PERISHABLES AND WORLDLY GOODS — ARTIFACT DECORATION AND CLASSIFICATION IN THE LIGHT OF WETLANDS RESEARCH

Abstract

Summary. Archaeology has long operated from the premise that there was a diverse and ornate organic ‘clothing’ on the ‘dry skeleton’ of the past which evades excavation. This paper evaluates the evidence from recent wetlands excavations and considers the implications of the paucity of organic containers found, and the lack of decoration on recovered organic materials, in Britain. It is argued that this negative evidence has important ramifications for our understanding of production and the classification of ‘things’ in later prehistoric societies. These issues can obviously not be addressed without considering the wealth of organic artifacts recovered at Glastonbury and an extended discussion of its material culture assemblage is included. In conclusion it is stressed that by its relative invisibility ‘organic archaeology’ has been prone to our normative projections onto the past. The role played by organic goods cannot be understood as being constant and can only be appreciated within their broader archaeological context.