22/05/2026
Professor Liv Nilsson Stutz will be giving our Summer Lecture with the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Please join us on Friday 5th June 2026 from 17:30-19:15 in the Huntingdon Room, King’s Manor, when Professor Liv Nilsson Stutz from Linnaeus University, Sweden, will give our Summer Lecture: Death in the Mesolithic. What the rituals of death tell us about Mesolithic people and their lives.
Abstract:
How can archaeologists understand the human experience of death in the deep past? More specifically, how can the archaeological record, consisting of fragmented material traces of past people’s actions when faced with death, provide real insights into past lives? The lecture will embrace themes of belief, ritual, cosmology, the dead, emotion, and concepts of body and self. Through a focus on the physical handling of the dead human body – including cremation, inhumation, manipulation, and even mummification – the approach opens a window into past lived experience where death is understood within its context, and in turn provides insights into the hunter-gatherer-fisher world more broadly. Drawing on archaeological and anthropological theories inspired by practice theory, ritual theory and body theory, and the analytical method “archaeothanatology” this lecture explores a classic archaeological challenge: how can we archaeologically approach human experience beyond the material?
This talk is open to the public and will be followed by a wine reception.
If you would like to attend, please ensure that you book your place via the link below:
Using archaeothanatology, this lecture explores how physical handling of the dead reveals past human experiences beyond the material.
