Postmortem Animal Interference in an Indigenous Burial (Lanzarote, Canary Islands)

This article addresses the study of an indigenous burial at Mina Mountain (Lanzarote), dating from cal A.D. 1300 to 1402. Pre-European funerary contexts in Lanzarote are scarce, resulting in a particular historical situation for a population that lived on the island for at least 1,400 years, whose dead people and burial sites are virtually unknown. We analyze the available data on mortuary practices of the native population, adding a new example to the limited existing evidence. This is the first archaeological study carried out on the island that focuses on a funerary context, providing clear evidence for canine scavenging on a corpse placed in a pit and the subsequent rearrangement of the disarticulated skeletal remains in a secondary hollow. The study advances bioanthropological description and specific taphonomic data of bone modifications as evidence of the events that took place at the site, providing data to interpret this singular burial. In addition, the chronological framework, together with the references of the narrative sources describing the Franco-Norman conquest of the island in 1402, allows us to propose a potential scenario explaining this unique site. Se aborda el estudio de un enterramiento indígena en Montaña Mina (Lanzarote), datado entre el 1300-1402 d. C. Los contextos funerarios en Lanzarote son escasos, reflejando una situación histórica peculiar en la que no se conocen donde están los muertos de una población que arraigó en la isla durante 1400 años. En este trabajo se analiza la información disponible sobre las prácticas funerarias indígenas, aportando un nuevo caso al limitado repertorio de sitios mortuorios. Se trata del primer estudio arqueológico sobre un contexto funerario con claras evidencias de carroñeo. El enterramiento corresponde a una fosa en la que el cadáver fue alterado por la intervención de perros, lo que provocó una reubicación posterior de los restos humanos dentro de la misma fosa. A partir del análisis bioantropológico y tafónomico de las evidencias óseas se establece la secuencia de los hechos que allí tuvieron lugar. Asimismo, atendiendo al marco cronológico del entierro y la información recogida en las crónicas de la conquista normanda de la isla en 1402, se propone un posible escenario para le explicación de este caso único.

Dormount Hope

Until recently, deer hunting in medieval Scotland has been poorly researched archaeologically. In Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland Gilbert identified medieval parks at Stirling and Kincardine in Perthshire that William the Lion created, but it is only in recent years that excavations by Hall and Malloy have begun to explore their archaeology. The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland recorded another type of hunting feature, a deer trap at Hermitage Castle, in 1996 and then re-recorded the earthwork at Dormount Hope in 2000, originally reported as two separate monuments. Although the earthworks of parks and traps display similarities in the construction of their earthwork boundaries, the individual sites have variations in their topography that beg questions about their function. This paper establishes that the earthwork is indeed a single monument which has an open end allowing deer to be driven into the natural canyon of Dormount Hope. It goes on to discuss its dating in both archaeological and documentary terms and then its function as either a park, trap or hay (haga OE). This last possibility is raised by its apparent mention in a Melrose Abbey charter of the neighbouring estate of Raeshaw dating to the last quarter of the 12th century, made by the lords of Hownam, a family of Anglian origin. This Anglian connection leads to its interpretation as a hay – a kind of deer hunting enclosure or trap known in many parts of England prior to the Norman Conquest, for which ‘hay’ place names, such as Hawick, in the Scottish Borders provide support.

The Late Anglo-Saxon Period, 800–1100

This chapter, covering the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman Conquest period, outlines the major changes in land use which accompanied the creation of small local manors and the establishment of collaborative open-field farming. Those changes reflected the shift in relations from ones predominantly organized around social networks to ones of property ownership. Domesday Book supplies a crucial piece of evidence, in light of which fragmentary earlier evidence for the structure of the royal estate of Benson can be better understood. The strong implications of the period’s developments for inhabitants’ perceptions are examined, including through the boundary clauses accompanying royal land charters and the evidence for more structured settlements and systems of administration, including the hundred and its moot.

Brittany and the Atlantic Archipelago, 450–1200

How did Brittany get its name and its British-Celtic language in the centuries after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire? Beginning in the ninth century, scholars have proposed a succession of theories about Breton origins, influenced by the changing relationships between Brittany, its Continental neighbours, and the 'Atlantic Archipelago' during and after the Viking age and the Norman Conquest. However, due to limited records, the history of medieval Brittany remains a relatively neglected area of research. In this new volume, the authors draw on specialised research in the history of language and literature, archaeology, and the cult of saints, to tease apart the layers of myth and historical record. Brittany retained a distinctive character within the typical 'medieval' forces of kingship, lordship, and ecclesiastical hierarchy. The early history of Brittany is richly fascinating, and this new investigation offers a fresh perspective on the region and early medieval Europe in general.

