Search

The so-called Åker assemblage, a collection of stray finds of weapon parts and warrior-related objects dating from c. AD 600, has held a prominent position in Norwegian archaeology since the discovery of the first objects on the estate of Åker in Hedmark in south-eastern Norway in the 19th century. The assemblage comprises high-status objects belonging to a warrior elite whose equipment display close similarities across the European Continent and in Anglo-Saxon England. In early research, many of the objects in the assemblage, e. g., the renowned ‘Åker buckle’ with cloisonné and zoomorphic decoration, were ascribed a Continental provenance. More recent discussions, however, advocate a Scandinavian origin for all the objects in the assemblage. Yet, the question of where the items originally were manufactured was once more actualized when further objects belonging to the assemblage were unearthed by metal detectorists in the 1990s. Among the new finds were some Frankish types of belt mounts that are unique in a Scandinavian perspective and other items with similarities to related equipment found in other regions. The new items may thus potentially shed new light on the question concerning place of origin of the assemblage. The question of provenance, however, is tied up with the phenomenon of local workshop-traditions in Scandinavia and the North Sea region. New insights have been gained on this topic during recent years as several new production sites have been explored. Through a visual assessment of the new items in the assemblage and a discussion of related parallels, it is argued here for a yet unknown western Scandinavian workshop as the most likely source for several of the objects making up the Åker assemblage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of BHM Berg- und Hüttenmännische Monatshefte is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue Archéologique de Picardie is the property of Revue Archeologique de Picardie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue Archéologique de Picardie is the property of Revue Archeologique de Picardie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper looks at a specific aspect of burial customs in the context of cultural interactions in the late Early Middle Ages in the Baltic Sea region: The re-use of old burial mound fields by Scandinavian groups on the southern Baltic coast. During this period increased contact between Scandinavian groups and communities settling on the southern Baltic coast is testified. In this context, Scandinavian groups founded trading posts and colonies on the southern Baltic coast. At various sites, the associated burial sites occupy old burial mounds. Here, this re-use represents an appropriation with which, on the one hand, internal social aspects, such as the strengthening of group identity, are negotiated and a (fictitious) collective memory is created. On the other hand, it takes place in the context of intercultural contacts and therefor offers to investigate the use of the past in such a setting. The subsequent use and appropriation of the burial sites may have aided in legitimizing the presence also vis-à-vis with the native settlement groups, the genesis of a cultural memory related to the localities and the overcoming of foreignness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first millennium ad, Europe saw much socio-environmental change, which is reflected in the archaeological and palaeoecological evidence. Using published and new isotope data from across western Europe, the author examines changing resource use from c.ad 350 to 1200. The geographical limits of millet and substantial marine consumption are identified and comparisons between childhood and adult diets made across regions. Cross-cultural interaction at a broad scale is emphasized and patterns within early medieval England form the subject of an in-depth case study. While doubt is cast onto the uptake of marine resource consumption in England following the Fish Event Horizon, changes in agricultural practices, the impact of Christianization, and the role of freshwater fish in diets are explored. The author's hierarchical meta-analytical approach enables identification of human–environment interactions, with significant implications for changing foodways in Europe during the first millennium ad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The graffito „Sundarheri" in the annular crypt of the church of St. Emmeram in Regensburg, which can be palaeographically dated to c. 800, was written with high probability by the deacon Sundarheri of Freising. It is the earliest known graffito featuring a personal name in the German-speaking area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Archéologique de Picardie is the property of Revue Archeologique de Picardie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Die Existenz Großmährens wird in die Zeit vom 9. bis zur 1. Hälfte des 10. Jahrhunderts datiert. Es erstreckte sich zwischen dem karolingischen Westen und dem slawischen „Außeneuropa" und galt als erstes Staatsgebilde der Slawen, das die militär-aristokratische Struktur Westeuropas nachahmte. Neu entdeckte separate Bestattungen mit Waffen und Sporen lassen jedoch Zweifel an dieser Deutung aufkommen. Der besondere Bestattungsritus der hier vorgelegten Bestattungen weist zwar Ähnlichkeiten mit den separaten Friedhöfen des fränkischen grundherrschaftlichen Adels oder der freien Bauernkrieger auf, die archäologischen und bioarchäologischen Analysen erlauben in Mähren jedoch Rückschlüsse auf ein unterschiedliches soziales Phänomen, das zur Erschließung der historischen und kulturellen Spezifika dieses Raums als Schnittstelle zwischen Ost und West beitragen könnte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following short contribution undertakes to appraise a phenomenon that has become rare in the study of the history of writing, the biography of a Latin script, as the founder of modern Latin Palaeography, the Munich professor of Medieval Latin Ludwig Traube, had in mind over one hundred years ago. The study dealt with here on the so-called