1,666 research outputs found
Missing, Presumed Buried? Bone Diagenesis and the Under-Representation of Anglo-Saxon Children
No full textYesSam Lucy (1994: 26) has stated that a `recognised feature of pre-Christian early medieval cemeteries in eastern England is the smaller number of younger burials recovered¿. Although taphonomic factors such as the increased rate of decay of the remains of children and shallow depth of burial have been suggested as possible explanations for this phenomenon, these have been disregarded in favour of cultural influences, with younger children thought to have been disposed of in a different way from adult remains (Lucy, 1994; Härke, 1997; Crawford, 1999). This paper will review the evidence concerning the treatment of the remains of children during the Anglo-Saxon period. It will then review the factors affecting bone preservation, with special reference to the bones of children, and attempt to assess to what extent the under-representation of children in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries can be attributed to bone preservation and soil type. It will show that hypotheses should not be formulated without full consideration of the taphonomy that may affect the completeness of the archaeological record
The Old English Bede: Transmission and Textual History in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts
No full textAn unknown author translated the Old English version of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History (OEB) around the ninth century. Previous research focused on the text’s authorship, specifically on Mercian linguistic features in its earliest manuscript, rather than the reception and transmission of its manuscripts (Miller, 1890; Whitelock, 1962; Kuhn, 1972). This thesis considers the OEB’s reception and transmission as evident in its copyists’ scribal performances. Conservative and innovative textual variants are identified for the OEB, and scribal behaviour categorised according to the framework devised by Benskin and Laing (1981) in their study of Middle English scribes. A detailed linguistic comparison of OEB witnesses combined with a close examination of the physical manuscripts reveals the working methods of scribes involved in their production. The manuscripts examined are:
Oxford, Bodleian Library Tanner 10 (T)
Oxford, Corpus Christi College 279B (O)
Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 41 (B)
Cambridge, University Library Kk.3.18 (Ca)
Each chapter analyses a particular scribal performance. O’s scribe created a Mischsprache text, combining Mercian and West-Saxon forms, yet conflicting views of what constituted a good text are revealed by O’s producers’ extensive textual corrections. Relict forms in B demonstrate that its exemplar was illegible in places and that the scribe was forced to make several textual repairs. Ca has long been considered a direct copy of O, however my detailed comparison of the two manuscripts reveals that this cannot be the case. Finally, some previously unnoticed and unpublished drypoint annotations to O’s text are presented and explored in the context of other Anglo-Saxon scratched material.
This thesis shows the benefits of examining the OEB from a scribal viewpoint, identifying common modes of scribal behaviour across the medieval period. It proposes a set of features belonging to the original translation, some of which hint at an earlier date of composition than previously supposed
Social Exclusion from Early Medieval Wessex
No full textOver the past twenty years Anglo-Saxonists have become increasingly interested in the
mechanisms and processes through which West Saxon society was formed into a
cohesive and coherent whole. They have focused on the ways in which kings and other
figures of authority used their power in attempts to bring their subjects together by
providing them with a sense of shared identity, purpose and ambitions. To date,
however, academics have failed to recognise the important role that exclusion played in
this process and this thesis serves to redress this balance. By examining the types of
individuals that were excluded from full membership ofearly medieval West Saxon
society and the reasons for their exclusion, it offers a new way of exploring the
processes that made this society self-consciously more coherent. The thesis is structured
thematically around five separate categories ofpeople who each in their own way
experienced some form of social exclusion from the kingdom of Wessex during the
seventh to late-tenth centuries, but focusing most heavily on the ninth and tenth
centuries. Chapter one explores the concept of social exclusion as voluntary exile,
entailing an investigation into the motivations that prompted Anglo-Saxon missionaries
and pilgrims to leave behind their homes and kin. Most importantly, this chapter
surveys the networks of support that such travellers exploited in order to help them
survive as aliens in foreign territories. The next two chapters investigate types of
individuals who were excluded as a result of an action or behaviour that was deemed
unacceptable by the rest of their society. Chapter two considers the evidence relating to
outlawry and excommunication and chapter three takes a broader view of the idea of
deviancy and looks at how Anglo-Saxon criminals were brought to justice and punished
for their unlawful behaviour. The final two chapters explore the potential for
understanding the concept of social exclusion as 'social disadvantage'. Chapter four
examines slavery and, most importantly, draws attention to the privileges and rights
from which Anglo-Saxon slaves were excluded on account of their status as the legally
'unfree'. The fifth and final chapter considers in detail Anglo-Saxon attitudes to the
body in order fully to appreciate the disadvantages that could be caused by bodily
ailments; it questions whether or not impaired and disabled individuals experienced any
form ofmarginalisation because of their bodily dysfunctionalities
Burial, landscape and identity in early Medieval Wessex Anglo-Saxon studies ;, 35./ Kate Mees.
