The Landscape Poetics of Barrows

Jonathan Last (Historic England)
Prehistoric barrows have a doubly affective quality, linked to the common presence of human remains and the material properties of the monuments that connect them to their landscapes. Yet the language archaeologists use to describe them often remains objective and technical, leading to a disconnect between our experience of excavating or surveying them and the reporting of that process. Considering the ways that poets have engaged with barrows and their contents can help us reflect on that language, potentially opening up other ways of writing about life, death, materiality and landscape in prehistory, as well as making stronger connections with present-day places and concerns. This presentation will draw particularly on
works by Peter Riley and Roy Fisher.