Archaeology Archive
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Infant Burials and Christianization: The View from East Central Europe
Posted on May 19, 2013 | No CommentsThis was the second paper in the Early Medieval Europe I series given at KZOO and another fabulous archaeology paper. It contrasted infant grave sites in early converted medieval Poland and Anglo Saxon England. -
Feasting with Early Medieval Chiefs: Locating Political Action through Environmental Archaeology
Posted on May 18, 2013 | No CommentsThis excellent paper was the first given in the session on Early Medieval Europe. It looked at various archaeological excavations in Iceland and Denmark and the political role feasting played in pre-Christian Viking societies. -
Lost medieval town of Dunwich revealed
Posted on May 16, 2013 | No CommentsA University of Southampton professor has carried out the most detailed analysis ever of the archaeological remains of the lost medieval town of Dunwich, dubbed ‘Britain’s Atlantis’. -
Will stone coffin reveal medieval knight buried in the same church as Richard III?
Posted on May 2, 2013 | No CommentsThe archaeologists who discovered King Richard III under a car park are now hoping that a 600-year-old lead lined stone coffin found nearby will lead them to the remains of a knight buried in the 14th century. -
Magic for the dead? The archaeology of magic in later medieval burials
Posted on April 28, 2013 | No CommentsWas this magic healing or protective? Did it aim to safeguard the living or conjure the dead? Who were the recipients of such magical rites — and who was responsible for performing them? -
More skeletons discovered at medieval site in Edinburgh
Posted on April 25, 2013 | No CommentsArchaeologists working on the building site of the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation have discovered what appears to be a family tomb, perhaps related to a medieval knight who was discovered in the same location last month. -
Climate in Medieval Ireland: AD 500-1600
Posted on April 14, 2013 | No CommentsThe aim of the dissertation is to reconstruct climate in Medieval Ireland using documentary and dendrochronological proxy data from Ireland and Northern Europe. -
When the Dark Ages Were Lit Up: The Sutton Hoo discovery 70 years on
Posted on April 11, 2013 | No CommentsAlex Burghart looks back 70 years to the discovery of the fabulous Anglo-Saxon burial at Sutton Hoo, and ponders how far we've come in our knowledge of the period since 1939. -
Call for Papers: The Archaeology of Gatherings Conference
Posted on April 8, 2013 | No CommentsWith 2013 being the year of 'The Gathering' this theme was chosen to examine why people over millennia have come together, often in large numbers, for religious assemblies, social interaction, to exchange commodities and ideas, along with other reasons such as farewells, wakes, political opposition, inaugurations etc. -
Hard and Soft Power on the Eastern Frontier
Posted on April 7, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper considers historical perspectives on recently discovered archaeological evidence in what was the sixth-century Roman-Persian frontier region. -
Saga Motifs on Gotland Picture Stones: The Case of Hildr Högnadóttir
Posted on March 17, 2013 | No CommentsThis article will only examine one of these legends, namely the ‘Hildr legend’ in the context of two of these stones, lärbro stora hammars and stenkyrka smiss . An attempt will be made to place the images in a larger context than has been done before, and by doing so to strenghten the probability that they were indeed intended to refer to the original Hildr legend. -
What remains: Improper burials tell a story of social change in medieval Britain
Posted on March 16, 2013 | No CommentsStonehenge, by the 11th century, lay on the border of two administrative districts known as hundreds, and many scholars have argued that it marked an important territorial boundary even earlier. It would have been a site known to everyone in the region but inhabited by no one. -
Burial ground discovered in London may be victims of Black Death
Posted on March 14, 2013 | No CommentsThirteen skeletons have been uncovered lying in two carefully laid out rows on the edge of Charterhouse Square at Farringdon, and are believed to be up to 660 years old. -
Grave of medieval knight and monastery site found in Edinburgh
