scholarly journals The Rise and Fall of Anglo-Saxon Runic Stone Monuments: Runic Inscriptions and the Development of Sculpture in Early Medieval England

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lilla Kopár
Keyword(s):  
Medieval England ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Stone Monuments ◽  
Runic Inscriptions

scholarly journals Archaeology and the built environment of early medieval England

Antiquity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 93 (368) ◽  
pp. 537-539
Author(s):  
Duncan W. Wright
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Broken Bones ◽  
Literary Sources

The bulk of people we can now be assured, were content with something that hardly deserves a better title than that of a hovel […] in such cabins, with bare head room, amid a filthy litter of broken bones, of food and shattered pottery […] lived the Anglo-Saxons (Leeds 1936: 25–26). This quote from E.T. Leeds, a pioneer of Anglo-Saxon archaeology during the first half of the twentieth century, was inspired by his excavation of settlement remains at Sutton Courtenay, then in Berkshire. Leeds's excavations were actually a breakthrough moment, resulting in the first identification of early medieval settlement structures other than those associated with ecclesiastical sites. In spite of this, the frustration and disappointment with the character and quality of the Sutton Courtenay site are all too apparent in Leeds's assessment. As an expert in Anglo-Saxon artwork, how could he reconcile the skill and craft of fine metalwork, with the ephemeral and impoverished settlement with which he was now dealing? Likewise, where were the great charismatic halls of monumental construction that populated such literary sources as Beowulf? The excavation of the graves of Sutton Hoo, two years after investigations at Sutton Courtney came to a close, served only to amplify the disparity between settlement and burial archaeology—put simply, burials were viewed as richer, grander and far more interesting.

Deer, Land, Knives and Halls: Social Change in Early Medieval England

2010 ◽  
Vol 90 ◽  
pp. 175-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Sykes
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Old English ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval

AbstractIt is well known that Anglo-Saxon England witnessed dramatic changes in landscape organization, economy and social structure but this paper aims to demonstrate how a more nuanced appreciation of these transformations can be gained by weaving together different (and superficially incompatible) strands of information. Here zooarchaeological data relating to the distribution and consumption of venison are combined with evidence from studies of weapons, landscape, Old English texts and anthropology. It is argued that, between the fifth and eleventh centuries, Anglo-Saxon society moved from being a culture centred on redistribution, in which the concept of cutting up and sharing permeated every facet of life, to one of closure and privatization, as the elite attempted to distance themselves from the lower classes.

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