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.     

Tracing a rune‐carver by groove profile and cut‐marks

Different features of the incised grooves of the runes and ornament on some milestones are registered in minute detail. The measurements are computerized for statistical analysis, thus making the identification of different cutters possible. The study provides evidence that the runes and the ornament on some stones were actually executed by different hands.     

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.     

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.     

Unpicking the web: the divorce of Ecgfrith and Æthelthryth

The concept of a woman who is a ‘peace-weaver’ is known chiefly from Anglo-Saxon literature, yet is also a role that must have been reflected in the actual marriage alliances among the Anglo-Saxon dynasties. This article considers how networks of marriage and kinship may have functioned among the Anglo-Saxons of the late seventh century, and to what extent a woman could have real value in the role. It takes as starting point the historian Bede's account of how the marriage of Ecgfrith, king of Northumbria, and his wife, known to history as St Æthelthryth, was dissolved on grounds of non-consummation. Bede's claims that Ecgfrith was reluctant to let his wife go, sometimes dismissed as hagiographic convention, are here taken seriously and used to explore what reasons Ecgfrith might have had to want to maintain the marriage by looking at the politics of peace and war in the English kingdoms of the period, the role played by seventh-century marriage ties in relations between kingdoms, and what the value of such a marriage and the consequences of dissolving it may have been.     

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.     

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.     

Communication of Discoveries of Medieval Paintings,Etc

Abstract

Until 1965 Holy Trinity parish church, Much Wenlock (Shropshire), was believed to be wholly Norman and later. In that year it was proposed that the south chancel chapel and south nave aisle were Anglo-Saxon. Two vertical strips of squared stones, built into the upper part (a later heightening) of the aisle's south wall, were interpreted as Anglo-Saxon pilaster strips of the type later classified by Dr H. M. Taylor as ‘long-and-short’. If the upper part of that wall was Anglo-Saxon, the lower part must have been earlier Anglo-Saxon, and so must the chapel south wall, which is integral with the lower part of the aisle wall. The Norman nave and chancel must have been added to an-existing Anglo-Saxon structure.

We believe, however, that the aisle and chapel must have been added to an existing Norman structure, for the Norman nave had originally a south-east external clasping buttress. Structural and documentary evidence shows that the strips are probably of the later thirteenth or earlier fourteenth century. Moreover similar strips occur in another part of the church that is probably of that date or later. ‘Pilaster strips’ of ‘long-and-short’ appearance may evidently be looked for elsewhere in twelfth-century or later contexts, especially in the heightened parts of unsupported rubble walls.     

Healing Charms in Use in England and Wales 1700–1950

The collection and analysis of Anglo-Saxon and early medieval healing charms has long generated an active interest in their content and application. However, despite the quite extensive ethnographic evidence concerning the content of healing charms in use from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, there has been no attempt, so far, to make an extensive collection of charm formulae from this period. This paper seeks to begin that task. It is hoped that this inventory, not only serves to highlight an important aspect of the English and Welsh tradition of folk medicine, but also serves to indicate the long history of that tradition. An examination of these charms also provides an illustration of the importance of the written word in the transmission of popular knowledge.     

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.     

The mead-hall community

The paper provides background context to the Anglo-Saxon concept of the ‘mead-hall’, the role of conspicuous consumption in early medieval society and the use of commensality to strengthen horizontal and vertical social bonds. Taking as its primary starting point the evidence of the Old English verse tradition, supported by linguistic and archaeological evidence and contemporary comparative material, the paper draws together contemporaneous and modern insights into the nature of feasting as a social medium. The roles of the ‘lord’ and ‘lady’ as community leaders are examined, with particular regard to their position at the epicentre of radiating social relationships. Finally, the inverse importance of the mead-hall as a declining social institution and a developing literary construct is addressed.     

