The elaborately carved Hilton of Cadboll stone, the house-shaped Monymusk Reliquary and the sumptuously decorated Hunterston brooch (all on view in the National Museum of Scotland) are evidence of the sophistication of Scottish craftsmen in the time AD 300-900. A pioneering partnership between National Museums Scotland and The Glenmorangie Company has supported a major programme of research into the archaeology of Scotland during the Early Medieval period. This is the paperback edition of the book first published in 2012.

'Bridgwater: Personality, Place and the Built Environment' traces the history and development of the town of Bridgwater as a physical entity from its origins to 1700. This includes not only the physical layout of the town as a whole, but also the plan and structure of its individual plots and buildings. These have been reconstructed through the hundreds of leases from the medieval period and sixteenth and seventeenth centuries preserved in the town's archives. Although the area around Bridgwater was settled in prehistory and Roman times, Bridgwater itself first appeared in the early eleventh century. In contrast to previous histories of the town, the book shows that rather than being the village depicted in the Domesday survey, Bridgwater was founded as a bridgehead burh by its Anglo-Saxon lord, Maerleswein. It was later promoted to Anglo-Norman borough c. 1200 by the Devon magnate, William de Brewer, who added the castle and parks as part of a planned aristocratic landscape. The book places the settlement and development of the town within the context of the wider changes in the landscape of Somerset, such as the colonisation and drainage of the Levels, the expansion of road and river communications and the urbanisation of Europe from the tenth century onwards. It also examines the effect of the late medieval urban crisis and the Reformation on the physical structure of the town.

This research investigates the development of early medieval identities in the South West, through continuity and change in the insular material culture, the settlements, and ultimately in social identity. These cycles of change, brought about by influences within and outside the region, are evidenced through regional (macro-scale) and micro-regional (site-specific) assessments of the evidence. An overriding sense of long-term continuity is perceived in the ability of these insular identities to retain former traditions and develop their material culture, despite the apparent political domination by far-reaching social groups in the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods. These traditions consist of all social practices and portable material culture, including the ceramics which make up a large proportion of these finds, and where an examination of developments in form and fabric have created a chronological framework that is more sympathetic to the archaeology of the region than the accepted broad periods of Early, Middle and Late Saxon, and which perhaps reflects a more accurate picture of social changes through time. The retention of prehistoric and Late Roman practices, in particular the former, is seen throughout all aspects of the archaeological evidence and is examined here through the themes of settlement hierarchies, exchange mechanisms and identity, and their spatial differentiation, with geographical determinism a deciding factor in the form and nature of communities. The project explores the development of Late Roman societies in an assessment of the impact of geographical determinism on identity, and the potential development of Atlantic and maritime identities within society as a whole.

The papers published here are developed from presentations made at a Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies Conference entitled 'The Anglo-Saxons in their World' held in 2010. An eclectic collection of studies drawing on Latin, Old English and Old Norse texts, artefacts and archaeology, papers are groups into five themed sections: 'Chosen people in their place'; 'Life in Anglo-Saxon England'; 'Beyond the shore'; 'The Mediterranean and beyond'; and 'The North, The Universe', though other connections may be found. Two papers focus largely on early archaeology (Battaglia, Trzaska-Nartowski and Riddler) and King's study is also of an archaeological find. A majority of papers relate to the intellectual climate of the early Christian period in England (Larpi, Higham, Grocock, King, Cesario, Barker and to some extent Sebo). Several take evidence from later Anglo-Saxon manuscripts (Scragg, Hill, Frederick, Sebo). Fafinski attempts a chronological sweep beginning in the Roman period, and Banham from the seventh century to the eleventh.

This book describes, collates and analyses the archaeological, zooarchaeological and palaeobotanical evidence for agriculture, livestock and cereal production in early medieval Ireland, AD 400-1100, particularly as revealed through archaeological excavations in Ireland since 1930. It is based on the research of the Heritage Council-funded Early Medieval Archaeology Project (EMAP), a collaborative research project between University College Dublin and Queens University Belfast, supported by the Irish government Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Providing a range of insights into farmsteads and field enclosures, livestock management (particularly of cattle) and crop cultivation, along with a series of datasets presented in tables and gazetteer descriptions, it is arguably amongst the most detailed, focused and comprehensive analyses of early agricultural practice in its social and economic contexts in Europe, and the wider world.

