TY - JOUR

T1 - Flames of Transformation

T2 - The role of fire in cremation practices

AU - Sørensen, Tim Flohr

AU - Bille, Mikkel

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - This paper explores the transformative power of fire, its fundamental ability to change material worlds and affect our experience of its materiality. The paper examines material transformations related to death as a means of illustrating the powerful property of fire as a materially destructive yet socially generative and creative element. While fire has been widely discussed archaeologically as a technological element, and recently coupled with the social and symbolic powers of pyrotechnology, we focus on the sensuous staging of fire in disposal practices. The paper employs two case studies focusing on cremation burial from Bronze Age (c.1300–1100 BC) and modern Denmark in order to demonstrate widely different sensuous engagements with fire and its experiential significance in a cremation context.

AB - This paper explores the transformative power of fire, its fundamental ability to change material worlds and affect our experience of its materiality. The paper examines material transformations related to death as a means of illustrating the powerful property of fire as a materially destructive yet socially generative and creative element. While fire has been widely discussed archaeologically as a technological element, and recently coupled with the social and symbolic powers of pyrotechnology, we focus on the sensuous staging of fire in disposal practices. The paper employs two case studies focusing on cremation burial from Bronze Age (c.1300–1100 BC) and modern Denmark in order to demonstrate widely different sensuous engagements with fire and its experiential significance in a cremation context.

M3 - Journal article

VL - 40

SP - 253

EP - 267

JO - World Archaeology

JF - World Archaeology

SN - 0043-8243

IS - 2

ER -