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Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > European archaeology > Medieval European archaeology
A unique study of medieval monastic life that for the first time
integrates the results of modern archaeological investigation with
conventional historical and architectural research. Norton Priory
itself has been the subject of the largest campaign of excavation
of any monastic house in Europe, and Dr. Greene's results and
analysis are therefore of the widest interest.
Parks were prominent and, indeed, controversial features of the
medieval countryside, but they have been unevenly studied and
remain only partly understood. Stephen Mileson provides the first
full-length study of the subject, examining parks across the
country and throughout the Middle Ages in their full social,
economic, jurisdictional, and landscape context.
The first half of the book investigates the purpose of these royal
and aristocratic reserves, which have been variously claimed as
hunting grounds, economic assets, landscape settings for
residences, and status symbols. An emphasis on the aristocratic
passion for the chase as the key motivation for park-making
provides an important challenge to more recent views and allows for
a deeper appreciation of the connection between park-making and the
expression of power and lordship.
The second part of the book examines the impact of park creation on
wider society, from the king and aristocracy to peasants and
townsmen. Instead of the traditional emphasis on the importance of
royal regulation, greater attention is paid to the effects of
lordly park-making on other members of the landed elite and
ordinary people. These widespread enclosures interfered with
customary uses of woodland and waste, hunting practices, roads and
farming; not surprisingly, they could become a focus for
aristocratic feud, popular protest and furtive resistance.
Combining historical, archaeological, and landscape evidence this
ground-breaking study provides fresh insight into contemporary
values and how they helped to shape the medieval landscape.
The first study of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman canals and
waterways, this book is based on new evidence surrounding the
nature of water transport in the period. England is naturally
well-endowed with a network of navigable rivers, especially the
easterly systems draining into the Thames, Wash and Humber. The
central middle ages saw innovative and extensive development of
this network, including the digging of canals bypassing difficult
stretches of rivers, or linking rivers to important production
centres. The eleventh and twelfth centuries seem to have been the
high point for this dynamic approach to water-transport: after
1200, the improvement of roads and bridges increasingly diverted
resources away from the canals, many of which stagnated with the
reassertion of natural drainage patterns.
The new perspective presented in this study has an important
bearing on the economy, landscape, settlement patterns and
inter-regional contacts of medieval England. Essays from economic
historians, geographers, geomorphologists, archaeologists, and
place-name scholars unearth this neglected but important aspect of
medieval engineering and economic growth.
A wide-ranging study of the significance of swords throughout the
whole Anglo-Saxon period, offering valuable insights into the
meaning of and attitude towards swords. Swords were special in
Anglo-Saxon England. Their names, deeds and pedigrees were
enshrined in writing. Many were curated for generations, revealed
by their worn and mended condition. Few ended their lives as casual
discards, placed instead in graves, hoards and watercourses as part
of ritualised acts. Contemporary sources leave no doubt that
complex social meanings surrounded these weapons, transcending
their use on the battlefield; but they have yet to transcend the
traditional view that their primary social function was as status
symbols. Even now, half a century after the first major study of
Anglo-Saxon swords, their wider significance within their world has
yet to be fully articulated. This book sets out to meet the
challenge. Eschewing modern value judgements, it focuses instead on
contemporary perceptions - exploring how those who made, used and
experienced swords really felt about them. It takes a
multidisciplinary and holistic approach, bringing together insights
from art, archaeology and literature. Comparison with Scandinavia
adds further nuance, revealing what was (and was not) distinctive
of Anglo-Saxon views of these weapons. Far from elite baubles,
swords are revealed to have been dynamic "living" artefacts with
their own identities, histories and places in social networks -
ideas fuelled by their adaptability, durability and unique rolein
bloodshed. Sue Brunning is Curator of European Early Medieval
Collections at The British Museum.
Written by J.L. Granatstein, one of the country's leading political
and military historians, Canada's Army traces the full
three-hundred-year history of the Canadian military. This
thoroughly revised third edition brings Granatstein's work up to
date with fresh material and new scholarship on the evolving role
of the military in Canadian society. It includes new coverage of
the War in Afghanistan; NATO deployments to Poland, Latvia, and
Iraq; aid to the civil power deployments; and the role of the army
reserve. Masterfully written and passionately argued, Canada's Army
offers a rich analysis of the political context for the battles and
events that shape our understanding of the Canadian military.
