Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Centuries
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 December 2010
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 December 2010
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0053
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 December 2010
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 December 2010
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0053
Introduction
The extent and effects of population movements dominate the study of the 5th and 6th centuries, and the Viking raids and settlement renew the theme of migration for the 9th to 11th. The ways the end of Roman administration led to social and economic change, the degree to which the empire’s cultural impact continued, how religious practices varied, and the nature of exchange mechanisms are dominant issues (The European Perspective). As in much of Europe, the early part of the period is protohistoric, with little or no direct documentary evidence. Its archaeology is the study of bodies (Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries), buildings (Rural Settlement, Agriculture, and Food), and artifacts (Artifacts); of farming systems, settlements, and settlement patterns (Rural Settlement, Agriculture, and Food); of social distinctions; of long-distance and regional networks and the reemergence of towns and coinage (Towns, Trade, and Transport); and of burial customs and other expressions of belief (Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries; Other Manifestations of Religions and Identities). It focuses now on how people achieved their sense of cultural identity through belonging to family, tribe, region, kingdom, and nation-state and in their gender, place in a hierarchy, dependency upon others for service or protection, and control of exploitation of resources.
General Overviews
A few publishing houses produce books on archaeology aimed at a general audience, as the subject continues to have public interest—as the queues outside Birmingham Museum to see the newly discovered 7th-century Staffordshire Hoard in October 2009 testified. Some of the most popular books are spin-offs from television programs, as archaeology can be given wide appeal. The Oxford University Press series Medieval History and Archaeology 2003– is an outlet for more academic syntheses. Excavation reports are the staple of archaeological research, and many professional fieldwork units such as Wessex Archaeology produce their own monographs. An important monograph series published by the Society for Medieval Archaeology includes excavation reports, conference proceedings, and syntheses; various other societies have series that are not constrained in their period interests but occasionally include work on medieval archaeology; and British Archaeological Reports has increasingly become the outlet for theses. The Society for Medieval Archaeology website has links into a number of more specialized ones. Reenactment is popular, and groups with websites that can be useful sources of information include Regia Anglorum.
British Archaeological Reports.
Founded by three enthusiasts who had joined together to carry out excavation at a Roman villa site in Oxfordshire and who realized that there were no reasonably priced outlets for much valuable academic research. There are now two series, British (in blue covers) and international (red). Printing standards have improved since the early years.
Medieval History and Archaeology. 2003–. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Publication series from the Oxford University Press, edited by John Blair and Helena Hamerow in the early 21st century. The series brings together archaeologists and historians; early medieval titles include those by Andrew Reynolds and Helena Hamerow.
Reenactment has become a popular hobby, and various groups hold meetings and give displays. Fighting, cooking, jewelry making, and weaving are favorite activities. The website of this group is a useful source of practical ideas and advice.
Society for Medieval Archaeology.
As well as an annual journal, this society produces an occasional monograph series, with thirty volumes issued in the early 21st century. Content is not confined to the early Middle Ages, but several are either on or include the Anglo-Saxon period, notably Reflections: 50 Years of Medieval Archaeology, 1957–2007, edited by Roberta Gilchrist and Andrew Reynolds (Leeds, UK: Maney, 2009), from which several papers are cited in this bibliography. Overall, it gives a good idea of how the discipline has developed in Britain and overseas since the society was founded in the mid-20th century. The society’s website offers access to its newsletter, details of forthcoming conferences, and the like.
Worldwide interest was sparked when it was announced in September 2009 that a metal-detector user had discovered a collection of gold, silver, and gilt copper-alloy objects, some set with red garnets, others embossed with intricate designs reminiscent of the Sutton Hoo helmet and the Book of Durrow, both dating from the 7th century. The hoard is extraordinary for its quantity but also because every identifiable object is from a weapon except for two crosses and a Christian inscription. The website, which has many excellent photographs, is maintained by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, based at the British Museum.
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- Aelred of Rievaulx
- Alcuin of York
- Alexander the Great
- Alfonso X
- Alfred the Great
- Alighieri, Dante
- Ancrene Wisse
- Angevin Dynasty
- Anglo-Norman Realm
- Anglo-Saxon Art
- Anglo-Saxon Law
- Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Illumination
- Anglo-Saxon Metalwork
- Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
- Apocalypticism, Millennialism, and Messianism
- Archaeology of Southampton
- Armenian Art
- Art and Pilgrimage
- Art in Italy
- Art in the Visigothic Period
- Art of East Anglia
- Art of London and South-East England, Post-Conquest to Mon...
