Anglo-Saxon archaeology Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This paper argues that the large cremation cemeteries of eastern England in the fifth and sixth century can be interpreted as central places where different households and communities congregated for mortuary rituals, ancestral ceremonies and other social activities. Through their size, early date and the predominant use of cremation, these sites were social and sacred foci where a distinctive mortuary ideology was developed that forged powerful relationships between place, identity, myths and memories. The places selected for these large cremation cemeteries also encouraged this role. By examining four cremation cemeteries in Lincolnshire it is shown how, in different ways, each of them encouraged perceptions of both centrality and liminality. This was achieved through their location in relation to routes, ancient monuments , topography and contemporary settlement patterns. It is argued that while societies of the fifth and sixth century may be regarded as less 'complex' and more regionally varied than those coming before and after, social complexity is revealed in part through the role of mortuary practices and burial rites in strategies for reproducing political and sacred authority, social structures and perceptions of group identities and histories.

An article from the Searcher magazine discussing three hoards of the coins known as sceattas found in the county.

Please see abstract for appendix 9i.

Researchers from different fields like archaeology, history, philology and natural sciences present their studies on ancient gemstones. Using precious minerals as an example, trade flows and craftsmanship, but also utilisation and perception are discussed in a cross-cultural and diachronic approach. The present volume aims at three main questions concerning gemstones in archaeological and historical contexts: »Mines and Trade«, »Gemstone Working« as well as »The Value and the Symbolic Meaning(s) of Gemstones«.
This volume contains the proceedings of the conference »Gemstones in the first Millennium AD« held in autumn 2015 in Mainz, Germany, within the scope of the BMBF-funded project »Weltweites Zellwerk – International Framework«.

- by Alexandra Hilgner and +1
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- Archaeology, Art History, Indian Ocean History, Early Medieval Archaeology

This is not just a book about a battle; it is a book about the biggest battle before Hastings 1066.
This is a battle most people have probably never heard of, but it is a battle where five Scottish and Viking kings and seven earls died, somewhere in the kingdom of Northumbria in late 937. As well as royalty, the bones of tens of thousands of ordinary men from Northern England, Scotland and the Viking territories lie buried in a place which, according to the chroniclers, is no longer known.
This book is about that battle and the search to find the long-lost site. Thousands of pages have been written about the Battle of Brunnenburh, but this book is unique. It is written by descendants of a legendary Viking Egill Skallagrimsson. Thousands of pages have been written about Brunnenburh but all of them are written from the perspective of the victor, King Athelstan of Wessex and Mercia. This book is the closest anyone is likely to get to a Northern Viking account.
Even if you have no real interest in the site of the Battle of Brunnenburh this is worth the effort you will put into it this book to understand it. Take a deep dive into the world and beliefs and times of the competing factions in 10 th century England and beyond, and the battle that first unified the United Kingdom.

The Old English History of the World is a translation and adaptation of the Latin history known as the Seven Books of History against the Pagans, written by the Spanish cleric Paulus Orosius at the prompting of Saint Augustine after the sack of Rome in 410. To counter the pagan and republican narratives of Livy and other classical historians, Orosius created an account of the ancient world from a Christian and imperial viewpoint. His work was immensely popular throughout Europe in succeeding centuries, down to the end of the Middle Ages. Around the year 900, an Old English version was produced by an anonymous writer, possibly encouraged or inspired by King Alfred. The translator actively transformed Orosius’s narrative: cutting extraneous detail, adding explanations and dramatic speeches, and supplying a long section on the geography of the Germanic world. This volume offers a new edition and modern translation of an Anglo-Saxon perspective on the ancient world.

A new book on Anglo-Saxon London, to be published later in 2018.

