Paper short abstract

Iron Age burials in Orkney are few in number yet the cemetery at Berst Ness, Westray uncovered more than forty inhumations including a high number of infants, particularly perinates and neonates. This paper introduces the site and will attempt to outline the significance of such high numbers of infants.

Paper long abstract

Excavations at Berst Ness on Westray in the Orkney Islands have uncovered a complex site with structures ranging in date from at least the Bronze Age through to nineteenth century kelp-pits. Part of the Iron Age use of the site has proven to be a large cemetery with upwards of 40 adult, adolescent and child inhumations, a much greater number of infants, and some animals interred in the rubble of earlier buildings. The human remains are now being examined as part of a PhD project in the University of Edinburgh.

A limited programme of radio-carbon dating has produced dates between 200BC and 400AD for these burials. Such a large number of burials is unique for this time in Orkney - a period characterised by its monumental domestic structures. The high number of infants, perinates and neonates in particular, is of even greater interest given the lack of infant burials in formal cemeteries of almost all periods.

This paper will outline the cemetery phase of the site with particular attention to the child and infant burials, give a brief account of the early stages of the skeletal analysis which is already yielding interesting results, and attempt an early approach at the significance of these infant burials in the study of Orkney's funerary archaeology.

Paper short abstract

Identity and space are related concepts in archaeology. Space is created by human groups and human groups act as hubs that concentrate individual agencies in the creation of a shared fluid identity through technologies.

Paper long abstract

In archaeology, the concepts of identity and space are closely linked. In this paper I intend to relate the creation of space and identity showing as a case-study the process of islamization of the Iberian Peninsula in the early middle ages. When in 711-4 AD the Muslims took over the peninsula, they were constituted in a set of essentially different groups with different expectations about the outcome of the invading campaign, and they encountered populations with diverse views of their respective situations. This created a fragmented society (or societies) where human groups had to negotiate actively their identities and their technologies of subsistence (and thus their occupation of space).

Archaeology of the early Islamic period in Iberia has extensively studied pottery and irrigation as markers of social change. Pottery of this period shows a pattern of technological and morphological variety that can be reflected in the territory. Irrigation steadily spreaded throughout the peninsula, but the pace of the process varied regionally. Even when both technologies show parallel developments, local-scale studies show that different groups had their say.

The creation of space obeyed to the application of different technologies, but at the same time the latter were part of the negotiations of identity of each group. In this society, a group is a hub that concentrates individual agencies in the constant creation of a common fluid identity. Fluidity in identity is thus fluidity of a space that is continuously created, and thus understanding different technologies on space we can get to understand the interplay of identities on it.

Paper short abstract

This paper aims to explore the status of children in the medieval period by comparing the osteological evidence on their development and health with archaeological data on burial practice.

Paper long abstract

Medieval burial practice in England tends to be fairly homogenous, with the majority of Christians laid to rest in simple graves. Although this is generally true, subtle variations in burial practice are present. Status of the individual in medieval society was highly important whether this was defined by income, lineage, religious role, gender or age. This paper aims to explore the status of children through an analysis of burial location alongside the biological evidence for their growth and health. The location of burial is thought to relate to status, with high status individuals buried within church buildings, whilst those of low status would be located on the periphery of the cemetery. Osteological analysis can inform us about age, development, and the health of individual children, and this evidence can enable us to interpret status, in the form of the health and growth of individuals. Several forms of biological evidence were recorded, including dental age, long bone length, the presence or absence of stress indicators, and dental health. These biological markers were explored in relation to location of burial within the cemetery, and the proximity of burial to the church. The remains of two hundred and sixty-two children dating from the twelfth to the mid-sixteenth centuries were analysed from three priory cemeteries; SS Peter and Paul, Taunton, St Oswald, Gloucester, and St Gregory, Canterbury.

Paper short abstract

Burial grounds used for unbaptised infants from the late 1500s to early 1900s across the Scottish Highlands provide a glimpse into conceptions of the infant, eschatological concerns, and the role of retained/reworked medieval practices in alleviating those concerns, even long after Reformation.

