Archaeological Phenomenology and the Landscape of Prehistoric Burial
Sites
by Neil Baker
Phenomenology is a branch of social
theory that has achieved archaeological notoriety
in recent years for explorations of primarily prehistoric landscapes. Its use in archaeology has been one of
the most provoking theoretical developments in the discipline in recent years
and has been a constant source of debate between archaeologists (Bruck, 2005:
Fleming 2006). The following discussion
will not provide an overview of the wide-ranging philosophical field of
phenomenology. It will focus upon on
archaeological phenomenology and whether it can increase our understanding of
the landscape context of Neolithic and Bronze Age burial sites.
“Went to see an ancient mound
People buried underground
Long ago, will never know
What it was like to hear their sounds”
Lyrical excerpt of “Rollright Stones” from “Shoot Out At The Fantasy
Factor” by Traffic, 1973.
What
is archaeological phenomenology?
Archaeologists have a long
history of describing and classifying prehistoric burial sites but many are
often uncomfortable with defining how people might have experienced them. Early studies tended to focus on the monument
rather than its’ situation (Chapman & Geary, 2000, 318; Watson, 2001). The way in which landscapes and sites were,
and still are generally understood is commonly dictated by conventional
established fieldwork methodologies such as survey or excavation. To this end, landscapes are still frequently
depicted as static and disembodied, two-dimensional diagrammatic
representations (Tilley, 2004). The
landscape archaeologist would argue that such “typical” information gives no
sense of first-hand familiarity with the site.
It does not convey information relevant to how prehistoric burial sites
were physically experienced by the people that constructed and interacted with
them (Cummings et al, 2002: Parker
Pearson, 1999). In an attempt to address
this problem, landscape phenomenologists study place, and analyse “sites and
locations as static positions where human actions are carried out” (Peterson,
200, 394; Woodward, 2000, 123).
In order to fully
comprehend and appreciate how a monument relates to its landscape, one has to
attribute value and meaning to it by experiencing it first-hand. In this way the relations and
interconnections of a landscape such as “place, social and personal identity
and experience” together with feeling, emotion and significance will be better
understood (Tarlow, 2000: Tilley, 2004, 185).
However, critics of this approach have described it as “a nice long walk
with your eyes open” (Russell, 2007, 31).
Phenomenology is often viewed as a modern discipline, but this is not
the case. The relationship between a
monument and its setting is by no means a new phenomenon and was first mooted
and recorded by antiquarians such as William Stukeley in the 18th
century (Barnatt & Edmonds, 2002; Peterson, 2003).
Discussion
Can the
adoption of a phenomenological approach to prehistoric burial studies increase
our knowledge of them? Landscape
phenomenologists often claim that barrows, cairns and other prehistoric
monuments were carefully located so as to ensure views of particular landscape
features while others were deliberately obscured (Tilley 1994, 135; Bender et al, 1997; Cummings 2002). They argue that some prehistoric burial sites
were specifically located to establish control over “topographic perspective”,
uniting significant natural places in the wider landscape (Tilley, 1994: 204:
Tilley, 2002, 185).
In 1994, Christopher
Tilley suggested that a number of Welsh Neolithic chambered tombs in
Pembrokeshire (26) and The Black Mountains (14) were designed and constructed
to have deliberate relationships with natural landscape features (Fleming,
2005: Tilley, 1994, 92 & 118). These
included mountains, river valleys and places outside natural limits such as
caves and were suggested to be liminal zones where the boundary between this
world and the otherworld became blurred (Bradley 2000, Cummings et al, 2003:
Fleming 1999). It was noted that the
long axis of some of the Pembrokeshire cairns “seemed to be oriented” west-east
and emphasised prominent natural features (Tilley, 1994, 94). Fifty four percent of the Pembrokeshire group
(14) were suggested to have had close or direct relationships to inland rock
outcrops. The principal orientation of
the Black Mountain group of cairns was also suggested to have “relationships”
with dominant landscape features such as rivers (5) and prominent hill spurs
(9) on the Black mountains (Tilley,
1994, 124). Tilley proposed that in the
Neolithic period such features were regarded as “natural, non-cultural or non-domesticated
megaliths” making them special places (Tilley, 1994, 94).
