Bibliography

David
Fontijn

11 publications between 2013 and 2021 indexed
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Works authored

Fontijn, David, Economies of destruction: how the systematic destruction of valuables created value in Bronze Age Europe, c. 2300-500 BC, London: Routledge, 2020.  

Contents: Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Systematic irrationalities? The Bronze Age ‘destructive economy’ -- Chapter 2: Selective deposition – what does it entail and how can it be studied? -- Chapter 3: The value conundrum: What common things and splendid items share and why their deposition is selective -- Chapter 4: Pre-Bronze Age selective deposition -- Chapter 5: Trade hoards: The un-economic nature of the Bronze Age metal economy -- Chapter 6: Gifts to familiar gods? -- Chapter 7: The receiving landscape  -- Chapter 8: Economies of destruction: ‘keeping-while-destroying’? -- Index.

abstract:

Why do people destroy objects and materials that are important to them? This book aims to make sense of this fascinating, yet puzzling social practice by focusing on a period in history in which such destructive behaviour reached unseen heights and complexity: the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in Europe (c. 2300–500 BC).

This period is often seen as the time in which a ‘familiar’ Europe took shape due to the rise of a metal-based economy. But it was also during the Bronze Age that massive amounts of scarce and recyclable metal were deliberately buried in the landscape and never taken out again. This systematic deposition of metalwork sits uneasily with our prevailing perception of the Bronze Age as the first ‘rational-economic’ period in history – and therewith – of ourselves. Taking the patterned archaeological evidence of these seemingly un-economic metalwork depositions at face value, it is shown that the ‘un-economic’ giving-up of metal valuables was an integral part of what a Bronze Age ‘economy’ was about. Based on case studies from Bronze Age Europe, this book attempts to reconcile the seemingly conflicting political and cultural approaches that are currently used to understand this pivotal period in Europe’s deep history. It seems that to achieve something in society, something else must be given up.

Using theories from economic anthropology, this book argues that – paradoxically – giving up that which was valuable created value. It will be invaluable to scholars and archaeologists interested in the Bronze Age, ancient economies, and a new angle on metalwork depositions.

Contents: Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Chapter 1: Systematic irrationalities? The Bronze Age ‘destructive economy’ -- Chapter 2: Selective deposition – what does it entail and how can it be studied? -- Chapter 3: The value conundrum: What common things and splendid items share and why their deposition is selective -- Chapter 4: Pre-Bronze Age selective deposition -- Chapter 5: Trade hoards: The un-economic nature of the Bronze Age metal economy -- Chapter 6: Gifts to familiar gods? -- Chapter 7: The receiving landscape  -- Chapter 8: Economies of destruction: ‘keeping-while-destroying’? -- Index.

abstract:

Why do people destroy objects and materials that are important to them? This book aims to make sense of this fascinating, yet puzzling social practice by focusing on a period in history in which such destructive behaviour reached unseen heights and complexity: the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in Europe (c. 2300–500 BC).

This period is often seen as the time in which a ‘familiar’ Europe took shape due to the rise of a metal-based economy. But it was also during the Bronze Age that massive amounts of scarce and recyclable metal were deliberately buried in the landscape and never taken out again. This systematic deposition of metalwork sits uneasily with our prevailing perception of the Bronze Age as the first ‘rational-economic’ period in history – and therewith – of ourselves. Taking the patterned archaeological evidence of these seemingly un-economic metalwork depositions at face value, it is shown that the ‘un-economic’ giving-up of metal valuables was an integral part of what a Bronze Age ‘economy’ was about. Based on case studies from Bronze Age Europe, this book attempts to reconcile the seemingly conflicting political and cultural approaches that are currently used to understand this pivotal period in Europe’s deep history. It seems that to achieve something in society, something else must be given up.

Using theories from economic anthropology, this book argues that – paradoxically – giving up that which was valuable created value. It will be invaluable to scholars and archaeologists interested in the Bronze Age, ancient economies, and a new angle on metalwork depositions.

