Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England represents an
unparalleled exploration of the place of prehistoric monuments in
the Anglo-Saxon psyche, and examines how Anglo-Saxon communities
perceived and used these monuments during the period AD 400-1100.
Sarah Semple employs archaeological, historical, art historical,
and literary sources to study the variety of ways in which the
early medieval population of England used the prehistoric legacy in
the landscape, exploring it from temporal and geographic
perspectives. Key to the arguments and ideas presented is the
premise that populations used these remains, intentionally and
knowingly, in the articulation and manipulation of their
identities: local, regional, political, and religious. They
recognized them as ancient features, as human creations from a
distant past. They used them as landmarks, battle sites, and estate
markers, giving them new Old English names. Before, and even
during, the conversion to Christianity, communities buried their
dead in and around these monuments. After the conversion, several
churches were built in and on these monuments, great assemblies and
meetings were held at them, and felons executed and buried within
their surrounds. This volume covers the early to late Anglo-Saxon
world, touching on funerary ritual, domestic and settlement
evidence, ecclesiastical sites, place-names, written sources, and
administrative and judicial geographies. Through a thematic and
chronologically-structured examination of Anglo-Saxon uses and
perceptions of the prehistoric, Semple demonstrates that
populations were not only concerned with Romanitas (or Roman-ness),
but that a similar curiosity and conscious reference to and use of
the prehistoric existed within all strata of society.
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