4 - Graves as mnemonic compositions

Summary

Introduction – remembering through the grave

Whereas in previous chapters the mnemonics of the contents of graves – artefacts and cadvavers – have been discussed, this chapter aims to develop a consideration of the different roles of the burial context itself in the production and reproduction of social memories. Through a consideration of three case studies – the sequence of grave composition at Snape (Suffolk), the intact burials and chambers found beneath mounds 1 and 17 at Sutton Hoo (Suffolk), and the cist graves from Thornybank (Lothian) and Hallowhill (Fife) – we can consider the grave as a mnemonic composition in its own right.

What is a grave?

In mortuary archaeology, graves are often taken for granted as something familiar and therefore not requiring theoretical consideration (see Kaliff 2005). Graves are sometimes seen in terms of their size and elaboration as a further index of the labour and wealth invested in early medieval burial practice (e.g. Stoodley 1999a). Yet by regarding the grave itself as an unproblematic and universal phenomenon, as simply a cut feature and an empty space in which the ritual deposition of body and objects takes place, archaeologists are avoiding the very context that they are intending to theorise and interpret. Graves may be regarded as containing and restraining ritual activity, but as a feature they tend to be regarded as a purely functional space.

Yet graves and the deposits interred within them cannot be separated.