This volume presents nine articles (of which five are based on papers presented in the session Utilization of Brick in the Medieval Period Production, Construction, Destruction held at the EAA meeting in Helsinki in 2012) with topics ranging from applying natural scientific research methods such as OSL, AM and hXRF analyses, to the study of early brickmaking processes, to recent excavation discoveries and archaeological investigations of brick use in northern parts of continental Europe including the British Isles, Finland and Sweden."

This study explores the status of children in the late medieval period (AD 1066-1539) based on two concepts of the child; biological and cultural. The biological evidence is explored by an osteoarchaeological analysis of sub-adult skeletal remains concentrating on markers related to status, such as, age, rates of growth, the presence of stress indicators, and rates of dental wear. The cultural aspect involves an analysis of the funerary context, such as, location of burial, position of the body, and grave inclusions, as well as reference to historical sources depicting the role of children.

This volume describes the results of the first ten years of the joint Anglo-Georgian excavations at Nokalakevi, West Georgia. The site, known to the Byzantines as Archaeopolis, was a major fortress in the fourth to sixth centuries A.D. often described as the capital of Lazika-Egrisi. Known to medieval Georgian chroniclers as Tsikhegoji, the site is also thought to be the capital of Colchis at the time of the first unification of Georgia in Hellenistic times. Extensively excavated since 1973, and by AGEN since 2001, this is the first significant publication of results to be produced in English.

This monograph provides a comprehensive synthesis and discussion of the archaeology of early medieval settlement in Ireland. Drawing on both published and unpublished material, it sets out an interpretive, analytical text and a gazetteer of some 241 key early medieval settlements revealed through archaeological excavations. Analysis focuses on four major areas: early medieval houses and other buildings; settlement enclosures; agriculture as part of the wider settlement landscape; and crafts and industrial activities on early medieval settlements.

This study uses place-names to suggest the major routes in use in early medieval England. Many Roman roads existing by the fifth century are known. Some fourteenth century routes in existence can be deduced from the Gough map of c.1360, and seventeenth century routes from Ogilby's road atlas of 1675. Between the fifth and fourteenth centuries there is little information about routes except in scattered charter boundary references. Here it is suggested that this gap can be partially filled using place-name evidence. Certain names such as Stratton, Drayton and Compton occur consistently by Roman roads and a few other old routes but rarely elsewhere. A string of such names along a route suggests that it was in use. Hythe and Eaton indicate waterways in use. The needs of travellers, possible destinations and how such a naming system may have arisen is considered.

This work follows the study of the ecclesiastical geology of almost all Anglo-Saxon religious sites throughout England. There, it proved possible to both understand and distinguish clearly obvious patterns in the use of stonework, to determine the use and value of specific rock types, and to illustrate diagnostic features which could be used to identify building of that period. Subsequent studies of ecclesiastical sites, in Scotland and the Scottish Islands, the Isle of Man and Ireland expanded the value of the English studies by revealing closely analogous examples of the same indicative features. Beyond the domain of the Anglo-Saxons but of the same age, they were shown to follow a fashion; to this fashion the name 'Patterned' was applied.

This illustrated book introduces serious students of Anglo-Saxon culture to selected aspects of the realities of Anglo-Saxon life through reference to artefacts and textual sources. Everyday practices and processes are investigated, such as the exploitation of animals for clothing, meat, cheese and parchment; ships for travel, trade and transport; manufacturing processes of metalwork; textiles for dress and furnishing and the practicalities of living with illness or disability. Articles collected in this volume illuminate how an understanding of the material culture of the daily Anglo-Saxon world can inform reading and scholarship in Anglo-Saxon studies. Scholarly and practical material presented inform one another, making the book accessible to any reader seriously interested in England in the early Middle Ages.