Wide-ranging studies offer an in-depth analysis of castle-building
11th - 12th centuries and place castles within their broader social
and political context. The castles of the eleventh and twelfth
centuries remain among the most visible symbols of the Anglo-Norman
world. This collection brings together for the first time some of
the most significant articles in castle studies, with contributions
from experts in history, archaeology and historic buildings.
Castles remain a controversial topic of academic debate and here
equal weight is given to seminal articles that have defined the
study of the subject while at the same time emphasising newer
approaches to the fortresses of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy. The
studies in this volume range from discussions of the residential
and military role of the castle to architectural symbolismand royal
attitudes to baronial fortification. The result is a survey that
offers an in-depth analysis of castle-building during the eleventh
and twelfth centuries but which also places Anglo-Norman castles
within their broader social, architectural and political context.
Contributors: ANN WILLIAMS, RICHARD EALES, DEREK RENN, LAWRENCE
BUTLER, ROBERT HIGHAM, MARJORIE CHIBNALL, R.ALLEN BROWN, CHARLES
COULSON, SIDNEY PAINTER, FREDERICK C. SUPPE, GRANT G. SIMPSON,
BRUCE WEBSTER, J.R. KENYON, THOMAS McNEILL, T.A. HESLOP, PHILIP
DIXON, PAMELA MARSHALL, JOHN BLAIR, CHARLES COULSON, ROBERT
LIDDIARD
This book tells the transnational history of Portuguese communities
in Canada and the United States against the backdrop of the Cold
War, the American Civil Rights movement, the Portuguese Colonial
War, and Canadian multiculturalism. It considers the ethnic,
racial, class, gender, linguistic, regional, and generational
permutations of "Portuguese" diaspora from both a transnational and
comparative perspective. Besides showing that diasporas and nations
can be co-dependent, This Pilgrim Nation counters the common notion
that hybrid diasporic identities are largely benign and empowering
by revealing how they can perpetuate asymmetrical power relations.
The Battle of Pinkie, fought between the English and the Scots in
1547, was the last great clash between the two as independent
nations. It is a well-documented battle with several eyewitness
accounts and contemporary illustrations. There is also
archaeological evidence of military activities. The manoeuvres of
the two armies can be placed in the landscape near Edinburgh,
despite considerable developments since the 16th century.
Nevertheless, the battle and its significance has not been well
understood. From a military point of view there is much of
interest. The commanders were experienced and had already had
battlefield successes. There was an awareness on both sides of
contemporary best practice and use of up-to-date weapons and
equipment. The Scots and the English armies, however, were markedly
different in their composition and in the strategy and tactics they
employed. There is the added ingredient that the fire from English
ships, positioned just off the coast, helped decide the course of
events. Using contemporary records and archaeological evidence,
David Caldwell, Victoria Oleksy, and Bess Rhodes reconsider the
events of September 1547. They explore the location of the
fighting, the varied forces involved, the aims of the commanders,
and the close-run nature of the battle. Pinkie resulted in a
resounding victory for the English, but that was by no means an
inevitable outcome. After Pinkie it briefly seemed as if the future
of Britain had been redefined. The reality proved rather different,
and the battle has largely slipped from popular consciousness. This
book provides a reminder of the uncertainty and high stakes both
Scots and English faced in the autumn of 1547.
This volume brings together a series of case studies of spatial
configurations of power among the early medieval societies of
Europe. The geographical range extends from Ireland to Kosovo and
from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean world and brings together
quite different scholarly traditions in a focussed enquiry into the
character of places of power from the end of the Roman period into
the central middle ages. The book's strength lies in the basis that
it provides for a comparative analysis of the formation, function
and range of power relations in early medieval societies. The
editors' introductory chapter provides an extended scene setting
review of the current state of knowledge in the field of early
medieval social complexity and sets out an agenda for future work
in this topical area. The regional and local case studies found in
the volume, most of them interdisciplinary, showcase detailed
studies of particular situations at a range of scales. While much
previous work tends to focus on comparisons with the classical
world, this volume emphasises the uniqueness of early medieval
modes of social organisation and the need to assess these societies
on their own terms.
