Æthelweardus redivivus

The tenth-century Chronicon Æthelweardi has usually been treated as nothing more than a Latin translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. This article reinterprets it by postulating the chronicle's originality and its author's careful consideration of its composition. Both the content and the form of the Chronicon Æthelweardi are here discussed from several points of view: the question of the coming of the Anglo-Saxons to Britain; the ideological and narrative consequences of the book division and the use of time; and Æthelweard's use of genealogy.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
Hildegard Adam, Das Zollwesen im fränkischen Reich und das spätkarolingische Wirtschaftsleben.
Antti Arjava, Women and Law in Late Antiquity.
George Broderick, Placenames of the Isle of Man, Volume Three, Sheading of Ayre (Kirk Andreas, Kirk Bride and Kirk Christ Lezayre).
Sandra Bruni (ed), Alcuino: De Orthographia.
Ursula Dronke (ed), The Poetic Edda, Volume II: Mythological Poetry.
Rosamond Faith, The English Peasantry and the Growth of Lordship.
Scott Gwara (ed), Anglo-Saxon Conversations: The Colloquies of Ælfric Bata.
John Hines (ed), The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century. An Ethnographic Perspective.
Eric John, Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England.
A. Nørgård Jørgensen and Birthe L. Clausen, Military Aspects of Scandianavian Society in a European Perspective, AD 1–1300. PNM Studies in Archaeology and History, no. 2.
Vivien Law, Grammar and Grammarians in the Early Middle Ages.
Brian Murdoch, The Germanic Hero: Politics and Pragmatism in Early Medieval Poetry.
Richard North, Heathen Gods in Old English Literature.
Cassandra Potts, Monastic Revival and Regional Identity in Early Normandy.
Przemyslaw Urbanczyk (ed), Origins of Central Europe.
Jonathan M. Wooding, Communications and Commerce along the Western Sealanes AD 400–800
K.R. Dark (ed), External Contacts and the Economy of Late Roman and Post-Roman Britain.     

Anglo-Saxon women and the law

Scholarly investigations of Anglo-Saxon social history have usually drawn the conclusion that women during that period enjoyed a favourable position in comparison with their successors in post-Conquest England. The following study aims to qualify this view, by demonstrating that the position of women was more complicated than is usually acknowledged. An examination of the Anglo-Saxon legal documents shows that the position of women varied according to circumstances such as rank, marital status, and geographical location. However, an overall improvement between the early and late period is clear. In fact, this improvement is so considerable that there is a much closer resemblance between the situation obtaining in late Anglo-Saxon England and post-Conquest England than there is between the early and late Anglo-Saxon period. Thus, to describe Anglo-Saxon E England as a time when women enjoyed an independence which they lost as a result of the changes introduced by the Norman Conquest is misleading.     

Normanising the North: The Evidence of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture

Abstract

This Study Probes the destruction of material culture to illuminate the introduction of Norman political authority into northern England. A brief overview of Norman destruction of churches provides the background to a review of the potential relationship of Anglo-Saxon monuments with memory and identity, in the context of recent discussions of monument reuse. Durham and York, the Anglo-Saxon monastic sites at Wearmouth/Jarrow, Lindisfarne and Jedburgh, and a selection of local churchyards provide case studies. It argues that some monuments seem to have been deliberately targeted, but a wider range of factors, all ultimately derived from changing political circumstances, can be identified that explain why sculpture was removed and reused. The paper serves as a platform for further debate about the significance of monuments in the Middle Ages, and as a contribution to the broader discourse within archaeology about their social meanings.     

Simon de Montfort,Earl of Leicester,and the utility of sanctity in thirteenth-century England

Almost immediately after his death, Simon de Montfort, the leader of the Barons' Revolt against Henry III, was revered as a saint. Despite the received historical opinion that his cult was local, furtive, and brief, it actually received support throughout England, from the noble and clerical ranks as well as from the peasantry, and lasted into the reign of Edward I. The manifestations of Earl Simon's cult reveal that his revolt was popular as well as noble, that even illegal cults could be profitable for their home shrines, in this case the abbey of Evesham, and that sanctifying a rebel leader was an effective way of justifying both the continuation of a revolt and sympathy for the defeated rebels, in this case the Disinherited. On the hagiographical level, Montfort's cult shows the incredibly rich diversity of expression of devotion in medieval cults, and the more practical concerns with advertisement and profit. On the political level, the cult proves once again that the king did not control all means of political discourse. The merger of political and religious authority, the importance of which has been often demonstrated in studies of the king's touch and the laudes ceremonials, affected rebel leaders as well as kings.     

