Medieval Artifacts Research Articles

Archaeology and the Creag nan Uamh bone caves, Assynt, Highland

Excavations in the 1920s at the Creag nan Uamh bone caves, near Inchnadamph, aroused considerable interest in the possibility of evidence for a Palaeolithic presence in north-west Scotland. Four objects found during those excavations, including the one on which the principal claim for a Palaeolithic date was based, are published here for the first time. The author contends that two are probable Viking Age/early medieval artefacts of unusual type, one is undated but is possibly also of the same period, and the fourth, while almost certainly of the Pleistocene age, is regarded as an unmodified natural object. It is argued that collectively these items serve to discount previous claims for Palaeolithic human presence. Radiocarbon dating of the human skeletal remains found, however, suggests the caves were a burial place in the Neolithic period. The paper makes extensive use of archive documentation to put the 1920s discoveries at Creag nan Uamh and their aftermath into historical context. Includes

Sutton Hoo: a seventh-century princely burial ground and its context

Hoo is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1939 it was the scene of the discovery of a fabulous treasure buried in a ship 30 metres long. In 1983 a new project began with the aim of discovering the context of the great Hoo burial ship. Using revolutionary fieldwork procedures, this new campaign uncovered a hectare of the cemetery, surveyed the surrounding region and made direct comparisons with monumental practices in neighbouring kingdoms across the North Sea. It was found that the burials were highly diverse - cremations in bronze bowls, with a horse, in a bed, and in boats and ships - and that many had been ransacked. Among the new finds were a new ship-burial and the first complete horse-burial, with its harness, to be excavated in England. From the eighth to tenth century, this 'burial ground of kings' became an execution site, allowing the new Christian authorities to exercise power through the public disposal of dissidents. Two groups of unfurnished burials were discovered, one associated with the posts of a gallows or gibbet. Sutton Hoo: A Seventh-Century Princely Burial Ground and its Context offers a description of all the investigations undertaken since 1983. The early medieval artefacts, the early medieval landscape and the environmental and prehistoric sequences are studied by contributing experts. The book provides a complete scholarly companion to the archaeological research and interpretation of Hoo.

Far from barbaric: Re-assessing the sophistication of merovingian metalworking

The demise of the Roman Empire during the mid-fifth century A.D. resulted in the rise of one of Europe’s longest ruling families of the Middle Ages: the Merovingians. The Merovingian dynasty lasted from the mid-fifth to the mid-eighth centuries A.D. and at its height controlled states that stretched across France, Belgium, Germany west of the Rhineland, and most of Switzerland. Archaeometallurgists used to believe that the state of metalworking technology declined after the demise of the Roman Empire. To assess the level of sophistication of metalworking during this period, a set of 36 iron tools and weapons were metallurgically sampled and examined. For comparison, 11 Iron Age, three Roman, and four medieval iron artifacts from the same region were also sampled.

Digitizing the Middle Ages

The digitization of the Middle Ages has been going on for well over a decade. In the past ten years or so, numerous projects have been started with an eye to recording and preserving medieval artifacts – manuscripts and other material objects – in the potentially more readily accessible and more easily manipulable digital form. Students and teachers of the literature, history and culture of the Middle Ages stand to benefit from these projects in exciting ways. But how easy is it to find, say, high-quality images of medieval manuscripts, and what can one do with them? This article provides an initial taxonomy and overview of how to locate what is currently available and ongoing in the ‘field’ of medieval digitization, and focuses primarily on resources for teaching and study in the areas of literature and manuscript studies – although the resources listed here can obviously be consulted for the full range of sub-disciplines of Medieval Studies. It concludes with a suggestion for an inexpensive and very practical digitization technique that takes advantage of readily available manuscript materials – especially for those who find themselves thousands of miles from the nearest repository of medieval manuscripts.

