1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910808833403321

Autore

Jones Andrew <1967->

Titolo

Memory and material culture : tracing the past in prehistoric Europe / / Andrew Jones

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge ; ; New York, : Cambridge University Press, 2007

ISBN

1-107-17490-2

1-281-08520-0

9786611085209

0-511-34209-8

0-511-34156-3

0-511-34098-2

0-511-56704-9

0-511-61922-7

0-511-34262-4

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiii, 258 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Topics in contemporary archaeology

Disciplina

936

Soggetti

Prehistoric peoples - Europe

Material culture - Europe

Antiquities, Prehistoric - Europe

Europe Antiquities

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Memory and material culture? -- From memory to commemoration -- People, time and remembrance -- Improvising culture -- Continuous houses, perpetual places -- Culture, citation and categorisation -- Chains of memory -- The art of memory -- Tracing the past -- Coda.

Sommario/riassunto

We take for granted the survival into the present of artifacts from the past. Indeed the discipline of archaeology would be impossible without the survival of such artifacts. What is the implication of the durability or ephemerality of past material culture for the reproduction of societies in the past? In this book, Andrew Jones argues that the material world offers a vital framework for the formation of collective memory. He uses the topic of memory to critique the treatment of artifacts as



symbols by interpretative archaeologists and artifacts as units of information (or memes) by behavioral archaeologists, instead arguing for a treatment of artifacts as forms of mnemonic trace that have an impact on the senses. Using detailed case studies from prehistoric Europe, he further argues that archaeologists can study the relationship between mnemonic traces in the form of networks of reference in artifactual and architectural forms.