Women of the Conversion Period: a biomolecular investigation of mobility in early medieval England
February 2024
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Journal article
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Antiquity
Exogamous marriage alliances involving royal women played a prominent role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to Christianity in the seventh century AD. Yet the large number of well-furnished female burials from this period suggests a broader change in the role of women. The authors present the results of isotopic analysis of seventh-century burials, comparing male and female mobility and the mobility of females from well-furnished versus poorly/unfurnished burials. Results suggest increased mobility during the Conversion Period that is, paradoxically, most noticeable among women buried in poorly furnished graves; their well-furnished contemporaries were more likely to have grown up near to their place of burial.
Roman to early medieval cereal farming in the Rhineland: weeds, tillage, and the spread of the mouldboard plough
January 2024
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Journal article
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Landscape History
A new model for gauging levels of soil disturbance (i.e. tillage) by analysing arable weed assemblages from archaeological contexts is applied to an extensive Roman-to-early medieval archaeobotanical sequence from the region west of Cologne. It tests the hypothesis that increasing use of the mouldboard plough, especially in a three-field system, would result in increased levels of soil disturbance which would be reflected in the kinds of weeds that grew in arable fields. The results point to clear differences in tillage regimes during the Roman period, providing support for the view that military sites were not provisioned by the same networks that supplied the civilian market. They also reveal generally low disturbance levels for the fifth and sixth centuries, indicating a continuing predominance of ard cultivation in the post-Roman period. The majority of seventh- to eighth-century samples had, however, been grown in ‘high disturbance’ conditions, a pattern that continued through the eighth and ninth centuries. Although use of the mouldboard plough within a fully developed three-field system may not have become widespread until the tenth or eleventh century, our evidence suggests that a plough capable of turning over the soil was in use in the Rhineland at a much earlier date.
mouldboard plough, early medieval, Rhineland, farming, weed ecology, Roman
Early anglo-saxon pottery
December 2023
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Chapter
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Venta Belgarum: Prehistoric, Roman, and Post-Roman Winchester
The Global Dynamics of Inequality (GINI) project: analysing archaeological housing data
December 2023
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Journal article
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Antiquity
The GINI project investigates the dynamics of inequality among populations over the long term by synthesising global archaeological housing data. This project brings archaeologists together from around the world to assess hypotheses concerning the causes and consequences of inequality that are of relevance to contemporary societies globally.
socioeconomic inequality, distributions of housing, households, Gini coefficient, income
The experimental heating of rye, oat, spelt, wheat and barley between 215 and 300 °C: the stable carbon and nitrogen isotope data and the photographic evidence of changes to the morphology of the grains
September 2023
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Journal article
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Data in Brief
The effect that heating has on cereal grain morphology and isotopic values has far reaching consequences for archaeobotanical research and palaeodietary reconstructions. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic data and mass loss percentages on, and photographs of, rye, oat, barley, wheat and spelt from a heating experiment are presented and support Stroud et al. (2023). The experiment heated rye, oat, and spelt at 215 °C, 230 °C, 245 °C, 260 °C and 300 °C for 4 h, 8h and 24 h, with each temperature/duration condition consisting of 3 samples of 10 grains per sample. The mass loss of the grains, the %C and %N, and δ13C and δ15N values are presented. Furthermore, photographs of the grains’ external and internal morphology for each temperature/duration combination are provided. The wheat and barley data of samples charred between 215 °C and 260 °C/ 4–24 h were obtained from the published and unpublished dataset of Nitsch et al. (2015) and it is this dataset which the new data builds upon. This article also provides the published and unpublished data and photographs from Nitsch et al. (2015), bringing together a dataset of nine crop species. This article provides the raw data from two cereal grain heating experiment, which will enable further research into understanding the impact of heating on both grain isotopic values and grain morphology. It also allows users to construct charred-uncharred isotopic offsets for a combination of species relevant to their research.
temperature and duration heating experiment, FFR, archaeology, archaeobotany, charring offset, stable isotope analysis
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: a bioarchaeological dataset for the study of early medieval agriculture (Data paper)
May 2023
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Journal article
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Internet Archaeology
The FeedSax project combined bioarchaeological data with evidence from settlement archaeology to investigate how, when and why the expansion of arable farming occurred between the 8th-13th centuries in England. It has generated and released a vast, multi-faceted archaeological dataset both to underpin its own published findings and to support further research.
