Stuart Brookes | University College London (original) (raw)

Papers by Stuart Brookes

Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 4, 2021

The second chapter describes the physical character of the study area in detail as a framework fo... more The second chapter describes the physical character of the study area in detail as a framework for understanding the analysis supplied in the chapters to follow. It also sets out the main sources drawn upon in the book, notably the physical remains of archaeology and the fabric of the historic landscape itself, as well as documentary sources such as Anglo-Saxon charter bounds, manorial records, deeds, legal records, and maps, which yield data about the use of space and about inhabitants’ perceptions, the latter particularly revealed by the field names and bynames coined by local people themselves, and by legal depositions dealing with contested ownerships and customary practices. Key archaeological sources include village earthworks, excavated and standing buildings, and botanical and zooarchaeological remains. Archaeological fieldwork carried out as part of the project is described, including fieldwalking, test pit and trial trench excavation, extensive buildings survey, and measuring the soundmarks of church bells.

Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, Nov 15, 2001

Current interest in Middle Anglo-Saxon (c.CE 650-850) settlement topography, economics and archae... more Current interest in Middle Anglo-Saxon (c.CE 650-850) settlement topography, economics and archaeology is being reflected in a number of recently published papers. Former archaeological and theoretical foci on the large semi-or proto-urban trading settlements, known generically as either wics or emporia, such as have been located at London (Lundenwic), Ipswich, Saxon Southampton (Hamwic) and York (Eoforwic), have shifted to include the regional hinterland beyond these specialised settlements. In part, this change in emphasis has come about in order to model the effect of urbanisation, specialisation and monetisation throughout a region. Arguably of more important influence however, are the increasing number of sites currently being identified by metal-detector clubs and the active need for archaeologists to address the issue of regional settlement hierarchies including these settlements. Given these trends, it is unfortunate that an important conference addressing the issue of Middle-Saxon markets, fairs, and so-called 'productive sites', ended with a general call for definitions. The failure of the well-attended conference to either redefine the archaeological nomenclature or to actively theorise the nature of these sites, may however have as much to do with the nature of most of the presented data, as it does with current trends away from simplistic characterisations of Anglo-Saxon economics. If anything, the pan-European, multidisciplinary perspective presented in the broad range of papers, detailed the wide variety such micro-economic casestudies can take. Contributions from colleagues from throughout northern Europe provided a useful reminder of the Early Medieval world-system, in which developments in rural integration and socioeconomic intensification can be paralleled from regions as far apart as Italy and Norway. It is just a pity that the large and detailed excavations of settlements such as that by Lake Tissø, Denmark (Dr Lars Jørgensen, National Museum, Copenhagen), Gross Strömkendork, Germany (Astrid Tummuscheit, University of Kiel) or even smaller excavations such as Wijnaldum, in the Netherlands (Caroline Tulp, University of Groningen) cannot be matched by similar investigations in this country. Indeed, the emphasis on 'productive sites', settlements generally identified by metal-detector enthusiasts and defined as potential inland markets on the basis of the large number of coins and other non-ferrous metal artefacts found, calls into question whether the functional characteristics of a settlement can be defined without further excavation.