semi-uncial, the oldest book minuscule of late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, is considered in the wider context of the research history of the twentieth century; its main results are presented and questioned as regards the methodology applied. In this context, critical observations are made and some suggestions are offered for an appropriate new approach to the phenomenon of „writing" and its genesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Archéologique de Picardie is the property of Revue Archeologique de Picardie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Environmental information from place-names has largely been overlooked by geoarchaeologists and fluvial geomorphologists in analyses of the depositional histories of rivers and floodplains. Here, new flood chronologies for the rivers Teme, Severn, and Wye are presented, modelled from stable river sections excavated at Broadwas, Buildwas, and Rotherwas. These are connected by the Old English term *wæsse, interpreted as 'land by a meandering river which floods and drains quickly'. The results reveal that, in all three places, flooding during the early medieval period occurred more frequently between AD 350–700 than between AD 700–1100, but that over time each river's flooding regime became more complex including high magnitude single events. In the sampled locations, the fluvial dynamics of localized flood events had much in common, and almost certainly differed in nature from other sections of their rivers, refining our understanding of the precise nature of flooding which their names sought to communicate. This study shows how the toponymic record can be helpful in the long-term reconstruction of historic river activity and for our understanding of past human perceptions of riverine environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the sixth and eighth centuries ad, the practice of furnished burial was widely abandoned in favour of a much more standardized, unfurnished rite. This article examines that transition by considering the personhood and agency of the corpse, the different ways bonds of possession can form between people and objects, and what happens to those bonds at death. By analysing changing grave good use across western Europe, combined with an in-depth analysis of the Alamannic cemetery of Pleidelsheim, and historical evidence for perceptions of the corpse, the author argues that the change in grave good use marks a fundamental change in the perception of corpses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Archéologique de Picardie is the property of Revue Archeologique de Picardie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2017, eight runestones on Bornholm were scanned in 3D and the microtopography of the grooves was analysed by multivariate statistical methods. One of the stones was previously not known to runological research. The aim of this paper is to compare the carving technique of the Bornholm runestones with runestones from Swedish regions to shed light on old issues concerning Bornholm's links with other regions in and around the Baltic Sea. The rune carvers are important agents in this, as the runestones are often related to issues including landholding, Christianization, possible Swedish influences, and the inclusion of Bornholm into the Danish realm. In addition, rune carvers as native writers were intimately connected to the introduction of literacy. The results of this study indicate that the rune carvers did not cooperate much with carvers from the islands of Öland and Gotland, whereas Södermanland, among the Swedish mainland provinces, was their first choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Archéologique de Picardie is the property of Revue Archeologique de Picardie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Fall of Great Moravia. Reflections on relative and absolute chronology of Early Middle Ages in the East-Central Europe. Dating the so-called Great Moravian jewelry and Great Moravian church graveyards is one of the crucial tasks of archaeology of the Early Middle Ages. The chronological systems developed based on the rich graves investigated over the past 60 years within the Czech Republic help in dating archaeological finds from the 9th to the 10th century all over Europe. This study addresses the question of how long the luxury jewelry existed as part of living culture and until when the earliest church graveyards with burials of people clad in the traditional Great Moravian costume existed in Moravia. The solution to this problem is supported by assessments of finds from graves excavated at Pohansko near Břeclav and, most importantly, by radiocarbon dating the application of which is still not common in archaeology of the Early Middle Ages. The result of the present research is a finding that in Great Moravian church graveyards burials continued consistently until the mid-10th century, occasionally probably even a little longer. People were interred there wearing the typical Great Moravian costume which included the luxury jewelry as its component. It is a significant correction of the previous opinions and a partial return to the original dating of Great Moravian material culture from the 1950s and 1960s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revue Archéologique de Picardie is the property of Revue Archeologique de Picardie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Die vorliegende Studie befasst sich schwerpunktmäßig mit den Beziehungen zwischen Mähren und Süddeutschland im Frühmittelalter. Von den vielen verschiedenartigen gesellschaftlichen Phänomenen, auf die sich die gegenseitigen Kontakte auswirkten, sei näher diskutiert der Wandel im Bestattungsritus. Diese historischen Prozesse kann man im archäologischen Fundgut unter anderem mit der Verbreitung von spätmerowingischen Bommelohrringen und Pressblechfibeln in Verbindung bringen. Die Anfänge dieser Übermittlung gehen tief in das 8. Jahrhundert zurück, als in Mähren die ersten Körpergräber aufkamen. In ihnen waren auch diejenigen Frauen beigesetzt, die alemannischen und bajuwarischen Schmuck trugen.