No sector has been as vital as oil to the Russian economy since
Vladimir Putin came to power. The longest serving leader since
Stalin, Putin has presided during a period of relative economic
prosperity driven largely by booming oil windfalls. Oil in Putin's
Russia offers an in-depth examination of the contests over
windfalls drawn from the oil sector. Examining how the Russian
leadership has guided the process of distributing these windfalls,
Adnan Vatansever explores the causes behind key policy continuities
and policy reversals during Putin's tenure. The product of over ten
years of research, including interviews with decision-makers and
oil industry officials, Oil in Putin's Russia takes an innovative
approach to understanding the contested nature of resource rents
and the policy processes that determine how they are allocated. In
so doing, it offers a comprehensive and timely account of politics
and policy in contemporary Russia, and a significant contribution
to research on the political economy of resource rents in mineral
resource-rich countries.
The Marlborough Mound has recently been recognised as one of the
most important monuments in the group around Stonehenge. It was
also a medieval castle and a feature in a major 17th century
garden. This is the first comprehensive history of this
extraordinary site. Marlborough Mound, standing among the buildings
of Marlborough College, has attracted little attention until
recently. Records showed it to be the motte of a Norman castle, of
which there were no visible remains. The local historians and
archaeologists who had investigated it had found very little in the
way of archaeological evidence beyond a few prehistoric antler
picks, the odd Roman coin, and a scatter of medieval pottery. It
was to be archaeology which provided the most dramatic discovery
after the Mound Trust began to restore the mound in 2003. English
Heritage were investigating Silbury Hill, and arranged to take
cores from the Mound for dating purposes. The results were
remarkable, as they showed that the Mound was almost a twin of
Silbury Hill and therefore belonged to the extraordinary assembly
of prehistoric monuments centred on Stonehenge. For the medieval
period, this book brings together for the first time all that we
know about the castle from the royal records and from chronicles.
These show that it was for a time one of the major royal castles in
the land. Most of the English kings from William I to Edward III
spent time here. For Henry III and his queen Eleanor of Provence,
it was their favourite castle after Windsor. It marks the end of
the first stage of the work of the Mound Trust, which, following
the restoration, turns to its second objective of promoting public
knowledge of the Mound based on scholarly research. As to its final
form as a garden mound next to the house of the dukes of Somerset,
in the eighteenth century, this emerges from letters and even
poems, and from the recent restoration. Much of this has been slow
and painstaking work, however, involving the removal of the trees
which endangered the structure of the Mound, the recutting of the
spiral path and the careful replanting of the whole area with
suitable vegetation. By doing this, the shape of the Mound as a
garden feature has re-emerged, and can now be seen clearly. This
book marks the end of the first stage of the work of the Mound
Trust, which, following the restoration, turns to its second
objective of promoting public knowledge of the Mound based on
scholarly research.
Sense and Feeling in Daily Living in the Early Medieval English
World seeks to illuminate important aspects of daily living and the
experience of the environment through sense and emotion, using
archaeological, art and textual sources. Twelve papers explore
sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, and emotions such as anger,
horror, grief and joy. Similar in theme and method to the first,
second and third volumes in the Daily Living in the Anglo-Saxon
World series, the collected articles illuminate how an
understanding of the sensory and emotional landscape that helped
form the daily lives of the peoples and the environments of early
medieval England can inform the study of England before the Norman
Conquest. The sights, smells, and sounds that informed the physical
and emotional landscape of town, scriptoria, and hall, for example,
explain urban planning, literary imagery and emotional attachment
evident among the early medieval English peoples. Experienced
senses and emotions are thus as central to understanding the inner
and outer landscape of the pre-Conquest English as crafts, towns or
water structures.
The Battle of Hastings in 1066 is the one date forever seared on
the British national psyche. It enabled the Norman Conquest that
marked the end of Anglo-Saxon England. But there was much more to
the Normans than the invading army Duke William shipped over from
Normandy to the shores of Sussex. How a band of marauding warriors
established some of the most powerful dominions in Europe - in
Sicily and France, as well as England - is an improbably romantic
idea. In exploring Norman culture in all its regions, Leonie V
Hicks is able to place the Normans in the full context of early
medieval society. Her wide ranging comparative perspective enables
the Norman story to be told in full, so that the societies of
Rollo, William, Robert (Guiscard) and Roger are explored in
unprecedented detail. From Hastings to the martial exploits of
Bohemond and Tancred on the First Crusade; from castles and keeps
to Romanesque cathedrals; and from the founding of the Kingdom of
Sicily (1130) to cross-cultural encounters with Byzantines and
Muslims, this is a fresh and lively survey of one of the most
popular topics in European history.
