We Have Never Been Material.
Andrew Cochrane 2007 - Page 3
Figure 3. Miniature axeheads, beads and portions of pins (O'Sullivan 2005).
SO HOW WERE THINGS? (Continued)
Some of the pendants and beads discovered, such as from
Fourknocks I, the
Mound of the Hostages (see image above) and some of the
Boyne Valley and
Loughcrew sites,
have been interpreted as miniature facsimiles of larger
stone technologies, such as pestlehammers or axeheads (Herity 1974, 126-9;
Eogan 1986, 142-4). If indeed they were copies or imitations, many interesting
proposals can be explored. For instance, that miniature axeheads or maceheads
(such as at the eastern tomb, Knockroe) and miniature pendants (such as at
Fourknocks I) were used might suggest that they actively influenced particular
people in novel ways, rather than merely being the passive ornaments of
deceased 'individuals'.
As such, the miniaturisation of objects might be less
about accuracy through representation and more about experimentation with the
physical world and possibly a critique or interpretation of it (Bailey 2005,
29). Miniaturisation can act as impressive visual strategies that can charge
material objects with psychological tensions, generating intense sensory and
emotional experiences for the maker and handler. This can result in the handler
or spectator feeling both empowered and interested, but also unsettled or
alienated, creating a dramatic form of social experience (Nakamura 2005, 32; Waddington
2007). Gell (1999b) remarked on some of these effects when he recounted being
entranced by a matchstick model of Salisbury Cathedral. He recalled being
captivated more by the model than the cathedral itself; it was for him
dexterity in objectified form, operating by bringing both the technologies of
enchantment and the enchantment of technologies together. With miniaturisation
only certain traits of the full size are ever present, rendering the smaller
version a compressed and powerful version of the larger one.
These interactions
operate within an intimate sphere and offer different ways of seeing the
world(s), creating alternative realities (Bailey 2005, 32). The object has to
be picked up, held in the hand, turned around, felt, smelt and tasted, with the
many of the textures and details absorbed. Such an encounter immediately distinguishes
itself from performances with the passage tomb orthostats, in that once they
were set within the structure it is unlikely that they were moved again. These engagements
can result in the handler feeling empowered as they easily manipulate the
object, but at the same time unsettled, as they may feel gigantic in relation
to the object and dislocated from normal frames of reference (Tilley 2004, 137;
Bailey 2005, 33; Nakamura 2005, 33). The spectator or handler is invited to
tacitly engage with the object through size, yet at the same time distanced by
it through the absence of other features (Bailey 2005, 32).
Within such a conceptual framework, the stone balls discovered
(e.g. in Cairn L,
Loughcrew, the
Mound of the Hostages,
Fourknocks I and
Newgrange Site 1) may
have been more than 'children's marbles' (Herity 1974, 136), being understood instead
through habits of tactile appropriation in order to further interact with the 'aura'
of the object (Benjamin 1977, 225, 242). Their form as durable, portable, possibly
miniature, three-dimensional objects creates choreographies of relation (Nakamura
2005, 32). The decorated pins, such as the chevron patterned antler pin from
Fourknocks I may have stimulated people in similar ways, and therefore have been
more than functional fasteners for 'hair-buns' on the back of the head or for 'ceremonial
cloaks' (Herity 1974, 134; Eogan 1986, 181).
Intimate relations with objects
may also have resulted from entanglements with the stone shaped 'phalluses' from
Knowth Site 1 and at Newgrange Site 1 (
O'Kelly 1973, 140-1). That these devices
were discovered outside the passage tombs, on quartz oval settings, may suggest
that public performances were enacted via simulated or physically penetrating
acts that were framed within a particular worldview. The double stone balls
found in Newgrange Site 1 (O'Kelly 1982, 195) and the Mound of the Hostages (O'Sullivan
2005, 154) might also support the notion that fertility, renewal or sexual practices
occurred within and outside some passage tombs (see also Herity 1974, 134;
Eogan 1986, 179). The penetration of the sun's rays at particular times of the year
through the entrances, and into the chambers beyond, of some of the passage tombs
(e.g. Newgrange Site 1 and Cairn T, Loughcrew) may have magnified these beliefs
(Sheridan 1985/6, 28).
