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‘Deep time’metaphorMnemonic and apotropaic practices at Lepenski Vir an Bori Center for Archaeology, Columbia University, New York, USA, db2128{at}columbia.edu How does ‘material memory’ work? Should monumental sites be considered as places of social memory par excellence or perhaps citational practices? With these questions in mind the concepts of citation, trace and repetition are singled out as elements of ‘material memory’. This article addresses evidence from the prehistoric site of Lepenski Vir in south-east Europe, and suggests that the concept of ‘deep time’ constituted the main structuring trope of the sequence. Over the long term, people adhered to physical traces of ‘deep time’, through re-figuring, dis placement and circulation of material fragments, which maintained a collective (material) memory. The significance of apotropaism is suggested as a constitutive part of cultural practices and understood as a ‘technology of protection’ with ontological and epistemological relevance, such that it empowers individual agents to cope with various vicissitudes of life by an effective mobilization of ‘deep time’ residues. Examples of narrative sequences at Lepenski Vir are explored, which relate to specific individuals and life cycles of houses.
Key Words: apotropaism • Gell • house • Lepenski Vir • memory • mnemonic • Ricoeur
Journal of Social Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 1,
46-74 (2003) This article has been cited by other articles:
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