Icenia: Notices of Roman Remains,and Evidences of Occupation,Discovered in Norfolk

This paper attempts to demonstrate four things: (1) There is no adequate documentary basis for Petrie's ‘Northern’ system of lengths. (2) We do not know of any system into which Anglo-Saxon lengths were organized. (3) The perch of 5.03 m is the only Anglo-Saxon unit of which the length is known. (4) There is insufficient evidence to support the view that the Drusian foot of 33.3 cm was widely used by the Germanic tribes in general or in Anglo-Saxon England in particular. Conversely the modern English foot of 30.48 cm has more to recommend it as Anglo-Saxon than has previously been recognized.     

Sanctioned Heterodoxy: Local Cults in Two Chinese Catholic Villages, 1900-Present

While ecclesiastic and state authorities in Europe largely abolished medieval cults of saints because of their “heterodoxy,” late-imperial and modern Chinese Catholic communities in Shanxi still promulgate local cults dedicated to women and men who are believed to have performed posthumous miracles or who represent heroic virtue. Although constrained beneath the scrutiny of imperial, ecclesial, and modern political ideas of “orthodoxy” and “heterodoxy,” two Shanxi Catholic villages, Dongergou and Liangquandao (Liuhecun), have managed to preserve and promote Sister Maria Assunta Pallotta and Father Wang Shiwei as contemporary versions of traditional local cults. One of the manifest characteristics of these two Chinese Catholic local cults is how they have been transformed by traditional Daoist cults and have successfully survived in a liminal space between “orthodox” and “heterodox.” Relying on archival materials from the former Taiyuan Catholic Diocese Archive, records held in Roman archives, and oral testimonies, intricate patterns of accommodation and resistance to political and church authorities can be discerned as means for these remote Catholic villages to construct identity and cultivate social cohesion.     

Ceramic Petrology and the Study of Anglo-Saxon and Later Medieval Ceramics

Abstract

A SURVEY of archaeological ceramic thin sections held by institutions and individuals in the United Kingdom was undertaken in the early 1990s by the City of Lincoln Archaeology Unit and funded by English Heritage. Over 6,000 thin sections of Anglo-Saxon or medieval date (or reports on their analysis) were located. For the Middle to Late Anglo-Saxon and the post-Conquest Periods, these studies have confirmed that pottery production was carried out in a limited number of centres and that most pottery, including handmade coarsewares, was therefore produced for trade. The distances over which pottery was carried vary from period to period but were actually as high or higher in the Middle to Late Anglo-Saxon Period as in the 13th to 14h centuries. However, for the Early Anglo-Saxon Period (and the Middle Anglo-Saxon Period outside of eastern England) the evidence of ceramic petrology is equivocal and requires more study. These 6,000–odd thin sections represent a resource which could be used for various future studies, some of which are discussed here, and as an aid to their further use a database containing information on the sampled ceramics, their location and publications of their analyses will be published online through Internet Archaeology.     

Review article: Parents and Children in the Early Middle Ages

Books reviewed in this article:
Katrien Heene, The Legacy of Paradise. Marriage, Motherhood and Women in Carolingian Edifying Literature
Marcelle Thiébaux (ed), Dhuoda, Handbook for her Warrior Son. Liber Manualis
Sally Crawford, Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England     

Hosting the king: hospitality and the royal iter in tenth-century England

Traditional studies of royal itinerancy have depended on locating the king’s progress through his kingdom(s) as precisely as possible and it should therefore not surprise that the iter regis in pre-conquest England has received relatively little attention, since Anglo-Saxon diplomas only rarely record their date and place of issue, making the establishment of the royal itinerary all but impossible. However, more recent studies, particularly by German scholars, have moved away from the earlier attention to the concrete details of the royal iter and focus more on the effects of itinerancy as a method of rulership, viewing itinerancy as a central part of royal ritual. This study argues that if we investigate itinerancy in tenth-century England from this standpoint, we can throw new light onto the subject. Contemporary sources reveal that in England as in France and Germany the iter regis was of great importance, with symbolic acts of feasting and gift-giving accompanying royal visits. The attention given to these ritualised acts in contemporary sources suggests, moreover, that Anglo-Saxon kingship possessed an important ‘charismatic’ quality, which deserves further investigation.     

Of saints,sows or smiths? Copper-brazed iron handbells in Early Medieval England

ABSTRACT

Copper-brazed iron handbells were a distinctive feature of monastic life in Early Medieval Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Handbells were used in liturgy, prayer, worship, and later as reliquaries. In England, brazed bells of the seventh to ninth centuries take on a greater range of sizes and forms and are found on a wider variety of sites. As a consequence, their roles within Christianity have been questioned, and associations with animals and itinerant smiths have been emphasised instead. Recent archaeological investigation of an Anglo-Saxon marsh-island at Little Carlton, Lincolnshire has resulted in one of the largest assemblages of copper-brazed iron bells from any site in England, comparable to similar collections from Flixborough and Brandon. Taking into consideration the inclusion of brazen bells in some ritualistic ‘closure hoards’, this paper argues that whilst Anglo-Saxon plain iron bells may have fulfilled a range of profane functions, those that were copper-brazed, regardless of their size, were important objects amongst early Christian communities in England, and the Northumbrian church in particular.     

