Harold Mytum | University of Liverpool (original) (raw)
Papers by Harold Mytum
Heritage
St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and churchyard, Toxteth, Liverpool, UK, is the focus of commu... more St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and churchyard, Toxteth, Liverpool, UK, is the focus of community efforts to research and conserve the heritage asset, and archaeologists at the University of Liverpool were invited to contribute their expertise to co-produce new understandings of this locally significant place. Roman Catholic vault burial in Britain has not previously been archaeologically investigated, and the use of rock-cut burial pits, visible in the churchyard, appeared to be a response to the massive demand for urban burial during the nineteenth century. The project has combined local knowledge with surface survey and recording memorials in the churchyard, mapping the crypt and recording the interior of the four vaults at the western end of the crypt after they had been temporarily opened by the community volunteers. This enabled standard and photogrammetric recording, and PXRF analysis of the in-situ coffin fittings. No human remains were revealed. Interviews with voluntee...
Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examina... more Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examination of the layout of the Blanches Banques Camp for German World War I military prisoners. By combining the new survey data with surviving contemporary images, subsequent aerial photographs and an account by the camp designer, Major T. E. Naish, it is possible to understand the decision-making processes in constructing and maintaining the camp, and the constrained world in which the occupants spent several years of the war. This, one of the best-preserved World War I prisoner of war camps in the British Isles, can still be appreciated by walking over the dunes today, and deserves the highest level of protection for the future.
Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Archaeologica
The range of post-medieval burial structures found in Britain and Ireland defined by Julian Litte... more The range of post-medieval burial structures found in Britain and Ireland defined by Julian Litten in 1985 are reviewed in the light of more recent discoveries. The degree of variability within each of these – lined burial shafts, small family vaults, large family vaults, and communal crypts – can now be evaluated. Using the biography of objects approach for the first time on mortuary data, the changing agency of coffins over their use-lives is considered, with varying degree of visibility during the stages between construction and final deposition. The biography of vaults is indicated through a selection of burial structures, revealing patterns of use over time. Issues of space management, in some cases with considerable overcrowding and movement of coffins, is seen to be problem only with communal crypts. Shafts and vaults were predominantly for few generations, apart from some elite family where the same space could be used over several centuries.
Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War, 2012
Maney Publishing and Society for Post-medieval Archaeology, 2006
The external memorials of Welburn graveyard were recorded as part of a student training and for r... more The external memorials of Welburn graveyard were recorded as part of a student training and for research into regional styles of monument in Yorkshire
The external memorials of St Mark's Churchyard were recorded as a community involvement proje... more The external memorials of St Mark's Churchyard were recorded as a community involvement project for research into the spatial development of the burial ground
The external memorials of Malew Old Churchyard graveyard were recorded as part of student trainin... more The external memorials of Malew Old Churchyard graveyard were recorded as part of student training with community involvement for research into the spatial development of the burial ground
The external memorials of Malew 1895 Churchyard extension were recorded as part of student traini... more The external memorials of Malew 1895 Churchyard extension were recorded as part of student training with community involvement for research into the spatial development of the burial ground
The external memorials of Bulmer graveyard were recorded as part of student training and for rese... more The external memorials of Bulmer graveyard were recorded as part of student training and for research into regional styles of monument in Yorkshire
Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examina... more Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examination of the layout of the Blanches Banques Camp for German World War I military prisoners. By combining the new survey data with surviving contemporary images, subsequent aerial photographs and an account by the camp designer, Major T. E. Naish, it is possible to understand the decision-making processes in constructing and maintaining the camp, and the constrained world in which the occupants spent several years of the war. This, one of the best-preserved World War I prisoner of war camps in the British Isles, can still be appreciated by walking over the dunes today, and deserves the highest level of protection for the future.