Replica of the decorated flint
macehead (7.9 cm in length; 324.5 gm weight) found at
the entrance to the right-hand recess of the eastern passage tomb, Knowth Site 1
Associated with cremated human remains and discovered on the old ground surface at the
entrance to Cell 3 (the right-hand recess) of the eastern passage tomb, Knowth
Site 1, directly in front of the stone basin was discovered a highly decorated ovoid
macehead made of flint (7.9cm long) (Eogan 1986, 42-3, 146). The macehead is
decorated with spirals, lozenges and arcs. On each side of the macehead there
is a single spiral; on one face there is an arc that in-turns at its ends,
similar to the 'horned arc' or 'pelta designs' and around the hole for the
handle are sets of lines, one of which trails off to form a spiral on the side (see
photo above). The ends of the macehead have close fitting lozenge motifs that are
carved in relief. The macehead would originally have been mounted on a shaft.
The combination of the 'horned arc' image and the hole for the handle has been
interpreted as being 'overtly anthropomorphic' (O'Sullivan 1993a, 40).
Anthropomorphic beings are often regarded by some 'shamanic' groups as
occupying the upper realms of the three-tiered cosmos. The decorated macehead
may have therefore been placed to assist in journeys from within the passage
tomb to the heavens. The intrusion of a handle into the macehead would,
however, diminish the impact of a facial representation. One could alternatively
describe the motif as symbolising a mushroom, such as the hallucinogenic
Psilocybe
semilanceata (Liberty Cap) or
Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric), with
the 'horned arc' forming the cap and gills, and the macehead handle the stem.
Psychoactive mushrooms would certainly assist people in conducting journeys to
other realms (see discussions in Cochrane 2001, especially chapter 3). Without
applying a representational interpretation, one can propose that cosmological
emphasis possibly resided more with the colour, sensual and sculptural elements of the stone.
Although occurrence of decorated maceheads is rare in Irish passage tombs, undecorated
ones have been discovered, such as in the western tomb, Knowth site 1. Stone
axeheads are also not found in all passage tombs, but do occur in some, such as
between the entrance stones of Sess Kilgreen, Co. Tyrone and in the fill and foundation
levels of the Mound of the Hostages (Coffey 1912, 108; O'Sullivan 2005, 158-9).
As these artefacts do not feature largely in passage tombs, one might argue
that the deposition or presence of stone axeheads and maceheads was deemed more
appropriate in bogs, shallow waters such as lakes or ponds and rivers at fording
points (Cooney 2000, 208). These objects may have been understood as being
animate with biographies and origin myths, gifts in their own right from the earth
or sky (i.e. ones that originated in mountain locations), within a cyclical character
of life and death (Whittle 1995, 255-6; Cooney 1992, 24; 2000a, 210; A. Watson 2004, 83).
The placement in liquid deposits may therefore indicate how the objects
were considered as fluid rather than static elements. The idea that stone is fluid
also permeates some modern Western thought. For instance, in articulating the relationships
between various components in an environment the artist Giuseppe Penone proposed
that all mountains crumble and eventually transform into sand, and that it is
just a matter of time (Kaye 2000, 148). Everything is always in a process of
becoming. The paucity of 'traditional' scale stone macehead and axehead
presence in passage tombs might therefore suggest that it was deemed by some as
less appropriate to remove them from daily circulation by placing them within the structures.
It is possible that the material objects placed in passage tombs were oblations, gifts
or exchanges that were set within practices of regeneration and fertility.
Previous interpretations of the broken Carrowkeel pots in passage tombs have
suggested that their destruction occurred as a result of intentional burial
'rituals' (e.g. Eogan 1986, 140). Fowler (2004, 73) has suggested that the
breaking of an object such as a pot or necklace is performed and then given as
an incomplete gift for the dead as reciprocation is not required, with parts of
the fragmented offering being kept with the living to provide further stimuli
for memories (Jones 2002, 169). The act of removing these objects from daily
life and the subsequent placement of them in passage tombs may have
incorporated acts of transformation that affected both present and the absent
persons (see also Fowler 2004, 135).
Beck (1999) has illustrated that any
social activity continually involves a degree of essential risk; the 'killing'
of these objects by the placement of them in passage tombs may therefore have
involved risk and concerns with pollution and closure. For instance, in the
nineteenth century some African Americans in the southern United States
frequently placed broken pots on top of graves to prevent the dead from rising,
and coming back (Parker Pearson 1999, 10, 26). Such processes may operate by
the dead or other entities having their attention drawn by the fragmented
ceramic and human pieces, being enchanted and tantalised by the multitude of
parts, resulting in them being rendered impotent (see Gell 1998, 90).
Effectively the separate parts produce a 'network of stoppages' (Duchamp 1973).
The fragmented elements of the passage tomb motifs could also perform in a
similar fashion. These disjointed parts may have provided a cognitive indecipherability,
in that they confuse the spectator who is unable to distinguish at once parts
and wholes within (dis)continuity, synchrony and succession.
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