166,658 research outputs found
An Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire
No full textThis paper presents a re-evaluation of a cemetery excavated over
30 years ago at Walkington Wold in east Yorkshire. The cemetery is
characterized by careless burial on diverse alignments, and by the fact that
most of the skeletons did not have associated crania. The cemetery has been
variously described as being the result of an early post-Roman massacre, as
providing evidence for a ‘Celtic’ head cult or as an Anglo-Saxon execution
cemetery. In order to resolve the matter, radiocarbon dates were acquired and
a re-examination of the skeletal remains was undertaken. It was confirmed that
the cemetery was an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery, the only known example
from northern England, and the site is set into its wider context in the paper
Textual Representations of Almsgiving in Late Anglo-Saxon England
No full textThis thesis is a study of the textual representations of almsgiving in the homiletic and documentary sources of late Anglo-Saxon England. Almsgiving, a fundamental part of lay Christian devotional practice, has been primarily ignored by scholars as a subject for study in its own right, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon period. The aim of this thesis is to assess the textual references to almsgiving in the homilies, law codes, wills and charters of the tenth and eleventh centuries in order to determine first, how almsgiving was conceptualised by ecclesiastical authorities, and second, how almsgiving by the laity was understood to function in society. It examines the interdependence of alms-givers and alms-receivers, shedding light on the complementary relationship between rich and poor in society. It also utilises the anthropological concepts of reciprocal gift-exchange and secular display of wealth in order to contextualise the Anglo-Saxon sources within a wider cultural milieu. In doing so, this thesis demonstrates not only that almsgiving played a vital part in lay devotional practice, but also that references to almsgiving embedded in the documentary sources reflected a wide network of social practices and interactions. This in turn indicates the central social significance of almsgiving in late Anglo-Saxon England, and has important implications for the understanding of early medieval Christian piety
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
'Representing Rome. The influence of Rome on aspects of the public arts of early Anglo-Saxon England (c. 600-800)'
No full textThis thesis focuses on the influence of Rome – both as a place and as a concept – on the public arts of early Anglo-Saxon England. It considers the visual culture of Late Antique and Early Christian Rome (and the Classical world from which these emerged) alongside Anglo-Saxon architecture and sculpture, to draw out the connections between them, the nature of the contacts that shaped the arts, and the social, political and religious ideas underlying such inspiration and changes. It thus adopts a fresh perspective from which to view Anglo-Saxon art and architecture, moving away from the earlier focus on classification and style, and setting this against the backdrop of medieval England’s connection with Rome at all levels of society.
Issues of patronage are placed at the forefront of this research, and particular attention is paid to the multiplicity of possible and intentional interpretations for individual monuments, their location, and effect on patrons, artists and audiences. Evidence from the catacomb art in Rome, and the graffiti found therein, is used in relation to Anglo-Saxon England, thus providing a different approach to the transmission of influences
Infernal imagery in Anglo-Saxon charters
No full textThis doctoral dissertation analyses depictions of hell in sanctions, i.e. threats of punishments in Anglo-Saxon charters. I am arguing that an innovative use of sanctions as pastoral and ideological instruments effected the peak of infernal imagery in the sanctions of tenth-century royal diplomas. Belonging to the genre of ritual curses, Anglo-Saxon sanctions contain the three standard ecclesiastical curses (excommunication, anathema and damnation). It cannot be established if other requirements of ritual cursing (authoritative personnel, setting and gestures) were fulfilled. A lack of evidence, together with indications of more secular punishments, suggests that sanctions were not used as legal instruments. Their pastoral function is proposed by frightening depictions of hell and the devil, as fear is an important means of achieving salvation in biblical, homiletic and theological writings available or produced in Anglo-Saxon England. The use of the infernal motifs of Hell as a Kitchen, Satan as the Mouth of Hell and winged demons in sanctions are discussed in detail. Sanctions frequently contain the overtly didactic and pastoral device of the exemplum. Notorious sinners believed to be damned in hell (e.g. Judas) are presented as negative exempla in sanctions to deter people from transgressing against charters. The repeated use of terms from classical mythology for depicting hell in Anglo-Saxon sanctions appears to correlate with the preference for hermeneutic Latin by tenth-century monastic reformers. The reasons for employing classical mythological terminology seem to agree with those suggested for the use of hermeneutic Latin (intellectual snobbery and raising the stylistic register), and glossaries constitute the main source of both types of Latinity. The sanctions of the Refoundation Charter of New Minster, Winchester, which is known to display the ‘ruler theology’ propagated by the monastic reform, are examined in their textual contexts with regard to the observations made in the earlier parts of this dissertation
Creating a gens Anglorum: Social and Ethnic Identity in Anglo-Saxon England through the Lens of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica
No full textThis thesis examines of the role of Bede in the creation of an English national identity by considering the use, re-use and transmission of the Historia Ecclesiastica across the Anglo-Saxon period. Bede's exemplary and providential history had created an image of an idealised past to inspire change in the present, and these models resonated with writers throughout this period. This study engages with the legacy of Bede's text by surveying a wide range of case studies from across Anglo-Saxon England with attention to a broad spectrum of generic, geographical and political contexts from the eighth to the early eleventh centuries, in Latin and vernacular English.