Blame the Printing Press

This chapter focuses on the role of the printing press in the standardization of the English language. A few centuries after the Norman conquest, by the end of the 1300s, English was again a written language. However, there was no agreement on the correct way to write or spell to use as a guide. Some standards started to emerge after the Court of Chancery switched to English in about 1430. This loose, emerging standard came to be known as Chancery English. Then, in 1476, a merchant named William Caxton brought an amazing new invention back to England from the continent: the printing press. This happened to take place during the middle of a major shift in English pronunciation. From the 14th century to the 17th century, the vowel system of English underwent a massive reorganization called the Great Vowel Shift. By the time the Great Vowel Shift had spread through most of the country in spoken language, the writing system, aided by the printing press, had solidified into a standard that was taught, propagated, and reinforced constantly.

Art of London and South-East England, Post-Conquest to Monastery Dissolution

The area covered by this bibliography comprises London and the counties of Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and Hampshire, corresponding essentially to the medieval dioceses of London, Rochester, Canterbury, Chichester, and Winchester. Part of Hertfordshire was in the enormous diocese of Lincoln. Chronologically this bibliography covers the period from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, with the suppression of Waltham Abbey on 23 March 1540 providing a terminus ad quem. London was the chief commercial center throughout this period and with the establishment of permanent governmental institutions at Westminster in the 13th century also became the political center of England. London’s preeminence reinforced its cultural importance as a center of artistic production and patronage. Other important loci of sustained artistic activity in South-East England were Canterbury, Winchester, and St. Albans.

Women's Education and Literacy in England, 1066–1540

This essay provides a holistic review of what girls and young women learned, and the settings in which they learned, in the Middle Ages in England between the Norman Conquest (1066) and the Dissolution of the Monasteries (late 1530s). Education of girls was carried out in households, elementary schools, and nunneries, as well as through employment and apprenticeship. Girls were taught a wide range of subjects, depending on their socioeconomic status, including practical skills, reading comprehension, and social accomplishments. This essay also provides a review to date of the scholarship on the topic.

The Preacher and His Audience: On Continuity in Medieval English Homilies

Ælfric's writings, in particular his Catholic Homilies, were not forgotten by the generations that followed; they continued to be copied and read even after the Norman Conquest. It is sometimes assumed that Orm, the author of the Ormulum - a collection of poetic homilies written in the middle of the 12th century, could have relied on Ælfric's works as well. This article examines how the writings of Ælfric and Orm represent the preacher and his sources as well as how they handle the relationship between the preacher and his audience.

The Byzantine Background

Chapter 4 examines the surviving nomocanonical manuscripts from the period of Byzantine rule in early medieval southern Italy (tenth–eleventh centuries). Very few manuscripts survive from before the twelfth century, so their content must be reconstructed from later codices. Nonetheless, this chapter argues that enough evidence has been preserved to prove that Byzantine canon law was firmly established in southern Italy from the time of the empire’s ecclesiastical and administrative reorganisations of the ninth and tenth centuries. The chapter shows that, as the Byzantines reconquered territories from the Lombards and established new ecclesiastical centres in Reggio, S. Severina, and Otranto, they introduced the Nomocanon in Fourteen Titles, the Nomocanon in Fifty Titles, and the Synopsis of Canons to serve as legal reference works. It then focuses on the Carbone nomocanon (Vat. gr. 1980–1981), the only complete nomocanon to survive from the era of Byzantine rule, arguing that it was probably produced in the eleventh century for use by a Greek bishop in Lucania. The manuscript’s contents and marginalia indicate that its owner was fully aligned with the legal system of Constantinople and show no influences from neighbouring Latin jurisdictions. Finally, the chapter looks at evidence from the period of Norman conquest in the late eleventh century, revealing how the resulting tensions between Latin and Greek Christians in the region left traces of contemporary Byzantine polemic against the azyma (unleavened bread in the Eucharist) in Calabrian nomocanons of the twelfth century.