Turning up the heat: assessing the impact of charring regime on the morphology and stable isotopic values of cereal grains
March 2023
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Journal article
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Journal of Archaeological Science
The stable isotopic values of charred crops are now frequently analysed in archaeology. While previous research has highlighted how grain morphology and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values change with grain charring temperature, such research has been limited to temperature ranges under 260 °C and using predominately Mediterranean cereals and pulses. For the first time, this study provides experimental data on the impact of charring on two northern European cereals, rye and oat, both morphologically and isotopically. New experimental charring of rye, oat, bread wheat and hulled barley extends the charring window to 300 °C, providing an insight into the morphological changes to the grains as well as the difference between charred and uncharred isotopic values. This range of cereals and conditions opens up potential for stable isotopic investigation of medieval agricultural growing conditions and practices in Britain. The results indicate that isotopically, a 0.16‰ and a 0.32‰ offset should be applied to δ13C and δ15N values, respectively, of grains charred between 230 and 300 °C. Morphological and internal structural changes, as well as external distortion, are key attributes which vary with charring temperature and duration. Guidelines are provided to enable assessment of whether archaeological grains of bread wheat, hulled barley, rye and oat fall within the acceptable charring window for isotopic analysis.
The Human Remains from Early Medieval Domburg (Netherlands) and Other Coastal Communities in International Perspective: Towards an International Research Agenda for the Cemeteries of the North Sea Emporia
January 2023
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Journal article
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Medieval Archaeology
4301 Archaeology, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology
The cerealisation of the Rhineland: extensification, crop rotation and the medieval ‘agricultural revolution’ in the longue durée
December 2022
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Journal article
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Germania
This paper presents selected results of a research project designed to generate direct evidence for the spread of low-input cereal farming and crop rotation, key elements of the so-called ‘Medieval agricultural revolution’. This type of farming greatly increased overall crop production, enriching landowners and fuelling population growth. The results presented here situate these developments within the longue durée of farming in the lower Rhine basin, from the Neolithic to the central Middle Ages. They also have important implications for our understanding of agricultural production during the Roman to post-Roman transition.
Agricultural land use in central, east and south-east England: arable or pasture?
November 2022
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Chapter
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New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’: Crop, Stock and Furrow
Pollen data provide the best available large-scale, long-term evidence for vegetation and agricultural land use. In this paper we bring together data from numerous studies covering parts of central, east and south-east England spanning c. AD 300–1500, in order to understand how the landscape, and particularly the nature and scale of farming, changed over time.
<br>
This period encompasses the late Romano-British to post-Roman transition of the fourth to fifth centuries, a time when population declined and long-distance trade networks collapsed (Esmonde Cleary, 1991). These changes are often assumed to have resulted in the abandonment of farmland, as a significantly...
Archaeology and history: a Late Antiquity for Britain
November 2022
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Journal article
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Studies in Late Antiquity
Archaeology was, once upon a time, referred to as “the handmaiden of history.” Images of artifacts served primarily to adorn the pages of historical accounts regarded by publishers as needing enlivening. How times have changed. Material culture—uncovered for the most part by archaeological excavation—is increasingly playing a central role in the writings of early medieval historians. Notable examples include Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Middle Ages (2005) and, more recently, John Blair’s Building Anglo-Saxon England (2018).1 The two volumes under review here—both written by historians—bear witness to this growing engagement with material culture and how it is changing the way we view early medieval Britain.
FFR
Prospect and protect: syntironomy and cereals in early medieval England
November 2022
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Chapter
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New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’: Crop, Stock and Furrow
medieval farming, Upper Thames valley, agricultural history, archaeobotany, syntironomy
The ‘FeedSax’ Project: rural settlements and farming in early medieval England
November 2022
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Chapter
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New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’: Crop, Stock and Furrow
Introduction to ‘FeedSax’: cereal farming, population growth and
wealth disparities in early medieval England
Understanding early medieval crop and animal husbandry through isotopic analysis
November 2022
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Chapter
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New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’: Crop, Stock and Furrow
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England (FeedSax): Digital Data Archive
January 2022
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Dataset
The Feeding Anglo-Saxon England project (FeedSax: 2017-2022) used bioarchaeological methods to address longstanding questions about the development of medieval field systems. To this end, FeedSax created a large collection of archaeological data - both compiled from existing sources, and newly created through primary analyses - pertaining to charred plant remains, animal bones, stable isotopes, radiocarbon dates, and pollen records. The FeedSax digital archives includes the resultant datasets in CSV and Excel formats as well as a SQL database ('Haystack'), along with accompanying SQL queries and documentation in MS Word format. The archive is deposited with the Archaeology Data Service (https://doi.org/10.5284/1057492).
