Rethinking burial practices and period transitions through a posthumanist and new materialist lens

Period transitions are challenging to study, challenging to explain, and challenging to think through. Traditionally, archaeologists often radically oppose different sequential periods focusing on how they differ from each other. For example, we might say that in one period inhumation burials were dominant but that cremations became dominant in the following period: we can call this a ‘block time’ approach to change. This has the effect of creating periods of relative stasis in contrast to moments of transition at the start and finish. Drawing on process philosophy we can move beyond this approach and take the next step to paint a more subtle and nuanced picture of change. The approach presented here looks at the multiple differing small changes that produce our period transitions and does not focus solely on a dominant mainstream narrative at the expense of the many more complex stories of change that exist within our archaeological data. These theoretical ideas will be explored through the case study of the emergence of a Bronze Age in Britain and Ireland. This chapter utilises posthumanist and new materialist concepts to rethink how we approach transitions in burial practice.