A consultation exercise was conducted to scope the current state of digital data regarding cemete... more A consultation exercise was conducted to scope the current state of digital data regarding cemeteries and burial grounds, and the requirements of a range of stakeholders in the use of digital data related to cemeteries and burial grounds. The study also assessed the volunteer interest in conducting digital recording of cemeteries and burial grounds, the ways in which this would feed into heritage management structures such as Historic Environment Records, and how the survey archives would be digitally curated and made freely accessible to the wide range of potential users.
Historical Archaeology, 2021
European perspectives on the study of human remains, particularly mummified individuals with asso... more European perspectives on the study of human remains, particularly mummified individuals with associated material culture, highlight the multidisciplinary research potential of these rare discoveries. The diverse evidence associated with mummified remains offers unique potential to consider how the deceased was experienced over time. Scientific analyses reveal the complex taphonomic processes leading to the selective survival of tissue and cultural items. Medical approaches to mummies have been long established, but historical examples can combine cultural and historical sources with the palaeopathological to develop more nuanced understandings of disease and lifestyle, identifying both individual biographies and wider cultural trends in mortuary practice. Study of mummies raises ethical considerations similar to those for skeletonized remains, but given the greater recognition of their humanity, further social and religious considerations are relevant. Investigation needs to be set ...
Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6594.079(15) / BLDSC - British Library ... more Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6594.079(15) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
Archaeologists interpret the past based on patterns in the physical data recovered, but negative ... more Archaeologists interpret the past based on patterns in the physical data recovered, but negative evidence may also be informative. This paper examines factors behind the uneven representation of mariners on historic memorials, revealing how consideration of the absent should also be part of any analysis. Many individuals had their graves marked by inscribed memorials in Ireland from the late 18 th century onwards, acting as both grave markers and foci for memory and commemorative practices. Mariners may have died on land, and so are interred in the grave, or at sea and their bodies have been lost. These create different issues regarding grieving and commemoration, and archaeology can examine how far this is materially represented in their memorials. Following some wider consideration of mariners' memorials, two Irish case studies are consideredone the Protestant graveyard of Donaghadee, County Down, the other the commemoration of a maritime disaster at Dun Laoghaire, County Dublinfollowed by a consideration of why so few Irish Catholic mariners were explicitly commemorated on memorials. It is suggested that varied attitudes to remembering and forgetting 'bad deaths' may in part explain this silence. Recent archaeological research in North America and England by David Stewart (2011) examines the mariner experience as a distinctive subculture that had its own attitudes to mortality and ways of brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by University of Liverpool Repository This is an author produced pre-print of a peer-reviewed article that has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Irish Archaeology, 35 (2016),105-122. The definitive publisher version is available via Wordwell at http://wordwellbooks.com/JournalArchaeology. Please cite the published version of this paper where possible. dealing with the problem of the 'bad death'. His examples are largely Protestant, but from a wide geographical range-America, the Caribbean, and England. Some uniformity across these regions is not surprising because of the movement of crews, and indeed their often international make-up. Much, though not all, of Stewart's evidence comes from naval contexts. Earlier work in Wales (Mytum and Kilminster1987; Mytum 1990), has provided evidence for mariner memorials within largely Protestant merchant marine contexts. Stewart in particular has considered the effect of sudden, often violent, death being a constant shadow over the 18 th-and 19 th-century maritime community, and how this affected attitudes and behaviour on-board as well as the ways in which bodies were disposed of and, in some cases, commemorated subsequently on land. Consideration of the Irish monumental evidence allows examination of attitudes and behaviours within Catholic communities as well as Protestant ones, and whether Irish mariners who died on land were commemorated in a different way from those who died at sea. This can then be compared with the British evidence to see if there is any variation in attitudes to the 'bad death' of drowning at sea.