- by Rory Naismith
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- History, Medieval History, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Medieval Studies

From Saxon mercenaries to prince Beowulf – Scandinavian identity in Anglo-Saxon England ca 450 – 800 AD.
Through an analysis of the spatial, chronological and social organization of Scandinavian material culture in England during the early and middle Anglo-Saxon period, it is argued that the Scandinavian cultural traits take part in a social discourse relating to the manifestation, negotiation and transformation of Anglo-Scandinavian identity. Both archaeological and contemporary historical sources are explored, and the analysis focuses on the intersection of manifestation of ethnic identity in the different medias/sources. The theoretical basis of the analysis is the perception of ethnicity as a dynamic, contextual and multidimensional phenomenon, generated in a situation where a cultural encounter between peoples of differing cultural traditions takes place. The cultural content of ethnic identities is seen as dependent on both the cultural practices of the agents involved, and the social conditions that characterize the specific historical situation where the meeting takes place.
The analysis of Scandinavian material culture indicates that in the period immediately following the ”Anglo-Saxon” invasion, Scandinavian identity is incorporated in a common Germanic, ”Saxon” identity that is contrasted and defined in opposition to a British/Romano-British ethnic identity. Then, in the period ca 475 – 575 AD, Scandinavian culture seems to be actively involved in a process of polarization between different regional groups. These groups are based on a constellation of different ethnic groups, such as Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Francs, ”Norwegians”, a ”native” Romano-British population etc, and are later to be known as Angles, Saxons and Jutes referred to in historical sources from the 8th and 9th centuries. At the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th century, Scandinavian identity is going through a process where it is structured in accordance with a hierarchical principle, in which it comes to symbolize the common cultural heritage of an emerging aristocracy.

Meend is a common place-name or toponym in and around the Forest of Dean. It is a name that is familiar to most people in the locality, and the majority of these could probably describe the principal characteristics of a meend. These could usually include an open character, uncultivated and accessible for informal recreational use. The word is often used in association with “forest waste”. These areas lay outside the forest plantation inclosures and were historically exploited by local communities for grazing and as a source of bracken, gorse and brushwood. These practices have declined over the last half century. Most meends that still exist have one or more of these attributes. However, many more have been lost over the years, and exist only as distant memories, have had their names corrupted or absorbed, or appear only as forgotten names on modern maps. This paper seeks to shed some light on the origins of what is possibly the most important group of place and field names in and
around the Forest of Dean and points to areas of research that would yield dividends in uncovering the social and environmental origins of the forest.

- by Ben Lennon
- •
- Cultural History, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Landscape Archaeology, Agrarian Studies
- by Bruce O'Brien
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- Medieval History, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Legal History, Old English Literature

Anglo-Saxon law codes dictate in great detail the penalties for particular crimes. Amongst there are the forfeit of hands and feet. A male with a healed amputated hand and foot recovered from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery (6th-8th century AD)... more

- by Sharon Clough
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- Osteology, Anglo-Saxon archaeology, Human Osteology

In this text the authors want to explain the relation between the field in Hunwick as a possible site for the Battle of Brunanburh and four sites closely to the field that are likely to be burial sites for the lost ones in the battle. There is possibly an ancient burial site close to the proposed field and there are three different sites that might relate to three different segments of the invading force. There was a local chapel one mile from the proposed field, there is possibly a Scottish site half a mile from there and another site only half a mile therefrom that could relate to the Danish Vikings from Dublin. In this paper we look at these sites as well as other possible sites further afield.

Discussion of the origins of middle Saxon Ipswich Ware, particularly with reference to the influence of the Frisians

J.T. Irvine was clerk of works at Peterborough Cathedral during the restoration work of the 1880's. He was also an antiquarian and his attention to detail was outstanding illustrated by his collection of archaeological and architectural notes and drawings which have provided the opportunity for the re-interpretation of important archaeological remains. His work has shown that 19th century antiquarians not only add great value to the archaeological world but can also be an inspiration. Irvine was a forward thinker, a man before his time and his legacy can be seen in the wealth of accurate information that has been left behind for future generations

- by Sarah-Jayne Botfield
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- Antiquarianism, Anglo-Saxon archaeology, Cathedral archaeology
- by Jo Buckberry
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- Bioarchaeology, Paleopathology, Osteology, Anglo-Saxon archaeology

This paper will argue that, at least within the territory of the early medieval kingdom of Mercia, worth place names signify specific functions and exhibit particular common characteristics within their landscape. The key argument presented here is that these settlement sites may have been of military or civil defence importance, protecting the boundaries of an expanding Mercia and aiding in its early governance. Alternatively, they may be indicative of the consolidation of authority in later years under established and more powerful monarchies. Either way, these places exhibit sufficient common characteristics to justify detailed, specific scrutiny. My objective is to establish what the term worth actually meant, rather than simply defining and debating its translation; ultimately the aim is to understand these worth sites properly in their landscape context.

