Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the liminal draw of the Atlantic façade and consider the possibility that activity on promontories and their enclosure may reflect a concern with the magico-religious significance of liminal places on ancient seaways.

Paper long abstract:

Coasts are an obvious and acknowledged liminal landscape, situated between the worlds of land and sea and serving as the point of departure and arrival for sea journeys. Promontories inhabit a special place within that liminal landscape, projecting from the land into the sea. This paper will look at how traditional interpretations of these sites as defensive locations often fall short, how their enclosure may have had a magico-religious or ritual purpose and what rites we might expect to have taken place in such spaces. While not always easily accessible from the sea, promontory enclosures are arguably located along ancient seaways, or near landing and departure points, and it is proposed that they therefore mark significant points in a ritually imbued cultural landscape. The belief in an antagonistic relationship between land and sea will be central to this interpretation. This is evidenced in taboo and the use of liminal agents by coastal communities to navigate between those worlds (Westerdahl 2005). With a focus on Irish promontory enclosures, this paper will explore these hypotheses by looking at several elements including: established sea routes, individual site morphologies, placenames and maritime taboos.

Westerdahl, C. (2005). Seal on Land, Elk at Sea: Notes on and Applications of the Ritual Landscape at the Seaboard. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. 34 (1) p.2-23

Paper short abstract:

This paper combines archaeological, archival and oral evidence to explore the landscape and lives of herders on the Cairo Massif between 1700 and 1970. Living quite literally on the edge, herders spent long periods tending to livestock in the highest and most remote areas of this upland landscape.

Paper long abstract:

The central uplands of the Cairo Massif (south-central Italy) are replete with the material remains of a now bygone way of life. The archaeologies of agriculture and of herding dominate but these two activities embody entirely different experiences of what it meant to inhabit this high altitude landscape (up to 1669m above sea level). Terraced fields and threshing floors cover great swathes of the uplands but the demands of agriculture could be met by a combination of occasional daily visits and short periods of intensive and often shared labour, events that brought together households and their neighbours to harvest, till or thresh. The herding facilities (stables, pens and shelters) interspersed amongst these agricultural remains represent a very different temporal investment. Men of all ages spent extensive periods living, quite literally, on the edge. Separated from the core of their families and communities, they tended to livestock through summer, autumn and even winter months on the highest and most remote reaches of the Cairo Massif. This paper will bring together archaeological, archival and oral evidence to explore what it meant to be a herder on the Cairo Massif between the 18th and 20th centuries and examine how herders articulated with each other, with their communities and with the wider world, through, for example, grazing disputes, transhumance strategies and access to markets. In doing so, the benefits of an integrated approach to historic landscapes will be highlighted, especially the important contribution of oral historical evidence.

Paper short abstract:

The spectacular summit plateau of Ben Bulben, north Connacht, is intriguingly bereft of visible archaeology, and may have constituted a reserved space in the Neolithic. A recently discovered complex of megalithic monuments and settlement sites on a lower plateau demarcate the restricted high ground.

Paper long abstract:

The striking massif of Ben Bulben is arguably the most spectacular natural feature in north-west Ireland. Yet despite its commanding presence, at the heart of a regional prehistoric landscape which includes the Carrowmore and Carrowkeel megalithic cemeteries, the summit plateau appears intriguingly bereft of archaeology.

On a lower plateau, however, a recently discovered extensive archaeological complex is providing insights into the relationships between people and place spanning millennia. Megalithic monuments and settlement sites ranging in date from the earlier Neolithic to the Bronze Age lie among an extensive grouping of fossil potholes. Two outlying 'sentinel' monuments mark the best routes up to the complex from the deep glacial valleys to the north and south.

My study finds that the architecture and natural features of the lower plateau combine to create a liminal space, demarcating the only boundary of the summit plateau not protected by high cliffs. The setting of the complex isolates it from the valleys and shoreline below: only the higher plateau and the peaks of other mountains are visible. Often shrouded in mist, yet sheltered from the worst of the fierce Atlantic winds, this physical threshold was apt for ceremonies and rituals which may have invoked the forces of the proscribed ground above. Later in prehistory, people carrying out more prosaic seasonal activities in the area nurtured its spiritual associations through the construction of new monuments.

This paper explores the temporal depth of a prehistoric landscape 'hidden' on the most prominent natural feature in the region.

Paper short abstract:

Bevere Manor, on the east bank of the Severn in Worcestershire, was transformed into a liminal landscape - simultaneously public and private - in the nineteenth century. This paper explores the processes that formed this landscape and how the landscape itself reified this liminal state.

Paper long abstract:

The landscape of Bevere Manor on the east bank of the River Severn and north of the City of Worcester underwent a transformation in the mid-nineteenth century as the distinction between public and private life increased at the waning of the Georgian era and the onset of the Victorian. What had once been a working farm and a status symbol for successful gentleman farmers grew increasingly insular and hidden from the coarse world of commerce that plied the Severn. This process was wrought by changes to the landscape of the manor that rendered the Bevere household and the public waterway adjacent to it mutually invisible and disassociated.

However, the divide between these two realms was not discrete. Rather, the outskirts of the lands of the manor were transformed into a liminal space, simultaneously public and private. This paper will investigate the processes involved in the creation of this liminal landscape and how it functioned as a border between public and private.