Windgather Press eBooks, Jun 30, 2019

The Medieval Countryside, 2019

In historical discourses early medieval polities occupy a sort of no-man's land between the 'anci... more In historical discourses early medieval polities occupy a sort of no-man's land between the 'ancient states' of Classical Antiquity and the 'modern states' of later medieval and early modern times. Both embody large-scale, sophisticated administrative and political constructs which are commonly presented as key moments in the genealogy of present-day states-one which acknowledges its classical foundations and modern developments, but is much less at ease with its medieval interlude. For many students of modern states, the significant changes in state governance that took place between the late Middle Ages and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-mainly governments' ability to control and monopolize violence-are a convenient point of departure, thereby rendering developments further back in time inconsequential or trivial to the evolution of the 'state'. 2 Nevertheless, it makes little sense to argue that states-however imperfect compared both to modern and Classical ones-did not exist in Europe before the late Middle Ages. 3 In fact medievalists have put considerable effort into identifying and debating at which stage different polities can be called states, an effort that has traditionally been affected by nationalistic history-writing, projecting desires to push the beginnings of statehood as far back as possible, although this is periodically counterbalanced by revisionist movements. 4 The focus is normally set upon evidence for administrative, fiscal and judicial structures-1 This text has been prepared with support from the FES2 research project (HAR2010-21950-C03-01), funded by the Plan Nacional de I+D+i. of the Spanish government. In this presentation of (some of) the theoretical concerns that underlie this volume and its constituent chapters, the editors must acknowledge the huge input received from all members of the FES2 project, most especially Wendy Davies and Álvaro Carvajal, as well as from other colleagues, including Isabel Alfonso and Stephen Mileson, who read the many drafts and provided immensely helpful comments. Naturally, any remaining shortcomings and inacurracies are soley the responsibility of the authors. 2 Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States. The effects of such a conceptual frontier are similar to the distinctions made in classical sociology between 'modern' and 'traditional' forms of society; see Wagner, Theory, Culture and Society, pp. 151-153. Late medievalists are also increasingly emphasising the importance of non-state polities in the Late Middle Ages, for example Watts, The Making of Polities. 3 Strayer, Medieval Origins. 4 Geary, The Myth of Nations, esp. pp. 15-40; Wood, The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages. what Joyce and others have termed the 'governmentalization' of the state 5-and the degree to which they can be said to have been controlled by kings. An alternative to this institutional view is the notion, encapsulated most clearly in Marxist history writing, that states are first and foremost about the production and reproduction of social inequality, and therefore primarily instruments of the social elites at any time. Examples of both approaches are abundant in the literature, including chapters in this volume. Medievalists have offered a variety of responses to these theories, conditioned by the divergent trajectories that lead from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and into modern states. On the one hand, there is an interest in Rome's successor states: the socalled barbarian kingdoms. Here, there is often particular emphasis placed on the 'Frankish core', where a considerable degree of post-Roman institutional continuity can be discerned, and where the key question is for many, not when the state appeared, but rather how much was it eroded in the post-Carolingian period, and how much of it needed to be reconstructed following the 'feudal age'. 6 On the other hand, there is the experience of regions of northern and eastern Europe that were never part of the Roman Empire, or, as is the case in Britain, where Roman institutions had mostly disappeared in the intervening period. Here, questions and theories about state formation are normally used to explain socio-political changes taking place in the ninth to thirteenth centuries, with an emphasis on distinguishing indigenous developments from Franco-Roman influences and models. 7 Change in these regions is often presented as a progression from small-scale polities towards larger states; a view that is further complicated by the desire of many archaeologists to identify state-like structures in deep time. Examples supporting such ideas have included the early Viking Age in northern 'non-Roman' Europe; 8 the late Iron Age in southern Britain; 9 the late Bronze and early Iron Ages in regions like Gaul 10 or Iberia. 11 In 5 Joyce, 'What is the social in social history?', p. 238.

The Medieval Countryside, 2019

Medieval history is full of kings and knights and bishops and scholars and poets, and their lives... more Medieval history is full of kings and knights and bishops and scholars and poets, and their lives, battles and intrigues seem to play out in worlds of their own, as if suspended over the worlds of ordinary people with hardly anything connecting the two. Courts, battlefields and cathedrals feel far removed and isolated from the toiling masses of peasants who-if they appear at all-figure as a constant, unremarkable and dull background to the busy lives of the elites. When research does focus on the worlds of peasants, however, they turn out to be anything but dull; rather they appear as immensely colourful, dynamic and variable, but the same sense of separation is apparent when the Middle Ages are viewed from this angle. The perception is that the everyday lives of ordinary people, in farms, hamlets, villages and even cities, took place in a dimension separate from that of their lords-and that it mattered little for those everyday lives what the rulers were up to. The dictum of Swedish historian Erik Lönnroth that in the early Middle Ages ordinary people generally experienced their government only as a passing catastrophe, 2 catches this sense of disconnection quite succinctly; whether the 'catastrophe' was as a result of warfare or an occasional visit by a peripatetic court is secondary to the argument. This characterization has a ring of truth about it, but the project that this book derives from started with the explicit aim of challenging such a dichotomy. By emphasising the separation between localities and higher political spheres we risk portraying the former as essentially passive backgrounds whose sole function is to provide the material support for social complexity, while the processes by which the latter formed and developed are clouded in mist. Indeed, this problem is particularly pronounced when studying the formative phases of polities, when governments lacked the basic resources to exert largescale control over localities. The contributions in this book contest that the connections and the exchanges between these two spheres is a topic in need of wholesale revision. 1 This text has been prepared with support from the FES2 research project (HAR2010-21950-C03-01), funded by the Plan Nacional de I+D+i. of the Spanish government. 2 Lönnroth, 'Government in Medieval Scandinavia', p. 455.

Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 2012

The dataset covers the burial records from excavation of 3500 people and their associated artefac... more The dataset covers the burial records from excavation of 3500 people and their associated artefacts from 120 cemetery sites in Kent, southern England, from the period AD 400-700. It was assembled to facilitate the respective PhD research programmes of the authors, using published, unpublished and grey literature sources. It was made publicly available in 2008 via the Archaeology Data Service as a Special Collection and has had regular downloads thereafter by students, academics and international colleagues. The intention is to expand the dataset nationally, with the next upload to take place in 2012 to cover southern England.

Landscape History, 2012

ABSTRACT Historians and archaeologists are increasingly interested in moving beyond landscape rec... more ABSTRACT Historians and archaeologists are increasingly interested in moving beyond landscape reconstruction and economics to investigate how past inhabitants perceived their environment. This reflects the subject's intrinsic interest and an awareness of the importance of decisions made by ordinary people in shaping the development of the countryside. However, the evidence available makes it difficult to uncover mentalities and attitudes. To date, most attention has been paid to particular features which seem to say most about self-perception and beliefs, but the greatest advances will arguably be made by studying the landscape as a whole. This article explains the approach to popular perceptions being adopted by ‘The South Oxfordshire Project’, an interdisciplinary analysis of fourteen parishes encompassing lowland clay vales and Chilterns wood-pasture from the early Middle Ages to the mid seventeenth century.

Peasant Perceptions of Landscape, 2021

This chapter, covering the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman Conquest period, outlines the major change... more This chapter, covering the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman Conquest period, outlines the major changes in land use which accompanied the creation of small local manors and the establishment of collaborative open-field farming. Those changes reflected the shift in relations from ones predominantly organized around social networks to ones of property ownership. Domesday Book supplies a crucial piece of evidence, in light of which fragmentary earlier evidence for the structure of the royal estate of Benson can be better understood. The strong implications of the period’s developments for inhabitants’ perceptions are examined, including through the boundary clauses accompanying royal land charters and the evidence for more structured settlements and systems of administration, including the hundred and its moot.

European Journal of Archaeology, 2010

Eva Thäte aims to explore the landscapes of the dead, focusing particularly on the issue of monum... more Eva Thäte aims to explore the landscapes of the dead, focusing particularly on the issue of monument re-use and the manifold relations the living maintained with the dead through these acts of commemoration. Assessing the corpus from Denmark, southern Sweden and ...

In the summer of 2015 archaeological excavation sought to examine the location of an early mediev... more In the summer of 2015 archaeological excavation sought to examine the location of an early medieval hundred meeting place (‘moot’) in southern Wiltshire. The investigation was planned in the context of recent work to characterise hundred meeting places and to explore the survival of local Roman roads into the medieval period (Baker and Brookes 2015; Langlands forthcoming a; Brookes et al. forthcoming). Stowford provided an opportunity to bring these different concerns together. The site lies 2km west of Broad Chalke and 200m southwest of the hamlet of Fifield Bavant in the extreme east of Ebbesbourne Wake parish. Excavations centred on NGR SU 016 248 in fields immediately south of the River Ebble which flows west to east from Ebbesbourne Wake to Broad Chalke before joining the River Avon at Bodenham. The valley floor is generally flat at around 92m above Ordnance Datum but rises sharply to the south and to the north of the Ebble. The underlying solid geology is Lewes Nodular Chalk F...

