Martin Golberg, Senior Curator at the National Museums of Scotland, travelled to the British Museum to give audiences perspective on the various pieces in the exhibit as well as an introduction to what constitutes “Celtic” art.
Who Were The Celts? The British Museum Offers Answers with New Exhibition
September 28, 2015 By
The British Museum just opened its latest exhibit, Celts: Art and Identity this past Thursday, covering 2,500 years of Celtic history. The exhibit explores Celtic identity and how it eveolved from the time of the Ancient Greeks to the present through art, culture, daily life, religion and politics.
Picts offer historians a picture of non-Roman Briton culture
February 12, 2015 By
History has never been too kind to a group of early British Isle inhabitants referred to as the Picts, but the often mischaracterized, always mysterious people may serve as a historical laboratory to explore how the island’s culture might have developed without Roman intervention, according to a Penn State historian.
A British legion stationed near Orléans c. 530?
September 2, 2014 By
Several recent books lead the reader to believe that Vita sancti Dalmatii, written in c. 800, records a legio Britannica (a British army) stationed near Orléans in c. 530. As this paper demonstrates, the only correct detail of this purported record is the word legio, and this may well have a non-military connotation.
Anglo-Saxon smiths and myths
September 1, 2014 By
Knowledge of the metalworking and jewellery-making abilities of the Anglo-Saxons has been much enhanced in recent years by metallurgical and other technical studies.
Archaeology, common rights and the origins of Anglo-Saxon identity
September 1, 2014 By
It is generally accepted that rights over land, especially rights of pasture, played a formative role in establishing the identity of early Anglo-Saxon ‘folk groups’, the predecessors of the middle Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
Rethinking Hardown Hill: Our Westernmost Early Anglo-Saxon Cemetery?
August 16, 2014 By
This paper reassesses the early Anglo-Saxon assemblage from Hardown Hill, Dorset. Wingrave excavated the objects in 1916 but apart from his 1931 report, and Evison’s 1968 analysis, there has been little subsequent discussion.
Quid Tacitus . . . ? The Germania and the Study of Anglo-Saxon England
June 6, 2014 By
This paper considers the vexed historiography of Tacitus’s Germania and its reception history, first among German and other European historians and then among Anglo-Saxonists.
‘Royal’ pediculosis in Renaissance Italy: lice in the mummy of the King of Naples Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496)
February 3, 2014 By
Pediculosis seems to have afflicted humans since the most ancient times and lice have been found in several ancient human remains. Examination of the head hair and pubic hair of the artificial mummy of Ferdinand II of Aragon (1467-1496), King of Naples, revealed a double infestation with two different species of lice…
Merovingian and Carolingian Empires: An Analysis of Their Strengths and Weaknesses
December 26, 2013 By
In this research paper I will analyze the achievements and the destruction of the Merovingian Empire to demonstrate how both provide a basic structure of government for the Carolingians to adopt.
Christmas Books: Great Medieval Fiction Reads for the Christmas Holidays!
December 8, 2013 By
Some medieval stocking stuffers for the historians on your Christmas list!
Piracy in Late Roman Britain: A Perspective from the Viking Age
September 12, 2013 By
In contrast to Romano-British studies, the scholar of the Viking Age is well served by detailed discussions of piracy, in large part driven by the considerable number of primary historical sources.
A Revival of Female Spirituality: Adaptations of Nuns’ Rules during the Hiberno-Frankish Monastic Movement
August 12, 2013 By
Before Columbanus, Irish abbots demonstrated little interest in producing monastic rules as we know them from the traditions of Benedict of Nursia and Caesarius of Arles. Preferring instruction by example to any documented tenets, Irish monasticism emphasized the conduct of the founding or ruling abbot or abbess as a model to imitate.
The Anglo-Saxon influence on Romano-Britain : research past and present
July 17, 2013 By
The Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon transition in Britain is one of the most striking transitions seen in the archaeological record. Changes in burial practice between these periods, along with historical, anthropological, environmental and linguistic evidence have all been thought to indicate that a mass migration of Angles and Saxons into Britain occurred in the 5th century A.D.
Lincolnshire and the Arthurian Legend
April 28, 2013 By
This article is intended to rectify this, proceeding from the widely-held assumption of the existence of a genuinely ‘historical Arthur’, before going on to consider the even more fundamental question of whether we ought to believe in Arthur’s existence at all.
Tenebrae Refulgeant: Celestial Signa in Gregory of Tours
March 24, 2013 By
Celestial portents appear frequently in the Historiae of Bishop Gregory of Tours (ca. 539–94). Gregory carefully distinguished between the interpretation of celestial signs and horoscopic astrology by describing signs as natural, albeit miraculous, elements of God’s Creation.
A tale of Wade: The Anglo-Saxon origin myth in an East Saxon setting
March 23, 2013 By
In the past Walter Map’s tale of Gado, included in his De Nugis Curialium, written towards the end of the twelfth century, has been merely regarded as a Medieval Latin version of a pre-conquest lay concerning the exploits of the Germanic hero Wade. However, if we look past the fantastic elements which surround him we are left with what appears to be an East Saxon version of the English settlement myth most familiar in the Kentish form involving Hengist and Vortigern, which itself seems to have been adopted from a common Germanic theme.
The ‘Prehistory’ of Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of Books I-IV of Gregory’s Histories
February 11, 2013 By
In northern Gaul in the second half of the sixth century, a bishop of Tours, Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known to posterity as Gregory of Tours, composed eight books of hagiography and ten books of history. These testaments survive as evidence of the politics, society and theology of this post-imperial world.
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…
Procopius’ Portrayal of Theodora in the Secret History: ‘Her Charity was Universal’
January 27, 2013 By
Like most other writers of late antiquity, what little is known about Procopius comes from his works. Born at the turn of the sixth century in Caesarea, he had the chance to receive education in the traditional Greek fashion, i.e. through the use of classical authors, before Justinian banned pagan teaching in 529
From Paganism to Christianity: Transition of the Insular Celts As Seen Through The Archaeological Record
December 21, 2012 By
These centuries of tension and adaptation provide the evidence for the interaction of Christianity and Celtic religions, but one must use caution when examining Celtic religion because of potentially biased evidence.
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.
The Early Medieval Period
September 25, 2012 By
The Early Medieval archaeology of the region is internally diverse in terms of chronology, with the 5th and 6th centuries (Sub-Roman, Dark Ages, Early Anglo-Saxon) looking very different from the 7th to early 9th centuries (Middle Anglo-Saxon) and the late 9th to mid-11th centuries (Late Anglo-Saxon or Viking period).
Anglo-Saxon presence and culture in Wiltshire c. AD 450-c. 675
September 23, 2012 By
It is suggested that the initial Germanic immigration may have taken place within the framework of the former Romano-British civitates.
The Gallic Aristocracy and the Roman Imperial government in the fifth century A.D.
September 23, 2012 By
The recovery, however, proved to be too superficial for the continuing prosperity of either Gaul or the Western Roman Empire. The problems of the imperial government continued with little relief. The government still had to drive out and keep out the barbarians…
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