The Life Biography of Artefacts and Ritual Practice: With case studies from Mesolithic-Early Bronze Age Europe

Product Description Inspired by a session held at the EAA conference in Vilnius in 2016, The Life Biography of Artefacts and Ritual Practice focuses on creating biographies from material culture as a means of understanding the relationship between the life of an artefact, the temporality of ritual practices and an object’s final deposition. The temporal and geographic scope of these chapters range from Mesolithic Scandinavia, Neolithic practices found across Eastern, Central, Northern and Western Europe and stretches into the Eneolithic, Copper Age and early Bronze Age of central Europe.  This volume explores the idea that one can create a narrative of an artefacts’ life-biography by engaging various scientific methods and theoretical approaches.  With a foreword by Joshua Pollard. Review 'The life Biography of Objects and Ritual Practice constitutes an important contribution to our knowledge on the role of artefacts found next to the dead or in sites interpreted by archaeologists as ritual. This volume collects data from a geographical area where the archaeological record is extremely rich and diverse, providing novel approaches and interpretations on the symbolic significance of objects, their lifecycles and their ultimate purpose.' Dr Ana Cristina Reis Silva Araújo, CIBIO