All Things Shining: Towards ‘multi-dimensional’ typologies of Bronze Age Britain (Powerpoint) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Creating a research agenda for the Bronze Age in Britain
2008
For the first volume of the Bronze Age Review, the editor invited senior scholars to draw on their experience and expertise and write on what they would like to see happening in Bronze Age research in Britain in the future. They were asked to look as broadly as they can and explore issues and areas of study that they feel are currently missing or underdeveloped. The aim is to provide a period of open consultation until 31 January 2009 with suggestions, comments and proposed new chapters to the editor who can be contacted at broberts@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk. The authors will subsequently revise their articles for inclusion in a volume published by the British Museum Press.
Material genealogies: bronze moulds and their castings in later Bronze Age Britain
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2016
Bivalve bronze moulds were used for casting bronze and lead objects – mainly axes – during the middle and late Bronze Age. These remarkable artefacts, which were sometimes beautifully decorated, have been surprisingly little studied. This paper discusses the bronze moulds from Britain, outlining the range of possibilities that existed for the life courses of these objects during the three broad stages of manufacture, use and deposition. Two points will be emphasised. Firstly, it will be shown that the biographical pathways available to bronze moulds differed significantly from those of moulds made from stone or clay, which may relate to the differing properties and conceptual associations of these three materials. Secondly, the relationships between the life courses of bronze moulds and the artefacts cast in them will be explored, focusing particularly on cases in which moulds and their castings were deposited together in the same hoard. It will be suggested that the 'genealogical' link between a mould and its 'offspring' could have formed a significant element of the biography of both objects.
Pre-proof draft 23 rd -26 th June 2003. 'Bronze and the Bronze Age' was originally published by Tempus Publishing Ltd, The Mill, Brimscombe Port, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 2QG in 2003. Text (including errors) © Martyn Barber, 2003. NB this version only contains the few illustrations that are either © Martyn Barber or are out of copyright. References to illustrations have been retained in the text, and a full list and all captions can be found at the end of the book. Note that the illustration numbering sequence here is as featured in the draft text submitted in June 2003, and not as in the published book.
Personal experience has made it clear that the phrase "Bronze Age metalwork" is one that can clear rooms, or at least prompt a quick change of subject. Getting to grips with the typological minutiae that can seem to dominate the subject is a process whose lengthy and complicated nature can make avoidance seem the best option. Nonetheless, general developments in the way we consider the material culture of past societies as well as specific studies of Bronze Age metalwork by Richard Bradley, Stuart Needham and others all point towards the possibilities for metalwork to make a more useful and interesting contribution to the study of the Bronze Age (e.g. Bradley ). New discoveries need not be regarded purely as cultural and chronological markers. Rather than offer a comprehensive discussion of the subject however, the aim of this paper is to highlight some of the ways in which metalwork deposition has been considered, underlining some important recent contributions, and to point out further potential approaches to interpreting prehistoric metalwork.
Relational Typologies, Assemblage Theory and Early Bronze Age Burials
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 2017
This article argues that artefact types and typologies are kinds of assemblages, presenting an explicitly relational interpretation of typology grounded in a more-than-representational assemblage theory. In the process it evaluates recent approaches to typology, and the interpretations these typologies have supported, and compares these with approaches which emphasize materiality and experience. It then illustrates the benefit of drawing these two angles of analysis closer together within an approach grounded in a more-than-representational assemblage theory. Throughout, the discussion revolves around British Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age burials and types of artefacts commonly found within them. The core argument is that, if used appropriately, typologies are not constraints to the appreciation of distinctiveness, difference and relationality in the past, but can rather form an important tool in detecting those relations and making sense of different past ways of becoming.
