'A forged glamour': landscape, material culture and identity in the Iron Age
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Arts Languages and Cultures
Abstract
This research examines what identity meant to people in prehistory, and investigates how archaeologists can explore this concept through the study of past places, bodies and objects.
In the 19th and early 20th century, identity was seen as something which could be identified according to race, ethnicity, or culture. Antiquarians and archaeologists therefore developed methods for identifying past peoples on the basis of physiological or cultural criteria, assuming that identities were discrete, singular and static. They produced maps of Iron Age Britain, on which tribal names were matched with bounded culture groups: identified in space and time, on the basis of distinctive funerary rites, artistic styles and artefact types. The 'Arras culture' of East Yorkshire (thought to be synonymous with the tribe of the Parisi) was distinguished by inhumation under square barrows, in cemeteries which included rare but impressive chariot burials and objects decorated with La Tene art. The Continental affinities of this rite were therefore taken as evidence of a 'Celtic' migration into the area. This project shows how the Arras culture was used by British prehistorians to exemplify culture historical models, explaining social change through migration and invasion.
Whilst identity was therefore a key issue in studies of this material, no attention was given to how identities were learned and performed, nor how they might change according to context. Working from an interpretative perspective, informed by anthropological analogy, this research proposes that later prehistoric people conceived of their identities through the social relationships from which they were composed. It argues that their sense of self and place may therefore have changed according to what they were doing, where and with whom. I argue that these multiple and contextually contingent senses of identity can be apprehended archaeologically through an integrated study of material culture and landscape. Each chapter therefore explores the reproduction of social relations through a different field of practice: agricultural work, the inhabitation of settlements, funerary rites and ceremonial practices, as well as exchange and mobility in the landscape.
The book therefore evaluates the usefulness of this concept of 'relational identity' through a study of how it was socially structured and reproduced. Analysis moves between long-term historical change and individual events, to show how social lives contributed to distinctive patterns of practice. It shifts from the landscape scale of earthworks and trackways, to the architectural settings of houses and barrows, and finally, intimate stories of individual burials; producing an engaging interpretation of these communities. Its broader aim is to reveal how prehistoric worlds differed to our own, and explore what it meant to be human in the past.
This research arises out of a series of earlier articles which have explored issues of personhood in relation to places and objects. These have been influenced by studies drawn from anthropology and sociology as well as archaeology. It therefore seeks to make a contribution to inter-disciplinary scholarship on the key themes of landscape, material culture and identity, as well as Celtic studies. Whilst the text will be theoretically informed and thoroughly referenced, it will be written and illustrated in a creative manner designed to engage a broad readership. It is therefore aimed at an inter-disciplinary audience of fellow scholars and students, as well as archaeological practitioners.
In the 19th and early 20th century, identity was seen as something which could be identified according to race, ethnicity, or culture. Antiquarians and archaeologists therefore developed methods for identifying past peoples on the basis of physiological or cultural criteria, assuming that identities were discrete, singular and static. They produced maps of Iron Age Britain, on which tribal names were matched with bounded culture groups: identified in space and time, on the basis of distinctive funerary rites, artistic styles and artefact types. The 'Arras culture' of East Yorkshire (thought to be synonymous with the tribe of the Parisi) was distinguished by inhumation under square barrows, in cemeteries which included rare but impressive chariot burials and objects decorated with La Tene art. The Continental affinities of this rite were therefore taken as evidence of a 'Celtic' migration into the area. This project shows how the Arras culture was used by British prehistorians to exemplify culture historical models, explaining social change through migration and invasion.
Whilst identity was therefore a key issue in studies of this material, no attention was given to how identities were learned and performed, nor how they might change according to context. Working from an interpretative perspective, informed by anthropological analogy, this research proposes that later prehistoric people conceived of their identities through the social relationships from which they were composed. It argues that their sense of self and place may therefore have changed according to what they were doing, where and with whom. I argue that these multiple and contextually contingent senses of identity can be apprehended archaeologically through an integrated study of material culture and landscape. Each chapter therefore explores the reproduction of social relations through a different field of practice: agricultural work, the inhabitation of settlements, funerary rites and ceremonial practices, as well as exchange and mobility in the landscape.
The book therefore evaluates the usefulness of this concept of 'relational identity' through a study of how it was socially structured and reproduced. Analysis moves between long-term historical change and individual events, to show how social lives contributed to distinctive patterns of practice. It shifts from the landscape scale of earthworks and trackways, to the architectural settings of houses and barrows, and finally, intimate stories of individual burials; producing an engaging interpretation of these communities. Its broader aim is to reveal how prehistoric worlds differed to our own, and explore what it meant to be human in the past.
This research arises out of a series of earlier articles which have explored issues of personhood in relation to places and objects. These have been influenced by studies drawn from anthropology and sociology as well as archaeology. It therefore seeks to make a contribution to inter-disciplinary scholarship on the key themes of landscape, material culture and identity, as well as Celtic studies. Whilst the text will be theoretically informed and thoroughly referenced, it will be written and illustrated in a creative manner designed to engage a broad readership. It is therefore aimed at an inter-disciplinary audience of fellow scholars and students, as well as archaeological practitioners.
