A Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales,I & II / Studies on the Book of Deer

The web portal of the Folklore Archive of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain, gives access to three databases: ArxiuFolk, the Database of the Folklore Archive; RondCat, the Catalan Folktale Search Engine; and BiblioFolk, the Bio-bibliographic Repository of Catalan Popular Literature. This article describes how these databases work and the possibilities they offer for researchers.     

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.     

Encounters with Iron: An Archaeometallurgical Reassessment of Early Anglo-Saxon Spearheads and Knives

Studies of early medieval weapon burials make surprisingly little mention of the material properties of the deposited weapons. How did these artefacts’ metallurgical properties, and people’s experiences making and shaping the materials from which they were made, relate to the social and ‘magical’ potential these weapons were ascribed? This article reassesses metallurgical data from fifty-two early Anglo-Saxon spearheads discovered in cemetery contexts, and 118 knives from cemeteries and settlements, and reinterprets their technological properties as a glimpse into the social experiences of their makers and users. The choices smiths made when forging these blades are visible in their surviving metallurgy, and reveal their makers’ desired outcomes — and their mixed results. The difficulties smiths negotiated while forging iron shaped the social biographies that blades accumulated after leaving the workshop. By studying the materials from which these artefacts were made, and the practices of the makers who struggled to shape and control them, we may better appreciate the social agency and value ascribed to material objects in the early medieval period.     

Anglo-Saxon Economy and Ecology by a Downland Stream: A Waterlogged Sequence from the Anglo-Saxon Royal Settlement at Lyminge,Kent

Palaeoecological and geoarchaeological investigations which cover the Anglo-Saxon period are rare, particularly in chalk downland landscapes which are considered to have limited palaeoenvironmental potential. The present study explores a sequence which can be directly related to the occupation history of the major Anglo-Saxon settlement at Lyminge, Kent. This work demonstrated a sequence of palaeochannels and organic deposits associated with the latter part of an archaeological sequence which spans the 5th to the 11th centuries AD. A range of evidence for the environment and economic activity is presented which suggests landscape continuity, possibly stretching back as far as the Romano-British period. The sequence revealed worked wood and evidence for livestock management and cereal cultivation, some of which is contemporary with the final phases of occupation of a 7th century ‘great hall complex’ and its subsequent transformation into a royal monastery. Agricultural activity following the abandonment of the pre-monastic settlement area caused this stream margin to become gradually buried by ploughwash which displaced the channel over time and sealed the organic deposits. It is incredibly rare to find such organic preservation in direct association with an Anglo-Saxon downland rural settlement and this is the first time that such a sequence has been analysed in association with the latter phases of a known Anglo-Saxon royal and monastic centre.     

曲阳北岳庙收藏的石雕文物鉴赏——兼及曲阳石雕的发展史

曲阳因优越的地理条件和特有的石材资源而成为石雕之乡,历代留下了许多精美的石雕作品。本文对收藏在曲阳北岳庙内、具有不同时代风格的石雕文物做一简要介绍,并以曲阳石雕的发展史为序,略述其艺术风格及时代特色。