Finding Meaning in the Mundane: Prehistoric Perspectives on Roman Ritual Practice (20 min)

Presenters

Lindsey B?ster, Canterbury Christ Church University/University of York

Abstract

In contrast to the periods that precede it, Iron Age Britain is well-known for its domestic settlements, but monuments to the dead all but disappear. The absence of a discrete monumental landscape and the increasing recognition of the ritualization of the domestic sphere has forced us to reconsider the lines we draw as archaeologists between “ritual” and “everyday” life. Joanna Brück (European Journal of Archaeology 2 [1999]: 313–44) rightly notes that such dichotomies reflect an inherently Cartesian, post-Enlightenment worldview. Similar false dichotomies plague the study of pre- and postconquest Britain, where the somewhat arbitrary historiographical date of 43 C.E. (retrospectively applied within a western colonial context) has created a sharp distinction in the research traditions and theoretical frameworks of Iron Age and Roman scholars. Not only has this resulted in wildly different (and often incompatible) narratives of a single community, but a general lack of engagement in the study of this important transitional period. As a region constantly in flux on the edge of empire, studies of Iron Age Scotland have long grappled with this complexity. This is reflected in, for example, the chronological terms pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age, which acknowledge the agency of both groups in the dynamic relationship between colonizer and colonized. It is from this (prehistoric) perspective that my own work has developed. Using the site-specific case studies of Broxmouth hillfort and the Sculptor’s Cave in souteastern and northeastern Scotland respectively, I explore the idiosyncratic and historically contingent nature of the Iron Age ritual practices (such as structured deposition and interaction with the dead) that permeated everyday life and argue that prescriptive top-down models of Celtic religion fall short of engaging with the complex lived experiences of the Iron Age and Roman world.

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