Contribution a la connaissance des vallons élémentaires du nord de la France : l'exemple de la Creuse des Fosses ( Authieule, plateau picard) [Contribution to the knowledge of the elementary valleys of the north of France : the example of the Creuse des Fosses (Authieule, plateau picard )

The survey deals with the morphodynamic evolution of a creuse. It is a ravine-like landform of kilometnc length that often cut the bottom of the small elementary valleys incised into the chalky plateaus of the Artois and Picardy. The morphosedimentary analysis takes into account the data (stratigraphy, micromorphological analysis) of 3 cross-sections distributed along a 500 m section and replaced in their geomorphological context (cartography based on a DTM, longitudinal profile). The recognition of characteristic deposits (bedded loess, palaeosol) and of medieval artefacts allows to set a chronology of the events since 30 000 BP Stratigraphie and landform analyses demonstrate the fluvial character of the creuse. Two main phases of incision, locally associated to a sinuous channel pattern, are described. Phases of infilling, probably of medieval age for the last one, correspond to episodic and violent floods of torrential type. Valley sides play an important role, delivering in abundance loess that infilled the creuse in present time.

Analysis of pigmentary materials on the vinland map and tartar relation by Raman microprobe spectroscopy.

Studies by Raman microprobe spectroscopy have shown that the black ink defining each feature on the controversial Vinland Map consists of carbon that overlays a yellow line containing anatase. This material was not detected elsewhere on the map. Since anatase has not been found on medieval artifacts, and such yellow lines are only naturally produced by iron gallotannate inks, a modern (post 1923) origin for the Vinland Map is strongly indicated. The ink of the Tartar Relation is different and probably consists of an iron gallotannate mixed with a small proportion of carbon. The rubrication is established to be vermilion.

The Debate About the End: A Review of Evidence and Methods

Scholarly opinion on the character and timing of the end of Roman Britain remains deeply divided. The evidence presented by those favouring a ‘long chronology’ is seriously flawed. ‘Continuity’ or ‘survival’ of Roman Britain is claimed because early medieval activity is attested on some former Roman sites and some early medieval artefacts are of Roman type. But Roman Britain was part of a ‘world system’ with a distinctive and rich archaeological assemblage, and once terms are properly defined and material analysed quantitatively, the argument for fifth-century continuity collapses. The archaeological evidence shows that after a long process of decline beginning in the third century, Roman Britain had ended by c. A.D. 400.

King Alfonso and the Wild West: Medieval Hispanic Law On the U.S. Frontier

Abstract"Medieval Encounters" include not only interaction between cultures, but also within cultures between widely separated time periods, and even influence by a medieval past upon a present culture or subculture. This can take the form of an evolution from past technologies or mentalities into the present, or even the development of merely analogous modern patterns quite different from the medieval to surface observation. One such artifact was the massive thirteenth-century Romanized law code of Alfonso X the Learned of Castile, called the Siete partidas, that survived within and alongside later Romanized codes throughout the Spanish empire, to acquire "the widest territorial force ever enjoyed by any law book." The medieval Partidas also became a living and formative presence even within the contrasting system of Common Law prevailing in U.S. jurisprudence, particularly in large regions like California, Texas, and Louisiana. This medieval artifact has variously manifested itself during the past century and still emerges in surprising ways in our courts, a relatively invisible ghost from the ancient past inviting study by both medievalists and Americanists, with implications for environmentalism, women's rights, and resource control.

"Our Fine Gothic Magnificence": The Nineteenth-Century Chapel at Costessey Hall (Norfolk) and Its Medieval Glazing

Constructed soon after the relaxation of laws forbidding Roman Catholic worship but twenty years prior to formal emancipation in 1829, the Gothic Revival chapel at Costessey Hall (Norfolk) was sumptuously glazed with over eighty panels of medieval stained glass dispersed from their original ecclesiastical contexts. This study examines the chapel at Costessey (1809) and its import within the context of Roman Catholic Emancipation in England and the aristocratic claims of its patron, Sir William Jerningham (1736-1809). As an integral monument, the Costessey chapel constituted an extraordinary coalescence of architecture and glazing in which medieval stained glass re-employed as medieval artifact both embodied and revitalized the spirits of its creators. Although the chapel was destroyed in the early twentieth century, it is possible to assess its appearance and that of its glazing program through descriptions, drawings, engravings, and photographs. By placing the Costessey chapel within the context of the Jerningham family history and their role within the movement for Catholic Emancipation, as well as by examining the family's connection with the Catholic bishop John Milner (a champion of the use of Gothic architecture for Roman Catholic building) it is possible to understand the chapel at Costessey as representing not only the distinguished lineage and religious legacy of its builder, but also the legitimacy of the Roman Catholic faith in a turbulent time of social and religious change.

