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IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 1302: Medieval Monuments as Technologies of Remembrance, II

Wednesday 14 July 2010, 16.30-18.00

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:David Petts, Department of Archaeology, Durham University
Paper 1302-aRevealing the Stories in Pictish Stones: Carving Ritual, Memories, Actions, and Materials
(Language: English)
Meggen Gondek, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites, Art History - Sculpture
Paper 1302-bSubterranean Memories: Rock-Cutting Ethiopian Churches as Commemorative Practice
(Language: English)
Niall Finneran, Department of Archaeology, University of Winchester
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites, Architecture - Religious
Paper 1302-cCommemorative Technologies and Transformations in Anglo-Saxon Architecture
(Language: English)
Howard Williams, Department of History & Archaeology, University of Chester
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Archaeology - Sites
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.