Talk - Dr Jean Wilson (MBE): 'Splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave’: the usefulness of funerary monuments.

*Dr Jean Wilson (MBE) Affiliated Scholar at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and Vice-President, Church Monuments Society

The study of funerary monuments demands a multidisciplinary approach and draws on a wide range of expertise, and as such has an affinity with archaeology.

While some funerary monuments, such as the Pyramids, those of classical Greece and Rome, or, for instance, hogbacks in the north of Great Britain, are seen as proper foci for the archaeologist, later monuments are often overlooked, or treated as subsidiary architectural elements, rather than as discrete material remains. This is a pity as they hold a great deal of information: artistic, historical, costume, economic, sociological, emotional and intellectual. They widen our understanding of the ages in which they were manufactured and may cause us to question common assumptions about the past.

This talk is one of a series of two, there will be a talk prior to this from 6pm-7pm: Dr Nik Petek-Sargeant: ‘The disasters that shaped us’: the wars, droughts, and migrations of the long-19th century that made modern East Africa. Please book tickets for that if you are interested.