Glass of the past: The degradation and deterioration of medieval glass artifacts

Medieval artifacts made of glass are at a serious disadvantage concerning the chemical stability compared with ancient or common modern glasses. The total amount of silica and other network formers such as alumina is very low and potassium instead of sodium was introduced into the silicate structure by using local raw material. By means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) a weathering mechanism governed by an ion exchange process could be determined for medieval glass paintings exposed to the ambient air for centuries. Additionally, the leached glass surface of medieval hollow glass artifacts found in a well and exposed to moist earth show a brown discoloring due to the oxidation of Mn(II) to Mn(IV) oxide. That process can be converted by a treatment of the glass objects in an aqueous hydrazine solution.

Women at the centre of social change — an Egyptian case

Living in contemporary Egypt, especially in urban areas and most particularly in Cairo, is at once stimulating and frustrating, dramatic and exasperating. There is obvious crowding with vehicles, people, and animals jostling each other on highways, in streets and alleys, and children are everywhere. Moving about can be both adventure and nightmare and all takes place amongst a seemingly chaotic intermingling of ancient, medieval, and modern methods and artifacts, of indigenous and alien structures and philosophies. It is little wonder that no-one, either native or foreign, has yet been able to make overall sense of the kaleidoscopic social transformations currently taking place. Perhaps the task is impossible. Yet it presents a formidable challenge.

Medieval Artefacts and Structures Dated by Dendrochronology

THIS PAPER PRESENTS results obtained at Oxford for over 100 medieval items of oak from areas in southern Britain and Flanders. They comprise excavated material, the bindings of manuscripts, furniture, paintings on panel, and standing buildings. Advances derived from analysis of the growth of oak in relation to species, ecology, and climatic swings have enabled 80% of the items to be dated.

Skráseting av føroyskum miðaldar kirkjugripum

As medieval sources on ecclesiastical conditions in the Faroe Islands are decidedly scanty, an attempt has hcre been made, partly by a survey of the post-Reformation accounts of Friis11 and Debes" and of inventories taken in 1709 and 1729, and partly by investigation of the surviving objects, particularly those in the National Museum of Copenhagen and the Faroe Museum (Føroya Fornminnissavn), to identify articles and ornaments which may be presumed to be of the medieval period and thosewhich can so be dated with certainty. The material is listed in topographical order, with brief accounts of the type and place of origin of the objects, pag. 83 f and tables are given of the artifacts that can be dated pag. 88 f. The classes of object dealt with in this article are as follows, with their number given in brackets: crosier (1); episcopal chair (1); reliquaries, graves of saints (4); chalice (1); bells, the majority presumably mass bells (19); crucifixes (10); processional cross (1); illumination implemcnts, candlesticks (8); madonnas (4); censer (1); soapstone baptismal fonts (9); wooden images (8); pew-ends (21); holy water fonts (3). Certain bronze objects from archeological investigations have not yet been studied in detail, and thus only their places of discovery are given. However, a short account is given of the circumstances of the discovery of objects from the old votive church in Vágur5, Suðuroy, dismantled in 1940—41, where under the floor was found: a silver chalice (Fig. 1); 3 pew-ends (Fig. 2); a tuff candlestick (Fig. 4); and a presumed holy water font fashioned from a shore-washed boulder (Fig. 4). In addition, an account is given of the hitherto uncompleted investigation of the medieval chapel on Mykines (Fig. 5), where among the objects found are a basalt candlestick (Fig. 6 and 7) and a bronze candle snuffer (vide: 33 — Fms: 4000/2). After the Reformation, a number of churches, especially small churches and chapels, were dismantled, the total then becoming 39. This investigation shows that in 29 of these there had certainly been medieval material, and that, in addition, there have been medieval artifacts recovered from 5 chapels or chapel ruins. This accounts for 34 of the medieval churches. However, evidence of the foundations of buildings traditionally identified as chapels suggests that there were several more in this period.