Material and Spiritual Engagements: Britain and Ireland in the First Age of Metal
The Rhind Lectures 2011 by Dr Stuart Needham
29th April 2011 to 1st May 2011

Lecture 4: Enriching the female persona
The ornamental repertoire expanded significantly over the early metal age, drawing upon specialised technologies and exotic materials from restricted or distant sources – gold, amber, jet and faience, among others. Ornaments in general are not exclusive to one or other sex, although at the outset they are more prominent in high-profile male burials. However, around 2200 BC we see the appearance of body and garment ornaments that created dramatic new female death personae. Bead sets of unitary design (typically seen in spacer-plate necklaces of jet or amber) may be the most striking, but of equal social significance are ‘composite’ or mixed-material sets which incorporated heirloom beads. These composite sets materialised the relationships that established an individual’s standing in Thisworld and the next. But what factors set in motion the practice of compositing? And how literally should we read the enrichment of the female persona: did it relate to elevation in status, changed patterns of social alliance, or a more general process of funerary diversification?

The Lectures
Britain and Ireland abound with burials of the early metal age. Many individuals were accorded special treatment on death, interred in finely constructed chambers or deep graves or honoured by cremation and committal to the ground in highly ornamented pottery vessels. Distinctive or exotic grave goods may accompany the burial and the sites themselves came to be memorialised through the construction of impressive mounds and ring works. These conspicuous and pervasive archaeological contexts have come to define a funerary phenomenon and an era. They give the impression of a society totally preoccupied with the dead and their funerary passage and of a comprehensive burial policy. That funerary practices were endemic in most regions is inescapable, but how many people actually received formal burial, who were they and how were they presented in death? In addressing these questions, we will consider the purpose of this phenomenon and interpret anew the meanings of definable burial modes.

The Lecturer
Following his first degree and postgraduate research at University College, Cardiff, Dr Stuart Needham spent thirty years as Curator of the European Bronze Age collections at the British Museum. He is currently an independent researcher and an Honorary Research Fellow of National Museum Wales.

Recorded at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.