Beyond Barrows: Current Research on the Structuration and Perception of the Prehistoric Landscape Through Monuments

ISBN-13: 9789088901089 / Angielski / Miękka / 2013 / 280 str.

David R. Fontijn; Arjan J. Louwen; Karsten Wentink

Opis

Europe is dotted with tens of thousands of prehistoric barrows. In spite of their ubiquity, little is known on the role they had in pre- and protohistoric landscapes. In 2010, an international group of archaeologists came together at the conference of the European Association of Archaeologists in The Hague to discuss and review current research on this topic. This book presents the proceedings of that session. The focus is on the prehistory of Scandinavia and the Low Countries, but also includes an excursion to huge prehistoric mounds in the southeast of North America. One contribution presents new evidence on how the immediate environment of Neolithic Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture megaliths was ordered, another one discusses the role of remarkable single and double post alignments around Bronze and Iron Age burial mounds. Zooming out, several chapters deal with the place of barrows in the broader landscape. The significance of humanly-managed heath in relation to barrow groups is discussed, and one contribution emphasizes how barrow orderings not only reflect spatial organization, but are also important as conceptual anchors structuring prehistoric perception. Other authors, dealing with Early Neolithic persistent places and with Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age urnfields, argue that we should also look beyond monumentality in order to understand long-term use of "ritual landscapes." The book contains an important contribution by the well-known Swedish archaeologist Tore Artelius on how Bronze Age barrows were structurally re-used by pre-Christian Vikings. This is his last article, written briefly before his death. This book is dedicated to his memory. This publication is part of the Ancestral Mounds Research Project of the University of Leiden.

O autorze

Prof. Dr. David Fontijn is professor in the Archaeology of Early Europe at the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Leiden, the Netherlands. His research deals with the early agrarian societies of Europe from prehistory up until the early historical period, with particular focus on the Bronze Age and (early) Iron Age, the exchange and deposition of metalwork and on the archaeology of so-called 'ritual' landscapes. He is currently leading the NWO-VICI project "Economies of Destruction" investigating the puzzling destruction of valuable objects in Bronze Age Europe (2015-). Dr. Arjan Louwen (1986) studied 'Prehistory of Northwest Europe' at Leiden University. Already as a student he developed a keen interest in funerary archaeology and took part in several key-excavations of prehistoric barrows and urnfields. After graduation in 2010, Arjan has worked alternatingly in commercial archaeology (Archol bv. Leiden) and for Leiden University as a field archaeologist. Since 2012 he has worked full-time at Leiden University, first as a teacher and field director, later as PhD-student. His PhD-research revolved around the funerary practices associated with the urnfields in the Lower-Rhine-Basin. Arjan is currently still working at Leiden University as a teacher and trains students in their first field skills. Dr. Karsten Wentink started his studies in 2001 at the Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. He did a combined bachelors in both archaeological sciences (focus on functional analysis at the Laboratory for Artefact studies) and prehistoric archaeology (with a focus on the Neolithic of North-West Europe). He finished his Masters thesis in 2006 on Neolithic flint axe depositions. He started his PhD research in 2008 focussing on the role of grave sets in Corded Ware and Bell Beaker funerary practices.