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Archeologické Rozhledy is the property of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Archaeology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Sand was a fortified settlement situated in a wooded area at a bend of the Thaya River in Lower Austria. The site was erected at around 930 AD and probably destroyed by the Magyars in the second half of the 10th century. The historical role of Sand remains enigmatic. The fact that the site had only a very short lifetime has the benefit that the material derives from a well-defined period. In this paper we investigate the excavated faunal remains and their archaeological context. The vast majority of the faunal material constitutes primary waste. According to the number of identified specimens the prevalent species in Sand is cattle (almost 35 %); wild taxa are surprisingly abundant (about 40 %), dominated by wild boar, red deer and wild Bovidae (especially European bison). The analysis of the animal bones yielded insights into many important aspects of the economy of Sand; one of them is evidence for skinning and skin/fur processing at the site, indicated by species representation, age profiles, cut marks and skeletal element representation. This interpretation is further supported by archaeological evidence. The indications for skinning are mainly concentrated in the Westwall area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the „Theutberga Gospels“, a ninth-century gospelbook recently sold at auction at Christie’s in London, in light of questions about literate practices, ritual scripting and aristocratic patronage of female religious communities in Lotharingia between the middle decades of the ninth century and the beginning of the eleventh. While an estate list entered into the manuscript c. 1000 likely refers to property management at the abbey of Remiremont, an ordination ritual for abbesses entered roughly a century earlier reveals significant efforts to revise the representation of abbatial office in a transitional phase of that institution’s existence. These observations invite re-interpretation of traditional assumptions about how the manuscript should be located in mid-ninth-century patronage networks. Appended to the article are editions of the estate list and the ordination ritual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores a meshwork of citations to other material cultures and architectures created by the form and ornament of house-shaped early medieval recumbent stone monuments popularly known in Britain as ‘hogbacks’. In addition to citing the form and ornament of contemporary buildings, shrines, and tombs, this article suggests recumbent mortuary monuments referenced a far broader range of contemporary portable artefacts and architectures. The approach takes attention away from identifying any single source of origin for hogbacks. Instead, considering multi-scalar and multi-media references within the form and ornament of different carved stones provides the basis for revisiting their inherent variability and their commemorative efficacy by creating the sense of an inhabited mortuary space in which the dead are in dialogue with the living. By alluding to an entangled material world spanning Norse and Insular, ecclesiastical and secular spheres, hogbacks were versatile technologies of mortuary remembrance in the Viking Age. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introducing theEuropean Journal of Archaeology'sspecial issue ‘Mortuary Citations: Death and Memory in the Viking World’, this article outlines the justification and theoretical framework underpinning a new set of studies on Viking-age mortuary and commemorative practice as strategies of mortuary citation. The contributions to the collection are reviewed in relation to strengths and weaknesses in existing research and broader themes in mortuary archaeological research into memory work in past societies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie is the property of Komunikaty Mazursko-Warminskie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Considerable debate persists concerning the origins of those involved in the adventus Saxonum: the arrival of Germanic peoples in Britain during the fifth century AD. This question was investigated using oxygen and strontium isotope ratios obtained from archaeological dental samples from individuals in the 'Migration Period' cemetery, Ringlemere, Kent (n = 7) and three continental European sites (n = 17). Results demonstrated that strontium alone is unable to distinguish between individuals from south-east England and north-west Europe. Although 87Sr/86Sr values from Ringlemere fell within local biosphere parameters and suggest a spatially and temporally related group, δ18O values were inconsistent with origins in eastern England or on the North German plain. Results from the European sites negate past climate change as an explanation. It is possible that culturally mediated behaviour has obscured geographical relationships. Further work to characterize water sources and human δ18O values in the putative European homelands is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Archeologické Rozhledy is the property of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Archaeology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Der Artikel behandelt archäologische Funde, die zufällig im Gebiet von Sotin, einem mehrschichtigen Standort in der Gespanschaft Vukovar-Sirmien, gefunden wurden. Die S-Haken werden in die Zeit der Völkerwanderung datiert, und diese Art von archäologischen Beständen wird mit dem Erbe der römischen Provinzen verbunden. Mehrere Dutzend archäologischer Funde, darunter auch einige auf dem Gebiet der Republik Kroatien äußerst seltene, ermöglichen einen überblick über die Siedlungskontinuität in dem Gebiet, wo sich zuvor das römische Cornacum befand. Zum Abschluss wird die Lage einer bisher unbekannten Siedlung aus der Zeit der Völkerwanderung und des Frühmittelalters festgestellt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]