Rachel J Crellin
Biographic Data
| ID | 341177 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel J Crellin |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel J |
| FAMILY NAME | Crellin |
| SIGNATURE | CRELLIN R J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leicester |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8297-1083 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 37 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 234 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 35 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
‘A Life Proper to Matter’: Re-Animating Museum Collections Through New Materialism and Microwear
This paper combines microwear analysis with new materialism to invigorate our understanding of past material worlds at multiple scales of analysis. Just as the development of new biomolecular approaches at scale has revealed an archive for research, so a combination of critical theoretical approaches and specific empirical analyses can do the same for objects, including those that would be considered to lack traditional ideas of ‘good context’. T…
A Catalogue of British Bronze Age Axes, Including Basic Typology, Compositional Analyses and Associated Radiocarbon Dates
This archive lists ~8000 Bronze Age British axeheads, alongside associated compositional analyses, isotopic measurements and radiocarbon dates. It integrates several major existing data collection efforts and published catalogues, whilst also providing a self-consistent basic typology. It is archived as four related flat-sheet text files and could be reused to support quantitative assessment of geographic and temporal patterns in metalwork style,…
From proof and unproof to critical fabulation: A response to Frieman
In her debate article, Frieman's (2024) reflections on the idea of unproof are a welcome and elegant addition to current debate on the nature of archaeological evidence, how we construct the stories we tell about the past, and the role of archaeology in the contemporary world. Frieman draws on both feminist and anarchist theory to argue that the value of archaeology is the way it allows us to grasp worlds different from our own and suggests that …
Archaeology for Today and Tomorrow
Archaeology and capitalism
Use-wear analysis reveals the first direct evidence for the use of Neolithic polished stone axes in Britain
Polished stone axes have long been recognised as one of the most important forms of material culture in the Neolithic. Research over the last 40 years has done much to understand their origins, patterns of exchange across Europe, deposition, and social importance. Despite this long-recognised importance, little work in Britain has focused on the actual use of these objects. This article presents the first use-wear analysis of 20 Early Neolithic p…
From Typology and Biography to Multiplicity: Bracers as ‘Process Objects
In this article we put forward an alternative account of the famous wristguards, or bracers, of the European Early Bronze Age. Combining new materialism with empirical microwear analysis, we study 15 examples from Britain in detail and suggest a different way of conceptualizing these objects. Rather than demanding they have a singular function, we treat these objects as ‘multiplicities’ and as always in process. This, in turn, has significant imp…
Materials in movement: Gold and stone in process in the Upton Lovell G2a burial
Excavated over two centuries ago, the Upton Lovell G2a 'Wessex Culture' burial has held a prominent place in research on Bronze Age Britain. In particular, was it the grave of a 'shaman' or a metalworker? We take a new approach to the grave goods, employing microwear analysis and scanning electron microscopy to map a history of interactions between people and materials, identifying evidence for the presence of Bronze Age gold on five artefacts, f…
Beaker and Early Bronze Age Tin Exploitation in Cornwall: Cassiterite Processing Identified through Microwear and pXRF Analyses
The appearance of Beaker pottery in Britain and Ireland during the twenty-fifth century bc marks a significant archaeological horizon, being synchronous with the first metal artefacts. The adoption of arsenical copper, mostly from Ireland, was followed by that of tin-bronze around 2200 bc . However, whilst the copper mine of Ross Island in Ireland is securely dated to the Early Bronze Age, and further such mines in the UK have been dated to the E…
Affirmation and Action: A Posthumanist Feminist Agenda for Archaeology
This paper explores the potential of posthumanist feminism in archaeology. We find ourselves exhausted in the face of the continuing inequalities in our discipline and the volatile political times we live in, where discrimination and xenophobia, entangled with the patriarchy, create a toxic mix. In the face of this, we draw inspiration from ongoing activism within archaeology and the emergence of posthumanist feminism beyond archaeology. We consi…
Change and Diversity in Neolithic Mortuary Practices on the Isle of Man