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England (FeedSax): Grain Photograph Archive
January 2022
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Dataset
The Feeding Anglo-Saxon England project (FeedSax: 2017-2022) used bioarchaeological methods to address longstanding questions about the development of medieval field systems. As part of this research, FeedSax - in collaboration with doctoral researcher Tina Roushannafas - collated a large collection of microscope photographs of charred cereal grains from Anglo-Saxon and medieval archaeological contexts. These photographs, which are valuable both as a record of grains destroyed in biomolecular analysis and as a source in geometric morphometric studies, are deposited with the Sustainable Digital Scholarship platform at the University of Oxford (https://portal.sds.ox.ac.uk/feedsax).
archaeology, medieval, cereals, charred grains
Lesions in sheep elbows: insights from a large-scale study
June 2021
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Journal article
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International Journal of Paleopathology
<br><strong>Objectives<br></strong>
Enthesophytes on sheep elbow joints are commonly reported in archaeological material. Although these lesions are often described as ‘penning elbow’, little is known of their aetiology. In this study, a new method for recording these lesions is presented, and the effect of age, sex and body size is explored to understand their potential for informing upon past human-animal interactions.
<br><strong>
Materials<br></strong>
1133 distal humerii and proximal radii from 16 archaeological sites.
<br><strong>
Methods<br></strong>
The presence and severity of enthesophytes were recorded and findings compared with modern data from a group of 17 complete Soay sheep skeletons.
<br><strong>
Results<br></strong>
Significant, positive correlations between age and body size and the presence of enthesophytes were demonstrated. Environmental factors and trauma may also play a role in their formation.
<br><strong>
Conclusion<br></strong>
The aetiology of enthesophytes on sheep elbows is complex and varied, affected by age, body size and environment.
<br><strong>
Significance<br></strong>
This is the first study of enthesophytes on sheep elbows to combine archaeological data with modern animals of known age and sex. Blanket explanations of husbandry methods for the cause of these lesions are dispelled, and use of the term ‘penning elbow’ is redundant.
<br><strong>
Limitations<br></strong>
The sample of modern specimens is relatively small and would benefit from the inclusion of older individuals and those raised in different environments.
<br><strong>
Future research<br></strong>
The method developed here can be adopted in future studies.
<br>
Interpretations should take age, size and environmental factors into consideration, and only when these variables are established can the role of husbandry be evaluated.
Identifying draught cattle in the past: lessons from large-scale analysis of archaeological datasets
May 2021
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Journal article
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International Journal of Paleopathology
<br><strong>Purpose<br></strong>
Improve understanding of the links between biological variables (sex, body size and anatomical position) and adaptive remodelling of autopodia, and the identification of traction use in the archaeological record.
<br><strong>
Methods<br></strong>
A modified version of the recording system for identifying draught cattle in the archaeological record (Bartosiewicz et al., 1997) was applied to a sample of 1509 bones from six sites from medieval England. Analysis focused on identifying correlations between pathological and sub-pathological changes in lower-limb bones in relation to anatomy, sex and body mass.
<br><strong>
Results<br></strong>
A correlation between sex, body mass and lower limb bone changes was demonstrated. The need to consider anterior and posterior limb bone elements separately to maximise the potential for identifying cattle used for traction was identified. Changes in hindlimb elements were highlighted as the most useful indicator of draught use.
<br><strong>
Contribution<br></strong>
This study provides new, detailed evidence for a previously poorly understood correlation between the effects of anatomical position, sex and body size and the nature of skeletal changes traditionally associated with draught cattle. It pulls together findings and makes comprehensive suggestions for future studies.
<br><strong>
Limitations<br></strong>
This is a purely methodological paper. Although general results are presented, there is insufficient space to include a full case study. This will be published separately within the results of the FeedSax project.
<br><strong>
Further research<br></strong>
Future studies into the use of cattle for draught purposes in the past should take in to account the sex and size of the animals under consideration, and analyse anterior and posterior elements separately.
Close companions? A zooarchaeological study of the human–cattle relationship in medieval England
April 2021
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Journal article
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Animals
Across medieval Europe, cattle commanded a major, if shifting, economic and social value, and their use for meat, milk, and traction is well established. Although the changing roles of cattle throughout this period may have influenced relationships between humans and cattle, this has been largely neglected in historical and zooarchaeological studies. Data from nearly 700 archaeological assemblages of animal remains have been used to provide an overview of the herd structures (age and sex) of cattle populations for England between AD 450 and 1400. These have been analysed alongside pathological and sub-pathological changes in over 2800 lower limb bones of cattle from seventeen archaeological sites to provide a better understanding of the use of cattle for ploughing, hauling, and carting. The findings were considered alongside historical documents and ethnographic evidence to chart changing human-cattle relationships. Results indicate that human-cattle relations varied with changing economic, agricultural, and social practices. From the mid-fifth century, cattle were a form of portable wealth, however, by the mid-ninth century, they were perceived as a commodity with monetary value. From this period, close human-cattle bonds are likely to have been widespread between plough hands and working animals. Such bonds are may have diminished with the increasing number of young beef cattle kept to supply the urban population from the mid-eleventh century.
