Knights, Mercenaries and Paid Soldiers : Military Identities in the Anglo-Norman Regnum

This study examines how contemporary concerns and opinions on the increasing use of paid soldiers in late twelfth-century theatres of war impacted on class identity formation, and approaches the question of chivalry and knightly identity from a decidedly unchivalrous perspective. Rather than directly investigating the chivalrous knight, I will examine the social and cultural spaces around him, for these excluded regions were just as crucial in defining knightly identity. The focus will be on the image of the mercenary and the paid soldier from the end of the eleventh century to the beginning of the thirteenth in the Anglo-Norman world and its environs, and how its development helped to define the social and military identity of Anglo-Norman knighthood.Peer reviewe

Trade & Travel

Peer reviewe

Metal-detecting data as citizen science archaeology

Avocational metal-detecting in Finland has produced a mass of new and important archaeological data over the past ten years, and responsible metal-detectorists act as citizen science archaeologists. Important steps have been made in producing digital archaeological data services aimed at both professionals and the public, including the Ilppari online finds reporting service and the FindSampo citizen science data service and semantic online heritage portal. But with this development work we have also seen that more attention needs to be put on data quality, data structure, database design, and on development work of digital services in order for them to influence a higher user potential. In our paper we argue, through select case studies, that appropriately recorded metal-detected finds possess tremendous possibilities for advancing archaeological understanding of the past. This data can be used for creating new spatial analysis, for identifying previously unrecorded and therefore vulnerable archaeological sites, and for identifying new potential research areas.Peer reviewe

Digital Humanities Solutions for Pan-European Numismatic and Archaeological Heritage Based on Linked Open Data

This paper discusses current challenges in archaeological cultural heritage data management and presents the interdisciplinary research project DigiNUMA. The project investigates solutions in data harmonisation and dissemination of pan-European cultural heritage through an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral project in Digital Humanities, semantic computing, participatory heritage, museum collections management and archaeological/numismatic studies. Using Finnish and English numismatic data as a test case, DigiNUMA creates ontological infrastructure and a proof-of-concept data model for finely-grained Linked Open Data (LOD) harmonisation across national and international databases for cultural heritage data, and tests it through a broad suite of Digital Humanities analyses.Peer reviewe

Citizen Science Archaeological Finds on the Semantic Web : The FindSampo Framework

FindSampo fosters collecting, sharing, publishing and studying archaeological finds discovered by the public. The framework includes the following: a mobile find-reporting system; a semantic portal for researchers, the public and collection managers to use; and a Linked Open Data service for creating custom data analyses and for application developers.Peer reviewe

Medieval Commercial Sites: as seen through Portable Antiquities Scheme data

This paper explores some 220,000 medieval objects recorded in the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) online database of archaeological small finds through Geographic Information System analysis of their relationship with contemporary market sites. First, an overview of the contents of the PAS database is presented in terms of its spatial and ‘object type’ distribution. Second, the relationship of the medieval finds data against documentary evidence of commercial activity is investigated at a national level. Finally, PAS data is contextualised in its historical landscape context through case studies. It is argued that the distribution of PAS finds on the national scale can be linked with patterns of commercial activity, and that while rural and urban finds scatters have distinguishing trends, the countryside population enjoyed access to a range of sophisticated metalwork culture; also, that certain assemblages can be analysed statistically to yield new data and perspectives on local historical development.Peer reviewe

Inland Navigation in England and Wales before 1348: GIS Database

A GIS database describing the extent of navigable rivers and canals in England and Wales from the eleventh century to the mid-fourteenth. The database consists of CSV point data files and ESRI polyline shapefiles that give the following information: a) navigable waterway courses, b) heads of navigation, c) place-name information related to waterway traffic

Flanders and the Anglo-Norman world, 1066-1216 /

"The union of Normandy and England in 1066 recast the political map of western Europe and marked the beginning of a new era in the region's international history. This book is a groundbreaking investigation of the relations and exchanges between the county of Flanders and the Anglo-Norman realm. Among other important themes, it examines Anglo-Flemish diplomatic treaties and fiefs, international aristocratic culture, the growth of overseas commerce, immigration into England and the construction of new social and national identities. The century and a half between the conquest of England by the duke of Normandy and the conquest of Normandy by the king of France witnessed major revolutions in European society, politics and culture. This study explores the history of England, northern France and southern Low Countries in relation to each other during this period, giving fresh perspectives to the historical development of north-western Europe in the Central Middle Ages"--"The union of Normandy and England in 1066 recast the political map of western Europe and marked the beginning of a new era in the region's international history. This book is a groundbreaking investigation of the relations and exchanges between the county of Flanders and the Anglo-Norman realm. Among other important themes, it examines Anglo-Flemish diplomatic treaties and fiefs, international aristocratic culture, the growth of overseas commerce, immigration into England and the construction of new social and national identities. The century and a half between the conquest of England by the duke of Normandy and the conquest of Normandy by the king of France witnessed major revolutions in European society, politics and culture. This study explores the history of England, northern France and southern Low Countries in relation to each other during this period, giving fresh perspectives to the historical development of north-western Europe in the Central Middle Ages"--Includes bibliographical references.Introduction.1. Power and politics in Flanders and the Anglo-Norman Regnum.2. Military treaties and diplomatic culture.3. Anglo-Flemish diplomacy: context and mechanisms.4. Tournament in Anglo-Flemish society.5. Politics of cross-Channel commerce.6. Flemish immigration to England.7. Social identity and the image of Flemings in England.Conclusion

Evaluating Transformations in Small Metal Finds Following the Black Death

This paper seeks to evaluate transformations in portable material culture following the Black Death in England (1348-49), specifically through an analysis of small metal finds data recorded with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). To do this, we will first discuss the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other computational methods in archaeological research and then apply this to compare and contrast PAS data against that from excavated urban sites. The importance of PAS data will then be highlighted as a chronological and spatially wide-ranging resource for understanding socio-economic change in portable material culture throughout the Middle Ages, focusing on the significant period of demographic change in the fourteenth century. Finally, it is suggested that an improvement in living standards is reflected in the variety of portable objects that have been recovered, and case studies of certain artefact types will be used to demonstrate this.Peer reviewe

Methodological perspectives for applying spatial point pattern analyses to Finnish Iron Age remote sensing data

Remote sensing technologies and spatial analytical approaches hold proven potential for generating completely new quantitative information on, as well as assisting the qualitative interpretation of, archaeological phenomena. They have been, however, under-utilized in Finland. This paper presents an illustrative case study of applying a sequence of well-established computational spatial analyses to data derived from a very precise LiDAR survey of the Nuuttilanmäki Iron Age site near the village of Kalho in Päijät-Häme. Previous fieldwork has identified a group of several stone cairns on a field and forested area near the settlement. Many more cairns, hidden by vegetation and almost invisible to fieldwork inspection, are revealed by the LiDAR data and add to our understanding of the area. Initial fieldwork assessment has suggested that the cairns in the field area and the cairns in the immediately adjacent forest have been produced by different historical processes, with the former presumed burial cairns and the latter the result of agricultural land clearance. An archaeological excavation to verify this interpretation would be prohibitively expensive and might yield uncertain results. But a computational examination of the cairn pattern shows that the spatial interactions between the two groups significantly differ from each, thereby supporting the interpretation. Such methodological approaches will assist future archaeological surveys and fieldwork, and can be applied flexibly at multiply spatial scales of study.Peer reviewe