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- | [[Reading Notes]] | + | [[Reading Notes]] |
==== An Archaeology of Natural Places ==== | ==== An Archaeology of Natural Places ==== | ||
- | by Richard Bradley. | + | a book by Richard Bradley. |
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+ | === Borrowed Scenery: === | ||
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+ | This book is centered on the idea that archeologists usually focus on human artifacts, activity and remains. Bradley states that more work could be done on exploring the impact and significance of the unaltered surroundings the people lived in; in what lanscape were these human activities undertaken? The book looks at prehistoric Europe, specifically Scandinavia, | ||
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+ | === The mythological landscape: === | ||
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+ | The Saami had sacred sites like large rocks and rock-formations that bare a certain resemblance to humans, animals or birds. **These places would be left completely unaltered.** As Manker (1957:306) puts it: //' | ||
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+ | ==== More broadly for Europe from Scandinavia to Spain: ==== | ||
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+ | === Locations of offerings: === | ||
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+ | Sacrifice, rockart and quarries were undertaken on specifically chosen locations. Often these are remote or almost unreachable places. In fact material resources close at hand were often ignored; materials from distant or hard to reach places were favored. Sacrificial hoards were in different locations for **men and women**, **tools and weapons** (land and water respectively) and for certain groups, especially shepherds, smiths and ' | ||
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+ | === Economy: === | ||
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+ | The offering of sunken vessels and weapons are linked to an influx of exotic goods into an already established local system. Mulk (1996) compares the Scandinavian finds to the north-west American phenomenon of the **potlach**, | ||
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+ | === Locations of images: === | ||
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+ | Rockart could also differ for certain groups; naturalistic images are found in public settings, abstract art is found in remote places. The latter are interpreted as more sacred so the abstract images only speak to the initiated. Locations for paintings and carvings are often quite specific, but vary widely. This includes, slopes so offerings could be put on the petroglyps, in water flowing from higher ground, in rocks that had high levels of quartz, depictions of gods on massive outcrops, remote places for the initiated few i.e. the traveler/ | ||
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+ | === Monuments as reenacment spaces: === | ||
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+ | In some cases monuments would be organized so participants in ceremonies would need to move around these spaces in a prescribed order; as a physical means to experience the way the world was made or **reenact creation myths**. Spaces were created to form something like a model of the universe, through which a path was taken and specific offerings or ' | ||
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+ | To me it's interesting to see the culture of peoples and societies in the aftermath of the last period of serious climate change. Some elements may inform us in ways to incorporate change into our own lives and the ways we express ourselves, and could be interesting in a public narrative like an ARG. | ||