1,721,031 research outputs found
The social Qualia of Kuml. An exploration of the iconicity of rune-stones with Kuml inscriptions from the Scandinavian Late Viking Age
No full textThis article discusses qualitative experiences (qualia) of Scandinavian Late Viking Age rune-stones from a semiotically theorized perspective. Rune-stones with kuml inscriptions receive particular attention. Despite the fact that kuml referred to different material entities, such as rune-stone, other standing stones, and/or grave, it is suggested that they resembled one another on iconic grounds. The quality associated with the multiple qualia was a sensation of safety that resulted in shared experiences that had positive social values. The article demonstrates that the semiotics of Peirce can be of great value to archaeologists who want to delve deeper into the social analysis of things
Masking moments: the transitions of bodies and beings in Late Iron Age Scandinavia
No full textThis thesis explores bodily representations in Late Iron Age Scandinavia (400–1050 AD). Non-human bodies, such as gold foil figures, and human bodies are analysed. The work starts with an examination and deconstruction of the sex/gender categories to the effect that they are consider ed to be of minor value for the purposes of the thesis. Three analytical concepts – masks, miniature, and metaphor – are deployed in order to interpret how and why the chosen bodies worked within their prehistoric contexts. The manipulations the figures sometimes have undergone are referred to as masking practices, discussed in Part One. It is shown that masks work and are powerful by being paradoxical; that they are vehicles for communication; and that they are, in effect, transitional objects bridging gaps that arise in continuity as a result of events such as symbolic or actual deaths. In Part Two miniaturization is discussed. Miniaturization contributes to making worlds intelligible, negotiable and communicative. Bodies in miniatures in comparison to other miniature objects are particularly potent. Taking gold foil figures under special scrutiny, it is claimed that gold, its allusions as well as its inherent properties conveyed numinosity. Consequently gold foil figures, regardless of the context, must be understood as extremely forceful agents. Part Three examines metaphorical thinking and how human and animal body parts were used in pro-creational acts, resulting in the birth of persons. However, these need not have been human, but could have been the outcomes of turning a deceased into an ancestor, iron into a steel sword, or clay into a ceramic urn, hence expanding and transforming the members of the family/household. Thus, bone in certain contexts acted as a transitional object or as a generative substance. It is concluded that the bodies of research are connected to transitions, and that the theme of transformation was one fundamental characteristic of the societies of study
More theory for mortuary research of the Viking world
No full textThis themed journal issue provides many examples of ways forward in the study of death and memory in the Viking world. While all contributions demonstrate that there are exciting new ways to study remains from funerary contexts that focus on different forms of citation involving material culture and monuments, this article will very briefly discuss dimensions that have not been addressed here. Specifically, it showcases how the mortuary citations approach can also use post-humanist theory for further development and exploration of mortuary practices in the Viking world. Although short, this article discusses rune stones, particularly rune stones with kuml inscriptions, which I have examined elsewhere. The term kuml appears on contemporary rune stones; it refers to different material entities such as rune stones, mounds/cairns, and other standing stones. The being and becoming of kuml is briefly discussed through the concepts of intra-action and agential cuts championed by Karen Bara
Guldgubbar's changing ontology : Scandinavian Late Iron Age gold foil figures through the lens of intra-action
No full textThis chapter discusses minuscule gold foil figures from the Scandinavian Late Iron Age anddemonstrates how the figures are continuously in the making, rather than being still representations of gods. In the past, the figures’ affectual qualities, such as their small size, their shininess and their human-like and foldable character, invited play and experimentation, stressing the figures’ ongoingness. Equally, their capacities to be simultaneously image,object and component allowed them to be reconfigured into new arrangements, stressing their fractal, emerging and open-ended character. By contrast, in the present, they become ‘victims’ of representationalist thought, through the framing and boundary making practices set up by for instance museums, keeping the figures in complete motionlessness. Instead, itis only through the help of different apparatuses (digital photography, copying etc.), that theybecome generative and are in the making in the present, stressing that we today to a greaterextent deal with gold foil figures’ hauntology, rather than their ontology
Presenting the past : On archaeologists and their influence on modern burial practices
