Manipulation of Objects from Graves – Aspects of Ritual and Symbolic Communication between Late Bronze Age and Late Latène Period in South and Southwest Germany

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Graves belong to the main sources of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology as they permit inferences on beliefs and symbolic worlds. Objects from graves are usually interpreted as grave goods related to the deceased, as an indicator of their social status or of having ›biographical relevance‹. The handling of the objects, however, is only rarely addressed, even if it has left visible traces. Actually, there are manipulated objects from graves – often weapons – in nearly every pre- and protohistorical period. Frequently they have been treated mechanically, e. g. they were deliberately broken, curled-up or folded. But there are also more ›subtle‹ phenomena documented, like rendering useless by taking elements relevant to function, pars pro toto, the splitting of objects to several graves or inversion. The project aims at a comparative investigation of chosen archaeological sites in South and Southwest Germany from the Late Bronze Age/Urnfield Period to the end of the Latène Period to work out the concrete character of the manipulation of grave goods, continuities and breaks as well as their causes. The simultaneous occurrence as well as a ›shift‹ of (at least formally) comparable manipulations enables an analysis of different social spaces (ritual places, hoards, settlements) from a perspective on ritual theory – linked by practices. Methodically, an approach focused on Cultural Studies and Cultural Anthropology is chosen that understands selecting, destruction, fragmentation or wrapping explicitly as social practices to create meaning in the context of symbolic and/or ritual communication that must be seen as an integral part of the funerary ritual.