Tilley’s fieldwork in
Pembrokeshire and the Black Mountains was the catalyst for more studies of both
areas which cast some doubt upon his interpretations. Cummings et
al (2002) re-examined various claims about the axis of the Black Mountain
cairns. Their research studied the tombs’
relationship to specific features in the landscape using a methodology that
would reproduce their own observations (Cummings et al, 2002). The work
focussed on the cairns’ construction, ground plans, positions and building
materials. They suggested that the tombs
were deliberately asymmetrical both in their location and in their construction
but seldom “oriented directly upon landscape features” (Cummings et al, 2002: Fleming, 1999). It was concluded that the cairns were sited
to emphasise transitional areas. These
were “places in between places” for example between river valleys and between
mountain escarpments (Cummings et al, 2002, 67). Much of the work in Wales by Cummings et al and Tilley has been criticised by Andrew Fleming (1999, 2005 &
2006). He checked Tilley’s observations
and pointed out that many of his proposed alignments were in fact erroneous
(Woodward, 2000, 123). Fleming argued that the apparent relationship between
monuments and rock outcrops at North Preseli in Pembrokeshire may be the result
of preferential survival. Many of the
sites are in found marginal, stony areas where the land has not been intensively
farmed. This fact, coupled with the easy
availability of building materials to subsequent generations possibly meant
that tombs were not robbed out.
Tilley also
employed a phenomenological approach in “Round
Barrows and Dykes as landscape metaphors”.
This was an exploration into the locational significance of Bronze Age
round barrows and dykes located at the eastern end of the Ebble-Nadder ridge in
southwest Wiltshire (Fleming, 2006: Tilley, 2004). Of relevance to this essay is the section of
Tilley’s work which focussed on twenty-four Bronze Age barrows. The project concentrated on the relationship
between a northern and southern group of barrows, and the natural coombes and
spurs found on the chalk ridge. Each
barrow was visited and its’ individual relationship to major topographical
features was noted (Fleming, 2006: Tilley, 2004: Woodward 2000).
Tilley concluded that
eleven of the twenty-four barrows were directly related to coombes and were
located at or near coombe heads or conjunctions. Seven barrows were connected to character
changes in the landscape i.e. spurs (2), gullies (2) and changes of escarpment
direction (3). The southern barrow group
was not intervisible with the northern group, which led Tilley to suggest that
the barrow siting was related to “highly localised topographical features”
(Tilley, 2004, 194). The link between barrows and coombes has been
suggested by many archaeologists, and various studies have focussed on
intervisibility and barrow placement.
These have shown that burial sites frequently occur on false crests,
ridges or higher ground, while others have a geometric relationship within the
landscape (Tomalin, 1991; Woodwood & Woodwood, 1996; Field, 1998; Parker
Pearson & Ramilisonina 1988).
Some
phenomenological arguments cut both ways and it is possible that perceived
orientations were deliberate, but then again it could is equally possible that
they could be accidental. Archaeologists’
need to critically consider how relationships should
be identified, asking, for example, how close a monument needs to be to a
particular topographic feature for a deliberate link between the two to be
suggested (Fleming, 1999, 120 & 2005, 927).
Similar points can be made regarding the significance of other sensory
elements of monuments and landscapes. Phenomenologists
are often criticised of manipulating evidence in favour of their assumptions
and not being objective. Caution should
be applied when hypothesizing about sacred mountains in areas where isolated
hills and mountain ranges dominate the skyline.
We first need to identify which particular
elements of a burial landscape can be shown to be important factors influencing
their location in the past and which cannot.
However as a point of interest, two of Tilley’s proposed sacred mountains
have later religious connections which could have originated in the prehistoric
period. Carn Ingli or “hill of
angels”, has been linked with the Irish saint Brynach, while Mynydd Troed in
the Black Mountains was known in the 5th century as Garth Matrun,
the “hillspur of the Great Mother” (Thomas, 1994, 57 & 145-6).
Any archaeologist should
be wary of overemphasising what is perceived as a deliberate landscape
relationship without careful consideration of all the facts. It would be normal practice to note that the
burials were in carefully chosen locations, and that those on high ground are often intervisible with each another
while those on low ground are not (DeBoer, 2004: Fleming, 2006). Apparent
orientation, intervisibility or invisibility is not
an indicator that those who built and used a prehistoric burial site recognised
or considered a visual relationship important.