Beyond the Burghal Hidage, 2013

Beyond the Burghal Hidage, 2013

Beyond the Burghal Hidage, 2013

Oxford University Press eBooks, Nov 4, 2021

The second chapter describes the physical character of the study area in detail as a framework fo... more The second chapter describes the physical character of the study area in detail as a framework for understanding the analysis supplied in the chapters to follow. It also sets out the main sources drawn upon in the book, notably the physical remains of archaeology and the fabric of the historic landscape itself, as well as documentary sources such as Anglo-Saxon charter bounds, manorial records, deeds, legal records, and maps, which yield data about the use of space and about inhabitants’ perceptions, the latter particularly revealed by the field names and bynames coined by local people themselves, and by legal depositions dealing with contested ownerships and customary practices. Key archaeological sources include village earthworks, excavated and standing buildings, and botanical and zooarchaeological remains. Archaeological fieldwork carried out as part of the project is described, including fieldwalking, test pit and trial trench excavation, extensive buildings survey, and measuring the soundmarks of church bells.

Papers from the Institute of Archaeology, Nov 15, 2001

Current interest in Middle Anglo-Saxon (c.CE 650-850) settlement topography, economics and archae... more Current interest in Middle Anglo-Saxon (c.CE 650-850) settlement topography, economics and archaeology is being reflected in a number of recently published papers. Former archaeological and theoretical foci on the large semi-or proto-urban trading settlements, known generically as either wics or emporia, such as have been located at London (Lundenwic), Ipswich, Saxon Southampton (Hamwic) and York (Eoforwic), have shifted to include the regional hinterland beyond these specialised settlements. In part, this change in emphasis has come about in order to model the effect of urbanisation, specialisation and monetisation throughout a region. Arguably of more important influence however, are the increasing number of sites currently being identified by metal-detector clubs and the active need for archaeologists to address the issue of regional settlement hierarchies including these settlements. Given these trends, it is unfortunate that an important conference addressing the issue of Middle-Saxon markets, fairs, and so-called 'productive sites', ended with a general call for definitions. The failure of the well-attended conference to either redefine the archaeological nomenclature or to actively theorise the nature of these sites, may however have as much to do with the nature of most of the presented data, as it does with current trends away from simplistic characterisations of Anglo-Saxon economics. If anything, the pan-European, multidisciplinary perspective presented in the broad range of papers, detailed the wide variety such micro-economic casestudies can take. Contributions from colleagues from throughout northern Europe provided a useful reminder of the Early Medieval world-system, in which developments in rural integration and socioeconomic intensification can be paralleled from regions as far apart as Italy and Norway. It is just a pity that the large and detailed excavations of settlements such as that by Lake Tissø, Denmark (Dr Lars Jørgensen, National Museum, Copenhagen), Gross Strömkendork, Germany (Astrid Tummuscheit, University of Kiel) or even smaller excavations such as Wijnaldum, in the Netherlands (Caroline Tulp, University of Groningen) cannot be matched by similar investigations in this country. Indeed, the emphasis on 'productive sites', settlements generally identified by metal-detector enthusiasts and defined as potential inland markets on the basis of the large number of coins and other non-ferrous metal artefacts found, calls into question whether the functional characteristics of a settlement can be defined without further excavation.

