A Geography of Offerings: Deposits of Valuables in the Landscapes of Ancient Europe (Oxbow Insights in Archaeology)

More than quarter of a century ago Richard Bradley published The Passage of Arms. It was conceived as An Archaeological Analysis of Prehistoric Hoards and Votive Deposits, but, as the author concedes, these terms were too narrowly focused for the complex subject of deliberate deposition and the period covered too short. A Geography of Offerings has been written to provoke a reaction from archaeologists and has two main aims. The first is to move this kind of archaeology away from the minute study of ancient objects to a more ambitious analysis of ancient places and landscapes. The second is to recognize that problems of interpretation are not restricted to the pre-Roman period. Mesolithic finds have a place in this discussion, and so do those of the 1st millennium AD. Archaeologists studying individual periods confront with similar problems and the same debates are repeated within separate groups of scholars – but they arrive at different conclusions. Here, the author presents a review that brings these discussions together and extends across the entire sequence. Rather than offer a comprehensive survey, this is an extended essay about the strengths and weaknesses of current thinking regarding specialized deposits, which encompass both sacrificial deposits characterized by large quantities of animal and human bones and other collections which are dominated by finds of stone or metal artifacts. It considers current approaches and theory, the histories of individual artifacts and the landscape and physical context of the of places where they were deposited, the character of materials, the importance of animism and the character of ancient cosmologies. Table of Contents Chapter One Beginning again Chapter Two A chapter of accidents The Broadward hoard The Mästermyr hoard Reassessments Bridges and troubled waters Iron Age deposits at La Tène Roman artefacts from the Rhine near Mainz Reassessments Literary sources Ritual and non-ritual, religious and secular deposits The ubiquity of water Hidden in plain sight Chapter Three Faultlines in contemporary research Chronological faultlines Controversy and uncertainty The sources of confusion Unfinished business The next stage Chapter Four Proportional representation The variety of deposits Excavations at two spring deposits Excavations at other wetland deposits Excavations at dryland deposits A question of scale A question of time Summary Chapter five The hoard as a still life Pronkstillevens Accumulations Display Summary and conclusions Chapter Six The nature of things Technologies and myths Stone and metal Metals Chapter Seven A kind of regeneration The final act Whole and undamaged artefacts Incomplete or damaged artefacts Friendly fire Fragmentation Weights Numbers the last act Chapter 8 Vanishing point Sinking treasures Giving and taking Artefacts with attitude Profiting from loss Exquisite corpses Chapter Nine A guide to strange places Naming places Going under Going forward Northern lights Southern comforts A note of caution Chapter 10 Thresholds and transitions Introduction Bridges, fords and causeways Other kinds of boundaries River names and their associations The character of water The character of mountains The earth compels A final reflection More than quarter of a century ago Richard Bradley published The Passage of Arms. It was conceived as An Archaeological Analysis of Prehistoric Hoards and Votive Deposits, but, as the author concedes, these terms were too narrrowly focused for the complex subject of deliberate deposition and the period covered too short. A Geography of Offerings has been written to provoke a reaction from archaeologists and has two main aims. The first is to move this kind of archaeology away from the minute study of ancient objects to a more ambitious analysis of ancient places and landscapes. The second is to recognise that problems of interpretation are not restricted to the pre-Roman period. Mesolithic finds have a place in this discussion, and so do those of the 1st millennium AD. Archaeologists studying individual periods confront with similar problems and the same debates are repeated within separate groups of scholars – but they arrive at different conclusions. Here, the author presents a review that brings these discussions together and extends across the entire sequence. Rather than offer a comprehensive survey, this is an extended essay about the strengths and weaknesses of current thinking regarding specialised deposits, which encompass both sacrificial deposits characterised by large quantities of animal and human bones and other collections which are dominated by finds of stone or metal artefacts. It considers current approaches and theory, the histories of individual artefacts and the landscape and physical context of the of places where they were deposited, the character of materials, the importance of animism and the character of ancient cosmologies. A provocative study of current approaches to and theories regarding the character, location, social and physical context and object histories of specialised deposits in the European archaeological record