Search

In archaeology, the discussion concerning food and ingestion has primarily focused on diet, i.e., what people have eaten. Large quantities of deposited animal bones have been analysed over the years and complex scientific analyses of human bones have been carried out in order to establish nutrition and subsistence via 13C and other isotope analyses. It is a little puzzling why so much effort has been invested in establishing variation in prehistoric diets and so little interest in elaborating on the social dimensions of commensality. The daily dinner is not just a matter of consuming nourishment; it involves planning and gathering ingredients, and thinking about ways of cooking them and how to combine them. Eating and drinking require a number of key social elements such as materiality, spatial arrangement and place, bodily experiences, mental expectations,and bonding/exclusion.There is a considerable social dimen- sion in food that goes far beyond pure biological needs.

The present text concerns theoretical and methodological aspects of burial archaeology with special attention given to the temporal dimension. It is argued that burial places need to be discussed individually from a bottom-up perspective in order to minimise the bias of regional and culture-centred generalisations. Such a microarchaeological approach focuses on social practice involved in the disposal of the dead as a mediating level between the local and particular on one hand and the normative and general on the other. Further, it is argued that the horizontal stratigraphy of burial places needs to be investigated in order to distinguish phases of change and alteration within sites. Such phases constitute more relevant points of departure for comparisons with phases of other sites, thus facilitating a more nuanced discussion on periods of contact and hybridisation between different social groups.

Slavoj Zizek har föreslagit som experiment att man under kärleksakten skulle tänka på sin partners reala materialitet, dvs vad kroppens tunna biologiska skal döljer i form av blod, slem, tarmar och ben, och sedan försöka fortsätta med akten. Zizeks poäng här är att illustrera Jacques Lacans Imaginära, Reala och Symboliska dimensioner; kroppen som vi vanligtvis (vill) se den är i hög grad en Imaginär och Symbolisk omskrivning av sin Reala materialitet. Sådana omskrivningar är dock inte allmänmänskligt givna, relationerna mellan det imaginära, symboliska och Reala varierar mellan olika kollektiv över tid och rum; vi kan mao faktiskt tänka oss att någonstans någongång kopulerar två biologiska enheter av blod, kött och slem med varandra utan att bekymras av sin reala konstitution. Naturligtvis är även döden något Realt och dess oundviklighet tenderar även den att omskrivas eller tom förträngas för att göra den acceptabel och fattbar. Synen på kroppen är i högsta grad kopplad till de praktiker som är knutna till döden och döda kroppar; de kan analyseras för att diskutera synen på det döda (och tillika livet i viss grad). Med utgångspunkt i dessa kroppens och dödens Realiteter diskuteras hanteringen av döda kroppar (människor såväl som djur) under mesolitikum och neolitikum utifrån gravfälten i Ajvide och Skateholm.

I denna rapport redovisas en delundersökning av en neolitisk boplats på Klövagården i Karleby socken på Falbygden. Undersökningen utfördes i form av en fältkurs för studenter i arkeologi vid arkeologiska institutionen, Göteborgs universitet, i slutet av maj 2005. Undersökningen ingår som en del i pågående arbeten kring megalitgravarna och det neolitiska landskapet på Falbygden.

Pictorial and visual elements are special types of archaeological data that transgress boundaries: between us and the past and between the material and immaterial. Traditionally, images have been discussed in terms of what they represent, mean or symbolize. In this volume, the authors explore other ways in which images aect and engage the beholder and the modes in which they are entangled in past worlds. The articles comprise examples from various regions and time periods and include a diverse array of topics including northern European rock art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, anthropomorphic aspects of ceramic pots and figures in gold, erotic themes on children’s burial vessels, and nineteenth-century rock art created by quarantined sailors in Australia.

Pictorial and visual elements are special types of archaeological data that transgress boundaries: between us and the past and between the material and immaterial. Traditionally, images have been discussed in terms of what they represent, mean or symbolize. In this volume, the authors explore other ways in which images aect and engage the beholder and the modes in which they are entangled in past worlds. The articles comprise examples from various regions and time periods and include a diverse array of topics including northern European rock art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, anthropomorphic aspects of ceramic pots and figures in gold, erotic themes on children’s burial vessels, and nineteenth-century rock art created by quarantined sailors in Australia.