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Title Skin and bone: the face in the archaeological imagination Author(s) Beatty, Katherine E. Publication date 2015 Original citation Beatty, K. E. 2015. Skin and bone: the face in the archaeological imagination. PhD Thesis, University College Cork. Type of publication Doctoral thesis Rights © 2015, Katherine E. Beatty. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Embargo information No embargo required Item downloaded http://hdl.handle.net/10468/2107 from Downloaded on 2017-02-12T04:42:19Z SKIN AND BONE: THE FACE IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMAGINATION By Katherine E. Beatty July 2015 Thesis submitted for the qualification of PhD Department of Archaeology National University of Ireland, Cork Head of Department: Professor William O’Brien Supervisor: Dr Barra O’Donnabhain ABSTRACT Title: Skin and Bone: The Face in the Archaeological Imagination Author: Katherine E. Beatty Keywords: facial reconstruction, bioarchaeology, the face, Emmanuel Levinas, Ireland, theoretical archaeology, archaeological imagination Thirteen unique archaeological countenances from Ireland were produced through the Manchester method of facial reconstruction. Their gaze prompts a space for a broad discourse regarding the face found within human and artefactual remains of Ireland. These faces are reminders of the human element which is at the core of the discipline of archaeology. These re-constructions create a voyeuristic relationship with the past. At once sating a curiosity about the past, facial re-constructions also provide a catharsis to our presently situated selves. As powerful visual documents, archaeological facial reconstructions illustrate re-presentations of the past as well as how the present can be connected to the past. Through engagment with Emmanuel Levinas’s (1906-1995) main philosophical themes, the presence of the face is examined in a diachronic structure. The ‘starting point’ is the Neolithic period which has been associated with the notion of visuality with a re- construction from the early Neolithic site of Annagh, Co. Limerick. The following layer of analysis appears with attention to intersubjectivity in the early medieval period with facial reconstructions from Dooey, Co. Donegal and Owenbristy, Co. Galway. Building upon the past concepts, the late medieval period is associated with the notion of alterity and paired with faces from Ballinderry, Co. Kildare and a sample of males from Gallen Priory, Co. Offaly. The final layer of examination culminates with the application of response and respons-ibility to the post-medieval Irish landscape with facial reconstructions from the prison on Spike Island, Co. Cork. These layers of investigation are similar to the stratigraphical composition of both the archaeological landscape and the skeletal/soft tissue landscape of the face. The separation of the neglected phenomenon of the face from the overwhelming embrace of the field of craniometrics is necessary. Through this detachment a new manner in which to discuss the face and its place within the (bio)archaeological record is possible. Encountering the faces seen in mortuary contexts, material culture, and archaeological facial reconstructions, inform and shape the archaeological imagination. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... II TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... III LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. VI LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ XIV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ XV CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER TWO - THE FACE: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND APPLICATION TO THE DISCIPLINE OF ARCHAEOLOGY ................................................................... 14 2.1 THEORETICAL NOTIONS .............................................................................................. 14 2.1.1 Emmanuel Levinas .............................................................................................. 16 Position within the Phenomenological Tradition ..................................................... 17 The Central Task of Levinas .................................................................................... 19 The Same and the Other ........................................................................................... 20 Totality and Infinity ................................................................................................. 24 2.1.2 Applying Levinas: His Position within Archaeological Theory ......................... 26 2.2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF LEVINAS ........................................................... 37 2.2.1 Craniometrics, Bioarchaeology, and Traditional Interpretations of the Face ..... 38 2.2.2 Head vs. Face: Reinvigorating the Undermined Face ......................................... 45 2.2.3 Exposing a Gendered Binary .............................................................................. 48 2.2.4 The Face as Analogy for the Discipline of Archaeology .................................... 53 CHAPTER THREE – FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION: A HISTORICAL TRAJECTORY AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCIPLINE ................... 58 3.1 FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION: A TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL SYNTHESIS ........................... 58 3.1.1 Examples from the Prehistoric Period................................................................. 59 3.1.2 Examples from the Early Modern Period............................................................ 61 3.1.3 Examples from the Modern Period ..................................................................... 63 3.2 DEVELOPMENT OF TECHNIQUES .................................................................................. 66 3.2.1 The Russian School ............................................................................................. 66 3.2.2 The American School .......................................................................................... 68 3.2.3 The Manchester Method ..................................................................................... 71 3.2.4 Computerized Facial Reconstruction .................................................................. 73 3.2.5 Variation between Forensic and Archaeological Realms of Re-construction .... 76 3.3 FURTHER THEMES IN THE DISCUSSION AND CRITIQUE OF (ARCHAEOLOGICAL) FACIAL RECONSTRUCTION ............................................................................................................. 80 3.3.1 The Face in the Archaeological Imagination ...................................................... 80 3.3.2 Critique of the use of Facial Reconstructions in the Discipline of Archaeology .................................................................................................................................... 105 CHAPTER FOUR – “THE STARTING POINT”: PREHISTORIC IRELAND AS PROMPTING VISUALITY ................................................................................................ 115 4.1 ANNAGH, CO. LIMERICK ........................................................................................... 119 iii 4.1.1 Site information ................................................................................................. 119 4.1.2 Burial 2 .............................................................................................................. 120 Osteobiography ...................................................................................................... 121 Soft tissue prediction .............................................................................................. 123 Facial Reconstruction ............................................................................................. 128 4.2 THE FACE IN THE NEOLITHIC IRISH ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE: BURIAL PRACTICES AND OSTEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE ....................................................................................... 129 4.3 THE FACE IN NEOLITHIC IRISH MATERIAL CULTURE ................................................ 143 CHAPTER FIVE – THE “ME-AND-OTHER” OR “THE OTHERNESS OF THE OTHER?”: INTERSUBJECTIVITY AND EARLY MEDIEVAL IRELAND ................... 152 5.1 DOOEY, CO. DONEGAL .............................................................................................. 154 5.1.1 Site information ................................................................................................. 154 5.1.2 Skeleton 41A ..................................................................................................... 157 Osteobiography ...................................................................................................... 157 Soft tissue prediction .............................................................................................. 159 Facial Reconstruction ............................................................................................. 164 5.2 OWENBRISTY, CO. GALWAY ..................................................................................... 167 5.2.1 Site information ................................................................................................. 167 5.2.2 Skeleton