While the Early Neolithic chambered tombs of the Isle of Man are well known and the Late Neolithic has been clearly defined with reference to a distinctive suite of artefacts, little is known about the Middle Neolithic. This article reports on 17 new Neolithic radiocarbon dates from cremated human remains from the Isle of Man. These identify five burials in cists as Middle Neolithic and indicate new sequences of activity at cemeteries starting in…
Robert Johnston. 2021. Bronze Age worlds: A social prehistory of Britain and Ireland. London: Routledge. 978-1-138-03788-5 paperback £35
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
What Difference Does Posthumanism Make
In this paper we argue that to understand the difference Posthumanism makes to the relationship between archaeology, agency and ontology, several misconceptions need to be corrected. First, we emphasize that Posthumanism is multiple, with different elements, meaning any critique needs to be carefully targeted. The approach we advocate is a specifically Deleuzian and explicitly feminist approach to Posthumanism. Second, we examine the status of ag…
Posthuman Archaeologies, Archaeological Posthumanisms
This paper maps and builds relations between posthumanism and the field of archaeology, arguing for vital and promising connections between the two. Posthuman insights on post-anthropocentrism, non-human multiplicities, and the minoritarian in the now intersect powerfully with archaeology's multi-temporal and long-term interests in heterogenous and vibrant assemblages of people, places, and things, particularly the last few decades of 'decolonial…
Making posthumanist kin in the past
As Brück (2021) eloquently highlights, many archaeologists are dissatisfied with the narratives that are emerging from ancient DNA (aDNA) research. Oliver Harris and I have argued that one of the central problems with aDNA research is its theoretical foundation (Crellin & Harris 2020). We suggested that a nature-culture binary shapes the narratives that emerge from this work and has real political consequences. In this binary, nature has been ali…
A world in motion
This chapter summarises the book Change and Archaeology , outlining the findings of the previous chapters. The relational, posthumanist, post-anthropocentric, new materialist approach developed by the author is described and critically evaluated to consider both the strengths of the approach as well as areas of weakness and areas for future thinking and research. The chapter argues that a posthumanist and post-anthropocentric approach that critiq…
Changing time?
This chapter explores the relationship between change and time in archaeology. It argues that our approach to time fundamentally shapes how we are able to talk about change. When we adopt unilinear, uniform, universal models of time, the narratives of change that emerge from them have the same shape. The role of chronology, the impact of the separation of the past and present, and debates surrounding the differences between the measurement and ex…
Relational approaches
This chapter explores the potential of relational approaches to offer new ways to think about change in archaeology. In the past decade a range of relational approaches have gained traction in archaeology and offer an increasingly popular theoretical approach. Actor network theory and the work of Bruno Latour are explored in detail, which allows the reader to begin to explore what a relational world looks like and what a difference it makes to th…
Becoming metallic
This chapter offers an extended case study of the application of the relational, posthumanist, post-anthropocentric, new materialist approach outlined by the author. The theoretical framework is applied to the study of the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Britain and Ireland. This is achieved through a detailed study of the emergence of the first metal axes, drawing upon an extensive dataset from metalwork wear-analysis of flat …
Assembling change
This chapter outlines the relational, posthumanist, post-anthropocentric, new materialist approach developed by the author. The chapter draws upon the relational thinking of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and the philosophers and thinkers who have been inspired by them. It explores the work of posthumanist feminist thinkers such as Rosi Braidotti, and argues that a rethinking of human exceptionalism is urgent and necessary. An understanding of…
A changing history of archaeological thought
This chapter offers a history of archaeological thought, specifically focusing on how different theoretical frameworks have approached the study of change. It considers how culture history, processualism, Marxism, post-processualism, and postcolonial theoretical frameworks have been employed in archaeology and the narratives of change that emerge from them. The chapter forms an effective case study of why the block-time approach is problematic by…
Changing people and things
This chapter considers how the concept of biography has been deployed in archaeology as a way to understand change. The chapter does two things: it both explores how biography has been deployed as a narrative technique, metaphor, methodology, and theoretical approach in archaeology and it argues that both humans and things are constantly changing. Osteobiography, lifecycle, and life course approaches to the study of how people change are consider…
What is wrong with change?
