Archaeology of Body and Thought
From the Neolithic to the Beginning of the Middle Ages
By (author) Tomasz Gralak
Paperback (Published)
(March 2024)
ISBN: 9781803277219
8.07 x 11.42 inches
Price: $64.00
In stock
This study explores what we as people can do with our bodies, what we can use them for, and how we can alter and understand them. With analysis based on artefacts found in graves, anthropomorphic images, and written sources, it considers the ways in which human groups from the Neolithic to the Migration Period have perceived and trea
Archaeology of Body and Thought explores what we as people can do with our bodies, what we can use them for, and how we can alter and understand them. It considers the ways in which individual human groups from the Neolithic to the Migration Period have perceived and treated the body. The analysis is based on artefacts found in graves, anthropomorphic images, and written sources, with an underlying assumption that principles of aesthetics or a canon of beauty express a way of understanding and evaluating corporality commonly adopted in a given culture. From this perspective, the human body is also an archaeological artefact and a specific kind of material culture (indeed, the most important one). The book investigates the extent to which ideology shapes our bodies and how our bodies create our world outlook. To that end, it compares bodies with other contemporary spheres of material culture and technology. Geographically, the study concentrates on central and eastern Europe, a region where various cultural trends have always intersected. Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, and Eurasian steppes are also included in the analysis.
Chapter I: Introduction
Chapter II: The Neolithic. Bodies of First Farmers
Chapter III: The Chalcolithic. The Dark Side of the Sun – Warriors
Chapter IV: The Únětice Culture. Bone Collectors
Chapter V: Man of Bronze. The Period of Tumulus Cultures’ Domination
Chapter VI: Figurative Representations and Perception of Corporality in Minoan and Mycenaean Traditions
Chapter VII: Burnt by the Sun. The Lusatian Culture and Cremation
Chapter VIII: The People of Rock Carvings. The Nordic Bronze Age
Chapter IX: The Decline of the Bronze Age and the Onset of the Iron Age
Chapter X: Pomeranian Canopic Jars
Chapter XI: People on the Steppes. Creators of the Saka-Scythian Animal Style
Chapter XII: Head Hunters. The Celts of the La Tène Culture
Chapter XIII: Bodies of the Barbarians
Chapter XIV: Migration Period. Bodies and Souls in Turmoil
Chapter XV: Epilogue. Slavs and the Myth of Vampire
Chapter XVI: Conclusion
Bibliography
- By (author) Tomasz Gralak
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