This study takes as its subject matter the use of social space in early medieval Irish houses (c. AD 600-1200), with the evidence from the province of Ulster interrogated in more detail. During this period there is a shift from curvilinear to rectilinear house forms. Excavation reports, published and unpublished, have been widely consulted and are the main focus for this research. The Old Irish legal tract Crith Gablach, composed during the earlier part of the early medieval period, is analysed in particular detail with reference to its information about houses and social status. The earlier chapters include a review of earlier research in Ireland and elsewhere including a range of archaeological and anthropological house-related research.

To date there has been little systematic study of the appropriation of, or attitudes to, prehistoric monuments in settlements of the period. The objectives of the research presented here are twofold. Firstly, it assesses how widespread the reuse of prehistoric monuments was in early to middle Anglo-Saxon settlements. In so doing, it examines the types of settlements in which the activity occurred and the types of prehistoric features that were reused. This is achieved through a review of the Anglo-Saxon settlement evidence in a regional study area. The settlements discussed in this study date to the period c.AD 450-850, with a regional focus based on central England, defined here to the north by the Humber and to the south by the Thames. In addition to well-known and published sites, this review makes use of data that is less frequently discussed in archaeological discourse, such as partially excavated or unpublished settlements that have not previously attracted a great deal of attention from scholars. The second aim is to assess how, and particularly why, monuments were appropriated in settlements. In order to answer these questions an in-depth, site-by-site approach is taken, in which the layout and use of space in a number of case studies are analysed. These case studies allow greater understanding of the ways in which older monuments could be referenced in settlements, how reuse changed over time, and why monuments may have been significant. Four Gazetteers provide locational and reference data to the selected sites.

One of the most tenacious and long-running controversies regarding the origin and development of the late Anglo-Saxon town has been the nature and function of 'heterogeneous tenure', one of the defining characteristics of the Domesday borough. This refers to the basic division of the larger boroughs as described in Domesday Book into the customary burgesses or tenements which owed dues and obligations to the king alone, and the non-customary burgesses or tenements which were appurtenant to the various manors of tenants-in-chief of the shire (and sometimes neighbouring shires) to whom they paid rent and owed other dues and services. This present study outlines a preliminary model for the development of these rural-urban connections, based primarily on a reassessment of the evidence in Domesday Book and in earlier charters, where available, and the spatial relationships of the manors enumerated in it to their central boroughs, their neighbours, and to shire and other early boundaries, as well as to other features of the physical and historic landscape. This model is developed and tested by the analysis of evidence from several adjoining areas in central England - 1) Wiltshire (chapters 2 and 3); 2) Hampshire (chapter 4); 3) Warwickshire and south Staffordshire (chapter 5); 4) Gloucestershire (including the former Winchcombeshire) (chapter 6); 5) Worcestershire (chapter 7); and 6) Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire (chapters 10-12).

Medieval castles were, alongside the great cathedrals, the most recognisable buildings of the medieval world. Closely associated with concepts of justice, lordship and authority as well as military might, castles came to encapsulate the period's very essence. Looking at above and below-ground evidence and examining a wide variety of sites - from towering donjons to earth and timber castles - in different parts of western Europe, this book explores the relationship between early castle building and the emergence of a new aristocracy and investigates the impact of authority on the organisation of the landscape.

This re-publication of Cheddar has been prompted by the unavailability of the original, published over a quarter of a century ago. Unlike much historical scholarship, the archaeological report on a site is primary data and therefore needs itself to be read before turning to re-interpretations. It is also appropriate in the context of the recent re-evaluation of the British and Saxon palace of Yeavering, after a similar interval since publication. In the intervening years since publication, Cheddar has frequently been cited and reviewed, not least as the most extensively-excavated of the royal complexes of the pre-Conquest period.

