounding social memory, the ritualization of domestic life, and the place of the dead within the world of the living.
Details
- ISSN :
- 17412722 and 14619571
- Volume :
- 15
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- European Journal of Archaeology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........d81ac9d362cb27030cc08c8a69636e0e