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Death, hair and memory: cremation’s heterogeneity in early Anglo-Saxon England
Williams, Howard
Williams, Howard
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2015
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AAR10_Williams.pdf
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Abstract
This article reconsiders and extends the interpretation of the heterogeneity of early Anglo-Saxon
(c. AD 425/50–570) cremation practices and their mnemonic and ideological significance.
Cremation burials frequently contain grooming implements (combs, tweezers, razors and
shears), often unburnt and sometimes fragmented. The addition of these items to graves can
be explained as a strategy of ‘catalytic commemoration’ which assisted in choreographing the
transformation and selective remembering and forgetting of the dead by the survivors. This
article explores new evidence to reveal the varied character and fluctuating intensity of these
practices among cremating communities across southern and eastern England during the fifth
and sixth centuries AD. The evidence suggests new insights into how and why cremation was
selected as an ideology of transformation linking the living and the dead.
Citation
Williams, H. (2015). Death, hair and memory: cremation’s heterogeneity in early Anglo-Saxon England. Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia, 10, 29–76.
Publisher
Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia
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Analecta Archaeologica Ressoviensia
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Article
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en
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2084-4409