Hospitality in pre-viking Anglo-Saxon England

This article studies the question of Anglo-Saxon hospitality, that is, in the first place, the gift (from a host to a guest) of food, fodder, roof and bed for a night or for a longer term. Contrary to Romantic visions, it was nothing like a spontaneous and free practice: Marcel Mauss and other anthropologists after him have shown that giving and receiving were obligations, compulsory acts in pre-market societies. In Anglo-Saxon England, hospitality was always a duty, strictly limited and framed by custom. It may have been provided to a single traveller, to a member of a formal or informal network (particularly ecclesiastical), to a king or to his agents in the form of a pastus or feorm: a kind of 'guesting' or compulsory hospitality which was progressively given up by kings as they booked lands to religious institutions. The forms and beneficiaries may vary, but the opposition between 'spontaneous' feasting and 'compulsory' guesting must not be stressed too much: hospitality was always a kind of binding exchange, even when it assumed the shape, the aspect, and even the values of a free and open practice .     

Early Anglo-Saxon Gold Braids

GOLD threads have been found in many Anglo-Saxon and continental Germanic graves of the period from the 5th to the 8th century A.D. (see catalogue, pp. 66 ff.). Early recognized as the remains of costly woven decorations to headdresses and the borders of garments, during the 19th century particularly they attracted much interest and discussion, some of it very pertinent.¹ Technical attention, however, of the kind required by their fragmentary state, was not then available, and it is only comparatively lately that the discovery of fresh examples in some newly excavated Frankish graves has caused a revival of interest in the subject, with the hopeful prospect of detailed technical studies to come from the continent in the future.     

Engendering Debate: Animals and Identity in Anglo-Saxon England

Abstract

WITH THE GROWING popularity of theoretical approaches within medieval archaeology, identity has become a central area of research. Although such studies frequently expound upon the role of the material world in negotiations between individuals and society, there is a tendency to overlook what were fundamen- tal agents within this process: animals. This is especially true of Anglo-Saxon England, where farming determined the daily experiences of most people and the exchange of animals was fundamental to the struc- turing of social relations. Adopting an integrated approach, this paper explores the ways in which differing interactions with animals, in their assorted forms, affected human identities. Particular emphasis is placed on gender perceptions, but the mutual linkages between varying forms of identity necessitate the contextu- alisation of gender against other aspects of social personas. In doing so, the need to adopt a holistic approach to the study of interactions amongst people, and between people and their surroundings, is highlighted.     

The transformation of kinship and the family in late Anglo-Saxon England

The development of the family into a small unit in which descent was traced almost exclusively through the male line is regarded as a major turning point in medieval European history. The early stages of the formation of agnatic kinship have usually been connected to strategies designed to preserve and retain control of patrimonies and castles, arising from the breakdown of public order. In this article it is suggested that the emergence of new kinship values was connected to the investment of aristocratic energy and resources in monastic programmes, and to subtle changes in lay involvement with the rituals associated with death and the salvation of souls.     

Insect invaders of reconstructed Anglo-Saxon houses at West Stow,Suffolk, England

Abstract

The insect fauna, particularly beetles (Coleoptera), of four modern reconstructions of Anglo-Saxon houses at West Stow, Suffolk, UK, has been investigated by pitfall trapping. Modest numbers of insects were recovered from each structure. The overlap with the fauna recovered from archaeological floor deposits of about the same period was notable, being greater than predicted, since the reconstructions lacked the litter and waste believed to have been available as insect habitats in the past.