Windgather Press eBooks, Jun 30, 2019

The Medieval Countryside, 2019

In historical discourses early medieval polities occupy a sort of no-man's land between the 'anci... more In historical discourses early medieval polities occupy a sort of no-man's land between the 'ancient states' of Classical Antiquity and the 'modern states' of later medieval and early modern times. Both embody large-scale, sophisticated administrative and political constructs which are commonly presented as key moments in the genealogy of present-day states-one which acknowledges its classical foundations and modern developments, but is much less at ease with its medieval interlude. For many students of modern states, the significant changes in state governance that took place between the late Middle Ages and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries-mainly governments' ability to control and monopolize violence-are a convenient point of departure, thereby rendering developments further back in time inconsequential or trivial to the evolution of the 'state'. 2 Nevertheless, it makes little sense to argue that states-however imperfect compared both to modern and Classical ones-did not exist in Europe before the late Middle Ages. 3 In fact medievalists have put considerable effort into identifying and debating at which stage different polities can be called states, an effort that has traditionally been affected by nationalistic history-writing, projecting desires to push the beginnings of statehood as far back as possible, although this is periodically counterbalanced by revisionist movements. 4 The focus is normally set upon evidence for administrative, fiscal and judicial structures-1 This text has been prepared with support from the FES2 research project (HAR2010-21950-C03-01), funded by the Plan Nacional de I+D+i. of the Spanish government. In this presentation of (some of) the theoretical concerns that underlie this volume and its constituent chapters, the editors must acknowledge the huge input received from all members of the FES2 project, most especially Wendy Davies and Álvaro Carvajal, as well as from other colleagues, including Isabel Alfonso and Stephen Mileson, who read the many drafts and provided immensely helpful comments. Naturally, any remaining shortcomings and inacurracies are soley the responsibility of the authors. 2 Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States. The effects of such a conceptual frontier are similar to the distinctions made in classical sociology between 'modern' and 'traditional' forms of society; see Wagner, Theory, Culture and Society, pp. 151-153. Late medievalists are also increasingly emphasising the importance of non-state polities in the Late Middle Ages, for example Watts, The Making of Polities. 3 Strayer, Medieval Origins. 4 Geary, The Myth of Nations, esp. pp. 15-40; Wood, The Modern Origins of the Early Middle Ages. what Joyce and others have termed the 'governmentalization' of the state 5-and the degree to which they can be said to have been controlled by kings. An alternative to this institutional view is the notion, encapsulated most clearly in Marxist history writing, that states are first and foremost about the production and reproduction of social inequality, and therefore primarily instruments of the social elites at any time. Examples of both approaches are abundant in the literature, including chapters in this volume. Medievalists have offered a variety of responses to these theories, conditioned by the divergent trajectories that lead from Antiquity through the Middle Ages and into modern states. On the one hand, there is an interest in Rome's successor states: the socalled barbarian kingdoms. Here, there is often particular emphasis placed on the 'Frankish core', where a considerable degree of post-Roman institutional continuity can be discerned, and where the key question is for many, not when the state appeared, but rather how much was it eroded in the post-Carolingian period, and how much of it needed to be reconstructed following the 'feudal age'. 6 On the other hand, there is the experience of regions of northern and eastern Europe that were never part of the Roman Empire, or, as is the case in Britain, where Roman institutions had mostly disappeared in the intervening period. Here, questions and theories about state formation are normally used to explain socio-political changes taking place in the ninth to thirteenth centuries, with an emphasis on distinguishing indigenous developments from Franco-Roman influences and models. 7 Change in these regions is often presented as a progression from small-scale polities towards larger states; a view that is further complicated by the desire of many archaeologists to identify state-like structures in deep time. Examples supporting such ideas have included the early Viking Age in northern 'non-Roman' Europe; 8 the late Iron Age in southern Britain; 9 the late Bronze and early Iron Ages in regions like Gaul 10 or Iberia. 11 In 5 Joyce, 'What is the social in social history?', p. 238.

The Medieval Countryside, 2019

Medieval history is full of kings and knights and bishops and scholars and poets, and their lives... more Medieval history is full of kings and knights and bishops and scholars and poets, and their lives, battles and intrigues seem to play out in worlds of their own, as if suspended over the worlds of ordinary people with hardly anything connecting the two. Courts, battlefields and cathedrals feel far removed and isolated from the toiling masses of peasants who-if they appear at all-figure as a constant, unremarkable and dull background to the busy lives of the elites. When research does focus on the worlds of peasants, however, they turn out to be anything but dull; rather they appear as immensely colourful, dynamic and variable, but the same sense of separation is apparent when the Middle Ages are viewed from this angle. The perception is that the everyday lives of ordinary people, in farms, hamlets, villages and even cities, took place in a dimension separate from that of their lords-and that it mattered little for those everyday lives what the rulers were up to. The dictum of Swedish historian Erik Lönnroth that in the early Middle Ages ordinary people generally experienced their government only as a passing catastrophe, 2 catches this sense of disconnection quite succinctly; whether the 'catastrophe' was as a result of warfare or an occasional visit by a peripatetic court is secondary to the argument. This characterization has a ring of truth about it, but the project that this book derives from started with the explicit aim of challenging such a dichotomy. By emphasising the separation between localities and higher political spheres we risk portraying the former as essentially passive backgrounds whose sole function is to provide the material support for social complexity, while the processes by which the latter formed and developed are clouded in mist. Indeed, this problem is particularly pronounced when studying the formative phases of polities, when governments lacked the basic resources to exert largescale control over localities. The contributions in this book contest that the connections and the exchanges between these two spheres is a topic in need of wholesale revision. 1 This text has been prepared with support from the FES2 research project (HAR2010-21950-C03-01), funded by the Plan Nacional de I+D+i. of the Spanish government. 2 Lönnroth, 'Government in Medieval Scandinavia', p. 455.

