Death, Destruction and Commemoration: Tracing Ritual Activities in Finnish Late Iron Age Cemeteries (AD 550-1150) [ISKOS (Series), 18.]

Anna Wessman

ISBN 10: 9519057781 / ISBN 13: 9789519057781

Published by Helsinki : The Finnish Antiquarian Society, 2010

About this Item

105 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. The thesis is connected with death, memory and ancestor commemoration during the Merovingian Period, the Viking Age and the beginning of the Crusade Period (AD 550 1150) in Finland. During this time, cremation was the dominant burial rite. Three different burial types 1) cremation cemeteries below level ground, 2) inhumation burials and 3) water burials are discussed in five articles. This thesis shows that it is possible to claim that both artefact and site re-use is a much more widespread phenomenon than has previously been thought in Finnish archaeology. It is also a conscious and deliberate behaviour that can be related to an ancestor cult and commemoration of the dead.

Seller Inventory # PGtied51

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Death, Destruction and Commemoration: Tracing Ritual Activities in Finnish Late Iron Age Cemeteries (AD 550-1150) [ISKOS (Series), 18.]
• Publisher: Helsinki : The Finnish Antiquarian Society
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9519057781
• ISBN 13: 9789519057781
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Archaeology
  • Scandinavia

About this title

Synopsis

The thesis is connected with death, memory and ancestor commemoration during the Merovingian Period, the Viking Age and the beginning of the Crusade Period (AD 550–1150) in Finland. During this time, cremation was the dominant burial rite. Three different burial types 1) cremation cemeteries below level ground, 2) inhumation burials and 3) water burials are discussed in five articles. This thesis shows that it is possible to claim that both artefact and site re-use is a much more widespread phenomenon than has previously been thought in Finnish archaeology. It is also a conscious and deliberate behaviour that can be related to an ancestor cult and commemoration of the dead.