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This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence. This book is the first academic study of the post-mortem practice of gibbeting (‘hanging in chains'), since the nineteenth century. Gibbeting involved placing the executed body of a malefactor in an iron cage and suspending it from a tall post. A body might remain in the gibbet for many decades, while it gradually fell to pieces. Hanging in chains was a very different sort of post-mortem punishment from anatomical dissection, although the two were equal alternatives in the eyes of the law. Where dissection obliterated and de-individualised the body, hanging in chains made it monumental and rooted it in the landscape, adding to personal notoriety. Focusing particularly on the period 1752-1832, this book provides a summary of the historical evidence, the factual history of gibbetting which explores the locations of gibbets, the material technologies involved in hanging in chains, and the actual process from erection to eventual collapse. It also considers the meanings, effects and legacy of this gruesome practice.

This book is based on the Thinking through the Body workshop held at the University of Wales, Lampeter, in June 1998. We would like to thank the University of Wales, Lampeter, and in particular the Department of Archaeology for financial and other support; the student volunteers for their help in organizing the conference; and the participants for co-operating in preparing their papers for pre-circulation. An exhibition of works by contemporary artists dealing with the body was also held in conjunction with the academic conference and contributed greatly to the intellectual, aesthetic and social atmosphere. We would like to thank all the artists, Ron Dukelow and Cambria Arts for agreeing to participate in the workshop and for organizing and mounting the exhibition. CONTENTS List of Figures and Tables ix List of Contributors xi Introduction: Thinking Through the Body Yannis Hamilakis, Mark Pluciennik and Sarah Tarlow..................... 1 Part 1: Bodies, Selves and Individuals Introduction Sarah Tarlow......................................................................................... 23 1 Archaeology's humanism and the materiality of the body Julian Thomas.................................................................................. 29 2 Body Parts: personhood and materiality in the earlier Manx neolithic Chris Fowler..................................................................................... 47 3 Moralities of dress and the dress of the dead in early medieval Europe Jos Bazelmans.................................................................................. 71 4 The aesthetic corpse in nineteenth-century Britain Sarah Tarlow.................................................................................... 85 Part 2: Experience and Corporeality Introduction Yannis Hamilakis.................................................................................. 99 5 Feeling through the body:gesture in Cretan Bronze Age Religion Christine Morris and Alan Peatfield................................................ 105 6 The past as oral history: towards an archaeology of the senses Yannis Hamilakis.............................................................................