A Donkey (Equus asinus L.) Partial Skeleton from a Mid-Late Anglo-Saxon Alluvial Layer at Deans Yard Westminster,London SW1

Abstract

A domestic donkey (Equus asinus) partial skeleton has been recovered from a mid-late Anglo-Saxon alluvial deposit situated below the present Westminster School at Deans Yard, Westminster, London. The remains have been radiocarbon dated to the 8th-9th century AD and, therefore, pre-date both the abbey of Edward the Confessor and the earlier foundation of St Dunstan. The skeleton is of particular importance as it is the only well dated specimen of its species recovered thus far in England from the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval periods.     

Short notices

From Slavery to Feudalism in South-Western Europe. By Pierre Bonnassie
Early Medieval Europe 300–1050. By Roger Collins
The Coins of Medieval Europe . By Philip Grierson
The Origins of Lancashire . By Denise Kenyon
Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest . Second Edition. By H. R. Loyn.     

Anglo-Saxon Timber Building Measurements: Recent Results

THE METHODS of analysis of Anglo-Saxon timber building plans and the use of the 5.03 m (16 ft. 6 in.) rod have been explored previously. The use of a shorter rod was identified tentatively at Thetford and now, at 4.65 m long, positively at Mucking. The use of both rods is discussed at Yeavering, Mucking, West Stow, Thirlings, Cowdery's Down, Northampton, Springfield Lyons, Wicken Bonhunt, Rounds, Bishopstone, Catholme and Cheddar. Nineteenth-century records in the Elbe-Weser region of Germany show rods, extant at that time, with an average length of 4.63 m. It is thus possible that the origin of the shorter Anglo-Saxon rod might be sought in the Germanic homeland of the Anglo-Saxons. The rods seem to have been divided into thirds and sixths, and the possible use of even smaller measures is considered. The implications of the widespread use of standard measures in Anglo-Saxon England are discussed. The awkwardness of the English medieval system of linear measurement may have been due to the amalgamation of elements of both of the two Anglo-Saxon systems.     

Book reviews

Helen Geake, The Use of Grave-Goods in Conversion-Period England, c. 600–c.850
Doris Edel (ed), Cultural Identity and Cultural Integration: Ireland and Europe in the Early Middle Ages
Della Hooke, The Landscape of Anglo-Saxon England
Heinrich Götz, Deutsch und Latein bei Notker, Ergänzungen zum Notker-Glossar von E.H. Sehrt
Mary Clayton, The Apocryphal Gospels of Mary in Anglo-Saxon England
Paul Edward Dutton (ed)(trans), Charlemagne's Courtier. The Complete Einhard
Richard Hodges and William Bowden (eds), The Sixth Century: Production, Distribution and Demand
Walter Pohl (ed), Kingdoms of the Empire. The Integration of Barbarians in Late Antiquity
Huw Pryce (ed), Literacy in Medieval Celtic Societies     

Foxes and Badgers in Anglo-Saxon Life and Landscape

Anglo-Saxon England (c. AD 410–1066) had a diversity of wild animals, yet the majority of studies to date have focused on a select group of species. These include those considered edible, such as roe and red deer (cervids), and those now extinct in England, such as wolves and beavers. Accordingly, the roles and relations of many other wild mammal species have rarely been studied and are poorly understood. This paper explores human perceptions of, and interactions with, two native species: the fox and the badger. By drawing upon archaeological, iconographic, documentary and place-name evidence from the period, the extent to which these animals occupied the minds and lives of people is explored.     

AN ANGLO-SAXON EXECUTION CEMETERY AT WALKINGTON WOLD, YORKSHIRE

Summary.   This paper presents a re-evaluation of a cemetery excavated over 30 years ago at Walkington Wold in east Yorkshire. The cemetery is characterized by careless burial on diverse alignments, and by the fact that most of the skeletons did not have associated crania. The cemetery has been variously described as being the result of an early post-Roman massacre, as providing evidence for a 'Celtic' head cult or as an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery. In order to resolve the matter, radiocarbon dates were acquired and a re-examination of the skeletal remains was undertaken. It was confirmed that the cemetery was an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery, the only known example from northern England, and the site is set into its wider context in the paper.     

Short notices

Carolingian Civilization: A Reader . Edited by Paul Edward Dutton
Readings in Medieval History, Volume I . Edited by Patrick J. Geary
English Heritage Book of Anglo-Saxon England . By Martin Welch.
The Origins of Norfolk . By Tom Williamson.     

Early medieval port customs, tolls and controls on foreign trade

The objective of this paper is to offer a fresh perspective on the nature and organization of international trade in early medieval ports from the evidence of documentary sources on tolls and customs, trading practices and controls on foreign merchants. In particular, the paper considers the evidence for continuities and borrowings from the Roman and Byzantine worlds and the extent to which they influenced trading practices in the west and especially in Anglo-Saxon England.