Entering, and returning from, the underworld: reconstituting Silbury Hill by combining a quantified landscape phenomenology with archaeoastronomy

L Sims�- Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2009 - Wiley Online Library
L Sims
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 2009Wiley Online Library
Landscape phenomenology limits the number of possible narratives for interpreting
prehistoric monuments through the embodied experience of walking their remains in their
landscape. While this method may improve upon an archaeology that narrows interpretation
to single site excavations isolated in Euclidean space, it has been criticized for deploying
unsubstantiated metaphors as an interpretative resource. Contemporary
archaeoastronomy's dominant methodology submits regional groups of prehistoric�…
Landscape phenomenology limits the number of possible narratives for interpreting prehistoric monuments through the embodied experience of walking their remains in their landscape. While this method may improve upon an archaeology that narrows interpretation to single site excavations isolated in Euclidean space, it has been criticized for deploying unsubstantiated metaphors as an interpretative resource. Contemporary archaeoastronomy's dominant methodology submits regional groups of prehistoric monuments to rigorous statistical methods for testing whether perceived alignments were in fact intended by their builders. However, it is presently unable to saturate alignment findings with meaning, and reaches its limits when monuments are found to align on local landscape features rather than ‘astronomical’ bodies. Through a detailed examination of Silbury Hill in its landscape and late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age monument context, this article shows that problems in both methods can be transcended by studying the emergent properties generated by their combination. These emergent properties are consistent with the predictions of a recent anthropological model of lunar‐solar conflation.
R�sum�
La ph�nom�nologie du paysage limite le nombre d'interpr�tations possibles des vestiges pr�historiques � celle obtenue par l'exp�rience v�cue d'un arpentage dans leurs alentours. Bien que cette m�thode puisse enrichir l'arch�ologie, qui restreint l'interpr�tation aux seules fouilles du site isol� dans l'espace euclidien, elle est critiqu�e pour l'usage de m�taphores infond�es comme sources d'interpr�tation. Par ailleurs, la m�thodologie dominante de l'arch�oastronomie contemporaine consiste � appliquer � des groupes r�gionaux de monuments pr�historiques des m�thodes statistiques rigoureuses pour v�rifier si les alignements per�us avaient effectivement �t� projet�s par leurs constructeurs. Elle ne peut cependant pas saturer de signification les alignements retrouv�s et atteint ses limites quand les monuments s'av�rent align�s sur des rep�res locaux du paysage plut�t que sur des corps � astronomiques �. � travers un examen d�taill� de Silbury Hill dans son paysage et dans son contexte monumental du N�olithique et du Bronze ancien, l'article montre que les points faibles des deux m�thodes peuvent �tre transcend�s si l'on �tudie les propri�t�s �mergentes n�es de leur combinaison. Ces nouvelles propri�t�s sont coh�rentes avec les pr�dictions r�centes d'un mod�le anthropologique de rapprochement entre temps lunaire et temps solaire.
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