Periodontal disease in sheep and cattle: understanding dental health in past animal populations
February 2021
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Journal article
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International Journal of Paleopathology
<br><strong>Objective<br></strong>
To provide a comparative baseline for future studies of oral pathology in domestic livestock and to better understand connections between lesion prevalence and biological context in past animal populations.
<br><strong>
Materials<br></strong>
Over 1600 sheep and cattle mandibles recovered from archaeological sites in England between 500 and 1300 CE.
<br><strong>
Methods<br></strong>
A comprehensive investigation of periodontal disease was conducted based on four characteristics: dental calculus; periosteal new bone formation; alveolar recession; and ante-mortem tooth loss. The anatomical position and severity of these lesions were quantified and correlated against the age of each individual.
<br><strong>
Results<br></strong>
Two types of periosteal new bone formation were recognized: one in the growing mandibles of young animals, the other in older animals and associated with disease. The incidence of calculus and alveolar recession increase with age. Correlations exist between calculus, alveolar recession and periosteal new bone formation. Disruption caused by the eruption of the P4 is also implied as a contributory factor to the onset of periodontal disease.
<br><strong>
Conclusions<br></strong>
When interpreting periodontal disease in zooarchaeological collections it is vital to consider the effect of age as well as environmental and genetic factors.
<br><strong>
Significance<br></strong>
This is the first comprehensive zooarchaeological study to investigate the effect of age on periodontal disease. It provides a better understanding of the frequency and presentation of periodontal disease as a baseline for future studies.
<br><strong>
Limitations<br></strong>
Cattle mandibles are under-represented due to poor survival. Ideally, radiographs of mandibles with ante-mortem tooth loss would be taken, but this was not possible.
<br><strong>
Suggestions for further research<br></strong>
The role of genetic factors, diet and environment needs to be better understood.
Early medieval garnet-inlaid metalwork: a comparative analysis of disc brooches from early Wessex
September 2020
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Journal article
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Antiquaries Journal
Garnet-inlaid metalwork was an emblem of elite culture in the early medieval North Sea world. This study compares three Anglo-Saxon garnet-inlaid brooches that are exceptionally similar in design and appearance. All three date to the seventh century, a period that saw the emergence of leading families that used such deluxe dress items to enhance their political position. The central hypothesis explored here is that the brooches were produced by the same, or by closely linked, goldsmiths working under the patronage of such a family. Integrated analysis was conducted using microscopy, CT scans, XRF and XRD, in part to establish whether the garnets used came from the same or different sources.
A Conversion-period burial in an ancient landscape: a high-status female grave near the Rollright Stones, Oxfordshire/Warwickshire
April 2020
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Chapter
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The Land of the English Kin: Studies in Wessex and Anglo-Saxon England in Honour of Professor Barbara Yorke
In March 2015, a metal detector user uncovered several early medieval artefacts from land adjacent to the Rollright Stones, a major prehistoric complex that straddles the Oxfordshire—Warwickshire border (O.S. SP 2963 3089). He alerted the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the well-preserved burial of a female, aged around 25–35 years and aligned South-North, was subsequently excavated (Fig. 11.1).1 The grave—which was shallow, undisturbed (apart from a small area of disturbance near the skull caused by the detectorist) and produced no evidence for a coffin or other structures—contained a number of remarkable objects indicating a 7th-century date for the burial. This was confirmed by two samples of bone taken for AMS radiocarbon dating, which produced a combined date of 622–652 cal AD at 68.2 per cent probability and 604–656 cal AD at 95.4 per cent probability (OxA-37509, OxA-37510). The burial lay some 50 m northeast of a standing stone presumed to be prehistoric in date, known locally as the ‘King Stone’.3 This burial and its remarkable setting form a significant addition to the corpus of well-furnished female burials which are shedding new light on the role of women in Conversion-period England, about which Barbara Yorke has written so compellingly.
An integrated bioarchaeological approach to the medieval ‘agricultural revolution’: a case study from Stafford, England, c.AD 800–1200
March 2020
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Journal article
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European Journal of Archaeology
In much of Europe, the advent of low-input cereal farming regimes between c.ad 800 and 1200 enabled landowners—lords—to amass wealth by greatly expanding the amount of land under cultivation and exploiting the labour of others. Scientific analysis of plant remains and animal bones from archaeological contexts is generating the first direct evidence for the development of such low-input regimes. This article outlines the methods used by the FeedSax project to resolve key questions regarding the ‘cerealization’ of the medieval countryside and presents preliminary results using the town of Stafford as a worked example. These indicate an increase in the scale of cultivation in the Mid-Saxon period, while the Late Saxon period saw a shift to a low-input cultivation regime and probably an expansion onto heavier soils. Crop rotation appears to have been practised from at least the mid-tenth century.