The visual interactions postulated by Tilley (1994 & 2004)
may not have been the overriding factor in barrow placement. The dead do not bury themselves
(Parker-Pearson, 1999), and the selection of burial sites is a carefully
considered undertaking and argument only arises in interpretation of the barrow
placement (Barrett, 2004). Field
suggests that it is not the burial that is sacred but the landscape itself is
sacred, and the important relationship may have been one that placed the
barrows in harmony with the landscape (Field, 1998, 321). He compared British Prehistoric burial sites
in Sussex with the preferred location for Chinese burials and concluded that
they were broadly similar in nature. The
majority of sites were located on “well drained, south facing slopes…with water
at the base…and mountains in the rear to protect them from…evil influences”
(Field, 1998, 322).
In an effort to illustrate
their visual theories, phenomenologists have attempted to demonstrate visual
relationships between places they have identified with photographs,
photomontages and line drawings (Cummings et
al, 2000: Tilley 1994). These
techniques are reputed to enable landscapes to be represented from the
perspective of lived experience in contrast to traditional cartographic
depictions. In their attempt to produce
a repeatable methodology Cummings et al
(2002) produced panoramic representations of the landscape around each
monument. This was achieved by sketching
a 360 degree view from a set point
in the centre of the monument a method also used by Stukeley in the 18th
century. All drawings were supplemented by
taking a series of photographs which created a wraparound photograph of the
surrounding landscape (Cummings et al,
2002, 61). These have proved useful for analysis but they
are difficult to understand, and only of limited use in the presentation of the
data. The use of photography and
video footage as evidence to support the claims made for particular
relationships must be treated with caution.
Unfortunately the images produced are not objective records but are
themselves selected and edited representations of landscape (Chadwick 2004, 21; Peterson, 2003,
398). However, it could be argued
that any criticisms of phenomenological recording methodologies are themselves
flawed unless the site had been visited by the critic (Cummings, et al, 2002, 68).
Phenomenology
while relying heavily on a sense of vision, also embraces a belief that there are
key points of common connection. In
Wiltshire, Tilley contrasts a “deep interior world of the coombes and the
exterior world of the ridge tops” where the coombes were dangerous places
associated with “spirits, mythical forces and the underworld” (2004, 196). He argues that the Neolithic cairns he
studied in Wales were connections between Neolithic inhabitants and their
Mesolithic ancestors, and were placed in locations with “emotional
attachment…and significant places linked by paths of movement” (Tilley, 1994,
202). This raises interesting questions
about whether prehistoric barrows were deliberately constructed over spaces
imbued with significance, or whether it was pure coincidence (Benson &
Whittle, 2007, 31). There is certainly a
case for the argument of continuity, as many of the Black Mountain cairns have
been found to be sited on early Mesolithic flint scatters, suggesting an
ancestral connection via a collective social memory (Nash, 2003, 5 & 2007,
pers. comm.; Tilley, 1994, 117).
Cummings et al interpreted the
Black Mountain cairns as “places of transformation” sited to mark significant
landscapes and places where the dead would undergo a metamorphosis from flesh
to bone (Cummings et al, 2003, 67). This
is another plausible phenomenological theory that cannot be discounted but like
so many phenomenological arguments, cannot be proved either.
A Phenomenologist
would argue that a present-day experience within a burial landscape will not be
considerably different from that experienced in the Neolithic or Bronze Age
(Tilley, 1994). In his discussion of
Wiltshire Bronze-Age barrows, Tilley suggests that the present day topography
of coombes and ridges was virtually the same in the Bronze Age as it is now. Natural features such as sudden dips,
marshland or steep inclines are perceived to have had a similar effect on
prehistoric people’s experience of landscape as they have on his own (Tilley,
2004). He neglects to mention that form
and character of the landscape may have altered dramatically over many
years. The surface
appearance of the monuments will also be
different as several millennia of soil drift and erosion, stone robbing and
plant invasion has transformed their original appearance (Savoy, 1973, 1). It may also look and feel quite
different at different times of the year or different times of day. Therefore, it is recommended that sites
should be visited under different conditions over a lengthy period of time to
have any hope of recreating the experiences of people in the past. (Cummings et
al, 2003: Chapman and Geary 2000).
The consideration of
visibility and lines of sight are also potentially flawed by a lack of
appreciation for past environmental factors.