This chapter argues that change is fundamental to what we do as archaeologists and that it is important that we foreground change in our work. The chapter identifies seven hurdles that prevent us from writing complex and nuanced narratives about change in the past. The first hurdle, termed the ‘block-time approach’ to change, focuses on how we often break the past up into periods of stasis interspersed by periods of quick transition. This model m…
Scales of change
This chapter explores how archaeologists have approached the issue of scale and how this intersects with change. It argues that scale is an important issue to consider because it is always political: from the grand narrative to the small-scale story of an individual from the past, scale gives shape to the narratives of change we write. Different approaches to scale are explored, from those of Palaeolithic archaeologists, to the Annales School, an…
Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis
The article presents a new picture of sword fighting in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe developed through the Bronze Age Combat Project . The project investigated the uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears by combining integrated experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis. The research is grounded in an explicit and replicable methodology providing a blueprint for future experimentation with, and wear analysis of, prehistoric …
Change and Archaeology
Change and Archaeology explores how archaeologists have historically described, interpreted, and explained change, and argues that change has been under-theorised. The study of change is central to the discipline of archaeology, but change is complex, and this makes it challenging to write about in nuanced ways that effectively capture the nature of our world. Relational approaches offer archaeologists more scope to explore change in complex and …
Changing Assemblages: Vibrant Matter in Burial Assemblages
In this paper the notion of assemblage, as derived from the work of Gilles Deleuze, is explored in order to consider change in prehistory. An assemblage-based approach that draws on the concept of ‘vibrant matter’ is implemented as the means of understanding change. In this approach all materials are viewed as vibrant and in flux. These ideas are used to create a heterogeneous view of change where assemblages, or parts of assemblages, may change …
Metalwork wear analysis: The loss of innocence
What Difference Does Posthumanism Make
In this paper we argue that to understand the difference Posthumanism makes to the relationship between archaeology, agency and ontology, several misconceptions need to be corrected. First, we emphasize that Posthumanism is multiple, with different elements, meaning any critique needs to be carefully targeted. The approach we advocate is a specifically Deleuzian and explicitly feminist approach to Posthumanism. Second, we examine the status of ag…
Beyond binaries. Interrogating ancient DNA
In this paper we explore ancient DNA (aDNA) as a powerful new technique for archaeologists. We argue that for aDNA to reach its full potential we need to carefully consider its theoretical underpinnings. We suggest that at present much aDNA research rests upon two problematic theoretical assumptions: first, that nature and culture exist in binary opposition and that DNA is a part of nature; second, that cultures form distinct and bounded identiti…
Affirmation and Action: A Posthumanist Feminist Agenda for Archaeology
This paper explores the potential of posthumanist feminism in archaeology. We find ourselves exhausted in the face of the continuing inequalities in our discipline and the volatile political times we live in, where discrimination and xenophobia, entangled with the patriarchy, create a toxic mix. In the face of this, we draw inspiration from ongoing activism within archaeology and the emergence of posthumanist feminism beyond archaeology. We consi…
Posthuman Archaeologies, Archaeological Posthumanisms
This paper maps and builds relations between posthumanism and the field of archaeology, arguing for vital and promising connections between the two. Posthuman insights on post-anthropocentrism, non-human multiplicities, and the minoritarian in the now intersect powerfully with archaeology's multi-temporal and long-term interests in heterogenous and vibrant assemblages of people, places, and things, particularly the last few decades of 'decolonial…
From Artefact Biographies to ‘Multiple Objects: A New Analysis of the Decorated Plaques of the Irish Sea Region
The concept of artefact biographies is well established, but has received increasing criticism from archaeologists and anthropologists. This article reviews this concept and its critiques from the basis of a new digital analysis (using reflectance transformation imaging) of a small group of decorated Neolithic artefacts from the Isle of Man and north Wales: stone plaques. We argue that the plaques are best understood as being situated in diverse …
Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis
The article presents a new picture of sword fighting in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe developed through the Bronze Age Combat Project . The project investigated the uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears by combining integrated experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis. The research is grounded in an explicit and replicable methodology providing a blueprint for future experimentation with, and wear analysis of, prehistoric …
Making marks meaningful: New Materialism and the Microwear Assemblage
In this paper we explore how positioning microwear analysis within new materialism and assemblage theory allows us to develop new ways of thinking about meaning in the past. By mapping the detailed histories of an object’s making and use, we suggest that we can open up an understanding of marks as forms of material meanings. These material meanings operate as intensive events that fold together present and absent materials, as well as a range of …
Beaker and Early Bronze Age Tin Exploitation in Cornwall: Cassiterite Processing Identified through Microwear and pXRF Analyses
The appearance of Beaker pottery in Britain and Ireland during the twenty-fifth century bc marks a significant archaeological horizon, being synchronous with the first metal artefacts. The adoption of arsenical copper, mostly from Ireland, was followed by that of tin-bronze around 2200 bc . However, whilst the copper mine of Ross Island in Ireland is securely dated to the Early Bronze Age, and further such mines in the UK have been dated to the E…
Archaeological Theory in Dialogue: Situating Relationality, Ontology, Posthumanism, and Indigenous Paradigms
Making posthumanist kin in the past
As Brück (2021) eloquently highlights, many archaeologists are dissatisfied with the narratives that are emerging from ancient DNA (aDNA) research. Oliver Harris and I have argued that one of the central problems with aDNA research is its theoretical foundation (Crellin & Harris 2020). We suggested that a nature-culture binary shapes the narratives that emerge from this work and has real political consequences. In this binary, nature has been ali…
