Joanna Bruck

Settlement, landscape and social identity: The Early-Middle Bronze Age transition in Wessex, Sussex and the Thames Valley

In southern England, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of archaeologically visible farmsteads and field systems. This paper explores and critiques the widespread idea that these changes are the direct result of a need to intensify agricultural production. Such discussions have implicitly drawn on evolutionist images of economic maximization and environmental exploitation that do not sit easily with our knowledge of other aspects of Bronze Age society. In this paper, I shall consider economic change as a consequence rather than the cause of wider changes to the social fabric at this time. A review of the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement evidence provides insights into how society became transformed over the period and begins to hint at some of the reasons why subsistence practices changed so visibly.

Women, Death and Social Change in the British Bronze Age

Both cremation and inhumation were employed in the British Early Bronze Age, and the significance of the distinction between these practices has long been a matter of debate. Many authors have argued that the choice of mortuary treatment reflects differences in status. Inhumation burials often occupied central positions in Early Bronze Age barrows, while cremations were placed in satellite locations. In turn, the apparent gender differences between these mortuary rites – men tended to be inhumed while women were frequently cremated – is seen as indicating that women were of lower status than men. This paper will challenge this model, arguing that cremation was a strategy designed to facilitate the retention and circulation of ancestral relics by fragmenting the human body. As such, the differential treatment of men and women was not the result of status distinctions, but reflects their different positions and roles within Early Bronze Age kinship structures. In particular, the circulation of the cremated ...Both cremation and inhumation were employed in the British Early Bronze Age, and the significance of the distinction between these practices has long been a matter of debate. Many authors have argued that the choice of mortuary treatment reflects differences in status. Inhumation burials often occupied central positions in Early Bronze Age barrows, while cremations were placed in satellite locations. In turn, the apparent gender differences between these mortuary rites – men tended to be inhumed while women were frequently cremated – is seen as indicating that women were of lower status than men. This paper will challenge this model, arguing that cremation was a strategy designed to facilitate the retention and circulation of ancestral relics by fragmenting the human body. As such, the differential treatment of men and women was not the result of status distinctions, but reflects their different positions and roles within Early Bronze Age kinship structures. In particular, the circulation of the cremated remains of the female dead played an important role in facilitating social, material and biological reproduction through the maintenance of inter-group relationships. The practice of cremation resulted in the construction of particular concepts of the self – concepts that underpinned the transformations in the technological practices and social landscapes that took place at the beginning of the Middle Bronze Age. As such, womens roles in these changes must be considered afresh.

Landscapes of Desire: Parks, Colonialism, and Identity in Victorian and Edwardian Ireland

Ireland’s Victorian and Edwardian public parks were landscapes in which normative models of class, gender, and colonial identities were constructed. This paper will explore how the materiality of these landscapes—their drinking fountains, railings, bandstands, and benches—facilitated forms of social practice that underpinned an ideology of improvement, creating regulated spaces of display and consumption in which the natural world and the urban populace could be objectified, domesticated and their moral worth evaluated. Yet, parks have always been sites of transgression so that from their earliest years, vandalism and other forms of subversive behavior created alternative narratives of identity.

Women, Death and Social Change in the British Bronze Age Comments by Mark Hall

In Brück’s recent article on burials in Early Bronze Age (EBA) Britain, she notes a variety of patterns in the excavated material. While providing an explanation for these patterns that looks at issues of personhood and sex, she avoids discussing whether these patterns are due to chance or if they have any statistical significance. While this comment may seem pedantic, it is important to remember a recent point by Gelman and Weakliem: ‘There seems to be a human desire to find more than pure randomness in sex ratios, despite there being no convincing evidence that sex ratios vary much at all except under extraordinary conditions’ (2009:315). The purpose of this brief comment is to look at some of the patterns noted by Brück and assess whether there is any statistical significance behind them. A Bayesian statistical approach will be used to examine the significance of the possible patterns in the EBA burial data. General introductions to Bayesian statistics are found in Litton and Buck (1995), Buck et al. (1996), McCarthy (2007) and Stauffer (2008). Introductions to WinBUGS, the software used for the calculations in this comment, can be found in Congdon (2001, 2005), Cowles (2004) and McCarthy (2007). Briefly, Bayes’ theorem states: