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Links with the Past: Pervasive ‘Ritual’ Behaviour in Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

Michael Fulford
Michael Fulford
Affiliation:
University of Reading, [email protected]
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Extract

Recent theoretical debate combined with a greater attention to the nature of individual deposits in the archaeological record has focused on the nature of ritual behaviour, its material correlates and its significance as social practice. In southern Britain a particular focus for this debate has been presented by the study of ‘special deposits’ and the structured (ritual) deposition of archaeological deposits from the Iron Age. Cunliffe's review and interpretation of an extensive range of evidence from the hillfort of Danebury, Hampshire, can be set in the context of Hill's penetrating regional study of ritual in the Iron Age of Wessex. For the former, ‘special deposits’ or ‘structured deposition’ have been seen as the evidence of propitiatory rites, particularly to ensure fertility; for the latter, they are seen as a defining reflection of the ‘mediation, transformation and classification of people, animals, spaces and things’.

Type
Articles
Information
Britannia , Volume 32 , November 2001 , pp. 199 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © Michael Fulford 2007. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

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