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.     

Settlement and Society: A Study of the Early Agrarian History of South Lincolnshire. By H. E. Hallam

Among the most important groups of English sixteenth-century tombs are those of the Howard family in the parish church of St Michael at Framlingham, Suffolk. Their history is extremely complicated and their dating controversial. In 1965 Howard Colvin and Professor Lawrence Stone published an article on the tombs in this journal which, based on exemplary documentary research, remains the most detailed (and best) study of the subject (Stone and Colvin 1965). Since then some new material has been discovered which throws fresh light on the problems surrounding the tombs. Discussion will be confined mainly to the tombs of the second and third Howard Dukes of Norfolk and that of the first two wives of the fourth Duke. The monument to the third Duke's son, Henry Howard, the poet Earl of Surrey, who was beheaded in 1547, is excluded as it was not set up until 1614.     

Alabaster Beehive-Shaped Vessels from the Arabian Peninsula: Interpretations from a Comparative Study of Characteristics, Contexts and Associated Finds

This paper catalogues seventy-two vessels of one typologically distinct'beehive-shaped'form commonly found on sites in the Arabian peninsula. It shows that they are dated principally from the third century BC to the first century AD and are predominantly from burials. The majority have been found in southwest Arabia which is most probably their area of origin and many can be traced back to the Royal Tombs of'Awsan in Wadi Markha. Of interest are a pair of almost identical'double'vessels from Thaj and Mleiha in eastern Arabia and a group of'large'vessels indicating a temple context. From a study of their characteristics and contexts conclusions indicate that the original contents were tightly enclosed, of a dry or stain-free nature and that they were highly prized. The evidence together with some written sources give clues as to what these receptacles may have contained.     

The Weight of the Moment: J. G. A. Pocock's Politics of History

One of the great intellectual productions of the postwar period, J. G. A. Pocock's The Machiavellian Moment was also an intervention in the American polity of the 1970s. The book's content, its rhetorical style, its methodology, and even its physical printed form were all designed to effectuate a political gesture. The crises of 1968 to 1973 invalidated the optimistic liberalism of Pocock's academic circle. The history of political language offered a refuge and a programmatic foundation for Pocock's pragmatic conservatism. The Machiavellian Moment was designed to reinforce the weight of tradition in contemporary political debate.