Excavation at this site revealed two early, possibly Saxon, features considered to represent small structures or buildings. Later features indicated that the digging and working of clunch, a hard variety of chalk, had been carried out at this site. Dating evidence suggests that this activity continued throughout much of the medieval period and indicates that this is one of the earliest identified incidences of the digging and working of clunch in Isleham. Isleham became known for its clunch industry in the early modern period.

- by Andrew A S Newton
- •
- Archaeology, Medieval History, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Medieval Studies

Since the Staffordshire Hoard's discovery in 2009, soil removal has been carried out over several years by conservators working with the Staffordshire Hoard Conservation Project at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. As a case study, this essay examines the practical and philosophical considerations that arose during the author's cleaning of object K1195, a gold and garnet cloisonné sword pommel cap, in 2012. Cleaning – understood as a culturally determined intervention that enacts permanent change on an object – is a frequent subject of debate within cultural heritage preservation. This essay considers the cleaning of an archaeological object with respect to its ontological status, borrowing concepts employed in the conservation of modern and contemporary works of art.

For two periods of British history – the first part of the Roman occupation and the Tudor and early Stuart periods – the Weald of South East England was the most productive iron-producing region in the country. Looking across the tranquil Wealden countryside, it is hard to identify anything that hints at its industrial past. Yet 400 years ago, nearly 100 furnaces and forges roared and hammered there, the smoke from charcoal-making curling up from the surrounding woods and the roads bustling with wagons laden with ore and iron sows. Many British naval campaigns, including the Spanish Armada, the Wars against the Dutch, and The Seven Years’ War, relied on Wealden iron cannon; the pressures of conflict driving forward the development of iron-producing technology. For a time the economy of the whole area was dominated by the production of iron and its raw materials, providing employment, generating prosperity and shaping the landscape irrevocably. Drawing on a wealth of local evidence, this book explores the archaeology and history of an area whose iron industry was of international importance.

- by Simon Stevens
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- Historical Archaeology, Medieval Archaeology, Anglo-Saxon archaeology

The theme of posture is an important feature of Anglo-Saxon hagiography that frames decapitation scenes. Ælfric’s account of the martyrdom of Edmund, king of East Anglia, uses many postural descriptions to depict the king’s saintly qualities. From Christian defiance to self-sacrifice, Edmund is portrayed as a Christian king who heroically defies his heathen enemies. After his death, Edmund assumes great control over his enemies and administers divine justice. These key stages of Edmund’s death and burial focus heavily on his posture and that of his adversaries. This saint’s life provides one example of how the Anglo-Saxons used postural gesture, upright positioning, and elevation and descent to describe the virtues of saints and the vices of enemies.

- by Ciaran Arthur
- •
- Medieval Literature, Medieval History, Hagiography, Anglo-Saxon Studies

Many of the Anglo-Saxon charms identify locations for their performance and function. Previous scholarship has used locations as evidence of continuous pre-Christian practices and this argument has impacted on how the charms are perceived. As a result, the role of the church building as one of the charms’ identified locations has not yet been properly highlighted. Rather than focusing on the potential pre-Christian associations with certain sites in the charms, it is more enlightening to look at how other locations orientate around the church building. In this article I will explore how charms use liturgical and public spaces to signify their function during the late Anglo-Saxon period. After outlining the main scholarly views of Anglo-Saxon locations that have had an impact on charm studies, my analysis will make a comparative case study of two charms against elf-sickness to open readings of the corpus of Anglo-Saxon charms. This approach reveals interesting information about the Anglo-Saxons’ interaction with their landscape in the tenth and eleventh centuries and helps us to redefine the religious nature of these rituals.

