Abstract
The study of past material culture and related practices can be insightful for exploring the construction of past identities. Approaches employed to explore the production and negotiation of identity in the archaeological record rely on a broad range of cultural proxies. However, the funerary record is most commonly used to address questions of gender, identity, and to reconstruct social organization. In this
chapter, recent conceptual, theoretical, and methodological developments in the exploration of past identities in Mesolithic Europe are discussed through the scope of object life histories approach. Objects, like humans, possess life histories, and through a focus on primary archaeological deposits, we are gaining critical insights into the role everyday things played in shaping social identity within
Mesolithic society. Advances in archaeological science have enabled researchers to push the
boundaries of object life histories by extending deep into the biographical histories of stones, bones, and other materials transformed into beads, tools, and other objects. This chapter encourages a nuanced and multidimensional focus, pushing beyond the typochronologies that have dominated past narratives, to reveal how the essence of different materials were drawn upon, in life and in death, through artefacts.
chapter, recent conceptual, theoretical, and methodological developments in the exploration of past identities in Mesolithic Europe are discussed through the scope of object life histories approach. Objects, like humans, possess life histories, and through a focus on primary archaeological deposits, we are gaining critical insights into the role everyday things played in shaping social identity within
Mesolithic society. Advances in archaeological science have enabled researchers to push the
boundaries of object life histories by extending deep into the biographical histories of stones, bones, and other materials transformed into beads, tools, and other objects. This chapter encourages a nuanced and multidimensional focus, pushing beyond the typochronologies that have dominated past narratives, to reveal how the essence of different materials were drawn upon, in life and in death, through artefacts.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The Oxford Handbook of Mesolithic Europe |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
| Pages | 558-572 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780198853657 |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 2025 |