Society for Historical Archaeology, 2014
Heritage
St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and churchyard, Toxteth, Liverpool, UK, is the focus of commu... more St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and churchyard, Toxteth, Liverpool, UK, is the focus of community efforts to research and conserve the heritage asset, and archaeologists at the University of Liverpool were invited to contribute their expertise to co-produce new understandings of this locally significant place. Roman Catholic vault burial in Britain has not previously been archaeologically investigated, and the use of rock-cut burial pits, visible in the churchyard, appeared to be a response to the massive demand for urban burial during the nineteenth century. The project has combined local knowledge with surface survey and recording memorials in the churchyard, mapping the crypt and recording the interior of the four vaults at the western end of the crypt after they had been temporarily opened by the community volunteers. This enabled standard and photogrammetric recording, and PXRF analysis of the in-situ coffin fittings. No human remains were revealed. Interviews with voluntee...
Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examina... more Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examination of the layout of the Blanches Banques Camp for German World War I military prisoners. By combining the new survey data with surviving contemporary images, subsequent aerial photographs and an account by the camp designer, Major T. E. Naish, it is possible to understand the decision-making processes in constructing and maintaining the camp, and the constrained world in which the occupants spent several years of the war. This, one of the best-preserved World War I prisoner of war camps in the British Isles, can still be appreciated by walking over the dunes today, and deserves the highest level of protection for the future.
Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Archaeologica
The range of post-medieval burial structures found in Britain and Ireland defined by Julian Litte... more The range of post-medieval burial structures found in Britain and Ireland defined by Julian Litten in 1985 are reviewed in the light of more recent discoveries. The degree of variability within each of these – lined burial shafts, small family vaults, large family vaults, and communal crypts – can now be evaluated. Using the biography of objects approach for the first time on mortuary data, the changing agency of coffins over their use-lives is considered, with varying degree of visibility during the stages between construction and final deposition. The biography of vaults is indicated through a selection of burial structures, revealing patterns of use over time. Issues of space management, in some cases with considerable overcrowding and movement of coffins, is seen to be problem only with communal crypts. Shafts and vaults were predominantly for few generations, apart from some elite family where the same space could be used over several centuries.
Cultural Heritage and Prisoners of War, 2012
Maney Publishing and Society for Post-medieval Archaeology, 2006
The external memorials of Welburn graveyard were recorded as part of a student training and for r... more The external memorials of Welburn graveyard were recorded as part of a student training and for research into regional styles of monument in Yorkshire
The external memorials of St Mark's Churchyard were recorded as a community involvement proje... more The external memorials of St Mark's Churchyard were recorded as a community involvement project for research into the spatial development of the burial ground
The external memorials of Malew Old Churchyard graveyard were recorded as part of student trainin... more The external memorials of Malew Old Churchyard graveyard were recorded as part of student training with community involvement for research into the spatial development of the burial ground
The external memorials of Malew 1895 Churchyard extension were recorded as part of student traini... more The external memorials of Malew 1895 Churchyard extension were recorded as part of student training with community involvement for research into the spatial development of the burial ground
The external memorials of Bulmer graveyard were recorded as part of student training and for rese... more The external memorials of Bulmer graveyard were recorded as part of student training and for research into regional styles of monument in Yorkshire
Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examina... more Complete surface mapping, combined with sample geophysical survey, has enabled a detailed examination of the layout of the Blanches Banques Camp for German World War I military prisoners. By combining the new survey data with surviving contemporary images, subsequent aerial photographs and an account by the camp designer, Major T. E. Naish, it is possible to understand the decision-making processes in constructing and maintaining the camp, and the constrained world in which the occupants spent several years of the war. This, one of the best-preserved World War I prisoner of war camps in the British Isles, can still be appreciated by walking over the dunes today, and deserves the highest level of protection for the future.
A consultation exercise was conducted to scope the current state of digital data regarding cemete... more A consultation exercise was conducted to scope the current state of digital data regarding cemeteries and burial grounds, and the requirements of a range of stakeholders in the use of digital data related to cemeteries and burial grounds. The study also assessed the volunteer interest in conducting digital recording of cemeteries and burial grounds, the ways in which this would feed into heritage management structures such as Historic Environment Records, and how the survey archives would be digitally curated and made freely accessible to the wide range of potential users.