Carved and decorated stone-work is a rare survival from the period
before the Norman Conquest. In Nottinghamshire it survives as large
crosses and as small fragments - to be found in churches, in public
spaces and in museum collections. This is the first book to provide
an authoritative listing, description and illustration of all
examples of this type of decorated stone sculpture in
Nottinghamshire. Each example is illustrated in a substantial
catalogue containing high quality photographs, maps and
interpretative drawings. In the introductory chapters the authors
explore the geological and historical background of the sculptures
and provide an overview of the types of style and ornament. The new
information revealed by the systematic study of these major
survivals of Anglo-Saxon art and archaeology demonstrates the major
contribution that this category of material can make to an obscure
and under-investigated period in Midlands history. Nottinghamshire
emerges with a distinctive identity in the pre-conquest period,
having strong connections both with the Mercian state to its south
and with the Northumbrians to the north.
The medieval economy was centred on a phenomenal growth in trade of
all kinds of goods, yet few have studied the actual network of
roads that was so vital to medieval trading. Starting with the
basic concept of a 'road' in medieval times, and discussing the
increasing need to travel, this book explores the evidence from
documents and maps that provide clues as to where the roads of
medieval Britain led, connecting the study of individual roads
together to paint an image of the broader road network. The author
also uses findings from archaeological surveys and bird's-eye-view
photographs to trace the centuries-old routes and illustrate the
winding tracks that once carried goods to market.
The German Ocean examines archaeological and historical evidence
for the development of economies and societies around the North Sea
from the beginning of the twelfth century until the mid sixteenth
century. It draws in material from Scandinavia to Normandy and from
Scotland to the Thames estuary. While largely concerned with the
North Sea littoral, when necessary it takes account of adjacent
areas such as the Baltic or inland hinterlands. The North Sea is
often perceived as a great divide, divorcing the British Isles from
continental Europe. In cultural terms, however, it has always acted
more as a lake, supporting communities around its fringes which
have frequently had much in common. This is especially true of the
medieval period when trade links, fostered in the two centuries
prior to 1100, expanded in the 12th and 13th centuries to ensure
the development of maritime societies whose material culture was
often more remarkable for its similarity across distance than for
its diversity. Geography, access to raw materials and political
expediency could nevertheless combine to provide distinctive
regional variations.Economies developed more rapidly in some areas
than others; local solutions to problems produced urban and rural
environments of different aspect; the growth, and sometimes
decline, of towns and ports was often dictated by local as much as
wider factors. This book explores evidence for this 'diverse
commonality' through the historic environment of the North Sea
region with the intention that it will be of interest not only to
historians and archaeologists but to those who live and work within
the historic environment. This environment is a common European
resource with much to contribute to a sustainable future - the book
provides an archaeological contribution to the understanding of
that resource.
Roberta Gilchrist critically evaluates the concept of sacred
heritage. Drawing on global perspectives from heritage studies,
archaeology, museology, anthropology and architectural history, she
examines the multiple values of medieval Christian heritage.
Gilchrist investigates monastic archaeology through the lens of the
material study of religion and reveals the sensory experience of
religion through case studies including Glastonbury Abbey and
Scottish monasticism. Her work offers new insights into medieval
identity and regional distinctiveness, healing and magic, and
memory practices in the sacred landscape. It also reflects on the
significance of medieval sacred landscapes as contested heritage
sites which hold diverse meanings to contemporary groups. This
title is also available as Open Access.
In this collection of primary sources, Eugene Smelyansky highlights
instances of persecution and violence, as well as those relatively
rare but significant episodes of toleration, that impacted a broad
spectrum of people who existed at the margins of medieval society:
heretics, Jews and Muslims, the poor, the displaced and disabled,
women, and those deemed sexually deviant. The volume also presents
a more geographically diverse Middle Ages by including sources from
Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Mediterranean. Each
document is preceded by a brief introduction and followed by
questions for discussion, making The Intolerant Middle Ages an
excellent entrance into the lives and struggles of medieval
minorities.
Multi-disciplinary investigation of Anglo-Saxon funerary
traditions. Burial evidence provides the richest record we possess
for the centuries following the retreat of Roman authority. The
locations and manner in which communities chose to bury their dead,
within the constraints of the environmentaland social milieu,
reveal much about this transformational era. This book offers a
pioneering exploration of the ways in which the cultural and
physical environment influenced funerary traditions during the
period c. AD 450-850, in the region which came to form the leading
Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. This was a diverse landscape rich in
ancient remains, in the form of imposing earthworks, enigmatic
megaliths and vestiges of Roman occupation. Employing
archaeological evidence, complemented by toponymic and documentary
sources and elucidated through landscape analysis, the author
argues that particular man-made and natural features were
consciously selected as foci for funerary events and ritual
practice, becoming integral to manifestations of identity and power
in early medieval society. Kate Mees is a British Academy
Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Archaeology, Durham
University.