This article examines three sites of elite and royal power in the early second millennium AD in the Thames valley: Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, Westminster in the City of London, and Runnymede in Surrey. Using a backdrop of comparative material from medieval Scandinavia, these sites are examined in terms of their landscape qualities, particularly their liminal nature. On this basis, it is shown that they demonstrate attributes and features that are frequently connected to assembly sites. It is therefore argued that these sites may well, earlier in time, have been assembly locations that were consciously adopted and developed as royal ritual sites as part of the legitimising process of power.

- by Alexandra Sanmark
- •
- Medieval History, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Landscape Archaeology, Medieval Studies

New excavations at Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire, UK, in 2007 have significantly increased the number of graves, making it the largest Saxon cemetery known in the county. The graves, predominantly inhumation but also including four cremation
graves, span the late 5th to 7th centuries. Among the new discoveries is a rare bed burial. The new results now permit a more comprehensive analysis of the cemetery’s spatial and chronological development as well as its mortuary rites and social
structure in comparison to other cemeteries in the region.

- by Nick.stoodley Stoodley and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Early Medieval Archaeology, Anglo Saxon Burial Studies (Archaeology), Anglo-Saxon archaeology

Viking Language 1: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas is an introduction to the language of the Vikings offering in one book graded lessons, vocabulary, grammar exercises, pronunciation, student guides, and maps. It explains Old Icelandic literature, Viking history, and mythology. Readings include runestones, legends, and sagas. Viking Language 1 focuses on the most frequently occurring words in the sagas, an innovative method which speeds learning. Because the grammar has changed little from Old Norse, the learner is well on the way to mastering Modern Icelandic. It provides a wealth of information about Iceland, where the sagas were written and Old Scandinavian history and mythology were preserved. Viking Language 1 is accompanied by Viking Language 2: The Old Norse Reader.

- by Jesse Byock
- •
- Languages, Archaeology, English Literature, Historical Archaeology

Horse burials form part of a diverse Anglo-Saxon burial practice, ranging from their inclusions in cremations, occasionally in large numbers, to the relatively rare appearance in inhumation cemeteries. Interpretations largely view their inclusion as indicative of status, signifying a social group or prestige. Such analysis is anthropocentric, as it views horses as passive commodities for humans to use, ignoring the processes of the two species living alongside each other. By using posthumanism, aimed at decentring the human, it can be possible to develop our understanding of animal-human relationships. The skeletal data from horse and human burials dating to the early medieval period in Britain was examined to create osteobiographies – the life story based on the evidence provided by an individual’s skeleton – alongside surviving texts and material culture. Use as transportation was highly probable, though evidence was lacking on many of the skeletal remains to support this, but the act of riding would likely allow a close relationship to form between individual humans and horses. A posthumanist approach can force understandings of past animals to focus beyond socioeconomic interpretations, but it is difficult to ignore the likely anthropocentric nature of past humans in attempting to reconstruct their past interactions and relationships with nonhuman individuals.

- by Daniel Cockling
- •
- Archaeology, Zooarchaeology, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Posthumanism

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological excavation of 16 1m2 ‘test pits’ in the Cambridgeshire village of Toft carried out in summer 2013. The programme was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through its ‘All Our Stories’ programme and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities theme which funded the Cambridge Community Heritage programme at the University of Cambridge in 20012-13. Over three weekends, more than 600 residents of the village of Toft and the local area took part in the excavations in 16 different locations throughout the present village. The results provided new evidence for the development of the southern part of the village, near to the church and alongside a small stream, from the prehistoric period onwards.
Parts of the area appears to have intermittently and lightly used by humans in the prehistoric period, with possible indications of a small settlement of Neolithic date beside the stream. Pottery of Roman date clearly clustered just beyond the south-eastern limits of the present settlement show a settlement to have been present here, and there is some indication of some sort of presence in the same area sometime between the 5th and 9th centuries. The present village seems to have been founded in the late Anglo-Saxon period, with settlement clearly present in the same stream-side location as the Romano-British settlement. This continued and expanded in the high medieval period, when the settlement appears to have extended northwards, but experienced sever contraction in the late medieval period, when the stream-side area of settlement was entirely abandoned. When the settlement began to recover, possibly rather falteringly, in the post medieval period, its focus appears to have shifted north towards the Comberton Road, with the stream-side settlement remaining permanently deserted. The project involved hundreds of members of the local community, and provided many new perspectives on the past development of this Cambridgeshire village

