Paper short abstract:

This paper uses a discussion of the cremation tradition during the Bronze Age in order reconsider our interpretations of craftsmanship. In particular 'craft' will be considered in relation to materiality and performance in a bid to understand the dynamics of this category of practice.

Paper long abstract:

What constitutes craft? Is it a consistency in learnt and replicated practices? The creation of new material things? The localisation of repeated acts to a particular area or person? Can you have craftsmanship without skill? Or creation without material culture? In this paper I wish to deconstruct a popular 'craft' perspective, and consider which practices can be included into the remit of 'crafts' considering where, if any, differentiations come between making, altering and performing. This appraisal will re-evaluate how we appropriate Bronze Age perceptions of practice into the remit of craftsmanship. To aid this discussion I will be focusing on one particular practice rarely associated with craftsmanship, that of cremation. In order to produce a new substance from the deceased the process of cremation involves learnt and replicated acts which employ particular techniques and technologies. However, despite this we rarely consider cremation as a craft. Using examples, primarily from Bronze Age Wales, I will explore potential Bronze Age attitudes to substances of the world and of the body and consider where divisions concerning materials and making may have existed. I will do this in part by investigating a number of variables in the quantity, condition and contextual treatment of cremation materials in contrast with other substances and objects within welsh Bronze Age contexts. In order to consider what is and what is not a craft we must formulate an idea of a Bronze Age perception of materiality and performance and try to rethink how crafts are located within this.