Abstract
APPREHENDING MEMORY IN THE PREHISTORIC PAST: HEIRLOOMS OF ANCIENT PORTUGAL
American journal of archaeology, Vol.105(2), p.265
Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, 102 (San Diego, CA, 01/03/2001 - 01/06/2001)
04/01/2001
Abstract
How can something as imagined as memory be apprehended by prehistorians, who have only the mute and material evidence of the ancient past with which to work? In this paper, I discuss the importance of one class of artifact--namely, heirlooms--in illuminating some dimensions of memory in ancient peoples. Heirlooms, passed down from one generation to the next, objectify memory through their form, raw material, place of origin, and depositional context. Using these "signposts," I explore the evidence that polished stone tools made of amphibolite in the Portuguese lowlands of later prehistory were heirlooms. During the late Neolithic and Copper Age, groundstone tools, such as axes, adzes, and hammers, were made from a variety of raw materials, both local (e.g., basalt and dolerite) and nonlocal (amphibolite). Significantly, tools made from local raw materials experienced different life histories than those made from the nonlocal material. Specifically, amphibolite tools were reused more frequently and buried with the dead less frequently than those made from local raw materials. This differential treatment of amphibolite might be explained by its superior mechanical properties and the higher "cost" to acquire it. However, I would, also suggest that because the sources of amphibolite are found in a landscape marked by megaliths, amphibolite may have been symbolically associated with the ancestral past and thus maintained in the land of the living as heirlooms to objectify ties with that past. I conclude by exploring the question: why was it important to remember?
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- APPREHENDING MEMORY IN THE PREHISTORIC PAST: HEIRLOOMS OF ANCIENT PORTUGAL
- Creators
- Katina Lillios
- Resource Type
- Abstract
- Publication Details
- American journal of archaeology, Vol.105(2), p.265
- Conference
- Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, 102 (San Diego, CA, 01/03/2001 - 01/06/2001)
- Publisher
- Archaeological Institute of America
- ISSN
- 0002-9114
- eISSN
- 1939-828X
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/01/2001
- Description audience
- Academic
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology; International Programs
- Record Identifier
- 9984272145202771
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