Examining the British and Irish Early Bronze Age flat axes of the Greenwell Collection at the British Museum
Thinking outside the cist: Interpreting a unique artefact assemblage from an Early Bronze Age burial on the Isle of Man
Recent analysis of Early Bronze Age human remains from Staarvey Farm on the Isle of Man has revealed a rare bone knife pommel and 20 other bone objects, offering insight into the importance of bone ornaments and artefact fittings at this time. This article adopts a relational typological approach to analyse the Staarvey burial and comparable assemblages, identifying patterns in the deposition of knife pommels in central and southern Britain. In e…
Materials in movement: Gold and stone in process in the Upton Lovell G2a burial
Excavated over two centuries ago, the Upton Lovell G2a 'Wessex Culture' burial has held a prominent place in research on Bronze Age Britain. In particular, was it the grave of a 'shaman' or a metalworker? We take a new approach to the grave goods, employing microwear analysis and scanning electron microscopy to map a history of interactions between people and materials, identifying evidence for the presence of Bronze Age gold on five artefacts, f…
From Typology and Biography to Multiplicity: Bracers as ‘Process Objects
In this article we put forward an alternative account of the famous wristguards, or bracers, of the European Early Bronze Age. Combining new materialism with empirical microwear analysis, we study 15 examples from Britain in detail and suggest a different way of conceptualizing these objects. Rather than demanding they have a singular function, we treat these objects as ‘multiplicities’ and as always in process. This, in turn, has significant imp…
Metalwork wear analysis: The loss of innocence
From Artefact Biographies to ‘Multiple Objects: A New Analysis of the Decorated Plaques of the Irish Sea Region
The concept of artefact biographies is well established, but has received increasing criticism from archaeologists and anthropologists. This article reviews this concept and its critiques from the basis of a new digital analysis (using reflectance transformation imaging) of a small group of decorated Neolithic artefacts from the Isle of Man and north Wales: stone plaques. We argue that the plaques are best understood as being situated in diverse …
Examining the British and Irish Early Bronze Age flat axes of the Greenwell Collection at the British Museum
Changing Assemblages: Vibrant Matter in Burial Assemblages
In this paper the notion of assemblage, as derived from the work of Gilles Deleuze, is explored in order to consider change in prehistory. An assemblage-based approach that draws on the concept of ‘vibrant matter’ is implemented as the means of understanding change. In this approach all materials are viewed as vibrant and in flux. These ideas are used to create a heterogeneous view of change where assemblages, or parts of assemblages, may change …
Prehistoric Warfare and Violence: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches
Prehistoric Warfare and Violence: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches
The Sword: Form and Thought
A multidisciplinary overview of current research into the enduringly fascinating martial artefact which is the sword. The sword is the most iconic of all weapons. Throughout history, it has connected various, sometimes conflicting, dimensions of human culture: physical combat and representation of political power, definition of gender roles andrefinement of body techniques, evolution of craftsmanship and mythological symbolism. The articles colle…
A world in motion
This chapter summarises the book Change and Archaeology , outlining the findings of the previous chapters. The relational, posthumanist, post-anthropocentric, new materialist approach developed by the author is described and critically evaluated to consider both the strengths of the approach as well as areas of weakness and areas for future thinking and research. The chapter argues that a posthumanist and post-anthropocentric approach that critiq…
Changing time?
This chapter explores the relationship between change and time in archaeology. It argues that our approach to time fundamentally shapes how we are able to talk about change. When we adopt unilinear, uniform, universal models of time, the narratives of change that emerge from them have the same shape. The role of chronology, the impact of the separation of the past and present, and debates surrounding the differences between the measurement and ex…
Relational approaches
This chapter explores the potential of relational approaches to offer new ways to think about change in archaeology. In the past decade a range of relational approaches have gained traction in archaeology and offer an increasingly popular theoretical approach. Actor network theory and the work of Bruno Latour are explored in detail, which allows the reader to begin to explore what a relational world looks like and what a difference it makes to th…
Becoming metallic
This chapter offers an extended case study of the application of the relational, posthumanist, post-anthropocentric, new materialist approach outlined by the author. The theoretical framework is applied to the study of the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in Britain and Ireland. This is achieved through a detailed study of the emergence of the first metal axes, drawing upon an extensive dataset from metalwork wear-analysis of flat …
Assembling change
This chapter outlines the relational, posthumanist, post-anthropocentric, new materialist approach developed by the author. The chapter draws upon the relational thinking of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari and the philosophers and thinkers who have been inspired by them. It explores the work of posthumanist feminist thinkers such as Rosi Braidotti, and argues that a rethinking of human exceptionalism is urgent and necessary. An understanding of…
A changing history of archaeological thought
This chapter offers a history of archaeological thought, specifically focusing on how different theoretical frameworks have approached the study of change. It considers how culture history, processualism, Marxism, post-processualism, and postcolonial theoretical frameworks have been employed in archaeology and the narratives of change that emerge from them. The chapter forms an effective case study of why the block-time approach is problematic by…
Changing people and things
This chapter considers how the concept of biography has been deployed in archaeology as a way to understand change. The chapter does two things: it both explores how biography has been deployed as a narrative technique, metaphor, methodology, and theoretical approach in archaeology and it argues that both humans and things are constantly changing. Osteobiography, lifecycle, and life course approaches to the study of how people change are consider…
What is wrong with change?
