A Miniature Brooch and Gaming Pieces: The Story of the Smaller Objects from the Late Iron Age Elite Burials of Southern England

Author(s): Jody Joy

Year: 2019

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Small Things Unforgotten" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Two iron firedogs, a tripod for a cauldron, a small amphora of Graeco Italian type, a bronze jug, glass vessels and Samian dishes. These are the objects selected for a catalogue record and for inclusion in the historic museum display of the 30 or so objects discovered in a Late Iron Age burial at Stanfordbury, Bedfordshire in southern England. But what about the five stone gaming pieces or the miniature bronze annular brooch also from the grave? It is contended in this paper that the dominant narrative of this type of burial – that they are the graves of a local elite with elite status expressed in graves by presenting the deceased as the host of a feast – has acted to obscure the importance of smaller, more personal objects also included in these graves. I will explore these issues by examining the grave goods from Stanfordbury, and several other burials from southern England, as collections in order to give objects of all sizes equal status in mortuary analysis. The dead do not bury themselves and the objects selected for burials like Stanfordbury have their own individual biographies which will be pieced together through careful interrogation of the evidence.

Cite this Record

A Miniature Brooch and Gaming Pieces: The Story of the Smaller Objects from the Late Iron Age Elite Burials of Southern England. Jody Joy. Presented at The 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Albuquerque, NM. 2019 ( tDAR id: 450920)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -13.711; min lat: 35.747 ; max long: 8.965; max lat: 59.086 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23637