Archaeologists and the Dead ─ Mortuary Archaeology in Contemporary Society

This volume addresses the relationship between archaeologists and the dead, through the many dimensions of their relationships: in the field (through practical and legal issues), in the lab (through their analysis and interpretation), and in their written, visual and exhibitionary practice--disseminated to a variety of academic and public audiences.

Written from a variety of perspectives, its authors address the experience, effect, ethical considerations, and cultural politics of working with mortuary archaeology. Whilst some papers reflect institutional or organizational approaches, others are more personal in their view: creating exciting and frank insights into contemporary issues that have hitherto often remained "unspoken" among the discipline. Reframing funerary archaeologists as "death-workers" of a kind, the contributors reflect on their own experience to provide both guidance and inspiration to future practitioners, arguing strongly that we have a central role to play in engaging the public with themes of mortality and commemoration, through the lens of the past. Spurred by the recent debates in the UK, papers from Scandinavia, Austria, Italy, the US, and the mid-Atlantic, frame these issues within a much wider international context that highlights the importance of cultural and historical context in which this work takes place.

Howard Williams is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Chester. His research interests focus on medieval, post-medieval, and contemporary mortuary archaeology, archaeologies of memory, and the history of archaeology. His fieldwork includes Project Eliseg, investigating the context of the Pillar of Eliseg (Denbighshire, Wales). Howard has published over 70 book chapters and journal articles as well as edited books, most recentlyEarly Medieval Stone Monuments: Materiality, Biography, Landscape and he is Honorary Editor of theArchaeological Journal (2013-2017). His monograph is titled Death and Memory in Early Medieval Britain.

Melanie Giles in an expert in the British and northern European Iron Age, specializing in funerary archaeology as well as Celtic art and artifacts. She is the author ofA Forged Glamour: Landscape, Identity and Material Culture in the Iron Age and the forthcomingBog Bodies: Face-to-Face with the Past.