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: the bioarchaeology of an agricultural revolution
April 2019
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Journal article
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Antiquity
The early Middle Ages saw a major expansion of cereal cultivation across large parts of Europe thanks to the spread of open-field farming. A major project to trace this expansion in England by deploying a range of scientific methods is generating direct evidence for this so-called ‘Medieval Agricultural Revolution’.
FFR
Early medieval ‘places and spaces’: breaking down boundaries in British archaeology
August 2018
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Chapter
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Treinta años de Arqueología Medieval en España
British medieval archaeology is becoming increasingly integrated as new methodologies, research programmes and data sets encourage researchers to cross the boundaries between the study of settlements, burials, and landscapes. This paper reviews, through a series of case studies, new approaches to 'social landscapes' and in particular assembly sites, including fairs, legal assemblies, cemeteries and places of execution. These studies illustrate how a greater willingness to 'trespass' into other disciplines such as place‐name studies and legal history is yielding new insights into the archaeological record. The paper concludes that it is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the study of early medieval burial, settlement and landscape into distinct sub‐disciplines, especially for the period between c 600‐1000, a time when conceptions of 'community' were rapidly changing.
landscape archaeology, assembly sites, boundaries, early medieval Britain, interdisciplinarity
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: the bioarchaeology of an agricultural revolution ('FeedSax')
December 2017
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Journal article
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Medieval Settlement Research
FFR
The circulation of garnets in the North Sea Zone, AD400-700
April 2017
|
Chapter
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Gemstones in the First Millennium Ad: Mines, Trade, Workshops and Symbolism
The circulation of garnets in the North Sea zone, c. 400-700
April 2017
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Conference paper
|
Gemstones in the First Millennium AD
Garnet-inlaid metalwork is one of the most instantly recognizable emblems of the elite culture that emerged in the North Sea zone during the 5th to 7th centuries. The giving and receiving of such precious objects played a key role in cementing socio-political relationships, by enhancing the honour of both donor and recipient (Arrhenius 1985. – Arrhenius 1998. – Bazelmans 1998). The use of garnet inlays derived ultimately from Graeco-Roman lapidary traditions, with the deep purple-red colour of the stones connoting »rank and wealth« (Webster 2012, 59-60. – Adams 2011a). Provenance studies are revealing the sources from which the garnets used in early medieval metalwork probably originated (see, inter alia, Quast / Schüssler 2000. – Perin et al. 2007. – Mannerstrand / Lundqvist 2003. – But see also Adams 2011a for a cautionary reminder of the complexities and challenges involved in such analysis). Remarkably little, however, is known of the conditions in which trade in these gemstones was conducted and how they circulated within northwest Europe and Scandinavia. This paper approaches these questions by considering where garnets are likely to have entered North Sea (and Baltic) exchange networks; what the decline in the availability of garnets – especially the timing of that decline – suggests about the networks by which they circulated; and whether scientific analysis can shed light on how garnets circulated amongst merchants, goldsmiths and clients
The archaeology of early Anglo-Saxon settlements: Past, present and future
March 2017
|
Chapter
|
Landscapes of Change: Rural Evolutions in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Furnished female burial in seventh-century England: Gender and authority in the Conversion Period
October 2016
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Journal article
|
Early Medieval Europe
A new, refined chronology for seventh-century graves and grave goods in England has revealed a marked increase in well-furnished female burials beginning in the second quarter of the seventh century. The present study considers what gave rise to this phenomenon and concludes that the small number of royal nuns and abbesses who figure so prominently in written accounts of the Conversion were part of a wider, undocumented change in the role of women that began several decades before the founding of the first female houses. It is argued that these well-furnished graves reflect a new investment in the commemoration of females who came to represent their family’s interests in newly acquired estates and whose importance was enhanced by their ability to confer supernatural legitimacy onto dynastic claims.