Written in Latin as historical prose narrative in early eighth-century Northumbria, we see the work being used later in that century in a very similar context by Alcuin in his York Poem. In the ninth century the use of the text followed the shifting political hegemony of Anglo-Saxon England south through Mercia, where it was probably translated into English, and into Wessex where it was mined as a source for the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. In both of these texts, we see the Historia being used to respond to viking invasion in distinct ways, as the vernacular narrative emphasises teaching and evangelism while the annals promote the military and political successes of Wessex. In the late tenth century, the Latin history is used as an important source in the vernacular homilies and hagiography of Aelfric. Using and supplementing Bede's pantheon of saints from across England, Aelfric's work prescribes a nationalised Christianity, which mirrors the growth of English identity, as the West Saxon cultural and political hegemony expands more deeply into the geographical and conceptual collective of peoples and kingdoms known to him as Engla land.
These case studies demonstrate that Bede's work remained influential throughout the period, with later writers consistently returning to the original text, re-interpreting his work to suit their own contexts and ideological needs
Number and Measurement in Anglo-Saxon Christian Culture: Editions and Studies of Numerical Notes in Eight Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, c.800-c.1150
No full textThis two-part thesis explores aspects of Anglo-Saxon number culture through a detailed examination of numerical encyclopaedic notes. The first part (Chapters I-III) is an edition of seventy-two notes transmitted in eight Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. These manuscripts are London, British Library, MS Cotton Vespasian B.vi, British Library, MS Royal 2.B.v, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A.iii, British Library, MS Harley 3271, British Library, MS Cotton Julius A.ii; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 183 and Corpus Christi College, MS 320; Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS, lat.2825. The edition in Chapter III is preceded by the manuscript descriptions and discussions in Chapter II where the notes are placed in their manuscript contexts in order to explore questions about the codicological context and the cultural standing of these texts. The second part consists of three chapters, Chapters IV to VI. Chapter IV is an extensive commentary divided into four parts corresponding to the subject matter of the notes, which is chronological, spatial, enumerating and miscellaneous. Chapter V provides a series of case studies on metrology and the value of money in Anglo-Saxon monastic and lay culture. In Chapter VI, the computistical notes in British Library, MS Harley 3271 are discussed in the wider context of the study of computus. The two parts of the thesis demonstrate the rich culture of number symbolism these encyclopaedic notes are witnesses to and provide further evidence to the medieval belief of divine order based on Wisdom 11.21: ‘but thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight’. It further reveals how inextricably connected the spiritual and practical uses of number were, thereby pointing to an all-encompassing number culture which governed early medieval Christianity
Schools of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture in the north Midlands.
No full textThis thesis concerns the identification of schools of Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture in the the north
Midlands. It also contains a critical examination of the assumptions which have tended to
underlie previous studies of this subject. The term 'school' can be interpreted in different ways,
but is defined here as groups of sculptured monuments which are associated by common design
elements and appear to be a product of some form of localised organisation.
The research produced a large database of information for each sculptured stone monument in
the research area. The results of the analysis of this material are as follows:
An analytical method has been devised to identify objectively the schools and their geographical
distribution in terms of their design elements. Six different schools of sculpture have been
Identified in the research area. it is found that architectural sculpture does not appear to be
directly related to any of the schools: only free-standing sculpture shows such cohesion.
The geographical distribution of each school was compared with our understanding of land
divisions. It was found that the schools do not appear to relate to any ecclesiastical provision, but
to secular land units or settlement groups. In most cases these are likely to have been those
existing during the period of Viking settlement
The distribution of the sculpture is compared with our limited historical knowledge and this
suggests that most of the monuments can be dated to the first half of the tenth century. They
may have been erected as a result of the reconquest of Viking held territory, by the English.
Evidence, mainly from the types of stone used in the manufacture of the monuments, suggests
that they were likely to have been crafted at each site and were not the product of centralised
'workshops'
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
The meaning, practice and context of private prayer in late Anglo-Saxon England
No full textThis thesis is a detailed discussion of the relatively neglected subject of private prayer in late Anglo-Saxon England, mainly focusing on three eleventh-century monastic codices: the Galba Prayerbook (London, British Library Cotton Nero A. ii + Galba A. xiv), Ælfwine’s Prayerbook (London, British Library Cotton Titus D. xxvii + xxvi) and the Portiforium of St Wulstan (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 391). Chapter One provides a background to the following chapters by introducing a wide variety of English and Continental texts from the ninth century. This chapter demonstrates the many different prayer genres, prayer guides and attitudes to prayer which would be inherited by the late Anglo-Saxons. Chapter Two, which focuses on private adaptations of the canonical Offices, examines the different manuscript contexts in which private prayers were found. It argues that series of prayers were combined into increasingly sophisticated ordines for personal devotion, and that it was from these that the Special Offices arose. Chapter Three applies these concepts to prayers to the Holy Cross. After a discussion of the evidence for prayer before a cross, and involving the sign of the cross, it examines private prayer programmes based on the liturgy for Good Friday and those from which the Special Office of the Cross developed. Chapter Four turns to private confessions, arguing that these prayers were somewhat different from those hitherto discussed. It therefore begins with an exploration of the many kinds of confession which existed in the late Anglo-Saxon church, before examining a number of private confessional prayers in detail. Throughout this thesis, emphasis is placed on the bodily experience of prayer in its time and place, and upon the use of each text as it is found in the prayerbooks of eleventh-century England
- …