Prehistoric Society, 2021
My first impression was that this book was going to fall firmly in the tradition of thematic-centred overviews of the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age used to such great effect by Richard Bradley in his black-book or 'circle' trilogy, starting with The Significance of Monuments (also published by Routledge). These often read like a quick sprint, a clever idea deftly communicated through a lively though selective use of examples. In comparison, Bronze Age Worlds is more of a long walk, a slower pace, its points more densely explored. The structure of the book is more circular than linear, returning again and again to the same subjectssepulchral traditions, metalwork deposits, settlements, landscape architecturebut at different scales of inclusivity. This provides a rich and rewarding reading experience on the Bronze Age of Britain and Ireland for the period c. 2500-700 BC. The book begins with a discussion of the discovery and previous interpretations of the Late Bronze Age associated deposit from Dowris, County Offaly (IE), supplemented by Johnston's own: "a gathering of things and a gathering of persons" (p.5). Here, each artefact in the deposit is suggested to have been individually contributed (as part of a wider 'gift economy'), each embodying a different 'person'. Broader scales of both time and space are also represented. This includes the condition of the artefacts, as reflected in use-traces and repairs, and in their morphology, which variously embody local, regional and supra-regional 'styles', as well as differing periods of manufacture. The function of certain artefacts, such as the bronze cauldron and buckets, may also reference collective events where participants gathered to feast. Finally, the location of the deposit, whilst possibly meaningful in its own right (isolated, marginal), may have embodied further meaning in respect of the other kinds of places that surrounded it. This extended discussion of Dowris serves to introduce the central theme of the book: kinship. It also places what follows, albeit briefly, in its wider archaeological milieu (post-processual; unequivocally anthropological). Following recent trends in post-processual archaeology, Johnston adopts a 'relational' approach. As an archaeological schema, it is concerned with describing associated things. Emphasis is therefore placed on the various kinds of assemblages
2014
The principle aim of the thesis was to examine the technology of Late Iron Age decorated metal work at a time of dynamic change from both internal and external factors. The objects chosen for this study were predominantly from dry land hoards, and superficially had many aspects in common. The majority of these hoards were deposited in Britain in the mid first century AD (slightly later in the case of Middlebie in south west Scotland), and located in areas of attested historical conflict with the invading Roman army. Predominant amongst the kind of objects in the hoards were those associated with horses and carts or chariots; an artefact type of social and historical significance to native British Iron Age societies. It is argued that the manufacture, use and deposition of these objects were important factors in maintaining relationships between different Iron Age groups in the face of threats from an invading force. Chemical analysis of objects from this period is important. The first century AD witnessed both technological sophistication and conservatism as the Iron Age metalworkers confronted the introduction, through continental influence and the Roman army, of new materials such as brass, and the re-introduction of piece moulds and leaded copper alloys. Coloured Roman glass was also introduced and used in many parts of Britain, but Insular La Tène style metalwork continued to be decorated using sealing wax red glass (a specific Iron Age technology). On the whole, an innate conservatism in object styles and materials was maintained, irrespective of acquired knowledge and the availability of new technologies. In fact, Late Insular La Tène art developed and flourished, as some indigenous Britons adopted a strong identity through the use of specific objects, technologies and artistic styles; recognisable throughout large parts of Britain.
In Small things remembered: scale, materiality and miniatures in the British Early Bronze Age
prehistory, with a particular focus on the concept of scale used by Kristian Kristiansen. I argue that analytical divisions of scale typically elide with ontological categories, such as social and material. Such elisions serve to reinforce these ontological categories in our analyses of the prehistoric past. As an alternative, I adopt a 'flat' ontological perspective derived from the work of scholars in the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) which examines the way in which the material and social interconnect and are embedded in one another, at the scale of human interaction. A preliminary analysis of the miniature cups and other miniature artefacts of the British Early Bronze Age provides an exposition of these ideas. It is argued, in conclusion, that a closer analysis of the relationships of scale expressed in crafts offers a richer account of the interaction between communities in the European Bronze Age.
2017
Rezension zu: Christoph Hinker, Ausgewahlte Typologien provinzialromischer Kleinfunde. Eine theoretische und praktische Einfuhrung. Beitrage zur Archaologie, volume 8. LIT, Wien, Berlin 2013. ISBN 978-3-643-50510-1. 368 pages, 58 illustrations Rezension zu: Lindsay Allason-Jones (ed.), Artefacts in Roman Britain. Their Purpose and Use. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011. ISBN 978-0-521-86012-3 (hardback). ISBN 978-0-521-67752-3 (paperback). XVIII + 356 pages, 80 illustrations