No full textIncludes bibliographical references and index.Burial evidence provides the richest record we possess for the centuries following the retreat of Roman authority. The locations and manner in which communities chose to bury their dead, within the constraints of the environmental and social milieu, reveal much about this transformational era. This book offers a pioneering exploration of the ways in which the cultural and physical environment influenced funerary traditions during the period c. AD 450-850, in the region which came to form the leading Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. This was a diverse landscape rich in ancient remains, in the form of imposing earthworks, enigmatic megaliths and vestiges of Roman occupation. Employing archaeological evidence, complemented by toponymic and documentary sources and elucidated through landscape analysis, the author argues that particular man-made and natural features were consciously selected as foci for funerary events and ritual practice, becoming integral to manifestations of identity and power in early medieval society.Frontcover; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; Note on Period Terminology and Other Definitions; Introduction: Perspectives, Approaches and Context; 1 Monument Reuse and the Inherited Landscape; 2 Topography and Ritual Life; 3 'Britons and Saxons'?; 4 Land Use, Territoriality and Social Change; 5 The Church and the Funerary Landscape; Conclusions; Appendix: Gazetteer of burial sites in the study area, c. AD 450-850; Bibliography; Index1 online resource
The human-dog relationship in early medieval England and Ireland (c. AD 400-1250)
No full textThis thesis aims to explore the human-dog relationship in early medieval England and Ireland (c. AD 400-1250) and so develop an improved understanding of how people perceived and utilised their dogs. In 1974, Ralph Harcourt published a seminal paper reviewing the metrical data for archaeological dog remains excavated from British antiquity. Nearly forty years on, many more dog bones have been excavated and recorded. His results from the Anglo-Saxon period illustrated that the degree of skeletal variability had reduced after the end of the Roman occupation, with an increase in the average size. He also observed two distinct groups in the estimated shoulder height measurements.The key areas that have been considered include: dog functionality, morphology, and treatment. Influences that may have led to changes in people’s perception of dogs during this time period have been examined. Differences between England and Ireland are assessed, but variation in recording methods has meant the data obtained on the Irish dogs were limited. An interdisciplinary approach has been taken, combining archaeological, historical and anthrozoological information. New evidence has shown that humans’ relationships with dogs were more complex and varied than previous research would suggest, especially in the treatment of dogs at their death. This was particularly evident in England, where a change in the burial location of dogs was observed from the end of the seventh century, and could be linked to the development of Christianity and its negative teachings towards the dog. More metrical data from English sites have shown that the two distinct groups observed in Harcourt’s Anglo- Saxon results were no longer apparent
The time is now: the roles of apocalyptic thought in early Germanic literature
No full textThis study investigates the different purposes for which apocalyptic thought was employed in early Germanic texts. The main focus lies on Anglo-Saxon sources. Both prose texts and poetry are taken into consideration, and cross-references to tenth-century material from the Continent are made wherever appropriate. The first three chapters provide an investigation of the ways in which Church authorities used apocalyptic material for purposes of instilling an urge to repentance and/or conversion in their audiences. Chapter 1 discusses patristic and Anglo-Saxon responses to the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 and finds a significant difference in the way the material was discussed by learned monastics and by populist preachers. Chapter 2 traces the Antichrist motif in Continental and Anglo-Saxon sources, with special regard to regional preferences in the treatment of the material. Chapter 3 broadens the view to consider Anglo-Saxon preaching in general. It discusses the different use of apocalyptic material by AElfric, Wulfstan, and the Blickling homilists, before approaching the prose and poetry found in the Vercelli Book and manuscript Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201.Chapter 4 discusses material in Old Norse since sources relating to late tenth- and early eleventh century Scandinavia offer a unique opportunity to hear the voices of the laity at whom apocalyptic material was directed. The chapter starts with an overview of the conversion of Norway and Iceland by King Óláfr Tryggvason and his missionaries before moving on to discuss skaldic verse from the conversion phase. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the curious mixture of pagan and Christian themes in the Eddie poem Vqluspá. Previous studies on the Judgement Day motif show either a regional focus (e.g. Anglo-Saxon England), limit themselves to a specific genre of texts (e.g. Old English poetry), or focus on the act of Judgement itself and/or discuss descriptions of the tortures of Hell or the joys of Paradise. In contrast to these, the present study's comparative and interdisciplinary approach provides a more detailed picture of early medieval ideas about the end of the world, and responses to them by the laity
Constructing Spiritual Landscapes: Aspects of Centrality and Peripherality in Anglo- Saxon England and Early Medieval Ireland
No full textAnglo-Saxon ecclesiastical identity is firmly rooted in the isolation of Britain from the Continent, but especially from Rome. In order to demonstrate this, many Anglo-Saxon texts will be examined, among these are Bede's writings, Stephen of Ripon's Life of Wilfrid, and several others. This perception was founded both in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons and factors directly stemming from the conversion. Because of the nature of the conversion, that is, a direct mission from Gregory the Great, the Anglo-Saxons naturally felt a connection to Rome, while at the same time they felt isolated and peripheral because the reason that they were being converted was that they were a peripheral people. The factors originating in the conversion include the importation of Latin as both the language of learning and as the language of culture among the learned. Having brought home Classical and Patristic texts from the Continent, especially histories, Anglo-Saxon authors became aware of the Mediterranean perspective of Britain. That is, the belief that Britain was a cold, frozen island in the far northwestern corner of the world. The Anglo-Saxons internalized this connection and isolation and it is demonstrable both through their writings and through their actions. For example, pilgrimage to Rome appears to have been an important aspect of Anglo-Saxon religious life for secular people, as well as those in the ecclesiastic world. One might consider that all peoples living on islands in the ocean would react to their conversion in this fashion, however, as will be demonstrated, the Irish provide a counter example to the Anglo-Saxons.