The Scandinavian Late Iron Age, popularly known as the Viking Age, is often represented as deeply and inherently male, with male aggressiveness as the ideal presented to the public, leaving little room for alternative gender roles in the popular imagination. This study presents a more complex picture, analysing gender as a factor in mortuary practices and the siting of burials in the Vestfold of Norway, focusing in particular on the sites of Kaupang and Oseberg.

ilitary monuments in Lincolnshire (eastern England) have hitherto received little attention, with only four being the subject of published studies. No attempt has previously been made to produce a corpus of surviving examples. There are 62 military effigies in Lincolnshire, including some of national importance as well as many others of great interest. In the former category are the effigies at Careby, Halton-Holegate, Holbeach, Kirkstead Abbey, Stoke Rochford and Surfleet. The main object of the critical catalogue in this volume is to provide an accurate analytical description of these figures as they appear today; a project that has been long overdue, for what is some of England's finest extant medieval monumental sculpture. The catalogue is arranged chronologically, with the monuments being divided into four main groups. Every effigy is illustrated and the accompanying catalogue entry gives a description of the effigy and the armour shown and an account as to the person thought to be commemorated by the figure.

This illustrated book introduces serious students of Anglo-Saxon culture to selected aspects of the realities of Anglo-Saxon life through reference to artefacts and textual sources. Everyday practices and processes are investigated, such as the exploitation of animals for clothing, meat, cheese and parchment; ships for travel, trade and transport; manufacturing processes of metalwork; textiles for dress and furnishing and the practicalities of living with illness or disability. Articles collected in this volume illuminate how an understanding of the material culture of the daily Anglo-Saxon world can inform reading and scholarship in Anglo-Saxon studies. Scholarly and practical material presented inform one another, making the book accessible to any reader seriously interested in England in the early Middle Ages.

This study focuses on the diversity with which early medieval society formed not only among macro European zones but also within individual areas, and thus on the need to look beyond the models elaborated during a phase in which archaeological sources were still fragmentary and inadequate. Through a combination of historical and documented-based investigation and the most recent extensive archaeological data, the author makes a comparative analysis of the different results of the movements of Germanic groups, especially in the particularly representative area of northern Italy and the Alpine system, during various periods: in the 5th century as auxiliary troops under the control of the same Roman Empire (Burgundians), then as the new military elites and finally as the new ruling class (Ostrogoths and Langobards), revealing how the cultural evolution of the new sites appears to be strictly correlated to different situations and often common to the new Germanic element and to the local Romanised components. Interesting and stimulating concepts that underscore the formation of a shared culture are presented in this contribution along with a refreshing new perspective of certain aspects, such as the evolution of clothing and funerary rituals, already considered expressions of simple ethnic preservation.

This volume contains transcriptions (but not translations) of the principal documents which relate to the Domesday inquest in Kent, accompanied by detailed commentaries. The three surviving texts are the Archbishop's response to the inquest, extracts preserved by the monks of St Augustine's Abbey, and the final report as it appeared in Domesday. The commentary aims to identify places as they appear, both named and unnamed. Other documents included are an early epitome of Kent Domesday, other documents in monastic cartularies related to landholding, early lists of parish churches in Kent, and documents setting out patterns of landholding in the thirteenth century.

Papers in Honour of Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle. Contents: Preface (Martin Henig and Nigel Ramsay); Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle: An Appreciation (Martin Henig, Thomas Beaumont James, Anthony King and Nigel Ramsay); List of Publications of Martin Biddle and of Birthe Kjolbye-Biddle (Compiled by Anthony King); Commendation by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark; 1) A Roman Silver Jug with Biblical Scenes from the Treasure found at Traprain Law (Kenneth Painter); 2) Hand-washing and Foot-washing, Sacred and Secular, in Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval Period (Anthea Harris and Martin Henig); 3) Christian Origins at Gloucester: A Topographical Inquiry (Carolyn Heighway); 4) New Evidence for the Transition from the Late Roman to the Saxon Period at St Martin-in-the-Fields, London (Alison Telfer); 5) Ethnic Identity and the Origins, Purpose and Occurrence of Pattern-Welded Swords in Sixth-Century Kent: The Case of the Saltwood Cemetery (Brian Gilmour);"

This volume publishes updated versions of papers originally given at a conference in Corfu in 1998. It contains 24 contributions on the archaeology of post-Roman Greece, with a particular focus on landscape. Many papers provide updates on ongoing regional survey projects or excavations at specific sites, notably at Mytiline, while others are more theoretical in nature. Further sections explore vernacular architecture, ceramics, heritage, and ethnoarchaeological approaches.