Skip to main content

IMC 2006: Sessions

Session 806: Gestures of Mourning and Expressions of Loss of Human and Material Resources in Early Medieval Cemeteries

Tuesday 11 July 2006, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:Department of Medieval History, University of Birmingham
Organiser:Olga Magoula, Department of Medieval History, University of Birmingham
Moderator/Chair:Christopher P. Callow, Department of Medieval History, University of Birmingham
Paper 806-aGraves and their Contexts: The Burials and Artefacts from the Basilica of Empuries, Spain
(Language: English)
Lucy Neville, Departament d'Humanitats, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites
Paper 806-bCancelled Tools of Trade: Concepts and Facts of their Deposition in Northern Frankish Burials
(Language: English)
Olga Magoula, Department of Medieval History, University of Birmingham
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites
Paper 806-cThe Expression of Regard: The Deposition of Money in Anglo-Saxon Inhumation Burials
(Language: English)
Mark Errington, Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity, University of Birmingham
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archaeology - General
Abstract

This session aims at current interpretations of loss of material and human resources to burials in different localities in early medieval Europe. Coins, artefacts, tools in burials within their contexts are treated usually as a point of departure for a number of assumptions and not as a point of study. Paper A focuses on grave goods in regard to the location of burials, the position of the body, and the nature of the graves and material correlates within a Basilica in Catalonia. The deposited sets of tools and implements associated with smithing and weaving activities in two cemeteries from Normandy, is the pretext for Paper B. Paper C is on coins and grave goods from Anglo-Saxon inhumations, how these express regard to the dead and reveal varied economic activities and ways to benefit the dead. All the papers explore how tools, coins, and other grave goods point to transactions, productive relations and their loss and its meaning within different early medieval societies.