Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England: Religion, Ritual, and Rulership in the Landscape PDF
Preview Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England: Religion, Ritual, and Rulership in the Landscape
Medieval History and Archaeology GeneralEditors JOHN BLAIR HELENA HAMEROW Perceptions of the Prehistoric in Anglo-Saxon England MEDIEVAL HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY GeneralEditors JohnBlair HelenaHamerow Thevolumesinthisseriesbringtogetherarchaeological,historical,andvisual methodstooffernewapproachestoaspectsofmediaevalsociety,economy, andmaterialculture.Theseriesseekstopresentandinterpretarchaeological evidenceinwaysreadilyaccessibletohistorians,whileprovidingahistorical perspectiveandcontextforthematerialcultureoftheperiod. RECENTLYPUBLISHEDINTHISSERIES TREESANDTIMBERINTHEANGLO-SAXONWORLD EditedbyMichaelD.J.BintleyandMichaelG.Shapland VIKINGIDENTITIES ScandinavianJewelleryinEngland JaneF.Kerhaw LITURGY,ARCHITECTURE,ANDSACREDPLACESINANGLO-SAXONENGLAND HelenGittos RURALSETTLEMENTSANDSOCIETYINANGLO-SAXONENGLAND HelenaHamerow PARKSINMEDIEVALENGLAND S.A.Mileson ANGLO-SAXONDEVIANTBURIALCUSTOMS AndrewReynolds BEYONDTHEMEDIEVALVILLAGE TheDiversificationofLandscapeCharacterinSouthernBritain StephenRipon WATERWAYSANDCANAL-BUILDINGINMEDIEVALENGLAND EditedbyJohnBlair FOODINMEDIEVALENGLAND DietandNutrition EditedbyC.M.Woolgar,D.Serjeantson,andT.Waldron GOLDANDGILT,POTSANDPINS PossessionsandPeopleinMedievalBritain DavidA.Hinton THEICONOGRAPHYOFEARLYANGLO-SAXONCOINAGE SixthtoEighthCenturies AnnaGannon PERCEPTIONS OF THE PREHISTORIC IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND Religion, Ritual, and Rulership in the Landscape SARAH SEMPLE 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries #SarahSemple2013 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2013 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicence,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2013940865 ISBN 978–0–19–968310–9 Asprintedandboundby CPIGroup(UK)Ltd,Croydon,CR04YY Linkstothird-partywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythird-partywebsitereferencedinthiswork. Formyparents This page intentionally left blank Preface and Acknowledgements Thebeginningsofthisbooklieinanundergraduatedissertationwhichinvesti- gatedthemedievalchurchandlargeprehistorichengeatAveburyinWiltshire. Thisproject,andapassionforearlymedievalarchaeology,werenurturedatthe Institute ofArchaeology,UniversityCollegeLondon,encouragedbymyexcel- lent tutors especially James Graham Campbell. The main project, however, began life as doctoral research, funded by the AHRC and completed at The Queen’s College, Oxford in 2003. After several revisions, the final manuscript was realized during research leave granted by my department at Durham Universityin2010.Throughoutitscreation,Ihavebenefitedfromtheinspiring guidance of John Blair, who has provided advice on all forms of evidence for the Anglo-Saxon world, and to whom I remain indebted, for his continuing generositywithknowledgeandgoodadvice. Theresultingvolumeis,Ihope,somethingalittledifferentfromthemainstream literatureonAnglo-SaxonEngland.Weknowthatearlymedievalcommunities wereintimatelyconnectedtothelandscapethatsurroundedthemthroughtheir dailylivesandactivities.Thisbookrevealsthatancientprehistoricmonuments inthoselandscapeshadasmuchmeaningforearlymedievalcommunitiesasthe natural world. They were not just places to bury the dead, but legendary locations and places of pre-Christian power and myth that continued to hold meaning after the conversion. To stand in a certain ancient hill fort was tostandwherepastheroeshadfallen,wherebattleshadbeenlostandwon,ata place intimate to tales of the beginnings of Anglo-Saxon Society. An ancient barrowcemeteryontheskylinecouldbeclaimedanew,andreworkedintothe fabric of a new mythology of descent, ownership, and territory. Monuments, therefore, rather than merely old features inspiring awe or fear, were used to markoutapotentterraininvestedwithpowerandmyth.Farfromfadingaway at the conversion, this meaningful landscape survived and was negotitated afresh by late Anglo-Saxon populations who populated its hills and pools withmonstrousentitiesandbeastsandusedlandscapetostructurenewrituals