Characterising copper-based metals in Britain in the first millennium AD: a preliminary quantification of metal flow and recycling
June 2015
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Journal article
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Antiquity
4301 Archaeology, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology, Acquired Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease including Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD), Dementia, Brain Disorders, Neurodegenerative, Aging
A high-status seventh-century female burial from West Hanney, Oxfordshire
March 2015
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Journal article
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Antiquaries Journal
In 2009, a metal-detector find of a rare garnet-inlaid composite disc brooch at West Hanney, Oxfordshire, led to the excavation of an apparently isolated female burial sited in a prominent position overlooking the Ock valley. The burial dates to the middle decades of the seventh century, a period of rapid socio-political development in the region, which formed the early heartland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The de luxe brooch links the wearer to two other burials furnished with very similar brooches at Milton, some 10km to the east and only c 1km from the Anglo-Saxon great hall complex at Sutton Courtenay / Drayton, just south of Abingdon. All three women must have been members of the region’s politically dominant group, known as the Gewisse. The burial’s grave goods and setting add a new dimension to our understanding of the richly furnished female burials that are such a prominent feature of the funerary record of seventh-century England.
An Anglo-Saxon great hall complex at Sutton Courtenay/Drayton, Oxfordshire : a royal centre of early Wessex?
March 2015
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Journal article
|
Archaeological Journal
An archaeological evaluation at the site of an Anglo-Saxon ‘great hall complex’ at Sutton Courtenay/Drayton, Oxfordshire (NGR 448733 193671), previously known primarily from aerial photographs and metal-detector finds, included the partial excavation of two large timber buildings. One of these had been cut into a prehistoric mound or bank and proved to be the largest Anglo-Saxon ‘great hall’ yet identified. The smaller building overlay an earlier sunken-featured building of probable sixth-century date. The geophysical survey and excavation provide significant new information regarding the site, which is probably that of an undocumented royal centre associated with the earliest rulers of the West Saxons.
Anglo-Saxon settlements in a post-Roman landscape
January 2015
|
Chapter
|
Dopo La Fine Delle Ville: evoluzione nelle compagne dal VI al IX secolo
11° Seminario sul Tardoantico e l’Altomedioevo (Gavi, 8-10 maggio 2004).
Con contributi di A. Augenti, G. De Brasi, M. Ficara, N. Mancassola, S. Gelichi, M. Librenti, C. Negrelli, F. Saggioro, R. Tione, F. Bulgarelli, A. Frondoni, G. Murialdo, E. Vaccaro, M. Valenti, G. Volpe, T. Lewitt, L. Schneider, C. Hanusse, H. Hamerow, V. Loré, J. Jarnaut, R. Francovich.
Con che modalità si trasformarono le campagne dopo la fine del sistema economico basato sulle ville, che aveva caratterizzato l’epoca romana? Questo volume propone molti casi studio italiani ed europei per rispondere alla domanda.
The Origins of Wessex Pilot Project
July 2013
|
Journal article
|
Oxoniensia
This paper presents the results of a pilot project investigating the potential of archaeological sites and finds to reveal how the Gewisse – the progenitors of the West Saxons – emerged to form the first post-Roman polity in the upper Thames valley. Digital mapping of Portable Antiquities and other data has revealed new ‘hot spots’ of activity dating to the period between 400 and 750, as well as gaps in the distribution of early Anglo-Saxon material culture that could point to a British presence. The distributions of certain categories of object, such as imports and precious metals, hint at the existence of a distinct ‘riverine’ cultural zone with links to east Kent. New possibilities for understanding the formation of fifthcentury identities and calibrating fifth-century chronology are explored, as is the evidence for the emergence in the late sixth- to mid seventh-century of great hall complexes, notably at Sutton Courtenay and Long Wittenham, for which new evidence is presented. The potential for identifying minor routeways and understanding how these may have conditioned the location of early medieval settlement in the region is also considered.
The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, ed. Helena Hamerow, David A. Hinton and Sally Crawford
July 2013
|
Journal article
|
The English Historical Review
Since the early 20th century the scholarly study of Anglo-Saxon texts has been augmented by systematic excavation and analysis of physical evidence - settlements, cemeteries, artefacts, environmental data, and standing buildings. This evidence has confirmed some readings of the Anglo-Saxon literary and documentary sources and challenged others. More recently, large-scale excavations both in towns and in the countryside, the application of computer methods to large bodies of data, new techniques for site identification such as remote sensing, and new dating methods have put archaeology at the forefront of Anglo-Saxon studies. "The handbook of Anglo-Saxon archaeology", written by a team of experts and presenting the results of the most up-to-date research, will both stimulate and support further investigation into those aspects of Anglo-Saxon life and culture which archaeology has fundamentally illuminated. It will prove an essential resourse for our understanding of a society poised at the interface between prehistory and history.
Transforming Townscapes From Burh to Borough : the Archaeology of Wallingford, AD 800-1400
January 2013
|
Book
This monograph details the results of a major archaeological project based on and around the historic town of Wallingford in south Oxfordshire. Founded in the late Saxon period as a key defensive and administrative focus next to the Thames, the settlement also contained a substantial royal castle established shortly after the Norman Conquest. The volume traces the pre-town archaeology of Wallingford and then analyses the town’s physical and social evolution, assessing defences, churches, housing, markets, material culture, coinage, communications and hinterland. Core questions running through the volume relate to the roles of the River Thames and of royal power in shaping Wallingford’s fortunes and identity and in explaining the town’s severe and early decline.
