Invited conference at University of Kiel – ROOTS excellence cluster “Topographies of remembrance: quantitative approaches to prehistoric barrow landscapes”
When? – 22.04.2024 | 16:15 – 17:45
Where? – ZMB, Am Botanischen Garten 11, R.4.003 + Foyer | 16:15 – 17:45 (gefolgt von einem Get-together bis 19:00)
Abstract:
In the period between, approximately, fourth and first millennium BC, burial mounds, also known as barrows or tumuli, became a commonplace feature of cultural landscapes across the European continent. At first glance, their function may seem straightforward: creating a permanent reference to the memory of one or more deceased. However, upon considering the temporal and spatial dimensions, such practice may introduce intriguing problems. The memory itself evolves over time, fading into oblivion, but the earthwork monument will continue to stand in the landscape. The visual reference created by the earthwork will affect the surrounding space and vice versa; in the process the funerary monument may become a landmark only vaguely related to its original burial content.
Remembrance can be summarised as the practice of memory, collective or individual. The talk at the Biweekly Colloquium will thus explore the problem of what such practice does to funerary monuments and, in particular, to the landscape. Three studies of prehistoric barrow landscapes in the Parisian basin, France and in Jutland peninsula, Denmark, will be presented.
First, a statistical analysis of ditched circular enclosures of the Parisian basin will be discussed. Many of these included an earthwork mound, but such structures have been all but erased by agricultural practices. I will focus on the issue of subsequent enlargements of monuments in order to discuss their evolution over time.
The introduction of large numbers of burial mounds will certainly change the perception of the landscape. How can we assess such changes? An approach by modelling theoretical cognitive landscape units, landscape chambers, will be presented for the Parisian basin. Drawing inspiration from contemporary landscape and urban research, namely space syntax, landscape chambers are modelled on the basis of statistical analysis of visual coherence.
Finally, I will turn to an analysis of barrow landscapes in Denmark. Over a century ago, linear alignments of burial mounds were discovered and interpreted as indicators of prehistoric pathways. In order to elucidate this issue, a large-scale analysis of some 70 000 mounds was made for the Jutland peninsula and adjacent islands. A highly complex pattern emerges, necessitating an interpretative framework that extends the pathway model.