Paper long abstract

From the Reformation to the early 20th Century, the unbaptised infant dead were interred in secret burial grounds across northwest Scotland, their locations known only to a small, local community. Traditionally buried by nightfall in unmarked or nominally marked but anonymous graves, only a very few family members would know the exact site of the remains. Their graves were considered dangerous, even deadly, and avoiding infant burial grounds was actively advocated in folk tradition.

These unnamed, unbaptised infants did not fall neatly into public or personal narratives of remembrance: they never quite existed. Outside of the culture of both the living and the acceptable dead they were excluded from the eternal fate of their named counterparts. With the Reformation came official declarations that limbo and purgatory were abominations, leaving no recognised recourse for families to ensure their unbaptised infant's eternal fate.

Despite this, archaeological survey shows a high affinity for abandoned holy ground as host sites for infant burial grounds (IBGs), several of which still bear the name of sympathetic saints such as St. Bridget 'Mary of the Gaels', and the Virgin Mary. IBGs also continually reappear in locations with a strong water presence: by the sea, at river confluences, alongside lochs. Taken within the broader perspective, it is possible to identify key eschatological concerns in the early modern Gaelhealtachd, particularly for the infant dead, and the role of retained and/or reworked medieval practices in alleviating those concerns, even long after the Reformation.

Paper short abstract

The paper explores the concepts of 'meaningful' and 'meaningless' deposition of human and animal remains in archaeological interpretation, as an echo of the Modernist narrative on the 'Nature-Culture' dichotomy. The case-study I chose is the Danube Gorges of the Balkans.

Paper long abstract

Human and animal remains are commonly found on archaeological sites. In the Mesolithic-Neolithic Danube Gorges of the Balkans, complete, fragmented or disarticulated human and animal bodies were found in many different contexts associated with dwellings, hearths and pits. There has been an apparent tendency in archaeological literature to interpret all contexts with human remains as 'burials', while animal remains have been referred to as 'grave goods' or 'offerings'; evidence of 'food consumption' and 'rubbish pits'. Given that the strict separation of humankind from nature is developed within European Modernist thought and not universally shared, I argue that we need to move beyond arbitrary concepts of 'meaningful' and 'meaningless' material culture when studying human and animal remains. In different cultural contexts, the nature-culture dichotomy may be less pronounced or even non-existent, while the category of 'human' or 'person' may extend to include other living and non-living things. I would like to query the prevalent notion that only human bodies posses agency, and therefore their post-mortem treatment is always 'meaningful' and 'structured' (i.e. 'burial'), while animal bodies belong to the sphere of 'everyday' economy. The question of interpretation of human and animal remains must be answered contextually, by comparing the context of deposition and the post-mortem treatment. Addressing this topic from a body-focused perspective and incorporating 'non-Western' perspectives of the body and person may shed more light on the meanings ascribed to human and animal bodies in the prehistoric past, and the fluidity of boundaries between human and non-human beings.

Paper short abstract

The current understanding of feasting practices in the past is circumscribed by the necessary presence of a self-aggrandizing male agent. A more fruitful approach may be developed by incorporating a variety of motivations understood intersectionally, as demonstrated from a Mesoamerican perspective.

Paper long abstract

Current approaches to feasting practices in the archaeological record have a rather narrow conception of who was responsible for feasts, and their reasons for holding them. Most recent conceptualizations focus upon self-aggrandizing, elite-aspiring males, but this view leaves little room for diversity in the wide range of actors' identities and motivations. A multitude of other possible standpoints have the potential to broaden our understanding of these important social events. Through the intersection of the ancient Maya ritual ballgame, associated feasting, and gendered participation, I argue for the necessity of accounting for and incorporating a variety of perspectives and motivations when considering feasting as an important and archaeologically visible form of social interaction. This will facilitate a more richly textured understanding of this complex form of social negotiation.