01 May 2011

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 2011 Rhind Lecture series will be given by Dr Stuart Needham on ´Material and spiritual engagements; Britain and Ireland in the first age of metal´. Free and open to all, first come first seated. The lectures will be held in the Wolfson Lecture Theatre in the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Description:

Britain and Ireland abound with burials of the early metal age. Many individuals were accorded special treatment on death, interred in finely constructed chambers or deep graves or honoured by cremation and committal to the ground in highly ornamented pottery vessels. Distinctive or exotic grave goods may accompany the burial and the sites themselves came to be memorialised through the construction of impressive mounds and ring works. These conspicuous and pervasive archaeological contexts have come to define a funerary phenomenon and an era. They give the impression of a society totally preoccupied with the dead and their funerary passage and of a comprehensive burial policy. That funerary practices were endemic in most regions is inescapable, but how many people actually received formal burial, who were they and how were they presented in death? In addressing these questions, we will consider the purpose of this phenomenon and interpret anew the meanings of definable burial modes.

FRIDAY 29th April 2011
Lecture 1: Funerary conundrums (6pm)

SATURDAY 30th April 2011,
Lecture 2: Competing ethea of seniority (11am)

Lecture 3: Blunt instruments of power (2pm)

Lecture 4: Enriching the female persona (3:30pm)

SUNDAY 1st May 2011
Lecture 5: The centrality of axe heads (2pm)

Lecture 6: The exemplary dead (3:30pm)

Click here for abstracts of the lectures