History
Preface
September 2012
|
Book
The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology
September 2012
|
Book
The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology presents the results of recent research and illuminates those aspects of Anglo-Saxon Studies upon which archaeology has had the greatest impact. The book explores the complex relationship between archaeological, historical, anthropological, and literary methods. Since the early 20th century the scholarly study of Anglo-Saxon texts has been augmented by systematic excavation and analysis of physical evidence - settlements, cemeteries, artefacts, environmental data, and standing buildings. This evidence has confirmed some readings of the Anglo-Saxon literary and documentary sources and challenged others. More recently, large-scale excavations both in towns and in the countryside, the application of computer methods to large bodies of data, new techniques for site identification such as remote sensing, and new dating methods have put archaeology at the forefront of Anglo-Saxon studies.
Rural settlements and Society in Anglo-Saxon England
January 2012
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Book
In the course of the fifth century, the Roman farms and villas of lowland Britain were replaced by the new, distinctive settlements of Anglo-Saxon communities. This volume presents a major synthesis of the evidence, now rapidly growing, for such settlements from across England and throughout the Anglo-Saxon period. Its aim is to explore what this evidence reveals about the communities who lived in them and whose daily lives went almost wholly unrecorded. The book examines the appearance, ‘life-cycles’ and function of their buildings; the relationship of Anglo-Saxon settlements to the Romano-British landscape and to later medieval villages; the role of ritual in daily life; what distinguished ‘rural’ from ‘urban’; and the relationship between farming regimes and settlement forms. A central theme throughout the book is the impact on rural producers of the rise of lordship and markets, and how this impact is reflected in the remains of their settlements.
Anglo‐Saxon Timber Buildings and their Social Context
March 2011
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Chapter
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The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology
4301 Archaeology, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology
Overview: Rural Settlement
March 2011
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Chapter
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The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology
4301 Archaeology, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology
Communities of the Living and the Dead. The relationship between Anglo-Saxon settlements and ceteries, c AD 450-850.'
January 2010
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Chapter
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Intersections: The Archaeology and History of Christianity in England, 400-1200
Dark earths in the Dorchester allotments
January 2010
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Journal article
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Medieval Archaeology
Herrenhofe in Anglo-Saxon england
January 2010
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Journal article
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Siedlungs- und Kustenforschung im Sudlichen Nordseegebiet
The Development of Anglo-Saxon Rural Settlement Forms
January 2010
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Journal article
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Landscape History
The early Anglo-Saxon cemetary at St John's Road, Wallingford
September 2009
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Chapter
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The origins of of Wallingford, Archaeological and historical perspectives
Excavations (Archaeology)
Agrarian production and the emporia of mid Saxon England, ca. AD 650-850
May 2009
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Chapter
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Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium
Anglo-Saxon studies in archaeology and history
January 2009
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Book
Anglo-Saxon and earlier settlement near Drayton Road, Sutton Courtnay, Berkshire
January 2008
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Journal article
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Archaeological Journal
Since E. T. Leeds' excavations of the Anglo-Saxon settlement at Sutton Courtenay in the 1920s and 1930s, aerial photographs revealing large timber buildings, as well as finds of metalwork and coins have suggested that the settlement was more extensive and of higher status than Leeds had imagined. This report reviews this evidence and describes the results of fieldwalking, geophysical survey and small-scale excavation which have provided further details of the Anglo-Saxon settlement, and uncovered one of the timber buildings. It has also revealed features pre-dating the Anglo-Saxon occupation: Neolithic pits and an oval barrow—perhaps related to a nearby cursus—a Late Bronze Age burial, an Early Iron Age settlement and a Roman field system.
Intensification of agrarian production in Mid Saxon England
January 2007
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Chapter
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Post-Roman Towns, Trade and Settlement in Europe and Byzantium
This subtitle is the motto of a fruitful archaeological cooperation between the Town Council of Bad Homburg vor der ... on “Post-Roman Towns and Trade in Europe, Byzantium and the Near-East: New methods of structural, comparative and...