Historical Archaeology, 2021
European perspectives on the study of human remains, particularly mummified individuals with asso... more European perspectives on the study of human remains, particularly mummified individuals with associated material culture, highlight the multidisciplinary research potential of these rare discoveries. The diverse evidence associated with mummified remains offers unique potential to consider how the deceased was experienced over time. Scientific analyses reveal the complex taphonomic processes leading to the selective survival of tissue and cultural items. Medical approaches to mummies have been long established, but historical examples can combine cultural and historical sources with the palaeopathological to develop more nuanced understandings of disease and lifestyle, identifying both individual biographies and wider cultural trends in mortuary practice. Study of mummies raises ethical considerations similar to those for skeletonized remains, but given the greater recognition of their humanity, further social and religious considerations are relevant. Investigation needs to be set ...
Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6594.079(15) / BLDSC - British Library ... more Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:6594.079(15) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
Archaeologists interpret the past based on patterns in the physical data recovered, but negative ... more Archaeologists interpret the past based on patterns in the physical data recovered, but negative evidence may also be informative. This paper examines factors behind the uneven representation of mariners on historic memorials, revealing how consideration of the absent should also be part of any analysis. Many individuals had their graves marked by inscribed memorials in Ireland from the late 18 th century onwards, acting as both grave markers and foci for memory and commemorative practices. Mariners may have died on land, and so are interred in the grave, or at sea and their bodies have been lost. These create different issues regarding grieving and commemoration, and archaeology can examine how far this is materially represented in their memorials. Following some wider consideration of mariners' memorials, two Irish case studies are consideredone the Protestant graveyard of Donaghadee, County Down, the other the commemoration of a maritime disaster at Dun Laoghaire, County Dublinfollowed by a consideration of why so few Irish Catholic mariners were explicitly commemorated on memorials. It is suggested that varied attitudes to remembering and forgetting 'bad deaths' may in part explain this silence. Recent archaeological research in North America and England by David Stewart (2011) examines the mariner experience as a distinctive subculture that had its own attitudes to mortality and ways of brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by University of Liverpool Repository This is an author produced pre-print of a peer-reviewed article that has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Irish Archaeology, 35 (2016),105-122. The definitive publisher version is available via Wordwell at http://wordwellbooks.com/JournalArchaeology. Please cite the published version of this paper where possible. dealing with the problem of the 'bad death'. His examples are largely Protestant, but from a wide geographical range-America, the Caribbean, and England. Some uniformity across these regions is not surprising because of the movement of crews, and indeed their often international make-up. Much, though not all, of Stewart's evidence comes from naval contexts. Earlier work in Wales (Mytum and Kilminster1987; Mytum 1990), has provided evidence for mariner memorials within largely Protestant merchant marine contexts. Stewart in particular has considered the effect of sudden, often violent, death being a constant shadow over the 18 th-and 19 th-century maritime community, and how this affected attitudes and behaviour on-board as well as the ways in which bodies were disposed of and, in some cases, commemorated subsequently on land. Consideration of the Irish monumental evidence allows examination of attitudes and behaviours within Catholic communities as well as Protestant ones, and whether Irish mariners who died on land were commemorated in a different way from those who died at sea. This can then be compared with the British evidence to see if there is any variation in attitudes to the 'bad death' of drowning at sea.
Society for Historical Archaeology, 2014
Historical archaeologists, with their rich variety of sources and opportunity to work at a range ... more Historical archaeologists, with their rich variety of sources and opportunity to work at a range of scales from the individual to the global, are often confronting complex patterns of relationships. This symposium offers a range of papers that consider archaeological data by applying theoretical approaches that emphasize the importance of the relational. Already applied in a relatively small number of archaeological case studies, these approaches have been more popular to date in historical geography but should be effective in opening up new ways of approaching the material world of the recent past. The symposium indicates a range of examples of relational analysis from the late Middle Ages to the 20 th century to indicate the potential of these theoretical frameworks.