- Arthurian Romance
- Attila And The Huns
- Auchinleck Manuscript, The
- Audelay, John
- Augustodunensis, Honorius
- Bartholomaeus Anglicus
- Benedictines After 1100
- Benoît de Sainte Maure [113]
- Beowulf
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Bernardus Silvestris
- Biblical Apocrypha
- Birgitta of Sweden and the Birgittine Order
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Boethius
- Bokenham, Osbern
- Book of Durrow
- Book of Kells
- Bozon, Nicholas
- Byzantine Art
- Byzantine Empire, Women in the
- Byzantine Manuscript Illumination
- Byzantine Monasticism
- Byzantine Science
- Calendars and Time (Christian)
- Cambridge Songs
- Canon Law
- Capgrave, John
- Carolingian Architecture
- Carolingian Era
- Carolingian Manuscript Illumination
- Carolingian Metalwork
- Carthusians and Eremitic Orders
- Cecco d’Ascoli (Francesco Stabili)
- Charlemagne
- Charles d’Orléans
- Charters of the British Isles
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Childhood
- Christian Mysticism
- Christianity and the Church in Post-Conquest England
- Christianity and the Church in Pre-Conquest England
- Christina of Markyate
- Chronicles (East Norse, Rhymed Chronicles)
- Chronicles of England and the British Isles
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The
- Cistercian Architecture
- Cistercians, The
- Clanvowe, John
- Classics in the Middle Ages
- Cloud of Unknowing and Related Texts, The
- Coins
- Constantinople and Byzantine Cities
- Contemporary Sagas (Bishops’ sagas and Sturlunga saga)
- Coptic Art
- Corpus Christi
- Councils and Synods of the Medieval Church
- Crusades, The
- Crusading Warfare
- Cynewulf
- da Barberino, Francesco
- da Lentini, Giacomo
- da Tempo, Antonio and da Sommacampagna, Gidino
- da Todi, Iacopone
- Dance
- Dance of Death
- d’Arezzo, Ristoro
- de la Sale, Antoine
- de’ Rossi, Nicolò
- de Santa Maria, Cantigas
- Death and Dying in England
- Decorative Arts
- delle Vigne, Pier
- Drama in Britain
- Dress
- Dutch Theater and Drama
- Early Italian Humanists
- Economic History
- Eddic Poetry
- El Cid
- England, Pre-Conquest
- England, Towns and Cities Medieval
- English Prosody
- Exeter Book, The
- Falconry
- Family Letters in 15th Century England
- Family Life in the Middle Ages
- Feast of Fools
- Female Monasticism to 1100
- Feudalism
- Findern Manuscript (CUL Ff.i.6), The
- Florence
- Folk Custom and Entertainment
- Food, Drink, and Diet
- Fornaldarsögur
- France
- French Drama
- French Monarchy, The
- French of England, The
- Friars
- Froissart, Jean
- Games and Recreations
- Gawain Poet, The
- German Drama
- Gerson, Jean
- Glass, Stained
- Gothic Art
- Gower, John
- Gregory VII
- Guilds
- Hagiography in the Byzantine Empire
- Handbooks for Confessors
- Hardyng, John
- Harley 2253 Manuscript, The
- Hiberno-Latin Literature
- High Crosses
- Hilton, Walter
- Historical Literature (Íslendingabók, Landnámabók)
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Hood, Robin
- Hospitals in the Middle Ages
- Hundred Years War
- Hungary
- Hungary, Latin Literacy in Medieval
- Hungary, Libraries in Medieval
- Hymns
- Icons
- Illuminated Manuscripts
- Illustrated Beatus Manuscripts
- Insular Art
- Insular Manuscript Illumination
- Islamic Architecture (622–1500)
- Italian Cantari
- Italian Chronicles
- Italian Drama
- Italian Mural Decoration
- Italian Novella, The
- Italian Religious Writers of the Trecento
- Italian Rhetoricians
- Jewish Manuscript Illumination
- Jews and Judaism in Medieval Europe
- Julian of Norwich
- Junius Manuscript, The
- King Arthur
- Kings and Monarchy, 1066-1485, English
- Kings’ Sagas
- Knapwell, Richard
- Kraków
- Lancelot-Grail Cycle
- Late Medieval Preaching
- Latin and Vernacular Song in Medieval Italy
- Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose, Medieval
- Latino, Brunetto
- Learned and Scientific Literature
- Ælfric
- Libraries in England and Wales
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- Liturgical Drama
- Liturgical Processions
- Liturgy
- Lollards and John Wyclif, The
- Lombards in Italy
- London, Medieval
- Love, Nicholas
- Low Countries
- Lydgate, John
- Machaut, Guillaume de
- Magic in the Medieval Theater
- Maidstone, Richard
- Malmesbury, Aldhelm of
- Malory, Sir Thomas
- Manuscript Illumination, Ottonian
- Marie de France
- Markets and Fairs
- Masculinity and Male Sexuality in the Middle Ages
- Medicine
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Centuri...
