The Ancient Ways of Wessex

The Ancient Ways of Wessex
Author: Alexander Langlands
Publisher: Windgather Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-11-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1911188542

The Ancient Ways of Wessex tells the story of Wessex’s roads in the early medieval period, at the point at which they first emerge in the historical record. This is the age of the Anglo-Saxons and an era that witnessed the rise of a kingdom that was taken to the very brink of defeat by the Viking invasions of the ninth century. It is a period that goes on to become one within which we can trace the beginnings of the political entity we have come to know today as England. In a series of ten detailed case studies the reader is invited to consider historical and archaeological evidence, alongside topographic information and ancient place-names, in the reconstruction of the networks of routeways and communications that served the people and places of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. Whether you were a peasant, pilgrim, drover, trader, warrior, bishop, king or queen, travel would have been fundamental to life in the early middle ages and this book explores the physical means by which the landscape was constituted to facilitate and improve the movement of people, goods and ideas from the seventh through to the eleventh centuries. What emerges is a dynamic web of interconnecting routeways serving multiple functions and one, perhaps, even busier than that in our own working countryside. A narrative of transition, one of both of continuity and change, provides a fresh and alternative window into the everyday workings of an early medieval landscape through the pathways trodden over a millennium ago.

Cræft

Cræft
Author: Alex Langlands
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: SOCIAL SCIENCE
ISBN: 9780393635904

An archaeologist takes us into the ancient world of traditional crafts to uncover their deep, original histories.

The Medieval Way of War

The Medieval Way of War
Author: Gregory I. Halfond
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2016-03-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317024192

Few historians have argued so forcefully or persuasively as Bernard S. Bachrach for the study of warfare as not only worthy of scholarly attention, but demanding of it. In his many publications Bachrach has established unequivocally the relevance of military institutions and activity for an understanding of medieval European societies, polities, and mentalities. In so doing, as much as any scholar of his generation, he has helped to define the status quaestionis for the field of medieval military history. The Medieval Way of War: Studies in Medieval Military History in Honor of Bernard S. Bachrach pays tribute to its honoree by gathering in a single volume seventeen original studies from an international roster of leading experts in the military history of medieval Europe. Ranging chronologically from Late Antiquity through the Later Middle Ages (ca. AD 300-1500), and with a broad geographical scope stretching from the British Isles to the Middle East, these diverse studies address an array of critical themes and debates relevant to the conduct of war in medieval Europe. These themes include the formation and implementation of military grand strategies; the fiscal, material, and administrative resources that underpinned the conduct of war in medieval Europe; and religious, legal, and artistic responses to military violence. Collectively, these seventeen studies embrace the interdisciplinarity and topical diversity intrinsic to Bachrach’s research. Additionally, they strongly echo his conviction that the study of armed conflict is indispensable for an accurate and comprehensive understanding of medieval European history.

Fortifications in Wessex c. 800–1066

Fortifications in Wessex c. 800–1066
Author: Ryan Lavelle
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2012-10-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 178200551X

The defence of the 9th-century kingdom of Wessex under King Alfred against the 'Great Viking Army' is one of the major military achievements of Early Medieval history. While the guerrilla warfare in the Somerset marshes and the battle of Edington are characteristic of Alfred's military abilities, his definitive physical achievement was a series of some 30 well-structured fortifications (known as burhs) across the kingdom. Many of these fortifications survive to this day and some were even reinforced to stand up to German tanks in the expected invasion of 1940. This title describes their beginnings in the turbulent early years of Alfred's reign as well as their subsequent development and use.

The Land of the English Kin

The Land of the English Kin
Author: Alex Langlands
Publisher: Brill's the Early Middle Ages
Total Pages: 695
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789004349490

"This volume draws together a series of papers that present some of the most up-to-date thinking on the history, archaeology and toponymy of Wessex and Anglo-Saxon England more broadly. In honour of one of early medieval European scholarship's most illustrious doyennes, no less than twenty-nine contributions demonstrate the indelible impression Barbara Yorke's work has made on her peers and a generation of new scholars, some of whom have benefitted directly from her tutorage. From the identities that emerged in the immediate post-Roman period, through to the development of kingdoms, the role of the church, and impacts felt beyond the eleventh century, the rich and diverse character of the studies presented here are testimony to the versatility and extensive range of the honorand's contribution to the academic field"--

The Ancient Burial-mounds of England

The Ancient Burial-mounds of England
Author: L.V. Grinsell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2014-10-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317604687

First published in 1936 and rewritten in 1953, this book embodies the results of the author’s extensive researches and fieldwork. Part one considers types of barrows and dating, their building and the cult of the dead from Palaeolithic to Saxon times. A chapter is dedicated to maps and another to fieldwork in particular, while the final bit of the introductory material discussed barrow-digging from the time of the Romans to the twentieth century. Part two is the regional surveys, from Cornwall to Kent and northwards to the Scottish border.