The Dead and their Possessions: The Declining Agency of the Cadaver in Early Medieval Europe
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
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Repository DOI
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Authors
Brownlee, Emma Claire https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7430-526X
Abstract
jats:pBetween the sixth and eighth centuriesjats:scad</jats:sc>, the practice of furnished burial was widely abandoned in favour of a much more standardized, unfurnished rite. This article examines that transition by considering the personhood and agency of the corpse, the different ways bonds of possession can form between people and objects, and what happens to those bonds at death. By analysing changing grave good use across western Europe, combined with an in-depth analysis of the Alamannic cemetery of Pleidelsheim, and historical evidence for perceptions of the corpse, the author argues that the change in grave good use marks a fundamental change in the perception of corpses.</jats:p>
Description
Keywords
early medieval, personhood, cadaver, funerary practices, grave goods, possession
Journal Title
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
1461-9571
1741-2722
1741-2722
Volume Title
23
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
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All rights reserved
Sponsorship
AHRC (1808445)
AHRC
Cambridge School of Humanities and Social Sciences