Any theorised visual effect in the past
may have been hindered, prevented or even enhanced by trees, woodland or long
grass (Bruck, 2004; Cummings et al, 256). Palaeoecological analysis
of carbonized plant remains, and disturbed soil from a selection of the Black
Mountain cairns revealed that some were constructed in areas of heath or
woodland pasture while others were sited in more open landscapes (Cummings and
Whittle, 2003, 259; Tilley, 1994, 220).
This would obviously have implications for phenomenological studies; a wooded setting can have real physical and psychological
effects on anyone experiencing that landscape.
Prehistoric people may have been deliberately siting burials in and
around wooded landscapes to create particular experiences of place that may be
difficult to recreate today (Muir, 2005).
Even if it is possible to identify convincing relationships
between landscape features, the meaning of these associations may be more
difficult to understand.
Perhaps the
most important debate concerning phenomenology is whether present-day
interactions with a burial landscape will ever approach the actual experience
of past peoples. Any first hand
experience of a phenomenological landscape interaction today can only be
imaginary, socially constructed, cultural specific and subject to modern
beliefs and emotions. The landscape will
be experienced and interpreted by people in many different ways, and will vary
depending on the context of their engagement with it (Edmonds, 1999). This makes it easy to question
phenomenological landscape theories as “at any one time, landscapes…are
multiple and contradictory” (Bender, 1998, 34).
To some, artefacts can be places in the same way places can be artefacts
to others, likewise monuments can be landscapes and landscapes may be monuments
(Bradley, 2000).
Archaeological
interpretation “is carried out in and for the present”, and a prehistoric
experience of a burial landscape might have been very different and probably
emotional experience to that encountered today (Tarlow, 2000; Tilley, 2004,
225). While some aspects of “being there”
are partially or directly reconstructable such as “…visibility, sound, and
touch”, we can never wholly reconstruct the way in which our prehistoric
ancestors viewed or experienced a burial landscape (Parker Pearson, 1999,
139). We know that prehistoric people
visited, used and reused burial sites, but we don’t know that they understood
and saw burial sites in the same way we do today. We often forget that any visits to burial
sites were most certainly encountered with friends, family, strangers, animals
and objects, and all to the sound of stories, songs and conversation (Nash,
pers. comm.; Watson, 2001). Tilley
himself acknowledges this and “makes no claims to an understanding…or significance
of the prehistoric burial landscape (Tilley, 2004, 74). All that can be suggested by phenomenological
explorations of burial landscapes are interpretive possibilities based on our
own contemporary experience and observations.
Conclusion
Phenomenological studies
of archaeological landscapes have been based upon attempting to replicate the
experience of “being-in-the-world”, primarily through analysing visibility
patterns (Tilley 1994: 12). This has
been called into question and had been critiqued as un-testable, overtly
subjective and misguided (Fleming, 1999, 2005 & 2006). A major problem
with taking a phenomenological approach to
the study of prehistoric burials is that the landscape can only be experienced
as it appears today (Brophy, 2004). While phenomenology does assist the recognition of some visual relationships that
were considered significant in the past, it cannot tell us what they may have
meant (Tilley 2004: Woodward 2004). Despite
its drawbacks, landscape phenomenology has certainly
encouraged archaeologists to reanalyse the architecture and landscape settings
of various different categories of burial monument. It certainly shows the need for a
greater understanding of the “detailed landscape setting” of prehistoric
burials (Woodward 2000, 130).
Any
criticism that stimulates both rigorous archaeological debate and new research
can only be good for archaeology as a whole.
Phenomenology does at least remind us that prehistoric
burial sites were more than “just somewhere to put dead bodies” (Parker
Pearson, 1999, 196). They may also have
been markers of special places, a recreation of valued landscape features, or
commemorated the passage of time (Richards, 1996). No school of archaeological thought has a “monopoly
on the imagination”, and while phenomenology cannot tell us about community and
characters, or their hopes and fears, neither can traditionally accepted
archaeological methodologies (Fleming, 2006, 272). Archaeologists do not need to throw away
their maps and air photographs. They
just have to recognise that there are many ways of thinking about and
interpreting prehistoric burial landscapes, and appreciate that there may be a
deeper significance to the placement of prehistoric burials than is currently
understood.
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