IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 1202: Medieval Monuments as Technologies of Remembrance, I

Wednesday 14 July 2010, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:	Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester
Organisers:	Meggen Gondek, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester Howard Williams, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester
Moderator/Chair:	Aleksandra McClain, Department of Archaeology, University of York
Paper 1202-a	Constructing Boat-Graves: Memories and Monuments (Language: English) Ing-Marie Back Danielsson, Department of Archaeology & Classical Studies, Stockholms Universitet Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites, Pagan Religions
Paper 1202-b	Beyond Iconography: Reuse and Reinterpretations of the Viking Age Picture Stones from the Island of Gotland, Sweden (Language: English) Alexander Andreeff, Institutionen för historiska studier, Göteborgs Universitet Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites, Pagan Religions
Paper 1202-c	Without a Trace?: Rituals and Remembrance at Viking Age Rune Stones (Language: English) Susanne Thedéen, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur, Stockholms Universitet Cecilia Ljung, Institutionen för arkeologi och antikens kultur, Stockholms Universitet Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites, Architecture - Religious
Abstract	Medieval monuments have been explored in detail from numerous perspectives including their style, form, function, iconography, and socio-political context. The session addresses a theme that has previously received limited detailed consideration for medieval monuments but has been recently discussed by scholars of prehistoric and early historic mortuary practices. Regarding monuments as 'technologies of remembrance' – a term originally employed by the prehistorian Andy Jones - papers explore the commemorative strategies inherent in the sequences of practical and ritualised action that took place during monument-building, monument-use, as well as monument adaptation and reuse. Based on new archaeological evidence, the papers approach medieval memories and identities as constituted through these sequences of embodied engagements with materiality and place. In doing so, the papers offer case studies and new perspectives in the study of monumentality in the Middle Ages from the 5th to the 15th centuries.