18th December 2005, 12:47 PM
While grave goods can indicated gender, this needs to be supported by oesteological analysis.
However we still make the male=sword, female=brooch equation.
There are examples in the overlap of gender and grave goods - Parker Pearson ("The archaeology of Death and Burial") suggests that in Roman Iron Age of North Germany and Scandinavia, 15% of weapon burial were with females, while 10% of males were buried with spindle whorls (2003, 10:face-thinks:. Lots of stuff on dress and grave goods as well (109ff). See also Dommanses the NAR in the 1980s for more Scandawegian stuff.
Rather than looking at type or presence/absence of grave goods alone, we should also be looking at quantity and quality of grave goods, nature and position of grave goods (which can provide a indication of female dress), presence of associated grave structures location in cemetery and burial postion and . Such features, especially in combination, may have reflected a number of social personas, including status based on, age, sex, social position, lineage, position in a hierarchy, wealth and knowledge. How this status is displayed is likely to change through time. In England how social differentiation is expressed in the burial record seem to chage from the 6th to the 7th centuries.
Also in certain periods (especially the Anglo-Saxon period) the above may elements relate to ethnicity. Use of DNA (if we can extract it) should provide better resolution on this.
While would agree that death can change the status of an individual, or that but would suggest that status in life is likely to be reflected in treatment in death.
In addition to Harke for Anglo-Saxons in England would suggest
Arnold, C.J., 1980, ?Wealth and Social Structure; a matter of life and death? in Rahtz P., Dickinson, T., and Watts L. (eds), Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries 1979, BAR 82, 81 ? 142.
Boyle, A., Todd, A. Miles.D, Mudd. A, 1995 Two OxfordShire Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries: Breinsfield and Didcot, Oxford.
Dickinson, T.M. 1993, ? An Anglo-Saxon ?cunning? woman from Bidford on Avon? in Carver M.O.H. (ed), In search of Cult, Woodbridge, 95 ? 130
Brenan, J. 1985, ?Assessing social status in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Sleaford?, Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, London, 2-21, 125 ? 31.
There are cracking old chestnuts. Wealth and Stutus in early medieval Ireland seems to have been determined by numbers of cattle and the society highly was stratified. However this is not reflected in the funerary record or grave assemblages.
However we still make the male=sword, female=brooch equation.
There are examples in the overlap of gender and grave goods - Parker Pearson ("The archaeology of Death and Burial") suggests that in Roman Iron Age of North Germany and Scandinavia, 15% of weapon burial were with females, while 10% of males were buried with spindle whorls (2003, 10:face-thinks:. Lots of stuff on dress and grave goods as well (109ff). See also Dommanses the NAR in the 1980s for more Scandawegian stuff.
Rather than looking at type or presence/absence of grave goods alone, we should also be looking at quantity and quality of grave goods, nature and position of grave goods (which can provide a indication of female dress), presence of associated grave structures location in cemetery and burial postion and . Such features, especially in combination, may have reflected a number of social personas, including status based on, age, sex, social position, lineage, position in a hierarchy, wealth and knowledge. How this status is displayed is likely to change through time. In England how social differentiation is expressed in the burial record seem to chage from the 6th to the 7th centuries.
Also in certain periods (especially the Anglo-Saxon period) the above may elements relate to ethnicity. Use of DNA (if we can extract it) should provide better resolution on this.
While would agree that death can change the status of an individual, or that but would suggest that status in life is likely to be reflected in treatment in death.
In addition to Harke for Anglo-Saxons in England would suggest
Arnold, C.J., 1980, ?Wealth and Social Structure; a matter of life and death? in Rahtz P., Dickinson, T., and Watts L. (eds), Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries 1979, BAR 82, 81 ? 142.
Boyle, A., Todd, A. Miles.D, Mudd. A, 1995 Two OxfordShire Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries: Breinsfield and Didcot, Oxford.
Dickinson, T.M. 1993, ? An Anglo-Saxon ?cunning? woman from Bidford on Avon? in Carver M.O.H. (ed), In search of Cult, Woodbridge, 95 ? 130
Brenan, J. 1985, ?Assessing social status in the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Sleaford?, Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, London, 2-21, 125 ? 31.
There are cracking old chestnuts. Wealth and Stutus in early medieval Ireland seems to have been determined by numbers of cattle and the society highly was stratified. However this is not reflected in the funerary record or grave assemblages.