Death & Memory - Past & Present
Claiming to be England s oldest tourist attraction, drawing visitors since 1630, (Old) Mother Shipton s Cave, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire can be considered a distinctive topography of memory of a legendary figure: Ursula Shipton: Mother Shipton . Run by a private company, this post isn t aimed at reviewing the visitor experience per se. Instead, from an academic context, [ ]
What can we learn about prehistoric barrows in North East Wales? In the context of recent news reports of heritage crime affecting later prehistoric monuments in Denbighshire, I showcase and celebrate an example from a recent walk to explain what they tell us about past people and how they help us reflect on mortality today. [ ]
The horrors of war stretch their tendrils far and wide beyond the battlefield. They extend through our deathscapes and communities, and leech over continents far and wide. They also reach out and down many decades and sometimes reveal horrific tragedies so heinous it is near impossible to comprehend. One such terrible instance has been resurrected [ ]
This posts reflects on the new display of a recently discovered artefact by metal detectorist. I address the media and gallery interpretation of a gilt silver cross pendant of 8th-century date which has recently taken pride of place in Leeds City Museum. The simmering discourse over the use of the term Anglo-Saxon (and related terms [ ]
Ancient monuments and earthworks often reveal complex and protracted sequences of use, abandonment and reuse. These are often called monument biographies , or sometimes monumental afterlives . I recently identified a fresh dimension to such biographies or afterlives for a possible prehistoric mound in North Wales, linked to the contemporary archaeology of the COVID-19 pandemic. For context, [ ]
Gift of a Duke Named after a King Home to a Goddess So reads the Welcome pillar to Edgar s Field Park. This is a small public park dating from 1892. Today, I contend that we can think of Edgar s Field Park as a complex landscape of memory incorporating geology, mythology, legend, history and archaeology. Edgar s [ ]
How is it possible to interpret early medieval archaeological sites to the public when there are no surface traces in terms of earthworks or structures? I ve long considered this for Britain, where there are so few early medieval sites visible above ground outside of church architecture and even those are rare. For Scandinavia, there are [ ]
What does the popular TV show The Boys tell us about contemporary material cultures of death, burial and commemoration? Previously, I surveyed the mortuary materialities and monuments in The Boys series 1-3. Here, I return to review series 4 and 5 to show how this fictional representation of our world, parodying DC comics, the Marvel [ ]
Natural burial grounds are a distinctive late 20th and early 21st century deathscape that seeks to depart from traditional mortuary environments of the churchyard, cemetery and crematorium to create a more environmentally friendly and sustainable landscape of memory where loved ones can be mourned, interred by inhumation or cremation, and thus remembered. Previously, I ve addressed [ ]
The rebellion against the Empire is framed around conflict for control of the Galaxy s material past. I continue my exploration of the Archaeology of Star Wars by reflecting on the final series of Star Wars Rebels (2018). Here are my previous posts (in rough order of the events depicted in the Star Wars universe): Yavin [ ]