ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the emphasis is on scrutinizing the fundamental relationship in examining past movement: moving or mobile bodies, on the one hand, and materials or objects, on the other. The body’s potential for movement is examined, and the materials are considered from their allure and agential properties. From this knowledge about bodies and materials, a case study on the gathering and sorting of sheep is examined. The mobilities discussed emerge at three different scales of inquiry: the practice of gathering; sorting sheep into their respective farms at the sorting fold; and the objects that circulated during the sorting event. By discussing the different kinds of connections between materials and bodies from a mobile perspective, the different flows of people and animals and the different types of movements that occurred are explored. In short, the various object-itineraries and connectivities that linked practices, sites, and objects (of various kinds) were kept together, across different scales. The conclusions reached are that archaeology needs to think less about stasis, and explore the opportunities that come with the already established ‘fact of mobility’ through the forces or fields of mobilization that influence how objects moved, and establish connections with moving bodies that, on the whole, resist stasis.
