Emotional and Mnemonic Geographies at Hambledon Hill: Texturing Neolithic Places with Bodies and Bones

Abstract

This article investigates the shaping of place through memory and emotion. In particular it explores how, by engaging with particular kinds of materials, people texture locales in ways which help to structure future actions. By examining the manner in which deceased human bodies were engaged with at the British Neolithic site of Hambledon Hill, this article argues that we can trace the creation of these mnemonic and emotional geographies and so add to our understanding of how and why traditions of practice, including the deposition of human bone, were maintained through time.