History
The Novum Inventorium Sepulchrale
January 2007
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Dataset
This searchable database consists of descriptions, drawings and photographs of an extensive, unpublished archive compiled by Mrs Sonia Hawkes of the Anglo-Saxon graves and grave goods excavated from a number of Kentish cemeteries in the 18th & 19th centuries. The database can be searched by cemetery, artefact type, etc. It is archived with the archaeology data service. http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archsearch/record?titleId=1661925
'Special Deposits' in Anglo-Saxon Settlements
November 2006
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Journal article
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Medieval Archaeology
4301 Archaeology, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology
Early Medieval Settlements The Archaeology of Rural Communities in Northwest Europe, 400-900
September 2004
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Book
The excavation of settlements has in recent years transformed our understanding of north-west Europe in the early Middle Ages. We can for the first time begin to answer fundamental questions such as: what did houses look like and how were they furnished? how did villages and individual farmsteads develop? how and when did agrarian production become intensified and how did this affect village communities? what role did craft production and trade play in the rural economy?
In a period for which written sources are scarce, archaeology is of central importance in understanding the 'small worlds' of early medieval communities. Helena Hamerow's extensively illustrated and accessible study offers the first overview and synthesis of the large and rapidly growing body of evidence for early medieval settlements in north-west Europe, as well as a consideration of the implications of this evidence for Anglo-Saxon England.
History
Catholme: The Development and Context of the Settlement
February 2002
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Chapter
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Catholme: An Anglo-saxon Settlement on the Trent Gravels in Staffordshire
Image and Power in the Archaeology of Early Medieval Britain: Essays in Honour of Rosemary Cramp
July 2001
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Book
Rosemary Cramp's influence on the archaeology of early Medieval Britain is nowhere more apparent than in these essays in her honour by her former students.
Social Science
Early Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire
January 2000
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Journal article
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Oxoniensia
Buildings and Settlements of the Angles, Saxons and Anglo-Saxons
January 1999
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Chapter
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In Discussion With the Past: Archaeological Studies Presented to W. A. van Es
Migrations and Invasions in Archaeological Explanation
January 1997
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Book
The reaction against archaeological explanations relying on invasion and migration was part of the processualist critique in the 1960s. Only recently have archaeologists like Kristiansen argued that as migrations can be traced in the historical record, some archaeological method of identifying them must be found. This volume comes from a 1993 TAG session and pursues this issue.
Social Science
Europe between late antiquity and the Middle Ages recent archaeological and historical research in Western and Southern Europe
January 1995
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Book
The eight papers in this volume examine recent archaeological and historical research in Western and Southern Europe.
Social Science
The Earliest Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
January 1995
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Chapter
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The New Cambridge Medieval History
The publication of The New Cambridge Medieval History is a major landmark in
the field of historical publishing. Written by leading international scholars and
incorporating the very latest research, the History will become the essential ...
History
Migration Theory and the Migration Period
December 1994
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Chapter
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Building on the Past: Papers Celebrating 150 Years of the Royal Archaeological Institute
papers celebrating 150 years of the Royal Archaeological Institute Blaise Vyner. BUILDING ON THE PAST PAPERS CELEBRATING 150 YEARS OF THE ROYAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE BUILDING ON THE PAST PAPERS....
Social Science
The Archaeology of Rural Settlement in Early Medieval Europe
September 1994
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Journal article
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Early Medieval Europe
Excavations at Mucking
January 1993
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Book
The complex multi-period archaeological landscape at Mucking provided the first opportunity, between 1965 and 1978, to excavate an Anglo-Saxon settlement and associated cemeteries simultaneously. With two cemeteries, at least 53 posthole buildings, and over 200 sunken huts (Grubenhauser), Mucking remains the most extensive Anglo-Saxon settlement excavated to date, and one of the earliest. The distribution of finds and pottery suggests a gradually shifting settlement, beginning in the early fifth century as a relatively dense group of buildings at the southern end of the site, then gradually moving northwards in the course of the sixth and seventh centuries. The latest recognisable phase datable at least to the end of the seventh century, consisted of a number of widely dispersed farmsteads. This report concentrates on the structures and artefacts from the settlement, and gives special consideration to developments in the ceramic assemblage. Specialist contributions examine the environment and technological evidence, for example plant and animal resources and metalworking technology. The discussion focuses on changes in the size and layout of this community, which was situated at the interface of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Kent and Essex, its historical and geographical contexts, and its relationship to the preceding Romano-British landscape. This report includes a full inventory of the finds and pottery in their contexts.
History
Settlement mobility and the ‘Middle Saxon Shift’: rural settlements and settlement patterns in Anglo-Saxon England
December 1991
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Journal article
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Anglo-Saxon England
4301 Archaeology, 4303 Historical Studies, 43 History, Heritage and Archaeology
A conversion-period burial in an ancient landscape: A high-status femael grave near the Rollright Stones
Conference paper
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Saints, Rulers and Landscapes
The Circulation of Garnets in the North Sea Zone, AD400-700
