Art and Architecture of Late Medieval Pilgrimage in Northern Europe and the British Isles

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 490
Author(s):  
Katherine L. French ◽  
Sarah Blick ◽  
Rita Tekippe
Keyword(s):  
Northern Europe ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Art And Architecture

Archaeology and Sigillography in Northern Europe

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-238
Author(s):  
Michael Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Northern Europe ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Seal Impressions

Medieval seals, traditionally considered from the perspective of their documentary function, may also be studied as archaeological artefacts. Pilgrim badges were seal-shaped, and seal matrices and seal impressions can be found on church bells, in altars, and in burial sites. The context in which matrices are excavated provides valuable information on the practices of sealing and on the values attached to seals. This article also reveals a hitherto undescribed late medieval practice whereby papal and Scandinavian royal correspondents exchanged seal matrices.

Cremation and the Use of Fire in Mesolithic Mortuary Practices in North-West Europe

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Gray Jones
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Mortuary Practice ◽  
North West ◽  
Northern France ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Secondary Burial ◽  
Late Mesolithic

Cremation is not widely recognized as a form of mortuary treatment amongst the hunter-gatherer communities of Mesolithic north-west Europe (broadly defined as c.9300 cal. BC to c.4000 cal. BC). Instead, the period is perhaps most well known for some of the earliest inhumation cemeteries in northern Europe, the most familiar being the Scandinavian sites of Skateholm I and II (Scania, Sweden) (Larsson 1988a) and Vedbæk-Bøgebakken (Zealand, Denmark) (Albrethsen and Brinch Petersen 1977) and those on the coast of northern France, Teviéc and Hoëdic (Morbihan, France) (Péquart et al. 1937; Péquart and Péquart 1954). As concentrations of well-furnished burials they have long provided the focus for discussions of Mesolithic mortuary practice as well as social status and group organization (e.g. Clark and Neeley 1987) and, more recently, cosmology (e.g. Zvelebil 2003), personhood (e.g. Fowler 2004), sexuality (e.g. Schmidt 2000) and the ritual practice of handling the body (e.g. Nilsson Stutz 2003). However, discoveries within the last two decades have increased the evidence for the practice of cremation (as well as other forms of treatment, such as secondary burial) amongst the huntergatherers of the Mesolithic, both in terms of the geographic distribution of the practice and its temporal spread throughout the period. Although rare in comparison to inhumation, cremation can now be seen to have been practiced throughout both the early and late Mesolithic and, whilst evidence is currently sparse within the modern areas of Germany and the British Isles, examples are known across Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, northern France, and the Republic of Ireland (totalling at least thirteen sites with cremated remains amongst over 100 sites with human bone in this area, see Fig. 2.1 and Table 2.1). Additionally, whilst preparing this chapter, a new discovery of cremated remains deposited in a large pit was made at Langford (Essex, England) and directly dated to the late Mesolithic, representing the first example from England (Gilmour and Loe 2015). It is worth noting here that there are also several more sites with human remains (usually disarticulated or ‘loose’ human bones) which are described as ‘charred’ or ‘burnt’ but for the purposes of this chapter I consider ‘cremated remains’ to refer to bone or a body that has undergone the mortuary rite of cremation (transformation of a corpse by burning) and burnt bone as the incidental or deliberate burning of dry and/or disarticulated bone (after McKinley 2013: 150).

Seasonal distribution of dry-matter production in grass varieties from different latitudes in northern Europe

1985 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. K. M. Hay
Keyword(s):  
Low Temperatures ◽  
Dry Matter ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Seasonal Distribution ◽  
Dry Matter Production ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Controlled Conditions ◽  
Matter Production

Work in controlled conditions (Cooper, 1964; østgård & Eagles, 1971) has indicated that, under short photoperiods and low temperatures, Scandinavian grass varieties tend to grow more slowly than those from lower latitudes, and are, therefore, more resistant to cold and freezing stresses. This has been confirmed in field experiments (Håbjørg, 1979). These grasses would therefore be expected to cease growth earlier in the autumn when grown in the British Isles. However, this mechanism does not appear to operate under lengthening days; indeed, there is evidence to suggest that their growth is particularly stimulated by the combination of cool temperatures and long days (Cooper, 1964; Hay & Heide, 1983, 1984). This raises the possibility that varieties from Norway and Sweden could produce more dry matter than grasses of more southern provenance in the spring in upland areas, when low temperatures are associated with rapidly lengthening photoperiod (12·5–15 h) and moderate to high levels of irradiance (> 200 W/m2) (Hay, 1985).

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