The Irish conception of their ecclesiastic identity was founded on Ireland itself. Rather than acknowledge isolation and peripherality as the Anglo-Saxons did, the Irish constructed their homeland to be holy and central in much the same way that the early Christians constructed the holiness of Jerusalem and its environs. That is, they created a landscape full of holy places and holy people. The method that these Irish authors used to create this landscape was to denote the specific location where each particular miracle was performed. This had several effects beyond the overall creation of Ireland as a holy and central place. One of these was that it connected the reader, who most likely would have been local to the miracle being described, more closely to these holy figures, as well as to the physical and spiritual landscape that they lived in. A second function, which was perhaps an unintended consequence, was to force those wishing to live the ascetic life into peregrinatio, that is, lifelong wandering outside of Ireland. Because Ireland itself had become holy in the minds of the early Irish monks, they were unable to effectively be ascetic in the same model as early Christian ascetics, that is, there was no spiritual desert in Ireland for them to retreat into. Thus, they had to leave and go to the Continent or go in search of a 'desert in the ocean'. In addition, an examination of the sources demonstrates that Irish authors used similar language when describing Jerusalem as they did Ireland, which, implies that they regarded the two as significant in holiness. Having constructed Ireland and Jerusalem in these terms, early medieval Irish authors made a strong statement of imagined centrality
Response to comments on: Alanine transaminase rather than abdominal ultrasound alone is an important investigation to justify cholecystectomy in patients presenting with acute pancreatitis
No full textUses of Wodan : The development of his cult and of medieval literary responses to it
No full textScholars working on Germanic pre-christian religion have generally considered Wodan to have been a deity of considerable importance to most if not all Germanic
tribes. This understanding is, however, based on a failure to approach the available evidence for Wodan within appropriate contemporary contexts. This thesis recontextualises the evidence, therefore, building a model of the general nature of Germanic heathenisms in the Migration Age, within which the cult of Wodan can be located. Set against this model, and with due consideration given to its social, political and religious contexts, the earliest evidence for Wodan can be seen as the beginning of a christian reimagination of this deity. A plausible model of Wodan's cult is established, which sees this cult as being geographically limited, and originating probably within the first half millenium of the Common Era; the cult of Odinn would appear, moreover, to be substantially separate in development from that of Wodan. Furthermore, a complex set of eighth-century scholarly re-uses of Wodan are shown to have shaped subsequent understandings of the deity, both in the medieval period and up to the present day.
Having considered how the traditions of eighth-century scholarship have misled modern scholarship, the thesis then examines the further development of these traditions
in Anglo-Saxon England. In this context, Wodan assumes still more various guises, and is conflated with Odinn, thus helping to cement modern scholarship's belief in the
original unity of these two figures. This process is strengthened, moreover, by the strong influence which Anglo-Saxon England exerted on Scandinavia both around the time of
the conversion of Scandinavia and at the period when much of the extant Scandinavian mythography was written down.
This Scandinavian mythography is examined briefly in the final chapter, which points out some important areas of misreading of pre-christian mythology in thirteenthcentury
Scandinavian mythography, as well as arguing for substantial extra-Scandinavian influences on such mythography. This leads, finally, to a consideration of how Odinn appears in what little certainly pre-christian evidence exists for him
Population genetics of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from an Anglo-Saxon archaeological site in comparison with modern populations.
No full textBottlenose dolphins {Tursiops truncatus) exhibit a cosmopolitan distribution, being found in temperate and tropical oceans throughout the world. Members of this species in the waters surrounding Britain are the most northerly populations and show a discontinuous modern distribution. The excavation of an Anglo-Saxon site at Flixborough, near the Humber Estuary in eastern England, has yielded the largest archaeological sample of bottlenose dolphin remains yet found in Britain, however, the estuary does not currently support a bottlenose dolphin population. This offers an opportunity to study the temporal dynamics of genetic structure for this species in a region where their conservation and management is of concern. Comparisons of mtDNA control region sequences and microsatellite genotypes from the remains at Flixborough with modern samples from elsewhere in the British Isles and around the world were completed. The results show that the samples from Flixborough form a genetically distinct population from all modern groups, including those around the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is suggested that a local population existed in the Humber Estuary during Anglo-Saxon times, which was most likely established through a founding event and has since become extinct. Possible causes of this local extinction and implications for management of modern populations around the British Isles are discussed
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