This chapter argues that change is fundamental to what we do as archaeologists and that it is important that we foreground change in our work. The chapter identifies seven hurdles that prevent us from writing complex and nuanced narratives about change in the past. The first hurdle, termed the ‘block-time approach’ to change, focuses on how we often break the past up into periods of stasis interspersed by periods of quick transition. This model m…
Scales of change
This chapter explores how archaeologists have approached the issue of scale and how this intersects with change. It argues that scale is an important issue to consider because it is always political: from the grand narrative to the small-scale story of an individual from the past, scale gives shape to the narratives of change we write. Different approaches to scale are explored, from those of Palaeolithic archaeologists, to the Annales School, an…
Bronze Age Swordsmanship: New Insights from Experiments and Wear Analysis
The article presents a new picture of sword fighting in Middle and Late Bronze Age Europe developed through the Bronze Age Combat Project . The project investigated the uses of Bronze Age swords, shields, and spears by combining integrated experimental archaeology and metalwork wear analysis. The research is grounded in an explicit and replicable methodology providing a blueprint for future experimentation with, and wear analysis of, prehistoric …
Change and Archaeology
Change and Archaeology explores how archaeologists have historically described, interpreted, and explained change, and argues that change has been under-theorised. The study of change is central to the discipline of archaeology, but change is complex, and this makes it challenging to write about in nuanced ways that effectively capture the nature of our world. Relational approaches offer archaeologists more scope to explore change in complex and …
Making marks meaningful: New Materialism and the Microwear Assemblage
In this paper we explore how positioning microwear analysis within new materialism and assemblage theory allows us to develop new ways of thinking about meaning in the past. By mapping the detailed histories of an object’s making and use, we suggest that we can open up an understanding of marks as forms of material meanings. These material meanings operate as intensive events that fold together present and absent materials, as well as a range of …
Thinking outside the cist: Interpreting a unique artefact assemblage from an Early Bronze Age burial on the Isle of Man
Recent analysis of Early Bronze Age human remains from Staarvey Farm on the Isle of Man has revealed a rare bone knife pommel and 20 other bone objects, offering insight into the importance of bone ornaments and artefact fittings at this time. This article adopts a relational typological approach to analyse the Staarvey burial and comparable assemblages, identifying patterns in the deposition of knife pommels in central and southern Britain. In e…
Archaeological Theory in Dialogue: Situating Relationality, Ontology, Posthumanism, and Indigenous Paradigms
Beyond binaries. Interrogating ancient DNA
In this paper we explore ancient DNA (aDNA) as a powerful new technique for archaeologists. We argue that for aDNA to reach its full potential we need to carefully consider its theoretical underpinnings. We suggest that at present much aDNA research rests upon two problematic theoretical assumptions: first, that nature and culture exist in binary opposition and that DNA is a part of nature; second, that cultures form distinct and bounded identiti…
Change and Diversity in Neolithic Mortuary Practices on the Isle of Man
While the Early Neolithic chambered tombs of the Isle of Man are well known and the Late Neolithic has been clearly defined with reference to a distinctive suite of artefacts, little is known about the Middle Neolithic. This article reports on 17 new Neolithic radiocarbon dates from cremated human remains from the Isle of Man. These identify five burials in cists as Middle Neolithic and indicate new sequences of activity at cemeteries starting in…
Robert Johnston. 2021. Bronze Age worlds: A social prehistory of Britain and Ireland. London: Routledge. 978-1-138-03788-5 paperback £35
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the ‘Save PDF’ action button
What Difference Does Posthumanism Make
In this paper we argue that to understand the difference Posthumanism makes to the relationship between archaeology, agency and ontology, several misconceptions need to be corrected. First, we emphasize that Posthumanism is multiple, with different elements, meaning any critique needs to be carefully targeted. The approach we advocate is a specifically Deleuzian and explicitly feminist approach to Posthumanism. Second, we examine the status of ag…
History (23 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (21 works) · Archaeology (19 works) · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies (11 works) · History (11 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Ancient history (8 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Bronze (7 works)