Events within a fifteen-year period in mid-eighth century Eurasia included the Abbasid revolution, An Lu-shan’s Rebellion in Tang China, and the collapse or emergence of empires from Frankish Europe to Tibet to the kingdom of Srivajaya.
Tremors in the Web of Trade: Complexity, Connectivity and Criticality in the Mid-Eighth Century Eurasian World
December 7, 2013 By
How did Christians view the Rise of Islam?
November 3, 2013 By
When Muslim armies came out of Arabia in the 630s and 640s, Christian writers of the time saw it a sign that the Apocalypse had come.
Behind the Veil: The rise of female monasticism and the double house
September 29, 2013 By
In this thesis I aim to restore the contemporary views of female monasticism that have been marginalized in current historiography. By evaluating the primary source material on women in monasticism, I intend to recapture the complex links between female religious communities and the wider social, cultural and political world of the Frankish kingdoms.
A King on the Move: The Place of an Itinerant Court in Charlemagne’s Government
August 7, 2013 By
I shall suggest here that we should abandon this assumed correlation, and that once we have done so, a very different picture of Charlemagne’s itinerary between 768 and 814, and consequently of his government, emerges.
The Pagans and the Other: Varying Presentations in the Early Middle Ages
August 6, 2013 By
The Pagans and the Other: Varying Presentations in the Early Middle Ages Ian Wood Networks and Neighbours, Volume One, Number One (2013) Abstract This paper discusses the position of the pagan ‘Other’ in medieval thought, arguing that although Paganism was alien to the Christian, churchmen wanted above all to bring the pagans into the Christian […]
Religious and Cultural Boundaries between Vikings and Irish: The Evidence of Conversion
July 19, 2013 By
If we compare sources from England, the horror with which viking attacks were viewed is immediately apparent. The heathenism of vikings is stressed as one of their dire attributes in Alcuin’s famous response to news of the attack on Lindisfarne in 793. Literary accounts of vikings also became more lengthy and imaginative over time.
Bede’s Perspective and Purpose in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People
April 28, 2013 By
I argue that Bede’s involvement in ecclesiastical affairs throughout his life both illuminates and clouds his perspective on the history of the English church.
Scotland’s St Oran’s Cross to be restored
March 26, 2013 By
One of the most important symbols of medieval Scotland, St Oran’s Cross, will be re-erected for the first time in centuries, as part of the celebrations of the 1450th anniversary of the established of a monastery on Iona in Scotland.
What remains: Improper burials tell a story of social change in medieval Britain
March 16, 2013 By
Stonehenge, 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.
Narratives of the saintly body in Anglo-Saxon England
March 10, 2013 By
This dissertation investigates narratives of the saintly body in Anglo-Saxon England. Specifically, it examines the ways in which the bodies of holy men and women were constructed through such narratives and read in local appropriations of emblematic vitae and passiones.
“The Wrath of the Northmen”: The Vikings and their Memory
March 2, 2013 By
The British Kingdom of Lindsey
February 3, 2013 By
The 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…
The Frankish Annals of Lindisfarne and Kent
January 30, 2013 By
Scholars interested in the processes by which the history of Early Anglo Saxon England came to be recorded have long known of the existence of the annals that are referred to here as ‘The Frankish Annals of Linidisfarne and Kent’.
The Making of Men, not Masters: Right Order and Lay Masculinity According to Dhuoda and Nithard
January 27, 2013 By
Setting Nithard’s and Dhuoda’s works in dialogue with one another, this study seeks to explore how the conflicts of the early 840s may have triggered reevaluations of contemporary ideals regarding lay masculinty. At the core of both authors’ works is the understanding that the problems the realm was facing at that time were primarily due to no- blemen’s expression of unmanly modes of conduct.
Charlemagne’s Jihad
January 3, 2013 By
In 782, after almost two years with no clashes in the Saxon front, Charlemagne led his army into Saxony once again. This time, the main purpose was to subdue the Saxons who rebelled under the leadership of Widukind. It was a brutal campaign, during which, our sources relate, more than 4,500 Saxon rebels were beheaded in one day at the order of Charlemagne.
Property Rights in Celtic Irish Law
December 16, 2012 By
Unfortunately, many historians not specializing in the study of the ancient Irish law tracts have been unaware of the textual inaccuracies of the O’Curry – O’Donovan translations and have continued to incorporate their older unscientific work, and that of their editors, into their own work.
The Invisible Wall of St John. On Mental Centrality in Early Medieval Italy
December 5, 2012 By
The spatial categories of this society provided the basis for the view of certain places as being associated with a sacral materiality which is foreign to modern conceptualizations. It is the aim of this study to elucidate some of these early medieval notions of space.
Hincmar of Reims on King-making: The Evidence of the Annals of St. Bertin, 861–882
December 5, 2012 By
The Histories and Chronicles Hincmar had in mind were presumably Frankish ones; and Lothar II, succeeding his father, thus clearly came into this section of Hincmar’s third category. But of the timing or form of Lothar’s becoming king, Hincmar said not a word, preferring, instead, to spell out the Biblical lesson that a bad king (and he hastily disclaimed any allegation that Lothar’s father had been a bad king) would see the succession depart from his line.
What can written sources, sculpture and archaeology tell us about Pictish identity and how this might have changed between the sixth and ninth centuries?
November 18, 2012 By
Arguably one of the biggest changes in how the Picts portrayed themselves is understood through their use of sculpture. The earliest is thought to date to around the fifth century (Historic Scotland, 2012) lending itself to the Class I typology.
Christian Living Explained: Alcuin’s De virtutibus et vitiis liber in a Carolingian Instructional Manual
November 3, 2012 By
Another paper from the yesterday’s SESSION I: Lived Religion in the Middle Ages. This paper focused on Alcuin of York’s contribution to the standardisation of Carolingian Christian texts for pastoral instruction.
Iberian Uniqueness in the Arab Invasion of Spain
October 28, 2012 By
In the spring of the year AD 711, the Visigothic kingdom of Iberia was invaded and conquered by an army from the nearby Muslim Empire.
The Cosmography of Aethicus Ister
August 16, 2012 By
One of the most skilful forgeries of the Middle Ages, the Cosmography of Aethicus Ister has puzzled scholars for over 150 years, not least because of its challenging Latinity.
Emeralds, sapphires, pearls and other gemmological materials from the Preslav gold treasure (X century) in Bulgaria
August 5, 2012 By
The medieval settlement of Preslav (now Veliki Preslav) was founded during the VIII to IX century. It has been proclaimed the second capital of Bulgaria in 893 and is related to the reign of Tsar Simeon the Great.
Paganism in Conversion-Age Anglo-Saxon England: The Evidence of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History Reconsidered
July 22, 2012 By
With the notable exception of R. I. Page, the attitude that historians and archaeologists alike have taken to Bede’s words about the religion(s) of the pre-Christian occupants of conversion-age Anglo-Saxon England has overwhelmingly been to accept what this eighth-century commentator has to tell us.
Early Islamic site discovered in Jordan
July 10, 2012 By
Recent conservation work at Qusayr ’Amra in Jordan has revealed the name of the Umayyad prince who commissioned the construction of the building.
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