Excavations and the afterlife of a professional football stadium, Peel Park, Accrington, Lancashire: towards an archaeology of football

Abstract

Rick Peterson is senior lecturer and course leader for archaeology in the School of Forensic and Investigative Sciences, University of Central Lancashire. His current fieldwork focusses on the landscape setting and prehistoric occupation of caves and rock-shelters in the Forest of Bowland, Lancashire. His broader research interests include the British Neolithic, particularly pottery, small scale societies in prehistory and the Holocene archaeology of caves. Social Memory and Ritual PerformanceABSTRACT This paper is concerned with archaeological evidence for the mechanisms by which group memory is transmitted. Specifically, how do natural places such as caves and rock shelters retain their status as foci for ritual activity? It draws upon recent social and archaeological theory around embodied memory: in particular Connerton's (1989) division of memory claims into three kinds. These are: personal memory claims; cognitive memory claims; and habit-memory.