ofpower. Itismyhopethatthisbookachievesadeeperunderstandingofthisnuminous landscape and reawakens the early medieval imagination in the modern eye. There is material here of interest for archaeologists working on funerary archaeology and landscapes, and working with concepts of power, monumen- tality,andplace,andelementsofthebookmayhaveappealtothoseworkingin place-namestudies,literarystudies,and,ofcourse,medievalhistory.Anybook has its limitations and this one is no exception. On reflection the question of viii PrefaceandAcknowledgements competingBritishtraditionsofreuseinthefifthandsixthcenturieshasreceived lessattentionthanitshould.ThegeographicfocusisalsoskewedtotheAnglo- Saxon kingdoms in the south, east, and north, and the west of England is not explored here fully. Finally the emphasis on landscape and prehistoric monu- ments could have been balanced with a deeper consideration of the use of Roman ruins and more detailed investigation of the recycling and circulation ofprehistoricandRomanartefacts.Icanonlyhopethatwhatliesinthesepages acts as a stimulus and incentive to others to press on and explore these gaps further. The text has been seen by many on its journey and is much improved as a consequence. I am grateful to my examiners Helena Hamerow and Martin Carver;andtoRichardBradley,JohnHines,HelenGeake,SamLucy,Howard Williams, and Victoria Whitworth for early comments on my thesis. More recently the revised script has benefited from input by Abby Antrobus, Gwen Bergius, Derek Craig, Rosemary Cramp, Vicky Crewe, Tom Moore, and Sam Turner. Specific chapters were read and commented on by Stuart Brookes, John Baker, and Alex Sanmark (Chapter3), Alaric Hall and Richard Jones (Chapter5),andAndrewReynolds,StuartBrookes,andJohnBlair(Chapter6). AlaricHallandJohnBakerdeserveespecialthanksfortheirclosescrutinyofmy use of Old English literary sources and Old English place-names in Chapter5 and Appendix 4. Two anonymous reviewers also provided welcome advice which has served to strengthen the volume, and the text has been much improved by the hard work of Alejandra Gutierrez and the OUP team. I am gratefultoBrianBuchananandAlexTurnerforproducingtheoriginalillustra- tionsinthevolumeandtoJohnBlair,JohnBleach,BillBritnell,StuartBrookes, VickyCrewe,PaulEverson,RichardGreen,DawnHadley,SamLucy,Dominic Powlesland, Andrew Reynolds, Daniel Smith, David Stocker, Paul Tubb, Alisdair Whittle, Mark Whyman, Howard Williams, and the British Museum, Cambridge University, Corpus for Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, English Heritage, Oxford Archaeology Unit, the Society for Medieval Archaeology andtheVictoriaandAlbertMuseumforpermissiontoreproduceillustrations. The early research for this book was made possible by support from my parents,epeciallywhenmysonwasyounger.Itscompletionhasbeenmadeall the more pleasurable by working with a fantastic group of colleagues at Durham, in Archaeology and in the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, not least my recent PhD students, Gwen Bergius, Lisa Brundle, Sira Dooley Fairchild, Celia Orsini, and Tudor Skinner. Family, close friends, and colleagueshaveallindirectlyinonewayoranothercontributedtothedevelop- mentofthisbook,butmyfinalthanksaretothosewholivedwithitscreation, toAndrew,Alex,andJacob. SarahSemple Contents ListofFigures x ListofColourPlates xii ListofTables xiii ListofAbbreviationsandPrimarySources xiv 1. Thepastinthepast:Multidisciplinaryperspectiveson Anglo-Saxon‘reuse’ 1 2. Burial,community,andidentityandtheprehistoricpast: Anglo-SaxonEnglandc.AD400–800 13 3. Ancestral,spiritual,andmagical?Pre-Christianattitudes totheprehistoric 63 4. Thecircleandthecross:Medievalchurchesandprehistoric monuments 108 5. Changingmeanings:Prehistoricmonumentsinliterature andplace-namesc. AD700–1100 143 6. Royalandreligioustheatre:Monumentsandpowerin midtolateSaxonEngland 193 7. Visionsofthepast:TheAnglo-Saxonsandtheancient landscape 224 Appendix1. Burialsoffifth-toeighth-centurydateinthe EastYorkshirestudyarea 243 Appendix2. Weaponrydiscoveredinpossiblenon-funerary contextsatprehistoricmonuments 249 Appendix3. Medievalchurchessituatedwithreferencetoprehistoric monuments 253 Appendix4. MonumentsandthesupernaturalinAnglo-Saxon charter-bounds 261 Bibliography 282 Index 325
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