Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the 6th and 7th Centuries AD

Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the 6th and 7th Centuries AD
Author: Alex Bayliss
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1121
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351576453

The Early Anglo-Saxon Period is characterized archaeologically by the regular deposition of artefacts in human graves in England. The scope for dating these objects and graves has long been studied, but it has typically proved easier to identify and enumerate the chronological problems of the material than to solve them. Prior to the work of the project reported on here, therefore, there was no comprehensive chronological framework for Early Anglo-Saxon Archaeology, and the level of detail and precision in dates that could be suggested was low. The evidence has now been studied afresh using a co-ordinated suite of dating techniques, both traditional and new: a review and revision of artefact-typology; seriation of grave-assemblages using correspondence analysis; high-precision radiocarbon dating of selected bone samples; and Bayesian modelling using the results of all of these. These were focussed primarily on the later part of the Early Anglo-Saxon Period, starting in the 6th century. This research has produced a new chronological framework, consisting of sequences of phases that are separate for male and female burials but nevertheless mutually consistent and coordinated. These will allow archaeologists to assign grave-assemblages and a wide range of individual artefact-types to defined phases that are associated with calendrical date-ranges whose limits are expressed to a specific degree of probability. Important unresolved issues include a precise adjustment for dietary effects on radiocarbon dates from human skeletal material. Nonetheless the results of this project suggest the cessation of regular burial with grave goods in Anglo-Saxon England two decades or even more before the end of the seventh century. That creates a limited but important discrepancy with the current numismatic chronology of early English sceattas. The wider implications of the results for key topics in Anglo-Saxon archaeology and social, economic and religious history are discussed to conclude the report.

The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300-525 CE

The Material Fall of Roman Britain, 300-525 CE
Author: Robin Fleming
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2021-06-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812297369

Although lowland Britain in 300 CE had been as Roman as any province in the empire, in the generations on either side of 400, urban life, the money economy, and the functioning state collapsed. Many of the most quotidian and fundamental elements of Roman-style material culture ceased to be manufactured. Skills related to iron and copper smelting, wooden board and plank making, stone quarrying, commercial butchery, horticulture, and tanning largely disappeared, as did the knowledge standing behind the production of wheel-thrown, kiln-fired pottery and building in stone. No other period in Britain's prehistory or history witnessed the loss of so many classes of once-common skills and objects. While the reasons for this breakdown remain unclear, it is indisputable the collapse was foundational in the making of a new world we characterize as early medieval. The standard explanation for the emergence of the new-style material culture found in lowland Britain by the last quarter of the fifth century is that foreign objects were brought in by "Anglo-Saxon" settlers. Marshalling a wealth of archaeological evidence, Robin Fleming argues instead that not only Continental immigrants, but also the people whose ancestors had long lived in Britain built this new material world together from the ashes of the old, forging an identity that their descendants would eventually come to think of as English. As with most identities, she cautions, this was one rooted in neither birth nor blood, but historically constructed, and advanced and maintained over the generations by the shared material culture and practices that developed during and after Rome's withdrawal from Britain.

The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon Settlement

The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon Settlement
Author: Seiichi Suzuki
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2000
Genre: Design
ISBN: 9780851157498

The quoit brooch style, a decorative style of animal and geometric motifs, is unique to southern England in the 5th century AD, with the greatest concentration of such items occurring in Kent. The author defines the style through an analysis of its design organization, and, by comparing it with near-contemporary styles in England and on the continent, he identifies those features which make it unique.

Haskins Society Journal

Haskins Society Journal
Author: C. P. Lewis
Publisher: Boydell Press
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780851158310

New perspectives on the central middle ages in western Europe cover a wide range of issues. Six papers reassess how "feudalism" is to be understood after Susan Reynolds's Fiefs and Vassals; in addition to her own response to reviews of her book, these are: consideration of the Germanic comitatus; "feudal" vocabulary in Dudo of Saint-Quentin; the titles of the early rulers of Normandy; the rise of territorial lordships in the principality of Salerno; and a broad comparative study of "military lands" in the early and central middle ages. The other five papers range over early Anglo-Saxon reuse of Roman artefacts; the exploitation of whales in early medieval Britain; Edward the Confessor's clerks; Abbot Faricius of Abingdon; and wage-rates in late twelfth- and early thirteenth-century England. Dr C.P. LEWIS is a lecturer in the School of History at the University of Liverpool. Contributors SUSAN REYNOLDS, STEVEN FANNING, FELICE LIFSHITZ, ROBERT HELMERICHS, VALERIE RAMSEYER, BERNARD S. BACHRACH, CAROL NEUMAN DE VEGVAR, VICKI ELLEN SZABO, MARY FRANCES SMITH, KEVIN SHIRLEY, PAUL LATIMER.

The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology

The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology
Author: Helena Hamerow
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 1110
Release: 2011-03-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0199212147

Written by a team of experts and presenting the results of the most up-to-date research, The Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology will both stimulate and support further investigation into a society poised at the interface between prehistory and history.

Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries

Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries
Author: Duncan Sayer
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2020-12-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1526135582

This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY) open access license. This book is available as an open access ebook under a CC-BY licence. Early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries are known for their grave goods, but this abundance obscures their interest as the creations of pluralistic, multi-generational communities. This book explores over one hundred early Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian cemeteries, using a multi-dimensional methodology to move beyond artefacts. It offers an alternative way to explore the horizontal organisation of cemeteries from a holistically focused perspective. The physical communication of digging a grave and laying out a body was used to negotiate the arrangement of a cemetery and to construct family and community stories. This approach foregrounds community, because people used and reused cemetery spaces to emphasise different characteristics of the deceased, based on their own attitudes, lifeways and live experiences. This book will appeal to scholars of Anglo-Saxon studies and will be of value to archaeologists interested in mortuary spaces, communities and social archaeology.

Barbaric Splendour: The Use of Image Before and After Rome

Barbaric Splendour: The Use of Image Before and After Rome
Author: Toby F. Martin
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2020-06-11
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1789696607

This book comprises a collection of essays comparing late Iron Age and Early Medieval art. Fundamentally, the book asks what making images meant on the fringe of the expanding or contracting Roman empire, particularly as the art from both periods drew heavily from – but radically transformed – imperial imagery.

An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms

An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms
Author: C. J. Arnold
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2005-08-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134730985

An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms is a volume which offers an unparalleled view of the archaeological remains of the period. Using the development of the kingdoms as a framework, this study closely examines the wealth of material evidence and analyzes its significance to our understanding of the society that created it. From our understanding of the migrations of the Germanic peoples into the British Isles, the subsequent patterns of settlement, land-use, trade, through to social hierarchy and cultural identity within the kingdoms, this fully revised edition illuminates one of the most obscure and misunderstood periods in European history.