Research Catalog

Title

Fire, water, heaven and earth : ritual practice and cosmology in ancient Scandinavia : an Indo-European perspective / Anders Kaliff ; [translation, Alan Crozier].

Author

Kaliff, Anders

Publication

Stockholm, Sweden : Riksantikvarieämbetet, 2007.

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Holdings

Details

Description

216 p. : ill. (some col.); 25 cm.

Summary

"Archaeological excavations of prehistoric Scandinavian graves and ritual sites often reveal seemingly enigmatic and contradictory features. There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that such sites can be given a much broader interpretation than as solely burial grounds, in the sense of places for the deposition of the remains of the dead. Interpretation from a comparative Indo-European perspective allows a partly new approach to material which at first sight seems fragmentary and anonymous." "The author discusses mortuary practices and votive customs in ancient Scandinavian tradition in a long-term perspective, with a comparative Indo-European approach. This is illustrated by a variety of archaeological sites, particularly some examples that have been excavated by Swedish contract archaeology in recent years, yielding a rich new body of material for interpretations of this problem field."--Jacket

Subject

• Funeral rites and ceremonies, Ancient > Scandinavia
• Ritual > Scandinavia
• Cosmology, Ancient
• Northmen > Rites and ceremonies
• Indo-Europeans > Religion
• Mythology, Indo-European
• Scandinavia > Antiquities

Note

• Translated from Swedish.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 201-216).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Religion as a force in the creation of culture : a revived research field -- The significance of terminology for interpretation -- Analogies and phenomenology -- The Indo-European context : problems and possibilities -- The Vedic analogy : an introduction -- The source material and the ancient Scandinavian conceptual world -- Cosmology and ritual practice -- Grave monuments and sacrificial altars : kindred ritual implements -- The cremation ritual and the ideas behind it -- Traces of Scandinavian fire sacrifice -- Fire sacrifice rituals and the elements -- Death and grinding : the annihilation of the body -- Ritual dismemberment and deposition -- Everyday life and ritual : different expressions of the same cosmology -- Rock and stone as a medium and a cultic implement -- Aspects of the dead as mythical beings.

ISBN

• 9789172094505
• 9172094508

OCLC

181142274

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library