Journal of Open Archaeology Data, 2012

The dataset covers the burial records from excavation of 3500 people and their associated artefac... more The dataset covers the burial records from excavation of 3500 people and their associated artefacts from 120 cemetery sites in Kent, southern England, from the period AD 400-700. It was assembled to facilitate the respective PhD research programmes of the authors, using published, unpublished and grey literature sources. It was made publicly available in 2008 via the Archaeology Data Service as a Special Collection and has had regular downloads thereafter by students, academics and international colleagues. The intention is to expand the dataset nationally, with the next upload to take place in 2012 to cover southern England.

Landscape History, 2012

ABSTRACT Historians and archaeologists are increasingly interested in moving beyond landscape rec... more ABSTRACT Historians and archaeologists are increasingly interested in moving beyond landscape reconstruction and economics to investigate how past inhabitants perceived their environment. This reflects the subject's intrinsic interest and an awareness of the importance of decisions made by ordinary people in shaping the development of the countryside. However, the evidence available makes it difficult to uncover mentalities and attitudes. To date, most attention has been paid to particular features which seem to say most about self-perception and beliefs, but the greatest advances will arguably be made by studying the landscape as a whole. This article explains the approach to popular perceptions being adopted by ‘The South Oxfordshire Project’, an interdisciplinary analysis of fourteen parishes encompassing lowland clay vales and Chilterns wood-pasture from the early Middle Ages to the mid seventeenth century.

Peasant Perceptions of Landscape, 2021

This chapter, covering the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman Conquest period, outlines the major change... more This chapter, covering the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman Conquest period, outlines the major changes in land use which accompanied the creation of small local manors and the establishment of collaborative open-field farming. Those changes reflected the shift in relations from ones predominantly organized around social networks to ones of property ownership. Domesday Book supplies a crucial piece of evidence, in light of which fragmentary earlier evidence for the structure of the royal estate of Benson can be better understood. The strong implications of the period’s developments for inhabitants’ perceptions are examined, including through the boundary clauses accompanying royal land charters and the evidence for more structured settlements and systems of administration, including the hundred and its moot.

European Journal of Archaeology, 2010

Eva Thäte aims to explore the landscapes of the dead, focusing particularly on the issue of monum... more Eva Thäte aims to explore the landscapes of the dead, focusing particularly on the issue of monument re-use and the manifold relations the living maintained with the dead through these acts of commemoration. Assessing the corpus from Denmark, southern Sweden and ...

In the summer of 2015 archaeological excavation sought to examine the location of an early mediev... more In the summer of 2015 archaeological excavation sought to examine the location of an early medieval hundred meeting place (‘moot’) in southern Wiltshire. The investigation was planned in the context of recent work to characterise hundred meeting places and to explore the survival of local Roman roads into the medieval period (Baker and Brookes 2015; Langlands forthcoming a; Brookes et al. forthcoming). Stowford provided an opportunity to bring these different concerns together. The site lies 2km west of Broad Chalke and 200m southwest of the hamlet of Fifield Bavant in the extreme east of Ebbesbourne Wake parish. Excavations centred on NGR SU 016 248 in fields immediately south of the River Ebble which flows west to east from Ebbesbourne Wake to Broad Chalke before joining the River Avon at Bodenham. The valley floor is generally flat at around 92m above Ordnance Datum but rises sharply to the south and to the north of the Ebble. The underlying solid geology is Lewes Nodular Chalk F...

Beyond the Burghal Hidage, 2013

Beyond the Burghal Hidage, 2013

Beyond the Burghal Hidage, 2013