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Twelfth to Fifteenth Cent...
- Medieval Bologna
- Medieval Chant for the Mass Ordinary
- Medieval English Universities
- Medieval Ivories
- Medieval Latin Commentaries on Classical Myth
- Medieval Music Theory
- Medieval Naples
- Medieval Optics
- Melusine
- Mendicant Orders and Late Medieval Art Patronage in Italy
- Middle English Language
- Middle English Lyric
- Mirk, John
- Mosaics in Italy
- Mozarabic Art
- Music and Liturgy for the Cult of Saints
- Music in Medieval Towns and Cities
- Music of the Troubadours and Trouvères
- Musical Instruments
- Necromancy, Theurgy, and Intermediary Beings
- Nibelungenlied, The
- Nicholas of Cusa
- Nordic Laws
- Norman (and Anglo-Norman) Manuscript Ilumination
- N-Town Plays
- Nuns and Abbesses
- Old English Hexateuch, The Illustrated
- Old English Language
- Old English Literature and Critical Theory
- Old English Religious Poetry
- Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas
- Ottonian Art
- Ovid in the Middle Ages
- Ovide moralisé, The
- Owl and the Nightingale, The
- Papacy, The Medieval
- Paris
- Peasants
- Persianate Dynastic Period/Later Caliphate (c. 800–1000)
- Peter Abelard
- Petrarch
- Philosophy in the Eastern Roman Empire
- Pictish Art
- Pizan, Christine de
- Plowman, Piers
- Poland
- Poland, Ethnic and Religious Groups in Medieval
- Pope Innocent III
- Post-Conquest England
- Pre-Carolingian Western European Kingdoms
- Prick of Conscience, The
- Pucci, Antonio
- Pythagoreanism in the Middle Ages
- Queens
- Rate Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61)
- Regions of Medieval France
- Regular Canons
- Religious Instruction (Homilies, Sermons, etc.)
- Religious Lyrics
- Rímur
- Robert Mannyng of Brunne
- Rolle, Richard
- Roman Law
- Romances (East and West Norse)
- Romanesque Art
- Rus in Medieval Europe
- Ruthwell Cross
- Sagas and Tales of Icelanders
- Saint Plays and Miracles
- Saint-Denis
- Saints’ Lives
- Scandinavian Migration-Period Gold Bracteates
- Schools in Medieval Britain
- Scogan, Henry
- Seals
- Sermons
- Sex and Sexuality
- Ships and Seafaring
- Shirley, John
- Skaldic Poetry
- Slavery in Medieval Europe
- Snorra Edda
- Song of Roland, The
- Songs, Medieval
- Spain
- St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
- St. Peter's in the Vatican (Rome)
- Syria and Palestine in the Byzantine Empire
- Textiles
- The Middle Ages, The Trojan War in
- The Notre Dame School and the Music of the Magnus liber or...
- The Use of Sarum and Other Liturgical Uses in Later Mediev...
- Theater and Performance, Iberian
- Thirteenth-Century Motets in France
- Thomas Aquinas
- Thomism
- Thornton, Robert
- Tomb Sculpture
- Travel and Travelers
- Trevisa, John
- Tropes
- Troubadours and Trouvères
- Troyes, Chrétien de
- Umayyad History
- Usk, Adam
- Usk, Thomas
- Venerable Bede, The
- Vercelli Book, The
- Vernon Manuscript, The
- Vikings
- Von Eschenbach, Wolfram
- Wace
- Wall Painting in Europe
- Wearmouth-Jarrow
- Welsh Literature
- William of Ockham
- Witchcraft
- Women's Life Cycles
- Wulfstan
- York Corpus Christi Plays
- York, Medieval