Human faces with pointed ears: exploring lycanthropy in Early Anglo-Saxon England

In Early Anglo-Saxon England, Style I anthropomorphic and zoomorphic motifs played a key role in shaping identity and communicating ideas in a non-literate society. While the zoomorphic designs are well discussed, the meaning of the human element of Style I remains underexplored. This paper addresses this imbalance by examining a rare and overlooked group of anthropomorphic images: human faces with small, pointed ears depicted on fifth- to sixth-century female dress fittings recovered from archaeological contexts in eastern England. This paper identifies quadrupedal creatures as a stylistic parallel within the menagerie of Style I, including equine, lupine and porcine creatures. Although it is difficult to identify the character/s depicted with ears, there are notable affinities between the anthropomorphic masculine face with pointed ears and the ancient Germanic practice of warriors donning wolf and bear pelts. The facial motif with pointed ears appears on feminine metalwork within East Anglia, the historic region of the sixth-century Wuffingas (Little Wolf) dynasty – Wuffa being Wolf and the -ingas suffix meaning ‘people/descendants of Wuffa’. This paper explores this rare design with contextual information from pictorial and historical texts of shapeshifting and considers the relationship between this motif, the object, and the wearer/user.

Foreword

Foreword to Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 22

A Seventh-Century High-Status Settlement at Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire

This article reports the results of recent fieldwork carried out at Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire. The site at Long Wittenham had previously been identified from aerial photographs and LiDAR as a possible seventh-century great hall complex – a distinctive type of high-status settlement – but the site had never been ground-truthed. Fieldwork was therefore undertaken to confirm the nature and date of the Long Wittenham cropmarks, through geophysical survey, metal-detecting and three seasons of excavation. The results have confirmed the existence of high-status seventh-century buildings at Long Wittenham, but the largest building previously identified at Long Wittenham is now interpreted as a Roman enclosure, leaving the complex of buildings without an exceptionally large hall. This complicates the interpretation of the site, suggesting that Long Wittenham may have been a secondary high-status site, potentially subordinate to the great hall complex at Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire.

Early Medieval Great Hall Complexes in England: Temporality and Site Biographies

This paper offers a critical reconsideration of the social, spatial and temporal dynamics of sixth- to eighth-century great hall complexes in England. The major interpretative issues and constraints imposed by the data are considered, and the sites are then subject to comparative analysis across long-term and short-term temporal scales. The former highlights persistence of antecedent activity and centrality, the latter the ways in which the built environment was perceived in the past, structured social action, and was a medium for the construction and consolidation of elite identity and authority. Within the broad similarity that defines the site-type there is evidence for considerable diversity and complexity of site history and afterlife.

Early Medieval Great Hall Complexes in England: Temporality and Site Biographies

This paper offers a critical reconsideration of the social, spatial and temporal dynamics of sixth- to eighth-century great hall complexes in England. The major interpretative issues and constraints imposed by the data are considered, and the sites are then subject to comparative analysis across long-term and short-term temporal scales. The former highlights persistence of antecedent activity and centrality, the latter the ways in which the built environment was perceived in the past, structured social action, and was a medium for the construction and consolidation of elite identity and authority. Within the broad similarity that defines the site-type there is evidence for considerable diversity and complexity of site history and afterlife.

Anglo-Saxon Sundials

This paper lists and discusses all known Anglo-Saxon stone sundials in the light of recent work published on Anglo- Saxon and Romanesque sculpture. Typical features of these sundials are given, including differences between the sundials and the ‘scratch dials’, the latter being more numerous and largely of post-Conquest date. The function and working of the sundials, and the systems of time-measurement used on them, are described and discussed. The second half of the paper discusses the twelve Anglo-Saxon stone sundials which contain an inscribed text, considering in particular the nature of the texts and the vocabulary employed. This vocabulary is compared with time-measurement vocabulary used in contemporary manuscripts. Finally the question is addressed as to why Anglo-Saxon sundials are always found in association with churches.

Sites of Power and Assembly in the Thames Valley in the Middle Ages

This article examines three sites of elite and royal power in the early second millennium AD in the Thames valley: Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, Westminster in the City of London, and Runnymede in Surrey. Using a backdrop of comparative material from medieval Scandinavia, these sites are examined in terms of their landscape qualities, particularly their liminal nature. On this basis, it is shown that they demonstrate attributes and features that are frequently connected to assembly sites. It is therefore argued that these sites may well, earlier in time, have been assembly locations that were consciously adopted and developed as royal ritual sites as part of the legitimising process of power.