Posted on March 13, 2013 | No CommentsThe discovery was made when archaeologists uncovered the corner of an elaborately decorated sandstone slab with the telltale markings of a member of the nobility - the carvings of the Calvary Cross and an ornate sword, which tells us this belonged to a high status individual such as a knight or other nobleman. -
The vegetarian component of a late medieval diet
Posted on March 10, 2013 | No CommentsTrondheim was the seat of an archbishop and the centre of the see of Nidaros from 1152/53 until 1537 when the reformation reached Norway and the last Norwegian archbishop, Olav Engelbrektsson, fled the country. This marked a turning point in the town’s history. The arch- bishop’s residence, Erkebispegården, which was established around AD 1170 between the cathedral and the river Nidelva. -
Byzantine wine press discovered in Jaffa
Posted on February 27, 2013 | No CommentsArchaeological excavations in the Israeli city of Jaffa have uncovered what was likely a wine press that dates back to the Byzantine era. -
The Saga of a Viking Age Longhouse in Iceland
Posted on February 26, 2013 | No CommentsA documentary about the excavation of a Viking Age longhouse in Iceland. Can historical texts and sagas help archaeology. Created by Jesse Byock and Adam Fish. -
Horses for Courses? Religious Change and Dietary Shifts in Anglo-Saxon England
Posted on February 25, 2013 | No CommentsThe spread of Christianity across England over the course of the Anglo-Saxon period brought new worldviews, ways of acting and dietary habits. -
Scandinavian late Viking Age art styles as a part of the visual display of warriors in 11th-century Estonia
Posted on February 24, 2013 | No CommentsArtefacts decorated in Scandinavian Late Viking Age art styles have been known for a long time in the Estonian archaeological material, and were first published as early as 1914 by Max Ebert; a more comprehensive overview was given in 1929 by Birger Nerman. The finds include silver-plated and sometimes partially gilded weapons, as well as belt and scabbard fittings, plaques, and only a few pieces of jewellery. -
Why did the English people stop eating horses in the Middle Ages?
Posted on February 20, 2013 | No CommentsPeople living in Anglo-Saxon England were turned off the idea of eating horses once they became Christian as they believed it was ‘pagan’ food, argues a new research paper. -
Riding To The Afterlife: The Role Of Horses In Early Medieval North-Western Europe
Posted on February 6, 2013 | No CommentsIn order to establish the role of horses in the pre-Christian religions of Anglo-Saxon England, Viking-Age Scandinavia and other Germanic regions in mainland Europe, this dissertation will look for evidence of burial, sacrifice and other rituals involving horses in both archaeological and literary sources -
The British Kingdom of Lindsey
Posted on February 3, 2013 | No CommentsThe first piece of evidence which offers support for the above contention comes from the kingdom-name ‘Lindsey’ itself. Two forms of this name exist in Anglo-Saxon sources, reflecting two different Old English suffixes:6 Lindissi (later Lindesse, as used by Bede and the earliest manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)7 and Lindesig... -
Reconstruction of the diet in a mediaeval monastic community from the coast of Belgium
Posted on January 31, 2013 | No CommentsThe aim of the present article is to report the results of stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis on skeletons from a Belgian mediaeval population, and to look at variations in diet that may relate to age and social status. -
Mi‘ilya: Evidence of an Early Crusader Settlement
Posted on January 29, 2013 | No CommentsFifty-six diagnostic sherds, dating to the Crusader period, were found in a pit. Most of them represent local Crusader types, with a few belonging to imported types. The chronological range of the Crusader-period pottery dates from the mid-twelfth to the early thirteenth centuries CE. -
The Luffield Priory Grange at Monkbarn
Posted on January 27, 2013 | No CommentsThe lease of 1351 places Monksbarn in the manor of Pyre (West Perry or Paulerspury) so it might be expected that the site of the grange should lie within the parish of the same name. Despite mention of the wood within which the land lay, abutting landholding arrangements and the naming of a road along which the land must lie, there are few topographical details which can lead to a precise location for the grange.
