Roberta Gilchrist

Gender and material culture : the archaeology of religious women

Daly Goggin, Maureen and Fowkes Tobin, Beth (eds), Women and Things, 1750-1950 , Ashgate 2009, ISBN: 978-0-7546-6550-2, hardback, £70.00, 373pp. Daly Goggin, Maureen and Fowkes Tobin, Beth (eds), Women and the Material Culture of Needlework and Textiles, 1750-1950 , Ashgate, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-7546-6538-0, hardback £70.00, 296pp. Daly Goggin, Maureen and Fowkes Tobin, Beth (eds), Material Women, 1750-1950 , Ashgate, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-7546-6539-7, hardback, £75.00, 384pp.

Women's archaeology? Political feminism, gender theory and historical revision

Womens issues are deservedly a growing concern in archaeology, with concerns that run from the power (im)balance between the sexes in the present practice of archaeology to the technical question of how gender-relations are, or are not, recoverable from archaeological context. The several aspects that lie within the phrase ‘womens archaeology’are explored.

Introduction: scales and voices in world historical archaeology

This paper briefly sets the scene for the articles that follow, introducing some key debates that have characterized the recent practice of historical archaeology. The definition of historical archaeology is explored according to parameters of chronology and methodology, drawing a distinction between New World traditions that define the subject as ‘post-Columbian’ and Old World approaches that establish broader connections with the ‘documentary archaeology’ of all literate societies. Current issues in European and American historical archaeology are highlighted, including the gradual breakdown of the medieval/post-medieval divide and the call for a global ‘modern-world archaeology’ to address the ‘grand historical narratives’ of the period, such as capitalism, economic improvement, and consumerism. The resistance to this global research agenda is explored with reference to archaeologies of diaspora and postcolonialism, which demand local perspectives to explore diversity and meaning. Finally, the innovative use of community archaeology and multi-vocality is introduced, with particular reference to the experimental narratives pursued by American historical archaeologists, in their new role as ‘storytellers’.

Introduction: towards a social archaeology of warfare

The recent explosion of interest in the archaeology of warfare is examined, and some possible reasons behind this trend are explored. Characteristics in the archaeology of warfare are identified in relation to prehistoric and historical archaeology and their contrasting sources of evidence. The androcentric tendency of the archaeology of warfare is discussed, and the major themes of the volume are introduced, including memorial landscapes, commemorative monuments and their conflicting meanings, and the social context of warfare.

A Reappraisal of Dinas Powys: Local Exchange and Specialized Livestock Production in 5th- to 7th-century Wales

RESULTS OF THE analysis of a previously unstudied group of animal bone from Dinas Powys are tested against the original report and subsequent interpretations. Assumptions inherent in the initial sampling policy and analysis are discussed. The present interpretation explores the concept of social production in early medieval Wales.

Glastonbury Abbey: archaeological investigations 1904-79

This volume reports on the results of the Glastonbury Abbey Archaeological Archive Project, a collaboration between the University of Reading and the Trustees of Glastonbury Abbey, funded principally by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The project has reassessed and reinterpreted all known archaeological records from the 1908–79 excavations and made the complete dataset available to the public through a digital archive hosted by the Archaeology Data Service (http://dx.doi.org/10.5284/1022585). The scope of the project has included the full analysis of the archaeological collections of Glastonbury Abbey by thirty-one leading specialists, including chemical and compositional analysis of glass and metal and petrological analysis of pottery and tile, and a comprehensive geophysical survey conducted by GSB Prospection Ltd. For the first time, it has been possible to achieve a framework of independent dating based on reassessment of the finds and radiocarbon dating of surviving organic material from the 1950s excavations. The principal aim of the Glastonbury Abbey Archaeological Project was to set aside previous assumptions based on the historical and legendary traditions and to provide a rigorous reassessment of the archive of antiquarian excavations. This research has revealed that some of the best known archaeological ‘facts’ about Glastonbury are themselves myths perpetuated by the abbey’s excavators.

The Intimacy of Death: Interpreting Gender and the Life Course in Medieval and Early Modern Burials

This chapter engages with Mary Beaudry’s contribution “Stitching Women’s Lives” (Chapter 7) to review points of similarity and difference in the study of gender and material culture in American and British historical archaeology. An interpretive approach is developed through a review of the archaeology of medieval and early modern burial practices in England, with stress placed on evidence connected with age and the family. A dialogue with American historical archaeology prompts a more narrative, microscale approach, explored here through a case study of burial practice as an extension of the social role of mothering. With reference to Beaudry’s focus on the material culture of sewing, special emphasis is placed on the meaning of items of weaving equipment placed in medieval graves as an expression of women’s roles as family undertakers and care-givers of the family.

Religious Transformations in the Middle Ages: Towards a New Archaeological Agenda

UNDERSTANDING RELIGIOUS CHANGE between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Reformation forms one of the cornerstones of medieval archaeology, but has been riven by period, denominational, and geographical divisions. This paper lays the groundwork for a fundamental rethink of archaeological approaches to medieval religions, by adopting an holistic framework that places Christian, pagan, Islamic and Jewish case studies of religious transformation in a long-term, cross-cultural perspective. Focused around the analytical themes of ‘hybridity and resilience’ and ‘tempo and trajectories’, our approach shifts attention away from the singularities of national narratives of religious conversion, towards a deeper understanding of how religious beliefs, practices and identity were renegotiated by medieval people in their daily lives.

Gender and Material Culture: The Archaeology of Religious Women

Gender and Material Culture is the first complete study in the archaeology of gender, exploring the differences between the religious life of men and women. Gender in medieval monasticism influenced landscape contexts and strategies of economic management, the form and development of buildings and their symbolic and iconographic content. Womens religious experience was often poorly documented, but their archaeology indicates a shared tradition which was closely linked with, and valued by local communities. The distinctive patterns observed suggest that gender is essential to archaeological analysis.