Alexander GramschDeutsches Archäologisches Institut · Romano-Germanic Commission
Alexander Gramsch
PhD
About
43
Publications
3,848
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135
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Additional affiliations
August 2014 - present
Romano-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeologcial Institute
Position
- Editor
January 2011 - present
Museum Herxheim, Germany
Position
- Head of Department
July 2008 - December 2010
General Direction for Cultural Heritage of Rhineland-Palatinate, Speyer, Germany
Position
- Grabungsleiter
Publications
Publications (43)
Petrification is a novel concept for tackling processes in both matter and society, and this paper approaches petrification from diverse angles: social change, innovation, control, imitation, and monumentalization. Although this may seem paradoxical, petrification is about change: While the term petrification points at the solid, permanent, durable...
This introduction traces the roots of and reasons for the development of the concept of ‘petrification’. It points towards the new perspectives the concept offers for studying social and material processes. It wants to interconnect the – mostly, but not exclusively archaeological – case studies collected in this volume, ranging from the Devonian to...
Petrification is a process, but it also can be understood as a concept. This volume takes the first steps to manifest, materialize or “petrify” the concept of “petrification” and turn it into a tool for analyzing material and social processes. The wide array of approaches to petrification as a process assembled here is more of a collection of possi...
The 'archaeology of the body' explores human remains not only as carriers of information on nutrition, mobility, or biological kinship, but also as a source for research into the role of the body in shaping social relations in ancient societies. Corporeal aesthetics and ideals can be understood as analytical concepts, as they played a decisive role...
In diesem Sammelband werden verschiedene Perspektiven auf das Leben und Wirken von Gerhard Bersu (1889-1964), dem ehemaligen Ersten Direktor der Römisch Germanischen Kommission (RGK) versammelt, die mehrere Jahrzehnte europäischer archäologischer Forschung reflektieren.
The point at which bodily characteristics are no longer considered ‘normal’ but deviant or pathological is not the same in all societies and cultures, regardless whether causes of peculiarities are congenital, infectious or the result of everyday practices and nutrition. The aim of the section is to discuss, theoretically and with the help of case...
The research institute named Romano-Germanic Commission (RGK) of the German
Archaeological Institute (DAI) was founded 120 years ago, located in both a historic
centre and a contact zone: in the former imperial and coronation city of Frankfurt am
Main and at the boundary of the territory of the Roman Empire and the region outside,
also called “Barb...
The DAI research cluster "Body and Death" was founded in 2021 with the aims of promoting exchange between the various archaeological and anthropological disciplines concerned with the human body and establishing the body as a research topic. "Body and death" forms a cross-cutting theme for all research questions that deal with body-related practice...
Introductory Chapter:
Hinter Archäologie – altgriechisch die Kunde/ Erzählung von den Anfängen bzw. alten Dingen – verbirgt sich eine Vielfalt an Fragen, Methoden und Fächern. Dass man dennoch
von der Archäologie spricht, liegt auch daran, dass all diese Fächer auf Bodenfunde als wichtigste Geschichtsquelle zurückgreifen. Noch heute wird Archäolog...
Introduction into methods:
Die archäologischen Disziplinen sind mit ihrer Vielfalt an Methoden und Fragestellungen seit jeher zwischen Geistes-, Sozial- und Naturwissenschaften angesiedelt. Ausgraben
ist oft (aber nicht immer) der erste Schritt, um Daten zu gewinnen. Doch steht der Archäologie heute darüber hinaus eine wachsende Zahl an wissenscha...
The Museum Herxheim (Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany) in 2014 built a life-size model of a Neolithic house as one of the features of a Landesgartenschau. This horticultural show welcomed over eight hundred thousand visitors, mostly from Germany, but also international tourists. Through the house, the story of the earliest human impact on the environment w...
Thinking about culture and cultural change lies at the heart of archaeological interpretation. In a brief overview of traditional archaeological approaches several "prime movers" for the change of culture or society are discussed that tend to externalize the reasons for change. Looking for reasons for change outside archaeological cultures facilita...
