34 research outputs found
âSons of athelings given to the earthâ: Infant Mortality within Anglo-Saxon Mortuary Geography
FOR 20 OR MORE YEARS early Anglo-Saxon archaeologists have believed children are underrepresented in the cemetery evidence. They conclude that excavation misses small bones, that previous attitudes to reporting overlook the very young, or that infants and children were buried elsewhere. This is all well and good, but we must be careful of oversimplifying compound social and cultural responses to childhood and infant mortality. Previous approaches have offered methodological quandaries in the face of this under-representation. However, proportionally more infants were placed in large cemeteries and sometimes in specific zones. This trend is statistically significant and is therefore unlikely to result entirely from preservation or excavation problems. Early medieval cemeteries were part of regional mortuary geographies and provided places to stage events that promoted social cohesion across kinship systems extending over tribal territories. This paper argues that patterns in early Anglo-Saxon infant burial were the result of female mobility. Many women probably travelled locally to marry in a union which reinforced existing social networks. For an expectant mother, however, the safest place to give birth was with experience women in her maternal home. Infant identities were affected by personal and legal association with their motherâs parental kindred, so when an infant died in childbirth or months and years later, it was their motherâs identity which dictated burial location. As a result, cemeteries central to tribal identities became places to bury the sons and daughters of a regional tribal aristocracy
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'The debatable territory where geology and archaeology meet': reassessing the early archaeobotanical work of Clement Reid and Arthur Lyell at Roman Silchester
The first large-scale archaeobotanical study in Britain, conducted from 1899 to 1909 by Clement Reid and
Arthur Lyell at Silchester, provided the first evidence for the introduction of Roman plant foods to Britain,
yet the findings have thus far remained unverified. This paper presents a reassessment of these
archaeobotanical remains, now stored as part of the Silchester Collection in Reading Museum. The
documentary evidence for the Silchester study is summarised, before the results are presented for over a
1000 plant remains including an assessment of preservation, identification and modern contamination.
The dataset includes both evidence for the presence of nationally rare plant foods, such as medlar, and
several archaeophytes. The methodologies and original interpretations of Reid and Lyellâs study are
reassessed in light of current archaeobotanical knowledge. Spatial and contextual patterns in the
distribution of plant foods and ornamental taxa are also explored. Finally, the legacy of the study for the
development of archaeobotany in the 20th century is evaluated
Socio-semiotics and the symbiosis of humans, horses, and objects in later Iron Age Britain
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Archaeological Journal on 14/03/2018, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00665983.2018.1441105Using an approach derived from material culture studies and semiotics, this paper addresses possible relationships between humans and horses in the British Iron Age.Through a study of the dominance of horse imagery found on Iron Age British coinage, specifically the Western coinage traditionally attributed to the 'Dobunni', the author explores how it may reflect possible relationships between humans and horses and their personhood therein. Drawing on wider faunal and metalwork evidence it is argued that these coins could be interpreted as a manifestation of the complex perspectives surrounding a symbiotic relationship between humans and horses