Christopher Tilley

Symbolic and Structural Archaeology: Ideology, symbolic power and ritual communication: a reinterpretation of Neolithic mortuary practices

The first part of this chapter attempts to arrive at an adequate notion and definition of ideology. An alternative to the viewpoint of Althusser concerning the nature of ideology is discussed, and the close relationship between ideological and symbolic form emphasised. Material symbols, especially those involved in ritual such as burial of the dead, may play an active part in the misrepresentation or concealment of real social relations. The treatment and arrangement of the human skeleton at burial can be used to provide a number of particularly powerful symbolic contrasts. An analysis of the skeletal remains in Neolithic barrows from Wessex and the Cotswolds in southern England and from southern Sweden is carried out. It is suggested that the preservation biasses can be accounted for in the analyses, and it is shown that non-random selection of bones between and within the tombs can be identified, and that contrasts occur between articulated and disarticulated skeletons, adult and immature remains, left and right parts of the body, male and female. Possible interpretations of the patterning are discussed in relation to ethnographic data, and it is suggested that the burial symbolism was involved ideologically within the context of symmetric kin organisation and asymmetric social control by lineage heads. Introduction This paper is an attempt to reinterpret Neolithic mortuary practices in two distinct areas of north western Europe: Wessex and the Cotswolds in southern England and Scania in southern Sweden. The main focus of our attention is the human osteological deposits within earthen and chambered long barrows.

Introduction: identity, place, landscape and heritage

‘Landscape’ is . . . ‘the world out there’ as understood, experienced, and engaged with through human consciousness and active involvement. Thus it is a subjective notion, and being subjective and open to many understandings it is volatile. The same place at the same moment will be experienced differently by different people; the same place, at different moments, will be experienced differently by the same person; the same person may even, at a given moment, hold conflicting feelings about a place. When, in addition, one considers the variable effects of historical and cultural particularity, the permutations on how people interact with place and landscape are almost unending, and the possibilities for disagreement about, and contest over, landscape are equally so. (Bender, 2006: 303)

The powers of rocks: Topography and monument construction on Bodmin Moor

Abstract This paper is an exploration of the relationship between topographic features of the landscape, agency and power in small‐scale societies. In it I argue that topographic features of the landscape constitute a series of symbolic resources of essential significance in the formation of personal biographies and the creation and reproduction of structures of power. I attempt to explore these ideas through a discussion of the prehistoric landscapes of Bodmin Moor from the Neolithic to the end of the Bronze Age.

Ideology, Power and Prehistory: Ideology, power and prehistory: An introduction

Presents a critique of the dominant models in archaeological theory. Two general discussions follow: a summary is given of some approaches to the concept of power, and in particular a description and critique of Foucaults recent work on this topic is used as the basis for developing a working model of power. A model for the critique of ideology is developed through the examination of three examples. Firstly, Marxs critique of the bourgeois conception of the political economy, secondly Marxs own labour theory of value, and thirdly the implications of three recent critiques of Marxs work. From these are derived some general characteristics of a working model for the critique of ideology, which differs in a number of respects from the original example of Marxs writings.-from Authors

Leskernick : Stone worlds ; Alternative narratives; Nested landscapes

The first season of an on-going project focused on Leskernick Hill, north-west Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, entailed a preliminary settlement survey and limited excavation of a stone row terminal. Leskernick comprises a western and a southern settlement situated on the lower, stony slopes of the hill and including 51 circular stone houses constructed using a variety of building techniques. Walled fields associated with these houses vary in size from 0.25–1 ha and appear to have accreted in a curvilinear fashion from a number of centres. Five smal burial mounds and a cist are associated with the southern settlement, all but one lying around the periphery of the field system. The western settlement includes ‘cairn-like’ piles of stones within and between some houses and some hut circles may have been converted into cairns. The settlements may have been built sequentially but the layout of each adheres to a coherent design suggesting a common broad phase of use. The southern settlement overlooks a stone-free plain containing a ceremonial complex. The paper presents a narrative account of the work and considers not only the form, function, and chronology of the sites at Leskernick but also seeks to explore the relationships between people and the landscape they inhabit; the prehistoric symbolic continuum from house to field to stone row etc, and to investigate the relationship between archaeology as a discourse on the past and archaeology as practice in the present. It considers how the daily process of excavation generates alternative site histories which are subsequently abandoned, forgotten, perpetuated or transformed.

The age of Stonehenge

Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the authors demonstrate that the ambiguous dating of the trilithons, the grand centrepiece of Stonehenge, was based on samples taken from the wrong context, and can now be settled at 2600-2400 cal BC. This means that the trilithons are contemporary with Durrington Walls, near neighbour and Britains largest henge monument. These two monuments, different but complementary, now predate the earliest Beaker burials in Britain – including the famous Amesbury Archer and Boscombe Bowmen, but may already have been receiving Beaker pottery. All this contributes to a new vision of massive monumental development in a period of high European intellectual mobility….

Excavation as theatre

Everyone who has dug up anything knows the excitement of bringing an ancient object to its first light for centuries. Everyone who has directed an archaeological excavation knows the excitement of finding sense in the pattern of many ancient objects revealed. Why is it, then, that the publication of that pattern in a site report is a more wearisome business when—if ever—it take place? Is that just the nature of the business, or is there more to be revealed?

Materializing Stonehenge - The Stonehenge Riverside Project and new discoveries

This article reviews recent interpretations of Stonehenge in terms of contrasting uses of stone and timber in the mid-3rd millennium BC. It explores the relationship of this enigmatic monument with circles of wood at nearby Durrington Walls and Woodhenge, establishing how these various monuments might have been integrated into a single scheme in which these remarkable structures were linked by artificial avenues and the natural feature of the River Avon. It also investigates the ways in which substances other than wood and stone – turf, earth, chalk and wood ash – may also have had significance for ideas and practices of transformation involving the living and the dead. The results of excavations and fieldwork in 2004 and 2005 are also summarized.

Who was buried at Stonehenge

Stonehenge continues to surprise us. In this new study of the twentieth-century excavations, together with the precise radiocarbon dating that is now possible, the authors propose that the site started life in the early third millennium cal BC as a cremation cemetery within a circle of upright bluestones. Britains most famous monument may therefore have been founded as the burial place of a leading family, possibly from Wales.

The Sensory Dimensions of Gardening

ABSTRACT This paper considers the multiple sensory dimensions of gardening and their synesthetic significance in an ethnographic study of gardens and gardening in England and Sweden. It challenges the notion that the different senses (vision, smell, sound, touch and taste) can be considered in hierarchical terms i.e. some as being more important than others in an assessment of the meaning and significance of gardening as an everyday practice. It argues that there is a significant difference between what people say and what they actually do and that when we study the latter the significance of all the senses in relation to each other is highlighted.