Material Mnemonics by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology
ISBN: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2010-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

6

Layers of memory: An embodied approach to Late Bronze Age Central Macedonia, Greece

Vasileios Tsamis

Recent studies in archaeology and memory (e.g. Van Dyke and Alcock 2003; Williams 2003) have demonstrated the role of remembering and forgetting in the past. Nevertheless, the majority of this work focuses on burial practices, monuments and artefact biographies. Little is said about everyday practices and the role of built space. In contrast, this chapter will focus on the embodiment of space and the role of body senses in triggering memories. Everyday practices are analysed in order to understand their role in the creation of locality and remembering (or forgetting).

Late Bronze Age Central Macedonia, Greece, will provide two case studies (Assiros and Kastanas) (Figure 6.1) in order to demonstrate the role of built space in the creation of memories. Mound settlements are the norm in Central Macedonia. Their long habitation period (more than 1000 years of continuous habitation) and their successive building phases can be interpreted as “layers of memory”.

This approach will put forward an alternative way of interpreting built space in Prehistoric Macedonia. Moreover, it will introduce the importance of the mundane and locality in the process of remembering and forgetting in the past.

Introduction: memory and bodily experiences

This paper focuses on the role of memory in interpreting spatial organisation and introduces the notions “duration” and “multi-temporality”, both closely related with memory in Bergson’s book Matter and Memory (Bergson 1991[1908]). With the term duration I want to illustrate the enduring bodily experiences of space and material culture. The term multi-temporality refers to experiences and practices that have been lost or forgotten at an early stage of habitation only to be rediscovered several decades later. Embodied space is defined as the process of potential bodily experiences within place and across time. Moreover, the idea of “layers of memory” does not refer to bounded building phases that trigger remembering, but indicates the endurance and negotiation of bodily experiences through remembering and forgetting.

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