Paper short abstract:

Ruins offer a liminal space for things which can't happen at home or in public. Graffiti is used to understand some of this.

Paper long abstract:

Archaeologists are often interested in ruins for what they represent. They either stand for the buildings that once occupied the place, or they stand for our attitude to the past. But for many people they are liminal spaces, neither public nor private; now nor then. This makes them perfect places for lovers, but also for anyone feeling on the edge. The presence of graffiti reflects this status, and potentially some of the ways in which the site is used.

A graffiti survey of Netley Abbey has highlighted some of the patterns in activity at this site over the last two hundred years. It shows that unique position the site has had in many lives and highlights transformations that the liminality has made possible.

Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to outline the archaeological and spatial indicators for marginalisation in the construction of Nineteenth Century District Lunatic Asylums and the creation of the 'lunatic'.

Paper long abstract:

In the nineteenth century, 'lunacy' may be considered an in-between state of being, set apart from the social world outside of the 'Asylum', and yet isolated and disassociated with fellow inmates (this includes patients and staff). From the professionalization of psychiatry in the early nineteenth century until the rise of community care in the late twentieth century, mental illness has been firmly separated from its physical counterpart, setting it apart. With the downscaling of centralised facilities for the administration of care for the mentally ill, the 'abandoned asylum' has become a common feature of townscapes in the British Isles and Ireland. For the most part still occupying locations on the fringes of towns, overlooking the landscape from heights and through carefully constructed vistas, the remains of asylums constructed in the nineteenth century provide a unique material trace for the study of socially imposed liminality in the last two hundred years.

Utilizing case studies related to ongoing PhD research, this paper aims to demonstrate the spatial and material reality of philosophies and social attitudes involved in the creation of the 'lunatic'. In this manner, I aim to demonstrate how these 'liminal beings' were created and facilitate, in the construction of purpose built institutions.

Paper short abstract:

This paper will explore the contested nature of the liminal landscape of Memorial Woodlands Burial Ground, near Bristol.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will examine the liminal landscape of the Woodlands Memorial Burial Ground at Alveston, just outside Bristol. Woodlands is one of over 200 natural burial centres which have appeared in the last two decades, reflecting our growing awareness of, and commitment to, mitigating the environmental problems that currently face the planet.

The landscape of modern day burial grounds may at first appear to be shadowy and ghostly as they are spaces that stand at the edge of people's day to day lives. After all, they are places that none of us want to visit, for if we do, it is usually to attend an event such as the burial of a relative or friend, which is coupled with loss, memory and emotion. Nonetheless, for many, they are places that are often integrated into their daily round, perhaps to walk their dogs, go jogging, tree-gazing or bird-watching or simply engage in melancholy reflection. They are also places where people may participate in illicit activity such as drug-taking or engage in sexual encounters.

Woodlands has become a landscape where the living use grave memorabilia, including letters, articles of clothing, seasonal decorations and even beer cans, to both express loss and construct memory, and to maintain, negotiate and regenerate their relationships with the dead. However, these practices are not sanctioned by the site owners and thus, as the bereaved attempt to reincorporate the dead into their everyday lives; the landscape has become a place of resistance for the families of the dead.

Paper short abstract:

Much is written on ruins. We should give equal consideration to the half-built building. This paper will explain why.

Paper long abstract:

Urban archaeology is obsessed with ruins as the bearers of many mystical qualities, in particular the haunting presence of a neglected past.

I would argue that more attention needs to be given to the ruin's temporal opposite, the half-built building, the nearly there, the not yet, the maybe. As well as being ubiquitous in the contemporary landscape (and part of the life of every building), the half-built building represents a time of temporal uncertainty in which the spectre of non-completion can be said to characterise the modern city, a haunting not by a neglected past but by a series of uncertain futures (see global financial meltdown).

This paper seeks to describe, through archaeology and art, the spectre of non-completion, its presence throughout the built environment, on building sites, in 'finished' buildings, and in ruins, as well as in uncompleted planning schemes.

Not only can such an investigation give a new perspective to contemporary urban archaeology, it can provide a useful socio-political role in investigating the different kinds of liminal space created by the uncertain time of 'becoming' represented by the half-built building and offer solutions as to how such spaces may be productively inhabited.

Paper long abstract:

Although transitional instances in people's life have received various interpretations and a great amount of ethnographic data has been gathered, however approaching such instances in past cultures confronts two main problems: the scarcity of archaeological evidence and the inevitable etic point of view of the researcher.

However, in the frame of Minoan Archaeology, a method of evading these two main problems is proposed. Instead of trying to trace adequate archaeological data which could be referring to liminal instances, it is proposed to search for the ideological and religious preconditions that would allow the approach of liminal "landscapes". This could be achieved by focusing on phenomena which are evolved around indisputable facts of social change and importance, such as death.

Through detailed approach of the data coming from the tholos tombs in Crete during the Pre and the Protopalatial period, many indications can be gathered by focusing into the ritual acts. The performance of both primary and secondary burials into the same chamber, the offerings to the dead, the rituals taking place inside and outside the tomb, the practice of fumigations and cleanings inside the tomb, all these practices can be explained through the animistic theory and Hertz's theory of double burials. What is more, certain aspects of the architecture of these tombs and their geographic position in relation with the site they served seem to be in accordance with theories of cognitive psychology. Finally, there are some indications of fear towards the dead and their spirit.