Fontijn, David, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013.  
abstract:
Some 2800 years ago, a man died in what is now the municipality of Oss, the Netherlands. His death must have been a significant event in the life of local communities, for he received an extraordinary funeral, which ended with the construction of an impressive barrow. Based on the meticulous excavation and a range of specialist and comprehensive studies of finds, a prehistoric burial ritual now can be brought to life in surprising detail. An Iron Age community used extraordinary objects that find their closest counterpart in the elite graves of the Hallstatt culture in Central Europe. This book will discuss how lavishly decorated items were dismantled and taken apart to be connected with the body of the deceased, all to be destroyed by fire. In what appears to be a meaningful pars pro toto ritual, the remains of his body, the pyre, and the objects were searched through and moved about, with various elements being manipulated, intentionally broken, and interred or removed. In essence, a person and a place were transformed through destruction. The book shows how the mourners carefully, almost lovingly covered the funeral remains with a barrow. Attention is also given to another remarkable monument, long mound 6, located immediately adjacent to mound 7. Excavations show how mound 7 was part of an age-old ritual heath landscape that was entirely restructured during the Early Iron Age, when it became the setting for the building of no less than three huge Hallstatt C barrows. Thousands of years later, during the Late Middle Ages, this landscape underwent a complete transformation of meaning when the prehistoric barrows became the scenery for a macabre display of the cadavers of executed criminals.
abstract:
Some 2800 years ago, a man died in what is now the municipality of Oss, the Netherlands. His death must have been a significant event in the life of local communities, for he received an extraordinary funeral, which ended with the construction of an impressive barrow. Based on the meticulous excavation and a range of specialist and comprehensive studies of finds, a prehistoric burial ritual now can be brought to life in surprising detail. An Iron Age community used extraordinary objects that find their closest counterpart in the elite graves of the Hallstatt culture in Central Europe. This book will discuss how lavishly decorated items were dismantled and taken apart to be connected with the body of the deceased, all to be destroyed by fire. In what appears to be a meaningful pars pro toto ritual, the remains of his body, the pyre, and the objects were searched through and moved about, with various elements being manipulated, intentionally broken, and interred or removed. In essence, a person and a place were transformed through destruction. The book shows how the mourners carefully, almost lovingly covered the funeral remains with a barrow. Attention is also given to another remarkable monument, long mound 6, located immediately adjacent to mound 7. Excavations show how mound 7 was part of an age-old ritual heath landscape that was entirely restructured during the Early Iron Age, when it became the setting for the building of no less than three huge Hallstatt C barrows. Thousands of years later, during the Late Middle Ages, this landscape underwent a complete transformation of meaning when the prehistoric barrows became the scenery for a macabre display of the cadavers of executed criminals.


Contributions to edited collections or authored works

Fontijn, David, “Power requires others: ‘institutional realities’ and the significance of individual power in Late Prehistoric Europe”, in: T. L. Thursten, and Manuel Fernandez-Götz (eds), Power from below in premodern societies: the dynamics of political complexity in the archaeological record, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021. 90–105.
Fontijn, David, and Sasja van der Vaart-Verschoof, “Local elites globalized in death: a practice approach to early Iron Age Hallstatt C/D chieftains’ burials in northwest Europe”, in: Tamar Hodos (ed.), The Routledge handbook of globalization and archaeology, London, New York: Routledge, 2017..
Fontijn, David, Richard Jansen, and Sasja van der Vaart, “The urn, bone, and iron from the central find assemblage in mound 7”, in: David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013. 141–150.
Fontijn, David, and Richard Jansen, “The last mound(s) of Zevenbergen: cause, aims, and methods of the 2007 fieldwork campaign”, in: David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013. 15–34.
Fontijn, David, Richard Jansen, Sasja van der Vaart, Harry Fokkens, and Ivo van Wijk, “Conclusion, the seventh mound of seven mounds: long-term history of the Zevenbergen barrow landscape”, in: David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013. 281–316.
Vaart, Sasja van der, David Fontijn, and Patrick Valentijn, “The central find assemblage of mound 7”, in: David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013. 119–140.
Fontijn, David, Richard Jansen, Quentin Bourgeois, and Cristian van der Linde, “Excavating the seventh mound”, in: David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013. 69–118.
Nienhuis, Janneke, Jilt Sietsma, David Fontijn, Ineke Joosten, and Joris Dik, “Bronze studs: colouring, reconstruction, and conservation”, in: David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013. 213–238.
Fontijn, David, and Sasja van der Vaart, “Dismantled, transformed, and deposited: prehistoric bronze from the centre of mound 7”, in: David Fontijn, Sasja van der Vaart, and Richard Jansen [eds], Transformation through destruction. A monumental and extraordinary Early Iron Age Hallstatt C barrow from the ritual landscape of Oss-Zevenbergen, Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2013. 151–194.