This paper discusses food in the context of burials, and the giving of meat and of possible beverages in particular. It focuses on the social meaning of both the funeral ritual and the objects involved. In particular, the transformation of the social identity of the deceased through ritual action is examined. Building upon the concepts "gift" (MAUS...
Cremation remains talk about the treatment of the dead – The interdisciplinary reconstruction of ritual action: An example from an urnfi eld of the Lusatian Culture Bones “speak” – even when they are burned. Cremation remains are one of the major source materials for archaeological research; moreover, as this paper explains, they do not only yield...
This is an interview about archaeology in Germany and beyond. Friedrich Lüth, currently president of the European Association of Archaeologists, among other positions, talks about archaeological practice and thought in Germany and Europe and the relationship between both. Is German pre- and protohistoric archaeology still best known for its discipl...
Feasting is a social phenomenon central to all societies and always has ambivalent characteristics. According to the context in which it occurs, either integrative or diacritical functions, and transformative or conservative functions come to the fore. To develop an understanding of the socio-political significance of feasting in different societie...
This article presents a project designed for prehistoric gender research. It focuses on the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age urnfield in Cottbus "Alvensleben-Kaserne", Brandenburg. The cremation remains were emptied from the urns layer by layer. This provided excellent conditions for a critical reconstruction of the funeral rituals related to the...
‘Reflexiveness’ is a term used for the growth of discussions in archaeology on its history, epistemology, and social relevance. While much of this reflecting refers to the relation of archaeology and nationalism, leading to insights into the politicisation of archaeological research and presentation to the public and the use of the past for ideolog...
Taking German Siedlungsarchäologie as its starting point and background this article attempts to turn from a critique of traditional approaches in settlement archaeology to a new definition of landscape and a new apporach in landscape archaeology. Landscape is defined via its constituting parts: space, place, and boundary. From here a theory of lan...
This article suggests that the common appearance of cultural ('midden') material under barrows of the Trichterbecher culture is interpreted as the purposeful metaphor of continuity of the small-scale society that has just suffered the loss of one or more of its actors. The three stages of rites de passage as outlined by van Gennep are used to expla...
Projects
Project (1)
Call for Papers:
The ‘archaeology of the body’ explores human remains not only as carriers of information on nutrition, mobility, or biological kinship, but also as a source for research into the role of the body in shaping social relations in ancient societies. Corporeal aesthetics and ideals can be understood as analytical concepts, as they played a decisive role in the shaping, perpetuating, and changing of social identities, and gender norms in particular. Following on from the session “Beautiful bodies: Gender, bodily care and material culture in the past” at the 2017 EAA Annual Meeting, organised by Uroš Matić and Sanja Vučetić, this session focusses on new theoretical and methodological approaches and case studies from non-literate societies (e.g., prehistoric and ethnographic). The aim is to develop a better understanding of how material culture works in creating, maintaining, or transforming bodily aesthetics and ideals. We invite contributions that critically engage with the possibilities of interpreting such culturally relative ideas, drawing on case studies from a wide range of archaeological, ethnographic, or iconographic source material. Papers may consider ‘body-related’ objects, iconography, and ‘body-related’ practices. Objects of personal hygiene (e.g., toiletry sets) or those linked to (self-) representation (e.g., jewellery, clothing, and hairstyles), prosthetics or other objects enabling or facilitating participation in social interactions may be scrutinized as well as statuettes and stelae, depictions on pottery, stone, or other media. ‘Body-related’ practices may include permanent or impermanent modifications, but also the treatment of dead bodies. We are interested in relations between aesthetics and sex, gender, power, hegemony, subversion, as well as intra- and inter-group social relations. The focus should be on contexts, actors, and perceptions, with particular emphasis on how transformations in the presentation or ‘staging’ of the body affect social positions and relations as well as individual or group identities.
Session organisers:
Alexander Gramsch, Römisch-Germanische Kommission, Frankfurt a.M.
alexander.gramsch@dainst.de
Lukas Kerk, Universität Münster
lukas.kerk@uni-muenster.de
Uroš Matić, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
uros.matic@oeaw.ac.at
Estella Weiss-Krejci, Austrian Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna
estella.weiss-krejci@oeaw.ac.at