The Archaeology of the 11th Century addresses many key questions
surrounding this formative period of English history and considers
conditions before 1066 and how these changed. The impact of the
Conquest of England by the Normans is the central focus of the
book, which not only assesses the destruction and upheaval caused
by the invading forces, but also examines how the Normans
contributed to local culture, religion, and society. The volume
explores a range of topics including food culture, funerary
practices, the development of castles and their impact, and how
both urban and rural life evolved during the 11th century. Through
its nuanced approach to the complex relationships and regional
identities which characterised the period, this collection
stimulates renewed debate and challenges some of the long-standing
myths surrounding the Conquest. Presenting new discoveries and
fresh ideas in a readable style with numerous illustrations, this
interdisciplinary book is an invaluable resource for those
interested in the archaeology, history, geography, art, and
literature of the 11th century.
The 23 chapters in this volume explore the material culture of
sanctity in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean between c. 1000 and
c. 1220, with a focus on the ways in which saints and relics were
enshrined, celebrated, and displayed. Reliquary cults were
particularly important during the Romanesque period, both as a
means of affirming or promoting identity and as a conduit for the
divine. This book covers the geography of sainthood, the
development of spaces for reliquary display, the distribution of
saints across cities, the use of reliquaries to draw attention to
the attributes, and the virtues or miracle-working character of
particular saints. Individual essays range from case studies on
Verona, Hildesheim, Trondheim and Limoges, the mausoleum of Lazarus
at Autun, and the patronage of Mathilda of Canossa, to reflections
on local pilgrimage, the deployment of saints as physical
protectors, the use of imagery where possession of a saint was
disputed, island sanctuaries, and the role of Templars and
Hospitallers in the promotion of relics from the Holy Land. This
book will serve historians and archaeologists studying the
Romanesque period, and those interested in material culture and
religious practice in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean
c.1000-c.1220.
The 23 chapters in this volume explore the material culture of
sanctity in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean between c. 1000 and
c. 1220, with a focus on the ways in which saints and relics were
enshrined, celebrated, and displayed. Reliquary cults were
particularly important during the Romanesque period, both as a
means of affirming or promoting identity and as a conduit for the
divine. This book covers the geography of sainthood, the
development of spaces for reliquary display, the distribution of
saints across cities, the use of reliquaries to draw attention to
the attributes, and the virtues or miracle-working character of
particular saints. Individual essays range from case studies on
Verona, Hildesheim, Trondheim and Limoges, the mausoleum of Lazarus
at Autun, and the patronage of Mathilda of Canossa, to reflections
on local pilgrimage, the deployment of saints as physical
protectors, the use of imagery where possession of a saint was
disputed, island sanctuaries, and the role of Templars and
Hospitallers in the promotion of relics from the Holy Land. This
book will serve historians and archaeologists studying the
Romanesque period, and those interested in material culture and
religious practice in Latin Europe and the Mediterranean
c.1000-c.1220.
The gravel terraces of the river Thames have revealed a wealth of
archaeological information about the evolution of the landscape of
the region, the development of the settlement pattern, and past
human occupation. Much of this has come to light in the course of
gravel quarrying, which has been so extensive that the Thames
Valley now provides one of the richest resources of archaeological
data in the country. This volume provides an up to date overview of
the archaeological evidence from the valley for the late Iron Age,
Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods, broadly speaking the first
millennium AD. The area studied in detail comprises the Upper
Thames Valley, from the source of the river to the Goring Gap, and
the Middle Thames Valley, from the Goring Gap to the start of the
tidal zone at Teddington Lock. A summary of evidence for the
character of the river and the vegetation and environment of its
floodplain is followed by a detailed account of the evolving
settlement pattern as currently understood from archaeological
evidence. The authors then consider what archaeology can reveal
about the late Iron Age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon populations of the
valley, and their changing lifestyles, culture, identities and
beliefs. This is followed by a review of the evidence for
production, trade, transport and communication, and the archaeology
of power and politics. The volume concludes with a discussion of
the state of knowledge today and its limitations, and emerging
themes and problem areas for future research.
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