medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Hi
The issue of the growth of Christian burial sites is a complex one. The
earliest Christians may have been buried as a group, but only in the same way
that the Roman Empire included countless burial collegia, who buried their
members in the same place. There is considerable debate over when the burial
of Christians together started becoming a theological or doctrinal issue. I
and myself have argued that many of the so-called late Roman ‘managed’
cemeteries were Christian in identity, but I accept this is not proved and
probably not provable. Certainly, as far as Britain is concerned, clearly
defined ‘graveyards’ (i.e. with a fixed and marked boundary) probably did not
develop until the 8th/9th century and possibly later. It is clear from the
location of many of the early Christian gravestones from Wales and Ireland
that burial could take place in a range of locations, including burial mounds
and often used isolated locations, probably often on boundaries. It used to be
thought that one of the diagnostic features of early Christian burial sites in
the Celtic west was the presence of a surrounding enclosure, usually circular.
However, in a recent paper I have shown that in Wales and Cornwall these
enclosed cemeteries are probably an 8th/9th century development. Important
work has also been done recently by Helen Gittos on the liturgy for the
consecration of churchyards, for which the earliest evidence probably comes
from Anglo-Saxon England, though possibly influenced by Irish attitudes to
death.
For Anglo-Saxon deviant burials and exclusion of criminals etc the recent work
of
Andrew Reynolds is also essential.
Some useful reading (apologies for shameless self promotion :)
Boddington, A., 1991. ‘Models of burials, settlement and worship; the Final
Phase reviewed ‘ in Southworth, E .(ed.) 1991 Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries: A
Re-appraisal, 177–99
Effros, B., 1997. ‘Beyond cemetery walls: early medieval funerary topography
and Christian salvation’ Eearly Medieval Europe 6/1, 1–23
Geake, H. 2002. ‘Problems in the study of Conversion period burials’ H.
Geake, S. Lucy and A. Reynolds (eds.), Proceedings of the 1999 Burial in
Medieval Britain Conference Society of Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series
Gittos, H. 2002. ‘Anglo-Saxon Rites for Consecrating Cemeteries’ in H. Geake,
S. Lucy and A. Reynolds (eds.), Proceedings of the 1999 Burial in Medieval
Britain Conference Society of Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series
Johnson, M. J., 1997. ‘Pagan-Christian burial practices of the Fourth century:
Shared Tombs?’ Journal of Early Christian Studies 5:1, 37–59
Petts, D., 2002, ‘Burials and boundaries in early medieval Western Britain:
the myth of the early Christian enclosed grave-yard’
Petts, D. 2003. Christianity in Roman Britain
Reynolds, A., 1998. ‘The definition and ideology of Anglo-Saxon Execution and
Cemetery sites’ in De Boe, G. and Verhaeghe, F. (eds.) Death and Burial in
Medieval Europe Zellik, 33–41
Reynolds, A.
Young, B., 1999. ‘The Myth of the Pagan Cemetery’ in Karkov, Wickham-Crowley
and Young (eds) 1999, 1999. Spaces of the Living and the Dead: An
Archaeological Dialogue American Early Medieval Studies 3, Oxford: 61–86
Bonnie Effros new book Caring for Body and Soul Burial and the Afterlife in
the Merovingian World may also have some relevant stuff in.
Hope this helps
Cheers
david
Dr David Petts
'Keys to the Past' Project Officer,
Durham Studies, Cultural Services
Durham County Hall, Durham, DH1 5UB
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
http://www.keystothepast.info
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