A Holiday Journal of 1774

Abstract

Early illustrations of Ledsham church do not show carvings around the Anglo-Saxon doorway into the tower, and examination of the physical condition of the stonework suggests that it is unlikely that the carvings could have survived from the Anglo-Saxon period. The peculiar features of the doorway and its carvings are best explained by the work being a nineteenth-century replacement by the Victorian architect, Henry Curzon.     

The Subtle Knife: Using Domestic Objects to Access the Middle Anglo-Saxon Worldview

The seventh to ninth centuries AD are understood as a period of changing worldviews with the introduction and embedding of Christianity across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In contrast to the attention afforded to the ‘ritual’ or sacred transformations of this period, relatively little has been made of the changing archaeological record of ‘ordinary’ or secular spaces and material cultures in order to understand this historical change in worldview. The use and significance of the domestic Anglo-Saxon knife spans both settlement and cemetery contexts. It is argued that the study of knife use and deposition reveals beliefs and worldviews expressed in everyday activities as well as in those deposits that appear ‘special’.     

蒙古国发现的古代回鹘陵墓

蒙古国境内保存有众多四方形遗址,多见于鄂尔浑河谷,蒙古国与中国考古人员对靠近回鹘汗国首都哈拉巴拉哈逊的后杭爱省浩腾特苏木的四方形遗址进行了考古发掘,发掘了其中的六座四方形遗址,即乌布尔哈布其勒3、5号遗址,胡拉哈1号遗址,浑地壕赖3、5、6号遗址。通过墓葬的一些建筑元素如砖、瓦、装饰用黏土块、陶罐、骨箭头和铜箭镞、陶锭、木头等,尤其是墓内所出突厥卢尼文铭文,可以确定这些四方形遗址的时间范围当在7-9世纪,即漠北回鹘之物,不是一般百姓的墓葬,而应为回鹘皇室的陵墓。墓区同时还存在早期的匈奴墓和晚期的蒙古墓葬。     

Recent Archæological Researches in Rome

Luminescence dating has been applied to ceramic bricks sampled from a selection of English medieval ecclesiastical and secular buildings in Essex, Kent and Lincolnshire, ranging in age from the fourth to the late sixteenth centuries. The results obtained for the Anglo-Saxon churches, which included Brixworth, confirmed the reuse of Roman brick in all cases. The dates for the earliest medieval brick type indicate that brick making was reintroduced during the eleventh century, a century earlier than previously accepted, and dates for bricks from the same secular Tudor building indicate that the practice of recycling of building materials during the late medieval period was also applied to brick.     

A History of Chinese Immigration in the United States and Canada

The 2005 Québec novel by Nicolas Dickner (English publication, 2008) presents intertextual effects that become a reflection on writing. The novel is a voyage of self-discovery while offering connections to Melville, Joseph Conrad, the German “bildungsroman,” nineteenth century classic novels, twentieth century French existentialist essays, Anglo-Saxon seafaring sagas, Central and South American imaginative tales, “cric-crac” stories of Québécois “raconteurs,” subversive Canadian novels, adventure stories, detective narratives, comic books and computer-generated discourse. This complex mise en abyme of writing through interlacing genres stands as a metaphor for diversity and rootlessness in North American society.     

Excavations at Lismahon,Co. Down

Abstract

There is a Growing recognition that introduced species are direct records of cultural activity and that studies of their biogeography have the potential to tell us about patterns of human migration, trade and even ideology. In England the fallow deer (Dama dama dama) is one of the earliest and most successful animal introductions, whose establishment has traditionally been attributed to the Normans. However, recent investigations of Old English place names have raised the possibility that the term *pohha/pocca relates to fallow deer, suggesting that the species was widely established in the Anglo-Saxon landscape. This suggestion deserves serious consideration as it has implications for our understanding both of AngloSaxon society and the impact of the Norman Conquest. This paper therefore presents a critical review of the literary, iconographic, place-name and zooarchaeological evidence for fallow deer in early medieval England and beyond.