The Materiality of Death - mikroarkeologi.se

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Fig. 1. A selection of face-urns from Denmark and Poland (from Aasbøe 2006). 106
The recurring themes in the debate have been which faceurns came first, who influenced who and what kind of relationship there was between the areas in which you find these urns. The Norwegian and Danish face-urns have been proposed to be both early examples of the phenomenon (Gjessing 1925, Bjørn 1926) and late examples (Broholm 1948:162) based on their simple decor. The research history will not be attended in this article, but for those interested, a more thorough study of the theme is presented in “Sørnorske ansiktsurner – Et studie av lokal kontekst og interregionale kontakter” (Aasbøe 2006). There is, at present, insufficient evidence to categorically state which type of urn came first or where the face-urns originated. It is however more interesting to emphasise the fact that these urns are used in a similar way at the same time over a large area. Looking at the total number of face-urns and their wide distribution, it becomes clear that this type of urn has been the privilege of a small number of individuals in their respective local communities. Face-urns from Denmark, Poland and Etruria have been dated on typological grounds to the transition between Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. Carbon dating of the burnt bone from two of the faceurns found in Norway has been possible. The results date the face-urns to around 950 BCE (pers. com. Joakim Goldhahn 28.10.05). Form, decor and material The Norwegian face-urns are biconical. This means that the top and bottom of the urn are smaller in diameter than the widest point of the ‘belly’ of the urn. The point, where top and bottom can be said to meet, usually lies just below the middle of the pot, but in some cases it is located above the centre. Face-urns from Denmark, Poland and Etruria can also loosely be characterized as biconical. Looking more closely at the form, examples from one particular area in Poland show the closest resemblance to the Norwegian face-urns, while those from Denmark, the rest of the Polish examples and those from Etruria differ in a number of ways. The most notable difference can be seen in the transition from the neck of the urn to the belly. The face-urns from Poland (especially those from around the Danzig area) and those from Denmark, often have a narrowing between neck and belly marked by a groove or furrow (fig. 1). This makes them look more like vases than the face-urns from Norway and Legnica. The Norwegian face-urns and the face-urns from Legnica lack this type of marked transition from neck to belly. With the exception of one of the Norwegian face-urns all have eyes in the form of pierced holes. These holes are located quite close together, just a few centimetres below the pot’s rim. Except from the eyes, the only decor found on Norwegian face-urns are noses, and only in two cases is there evidence of these. It was not possible to locate face-urns with eyes in the form of pierced holes from the literature regarding Danish face-urns (Broholm 1948). Instead they had impressions and, in rare cases, modelled eyes or eyes carved in the clay. Among the face-urns from Legnica seven out of twelve have pierced holes as eyes. Three descriptions lack information about the eyes’ appearance, and two have eyes in the form of impressions. The Legnica face-urns sometimes have a little nose and more seldom a tiny mouth. Other decor is absent. Apart from the Legnica finds, eyes in the form of pierced holes are rare and only found in areas with a large number of face-urns (LA Baume 1963:151-184). The face-urns from Poland and Denmark often have decor in the form of grooves and pictograms, unlike the Norwegian face-urns and the face-urns from Legnica (fig. 2). Fig. 2. The Norwegian face-urns and face-urns from Legnica, Poland (from Aasbøe 2006). There is no information about ceramic analyses of the face-urns in the literature. This is a source of information not yet explored. However, the structure and surface of the materials suggest that the Norwegian face-urns could have been locally made. Legnica is an area along the river Oder in the south of Poland and a strategic place to get even further south on the continent. 107
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The Materiality of Death Bodies, bu
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Contents Chapter 1. The Materiality
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Fig. 1. Pieter Bruegel, The Triumph
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ather one has to emphasise the mate
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dead are often regarded as unfriend
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Fig 3. The old man Tei Tetuna by hi
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The Materiality of Social Change: H
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The Materiality of Eternity - The A
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FAHLANDER, F. & OESTIGAARD, T. 2004
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Susanne Kuechler-Fogden, Webb Keane
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Chapter 2 More than Metaphor: Appro
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discuss death and the treatment of
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had to deal with. This is not to sa
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hide that could be removed to expos
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pp111-123. Philadelphia: University
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Chapter 3 A Piece of the Mesolithic
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The main point is that the division
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A Piece of the Mesolithic: Skatehol
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question we need to construct some
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Fig. 4. Skateholm I (above) and Ska
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visible many years after the origin
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Phase Area Properties Interpretatio
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phase of one site with a contempora
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MILNER, N. & WOODMAN, P. 2005. Meso
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with dead people belonging to other
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Fig. 2. Due to the extraordinaire c
Page 56 and 57:
As with all cremations in Hinduism,
Page 58 and 59:
Based on the amount of scattered bo
Page 60 and 61: To have an ethical approach involve
Page 63 and 64: Chapter 5 From Corpse to Ancestor:
Page 65 and 66: Figure 2. Isola Sacra, Tomb 100. Ph
Page 67 and 68: Figure 4. Isola Sacra, Tomb 87. Pho
Page 73: 69 Burials
Page 76 and 77: through careful recording of the or
Page 78 and 79: Figure 4: Pencraig Hill: Distributi
Page 80 and 81: focussed on use of partial sets of
Page 83 and 84: Chapter 7 Ritual and Remembrance at
Page 85 and 86: urial (tomba a doppio loculo tipo M
Page 87 and 88: ‘original’ walls of the tomb. L
Page 89 and 90: chambers cut into two earlier trenc
Page 91: Madison: Prehistory Press, Monograp
Page 94 and 95: Well-organized cemeteries or messy
Page 96 and 97: influenced who was buried inside th
Page 98 and 99: it was quite short, which could ind
Page 100 and 101: References ARTELIUS, TORE 2004. Min
Page 103 and 104: Chapter 9 Life and Death in the Bro
Page 105 and 106: Fig. 5.1. Cremation necropolis at P
Page 107 and 108: place. These burials were very simp
Page 109: Chapter 10 Norwegian Face-Urns: Loc
Page 113 and 114: The local context of the Norwegian
Page 115 and 116: Death is the inevitable conclusion
Page 117 and 118: OESTIGAARD, T. 1999. Cremations as
Page 119 and 120: Chapter 11 The Use of Ochre in Ston
Page 121 and 122: Ochre was used so intensively that
Page 123 and 124: Fig. 5. Zvejnieki burial ground. Th
Page 125 and 126: grave has been dated to 5690±45 BP
Page 127 and 128: Khanty of northern Siberia, the col
Page 129 and 130: 125 Beliefs
Page 131 and 132: Chapter 12 ”Death Myths”: Perfo
Page 133 and 134: Variation within the same cist Bø,
Page 135 and 136: Variation within the same mound Lyd
Page 137 and 138: Figures 6 and 7. Modvo, Luster muni
Page 139 and 140: To what extent there have been corr
Page 141 and 142: when they die, a probable explanati
Page 143 and 144: fragmented spindles, iron weaving s
Page 145 and 146: Chapter 13 Reproduction and Relocat
Page 147 and 148: may be questioned, and analysed mor
Page 149 and 150: References Andersson, G. 1997: A st
Page 151 and 152: Chapter 14 A Road for the Viking’
Page 153 and 154: Figure 2. The Jarlabanke Bridge tha
Page 155 and 156: Chapter 15 A Road to the Other Side
Page 157 and 158: Fig. 4. Clearing the bridge on an e
Page 159 and 160: Chapter 16 Stones and Bones: The My
Page 161 and 162:
Fig. 4. An Iron Age scene at Sylta
Page 163 and 164:
Fig. 7. The resemblance between cru
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