Get PDFThis paper demonstrates how antiquarians and archaeologists have influenced the burial practices of their times. They have encouraged the re-invention of prehistoric monuments in contemporary burial practices and also been involved in introducing the practice of modern cremation. Whereas antiquarians encouraged the upper-class stratum of society to reuse prehistoric material culture, their nineteenth century successors, archaeologists, turned to another audience. By focussing in greater detail on the earliest archaeologists and their endeavours to make archaeology a subject of public interest, it is revealed how they facilitated the re-invention of prehistoric material culture. For instance, bautas (a prehistoric memory stone for a deceased) became popular in the late nineteenth century, and it was also a category of sepulchral objects that the wealthier working class could afford. Hereby it is further shown how archaeology is an integral part of society, and not, as commonly argued within the history of archaeology, a discipline which in its interpretation of prehistory is influenced from a societal ‘outside’
Diffracting Digital Images in the Making
Get PDFThis paper presents a diffractive dialogue between prehistoric imagery, digital or computational imaging, and art practices. Our dialogue begins by responding to Thomas Nail’s recent argument that digital images force us to recognize the ontological mobility and instability of all images, whether contemporary or ancient (Nail 2019). In tandem with this, Back Danielsson and Jones (2020, 4) develop the notion of ‘Images in the making’. By discussing images as being ‘in-the-making’ they underline an understanding of images as conditions of possibility, and as processes of assembly, outlining the way in which images draw together and bringing into relation the cognitive and material components of the world. Although, the original notion of ‘images in the making’ drew on digital images to make its argument, it did not explore the special character of digital images in any detail.
This paper develops the notion of images in the making in the context of the digital domain. It will focus on two digital imaging techniques developed within archaeology and cultural heritage– Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and Structure from Motion photogrammetry (SfM)- exploring how these techniques play out in heritage and art world contexts and practices. The paper will highlight digital images as unstable compositions, explore how digital images in the making enable us to reconsider the shifting temporal character of the image, and discuss the way in which the digital image forces us to disrupt the representational assumptions bound up in the relationship between the virtual and the actual; we argue that digital images are ‘phygital’ and are better understood as existing somewhere in the blurred ground between the physical and the digital (Dawson and Reilly 2019).
We argue that the diffractive moment in these encounters between archaeology and art practice disclose the potential of digital imaging to recursively question the complex ontological composition of images and the ability of images to act and affect
Much Ado about Nothing? : Gender Research in Journals during the last 30 Years within Archaeology
No full textThis paper accounts for the extent to which gender research is represented in leading archaeological journals throughout the 1980s to the present through the database Arts & Humanities Citation Index (ISI). The paper regards gender research as including gender, feminisms, masculinities, queer, intersectionality and embodiment. It is concluded that gender research, despite its alleged significance and progress in later years, is substantially marginalized within mainstream archaeology. Comparisons are also made between gender archaeology and mainstream archaeology and differences between the two are discussed. The paper further addresses current research trends within the humanities placing an increased emphasis on publications in leading peer-reviewed journals. Since the paper shows that gender research is poorly represented in such periodicals the author urges archaeologists interested in gender to publish in these journals
Go Figure! : Creating Intertwined Worlds in the Scandinavian Late Iron Age (AD 550–1050)
No full textThis paper discusses Scandinavian gold foil figures from the early part of the Late Iron Age (AD 550–1050). The author presents two major points of interest that have been neglected in previous research. The first highlights how the manipulations the figures have undergone must be taken into consideration, which is accomplished with the help of theatre theory, semiotics and anthropology. The second places an emphasis on how the context from which the figures have been retrieved must be analysed. Consequently, from the example of a ceremonial building at Uppåkra, Sweden, it is contended that the figures were made by artisans/smiths that, apart from expertly making the figures, also acted as ritual specialists when the structure was built or inaugurated. As such, they were responsible for depositing specific figures in particular, designated and pivotal places that needed protection or other ritual treatment. The gold foil figures further highlight the intertwinement between subject and object, human and nonhuman, as well as between the divine and the mundane. Therefore they contribute significantly to discussions on materiality
Parts and Holes
Get PDFCommentary Paper for: Images in the Making: Art, Process, Archaeology. Ing-Marie Back Danielsson and Andrew Meirion Jones Eds. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Developed from sessions at TAG, Theoretical Archaeology Group Conference 2016 and Art, Materiality Representation: Royal Anthropological Institute Conference 2018
- …
