11 research outputs found
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Religious transformations in the Middle Ages: towards a new archaeological agenda
The study of religious change in Europe between the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Reformation forms one of the cornerstones of medieval archaeology but has been riven by period, denominational and geographical divisions. This paper lays the groundwork for a fundamental rethink of archaeological approaches to medieval religions, by adopting a holistic framework that places Christian, pagan, Islamic and Jewish case studies of religious transformation in a long-term, comparative perspective. Focused around the analytical themes of ‘hybridity and resilience’ and ‘tempo and trajectories’, our approach shifts attention away from the singularities of national narratives of religious conversion towards a deeper understanding of how religious beliefs, practices and identity were renegotiated by medieval people in their daily lives
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Overview: trade, exchange and urbanization
Abstract
This article provides some of the general points focusing on three topics: exchange and trade; the pace and character of urbanization; and the inter-relationship between urban centres. Interpreting the early medieval economy as highly monetized presupposes that trading had penetrated most of society, but there is little independent evidence for this. In the eighth and ninth centuries, the urban character of the country was determined by the emporia, which were served by high-status sites, both secular and religious, which acted as collection centres for the onward transport of agricultural surpluses, giving a basic two-part core exchange structure. It is important to investigate discontinuities in the urbanization process, and not always assume that the urban network came into being relatively early and remained fixed for most of the Middle Ages.</jats:p
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The changing monastic cloister: excavations in the south range of Bordesley Abbey
Cheshire and Lancashire. By Richard N. Bailey (with C. Roger Bristow, Derek Craig, Ken Jukes, David N. Parsons and Ross Trench-Jellicoe). (Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, 9.) Pp. ix+522 incl. frontispiece, 4 tables and 20 figs. Oxford: Oxford University Press (for the British Academy), 2010. £70. 978 0 19 726462 1
The Western Midlands. By Richard Bryant (with Michael Hare and others). (Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, 10.) Pp. xx+596 incl. frontispiece, 1 table, 48 figs and 794 black-and-white plates + 1 colour plate. Oxford: Oxford University Press (for the British Academy), 2012. £95. 978 0 19 726515 4
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Anglo-Saxon attitudes: how should post-AD 700 burials be interpreted?
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