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REVIEW BY SAM LEGGETT
This volume reads as a ‘Who’s Who’ of early medieval cremation research, with most of the top historians, funerary-, and bio-archaeologists assembled. Williams and Lippok have been truly innovative here with how they have assembled the chapters and contributors – rather than the usual pain of herding cats that comes with edited volumes, meaning things quickly go out of date – they have largely opted for interviews (with academic citations) and ‘Highlights’ boxes to showcase key sites or analytic methods, making it a very timely and easy-to-digest volume. There are still carefully selected, more traditional chapters, which give overviews of the state of scholarship (for example, Maldonado’s chapter on ‘Cremation in the Long Iron Age of Northern Britain’).
The book spans cremation rites of the early medieval Slavic lands – up to Scandinavia, down to Frisia and Francia, and across to Britain and Ireland – and it covers the material culture of the urns themselves with Gareth Perry, osteoarchaeology with Kirsty Squires, and a variety of other scientific approaches. I’m personally biased towards the bioarchaeological section – Tessi Löffelmann’s chapter on ‘Isotopes and Halls of Marrow’ and Barbara Veselka’s enthusiastic overview of scientific methods should not be missed! Arguably the most important contribution was Mason’s chapter on experimental cremation, and how much work still needs to be done in this area. In my opinion, they saved the most thought-provoking until last.
I found very little to criticise, as the contributors readily acknowledge the limitations of past and current work, although some contributors have misunderstood aspects of scientific methods. I can certainly see this making its way on to many course reading lists as a key text. If you want to learn more about the last era of pre-modern cremation practice, then this volume is a must-read. Excitingly, Sidestone Press has made this book free to read online, making it even more accessible to readers. This is the perfect book if you want a thorough overview of where study on early medieval (north-) western Europe cremations is right now, and where many exciting new ‘burning questions’ may take us in the near future.
Cremation in the Early Middle Ages: death, fire, and identity in north-west Europe
Howard Williams and Femke Lippok (eds)
Sidestone Press, £95 hardcover/ £50 paperback/free eBook
ISBN 978-9464270990
