Volume 14 of the Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History series is dedicated to the archaeology of early medieval death, burial and commemoration. Incorporating studies focusing upon Anglo-Saxon England as well as research encompassing western Britain, Continental Europe and Scandinavia, this volume originated as the proceedings of a two-day conference held at the University of Exeter in February 2004. It comprises of an Introduction that outlines the key debates and new approaches in early medieval mortuary archaeology followed by eighteen innovative research papers offering new interpretations of the material culture, monuments and landscape context of early medieval mortuary practices. Papers contribute to a variety of ongoing debates including the study of ethnicity, religion, ideology and social memory from burial evidence. The volume also contains two cemetery reports of early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries from Cambridgeshire.
Author(s): Sarah Semple, Howard Williams (eds.)
Series: Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 14
Publisher: Oxford University School of Archaeology
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 360
City: Oxford
Preface vii
List of Contributors viii
Howard Williams / Introduction: Themes in the Archaeology of Early Medieval Death and Burial 1
I. NEW PERSPECTIVES IN EARLY MEDIEVAL MORTUARY PRACTICES
Heinrich Härke / Ethnicity, ‘Race’ and Migration in Mortuary Archaeology: an Attempt at a Short Answer 12
Susanne E. Hakenbeck / Situational Ethnicity and Nested Identities: New Approaches to an Old Problem 19
Rik Hoggett / Charting Conversion: Burial as a Barometer of Belief? 28
Zoë Devlin / Social Memory, Material Culture and Community Identity in Early Medieval Mortuary Practices 38
Martin Rundkvist / Early Medieval Burial Studies in Scandinavia 1994–2003 47
II. STUDYING EARLY MEDIEVAL GRAVES
Rebecca Gowland / Beyond Ethnicity: Symbols of Social Identity from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries in England 56
Howard Williams / Transforming Body and Soul: Toilet Implements in Early Anglo-Saxon Graves 66
Chris Fern / Early Anglo-Saxon Horse Burial of the Fifth to Seventh Centuries AD 92
Susan Harrington / Soft Furnished Burial: An Assessment of the Role of Textiles in Early Anglo-Saxon Inhumations, with Particular Reference to East Kent 110
Jo Buckberry / On Sacred Ground: Social Identity and Churchyard Burial in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, c. 700–1100 AD 117
Annia Kristina Cherryson / Disturbing the Dead: Urbanisation, the Church and the Post-Burial Treatment of Human Remains in Early Medieval Wessex, c. 600–1100 AD 130
III. DEATH, BURIAL AND THE EARLY MEDIEVAL LANDSCAPE
Stuart Brookes / Walking with Anglo-Saxons: Landscapes of the Dead in Early Anglo-Saxon Kent 143
Nick Stoodley / New Perspectives on Cemetery Relocation in the Seventh Century AD: the Example of Portway, Andover 154
David Petts / 'De Situ Brecheniauc and Englynion y Beddau': Writing About Burial in Early Medieval Wales 163
Stephen H. Harrison / Separated from the Foaming Maelstrom: Landscapes of Insular ‘Viking’ Burial 173
Eva Thäte / A Question of Priority: the Re-use of Houses and Barrows for Burials in Scandinavia in the Late Iron Age (AD 600–1000) 183
Dawn Hadley / The Garden Gives Up its Secrets: the Developing Relationship between Rural Settlements and Cemeteries, c. 750–1100 194
IV. EXCAVATING THE DEAD
Philippa Patrick, Charles French and Christine Osborne / Rescue Excavation of an Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Gunthorpe, Peterborough 204
Catriona Gibson / Minerva: an Early Anglo-Saxon Mixed-rite Cemetery in Alwalton, Cambridgeshire 238
