scholarly journals Protecting a Pict?

2020 ◽  
Vol 149 ◽  
pp. 249-276
Author(s):  
Katherine Forsyth
Keyword(s):  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
New Interpretation

A detailed discussion of the inscription on the silver chape (NMS FC 282) discovered in 1958 as part of a large hoard of silver from the major early medieval ecclesiastical site on St Ninian’s Isle, Shetland (NGR: HU 3685 2090). Previous interpretations and a range of parallels are explored. A new interpretation of the inscription is proposed: that it contains a Pictish male personal name, Resad. This has implications for previous arguments in favour of an Anglo-Saxon origin for the metalwork. Features of the lettering previously interpreted as errors are instead argued to indicate familiarity with the type of cursive writing used on wax-tablets, rather than bookhand. It is argued that the inscription was designed and manufactured by a single literate artisan, possibly in an ecclesiastical workshop.   Canmore ID 587

scholarly journals A Woman with a Sword? – Weapon Grave at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Finland

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Ulla Moilanen ◽  
Tuija Kirkinen ◽  
Nelli-Johanna Saari ◽  
Adam B. Rohrlach ◽  
Johannes Krause ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Soil Sample ◽  
Sample Analysis ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Chromosomal Aneuploidy ◽  
Modern Analysis ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
Adna Analysis

In 1968, a weapon grave with brooches was found at Suontaka Vesitorninmäki, Hattula, Finland. Since then, the grave has been interpreted as evidence of powerful women, even female warriors and leaders in early medieval Finland. Others have denied the possibility of a woman buried with a sword and tried to explain it as a double burial. We present the first modern analysis of the grave, including an examination of its context, a soil sample analysis for microremains, and an aDNA analysis. Based on these analyses, we suggest a new interpretation: the Suontaka grave possibly belonged to an individual with sex-chromosomal aneuploidy XXY. The overall context of the grave indicates that it was a respected person whose gender identity may well have been non-binary.

Transformations of Identity and Society in Anglo-Saxon Essex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Mirrington
Keyword(s):  
North Sea ◽  
North Atlantic ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Cultural Affiliation ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
North Western

Transformations of Identity and Society in Anglo-Saxon Essex: A Case Study of an Early Medieval North Atlantic Community presents the results of a comprehensive archaeological study of early medieval Essex (c.AD 400-1066). This region provides an important case study for examining coastal societies of north-western Europe. Drawing on a wealth of new data, the author demonstrates the profound influence of maritime contacts on changing expressions of cultural affiliation. It is argued that this Continental orientation reflects Essex’s longterm engagement with the emergent, dynamic North Sea network. The wide chronological focus and inclusive dataset enables long-term socio-economic continuity and transformation to be revealed. These include major new insights into the construction of group identity in Essex between the 5th and 11th centuries and the identification of several previously unknown sites of exchange. The presentation also includes the first full archaeological study of Essex under ‘Viking’ rule.

Beowulf and the Bureaucrats - Power and Politics in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland. Edited by Stephen T. Driscoll and Margaret R. Nieke. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1988; distributed in the U.S.A. by Columbia University Press, New York. Pp. iii + 218. $45.00 (cloth); $17.50 (paper). - The Anglo-Saxon Achievement: Archaeology and the Beginnings of English Society. By Richard Hodges. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co., Ltd., 1989. Pp. xi + 212. £24.00. - Migration and Mythmaking in Anglo-Saxon England. By Nicholas Howe. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989. Pp. xiii + 198. $25.00. - The Royal Saints of Anglo-Saxon England. By Susan J. Ridyard. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. xi + 340. $54.50. - Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England. By Richard P. Abels. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988. Pp. xii + 313. $39.95. - Predatory Kinship and the Creation of Norman Power, 840–1066. By Eleanor Searle. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988. Pp. xi + 356. $38.00.

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Robin Chapman Stacey
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
New Haven ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Yale University ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Cambridge University ◽  
English Society

Ethnic Identity and the Archaeology of the aduentus Saxonum

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Harland
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
North Sea ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Migration Patterns ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
Alternative Understanding

For centuries, archaeologists have excavated the soils of Britain to uncover finds from the early medieval past. These finds have been used to reconstruct the alleged communities, migration patterns, and expressions of identity of coherent groups who can be regarded as ethnic 'Anglo-Saxons'. Even in the modern day, when social constructionism has been largely accepted by scholars, this paradigm still persists. <br><br>This book challenges the ethnic paradigm. As the first historiographical study of approaches to ethnic identity in modern 'Anglo-Saxon' archaeology, it reveals these approaches to be incompatible with current scholarly understandings of ethnicity. Drawing upon post-structuralist approaches to self and community, it highlights the empirical difficulties the archaeology of ethnicity in early medieval Britain faces, and proposes steps toward an alternative understanding of the role played by the communities of lowland Britain - both migrants from across the North Sea and those already present - in transforming the Roman world.

Water in the Landscape: Charters, Laws and Place Names

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Della Hooke
Keyword(s):  
Local Identity ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Rivers And Streams ◽  
Territorial Boundaries

As one of the essentials of life, water was never far away from early medieval consciousness. Access to sources of water might influence the demarcation of territorial boundaries, especially of the small estates that were emerging in this period, and the location of settlement. The documentary records that survive provide insights as to how the Anglo-Saxons and sometimes, too, their predecessors, viewed their surroundings. Many place-names contain references to water and might help to provide a picture of the landscape and how it was used. In this period, fishing weirs and mills were increasing in number and find mention in both names and the documents; some rivers were also valuable lines of water communication offering routes for the transfer of both people and goods. On a smaller scale, the names given to local watercourses might reflect the nature of the rivers and streams themselves or hint at the nature of the countryside around and its local wildlife. They might also express a sense of local identity but were often coined by travellers and administrators. Some of these aspects of water and the environment of Anglo-Saxon England will be explored here.

‘Folk’ Cemeteries, Assembly and Territorial Geography in Early Anglo-Saxon England

2019 ◽  
pp. 64-90
Author(s):  
Stuart Brookes
Keyword(s):  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Southern England ◽  
Early Medieval Period

This chapter examines the evidence for open-air assembly places existing at cemeteries of the 5th and 6th centuries in eastern and southern England. Contrasts are drawn between the types of cemetery (i.e. primarily inhumation or cremation), and types of legal assembly taking place at these sites. A small number of associated sites are identified and discussed, but it is argued that in general ‘folk’ cemeteries were not reused by later Anglo-Saxon communities as places of legal assembly. Examination of the available evidence identifies some of the features of palimpsest landscapes and attempts to provide an explanation for their continued significance through the early medieval period. Particular emphasis is given in this discussion to the role of elite power, and its appropriation of the symbolic landscape.

‘He’ll latin-runes tellan in his horror-coat standing’

2021 ◽  
pp. 170-208
Author(s):  
Francesca Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
East Coast ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Contested Space

Chapter 4 focuses on the area across the east coast of Britain first thought to have been settled by post-Roman migrants, that of the East Anglian and Lincolnshire fenland, and the exploration of this contested space in ‘Angle-Land’. In the part of ‘Angle-Land’ focused on the fen Jones engages in a poetic search for the lost Britons of the early medieval fen by reading the eighth-century Anglo-Latin Vita Sancti Guthlaci Auctore Felice alongside recent archaeological finds from Caistor-by-Norwich. This chapter proposes that this search ultimately questions the extent of the foreignness of the Welsh in this supposedly ‘Anglo-Saxon’ space, allowing Jones to reimagine Guthlac as an Anglo-Welsh saint and to create a new macaronic language for twentieth-century Britain.

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