Death embodied by Zoë L. Devlin Emma-Jayne Graham

Author:Zoë L. Devlin, Emma-Jayne Graham [Zoë L. Devlin, Emma-Jayne Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782979449
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2015-06-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

FUNERARY AND POST-DEPOSITIONAL BODY TREATMENTS AT THE MIDDLE ANGLO-SAXON CEMETERY WINNALL II: NORM, VARIETY – AND DEVIANCE?

Edeltraud Aspöck

Introduction

In this chapter I will present an analysis and discussion of norm, variety and deviance in burial and post-burial practices in early medieval England using the example of the middle Anglo-Saxon cemetery of Winnall II, Hampshire. The cemetery is located on the east bank of the River Itchen, across from the former Roman city of Winchester in southern England (Figure 5.1; Meaney and Hawkes 1970, 2–3). Winnall II can be classified as a community field cemetery and dates from the middle of the seventh to the beginning of the eighth century AD (Meaney and Hawkes 1970, 50–55) possibly extending into the ninth. Excavations in the 1950s revealed a variety of graves with bodies buried in quite a dramatic manner: the skeletons of a child and two youths had been covered by large flint stones, another twisted adult body seemed to push against the grave wall and yet another one was lacking its skull. Evidence from two burials suggested the possible amputation of hands and in a few others the skeletons were in usual positions (Meaney and Hawkes 1970, i, 19). In Anglo-Saxon archaeology, evidence such as this is usually considered evidence of ‘deviant burial’ and is thought to reflect the mortuary treatment of social outcasts, such as criminals and suicide victims (e.g. Aspöck 2008, 2009; Buckberry 2008; Cherryson 2008; Geake 1992; Harman et al. 1981; Hayman and Reynolds 2005; Hirst 1985, 87; Reynolds 2002a; 2002b; 2003; 2009; Wilson 1992).

What is classified as deviant and what is considered normal in the archaeological mortuary record is frequently based on modern Western standards (Aspöck 2009 passim). In Anglo-Saxon archaeology, most often a ‘typological’ approach to the interpretation of ‘deviant burial’ is adopted. By this I mean that certain types of inhumation deposits – ‘deviant burial’ has rarely been applied to cremation graves – are categorised as such. Paradigmatic are prone and decapitated bodies, bodies covered with stones, bodies with amputated limbs (Reynolds 2009), bodies of people that appear to have been buried alive – the interpretation of these so-called ‘live-burials’ is controversial (see Hirst 1985, 38–43; 1993, 42–43; Reynolds 1988, 718) – crouched bodies, multiple, shallow and cramped burials (Hirst 1985; Wilson 1992, 71–72), and trepanned skulls (Härke 1992, 215). In all these cases ‘deviant burial’ evokes exclusively negative associations.

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