- by Carenza Lewis and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Public Archaeology, Medieval History, Pottery (Archaeology)

Berserkism in the Merovingian Empire? For three generations of research, impressive evidence
has been available: the pressblech foils from Obrigheim and Gutenstein. ‘Wolf warriors’ thus
seem to have been proven not only in the Scandinavian and Anglo-Saxon regions, but also in
Christian south-western Germany. The article
attempts – based on the Obrigheim find – to retrace the history of the interpretation of these
pictorial works and to offer a new approach to interpretation.

- by Karl Banghard
- •
- Iconography, Fascism, Early Medieval Archaeology, Saints' Cults

This report presents the results of a programme of archaeological excavation of 23 1m2 ‘test pits’ in the Bedfordshire village of Shillington carried out in summer 2013. The programme was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) through its ‘All Our Stories’ programme and supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Connected Communities theme which funded the Cambridge Community Heritage programme at the University of Cambridge in 20012-13. Over three days, more than 300 residents of the village of Shillington and the local area took part in the excavations in 23 different locations throughout the present village.
The results provided new evidence for the development of the area now occupied by the village, which mostly lies alongside a small stream, from the prehistoric period onwards. The landscape was used by humans in the prehistoric period, apparently favouring the area nearer the small brook running west of the prominent hill which dominates the land around the parish. One test pit near this stream produced convincing evidence for undisturbed settlement remains in the immediate vicinity. Small quantities of pottery of Roman date came from five different sites, two of them away from the Brookside area hinting at a pattern of settlement or agricultural land use moving beyond the lower lying zones. No evidence was found for any activity dating to the period between the 5th – 9th centuries AD, but Saxo-Norman pottery of 10th – 11th century date was found in two distinct concentrations, suggesting more than one hamlet present, possibly part of a nucleated pattern of settlement, at this time. The high medieval period saw settlement at these sites grow and that at three other ‘ends’ appear, indicating a pattern of mixed dispersed and nucleated settlement. This growth ceases in the late medieval period, with Shillington particularly badly affected in this period of widespread demographic and settlement contraction compared to many settlements in the eastern region. In the post-medieval period, however, the test pit data indicates that Shillington gradually recovered, with former dispersed settlements mostly reoccupied, although it did not achieve its pre-14th century levels and some of the medieval ‘ends’ remained uninhabited until the 19th century.

- by Carenza Lewis and +1
- •
- Archaeology, Public Archaeology, Medieval History, Anglo-Saxon Studies

The old English runic corpus contains at least thirty-seven inscriptions carved in stone, which are concentrated geographically in the north of England and dated mainly from the seventh to the ninth centuries. The quality and content of the inscriptions vary from simple names (or fragments thereof) to poetic vernacular memorial formulae. Nearly all of the inscriptions appear on monumental sculpture in an ecclesiastical context and are considered to have served commemorative purposes. rune-inscribed stones show great variety in terms of monument type, from name-stones, cross-shafts and slabs to elaborate monumental crosses that served different functions and audiences. Their inscriptions have often been analyzed by runologists and epigraphers from a linguistic or epigraphic point of view, but the relationship of these inscribed monuments to other sculptured stones has received less attention in runological circles. Thus the present article explores the place and development of rune-inscribed monuments in the context of sculptural production in pre-Conquest England, and identifies periods of innovation and change in the creation and function of runic monuments. it points to changes in commemorative practices, monument types, and patronage that had an impact on the use of runes on sculpture, from their growing popularity on monastic commemorative sculpture in the late seventh century to their ultimate abandonment in a sculptural context in the early eleventh century.

- by Lilla Kopár
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- Runology, Anglo-Saxon Sculpture, Anglo-Saxon archaeology, Old English Runes

LA INGLATERRA ANGLOSAJONA. UNA SÍNTESIS HISTÓRICA (ss. V-XI)