Femke Lippok (Leiden University) and I have been busy acquiring and editing chapters as well as negotiating with a publisher for our forthcoming book project. The first of its kind, drawing together both key researchers and new perspectives, Cremation in the Early Middle Ages will gather together the latest thinking and investigations on mortuary variability and change focusing on cremation in North-West Europe in the early medieval period. The process and format of the project is distinctive too: via structured interviews.

Here is the list of the interviews completed for the book so far:

For interview 15, Femke and I met with Dr Jonathan Ljungkvist of Uppsala University, a researcher who has an extensive track record exploring material culture, burials and society focused on the late Iron Age (early medieval period) in central Sweden.

Jonathan afforded us a wide ranging survey of central Swedish mortuary practices between the 5th to 11th centuries CE as well as identifying key interpretative trends and new discoveries. As with the other chapters, Jonathan’s interview will now be transcribed and he will have the opportunity to revise, add citations, and incorporate fact boxes and images.

Together, the chapters promise to provide a compilation of recent work of value to students and scholars alike as well as to set the tone and trajectory for future research investigations for mortuary archaeology and bioarchaeology focused on the mid-/late first millennium CE cremated dead in context!

We have only a few more interviews planned and once a publisher is secured we aim to submit by the summer anticipating publication in the winter 2023/2024.