Documenting the dead: creating an online census of Anglo-Saxon burials from Kent

Brookes, Stuart; Harrington, Sue; Welch, Martin

doi:10.5334/ai.v9i0.78

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Large-scale compilations of burials, recently completed or currently under way, include Mapping Death , a study of burials in Ireland from the first to the eighth centuries ad (Bhreathnach et al 2010); Requiem, recording some 8000 graves from 70 cemeteries from principally medieval religious houses (Gilchrist & Sloane 2005); and Cimiteri Altomedievali in Italia Settentrionale (CAMIS), recording the published data of more than 1000 late antique and early medieval cemeteries across northern Italy (Chavarría Arnau 2019; Chavarría Arnau & Brogiolo 2013). The authors of this paper have likewise developed, and cumulatively integrated, the Anglo-Saxon Kent Electronic Database , the Beyond the Tribal Hidage Project , and the People and Place: The Making of the Kingdom of Northumbria dataset (Brookes & Harrington 2008; 2013; Brookes et al 2006; Harrington & Brookes 2019; Harrington & Welch 2014; Semple et al 2017), providing extensive coverage of early medieval England and southern Scotland. Like the excavation reports they draw on, these datasets collect attribute information about the burial site as a monument, recording to a common data standard spatial and temporal information, the number and form of burials, a precis of the excavation history of the site and bibliographical sources.…”

Section: Old Data/new Methods?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Theatres of Closure: Process and Performance in Inhumation Burial Rites in Early Medieval Britain

Harrington¹,

Brookes²,

Semple³

et al. 2020

CAJ

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Inhumation burials are recorded in Britain and Europe during excavations in a standardized way, especially graves of early medieval date. Just a limited number of attributes are usually foregrounded and these mainly concern skeletal identification, the grave plan and, when a burial is furnished, a list of objects, particularly metalwork, as well as occasional reference to burial structures, if present. In this paper, we argue that concealed within these recorded details are attributes that often receive little attention, but which can provide evidence for community investment in the individual funerary rite. These include grave orientation, grave morphology, the body position and the empty spaces in the grave, as well as categories of material culture. We argue here that these factors enable us to define communal burial profiles and can facilitate the identification of group perceptions and actions in dealing with death. By capitalizing on these additional aspects of funerary ritual, archaeologists can move away from a general dependency on well-furnished burials as the main stepping-off point for discussion of social and cultural issues. This has particular relevance for regions where unfurnished burial rites are the norm and where furnished rites do not rely on a wealth of metalwork.

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Section: Old Data/new Methods?mentioning

confidence: 99%