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An original and highly accessible collection of essays which is based on a huge range of historical sources to reveal the realities of mens' lives in the Middle Ages. It covers an impressive geographical range - including essays on Italy, France, Germany and Byzantium - and will span the entire medieval period, from the fourth to the fifteenth century. The collection is divided into four main sections: attaining masculinity; lay men and churchmen: sources of tension; sexuality and the construction of masculinity; and written relationships and social reality. The contributors are: Dawn Hadley, Jenny Moore, William M. Aird, Jeremy Goldberg, Matthew Bennet, Janet Nelson, Conrad Leyser, Robert Swanson, Patricia Cullum, Ross Balzaretti, Shaun Tougher, Julian Haseldine, Marianne Ailes and Mark Chinca.
Many previous studies have described the Scandinavian settlement of England as involving a rapid assimilation of the settlers with native society and culture, and a swift process of integration. This volume challenges that view and shows that the processes of assimilation, integration and accommodation were gradual and complex, displaying important regional variations. Where did the Scandinavians come from? What type of society did they eventually settle into? What were the implications of the drawing of different cultures in contact, and how is this portrayed in the surviving material? The volume uses theoretically sophisticated models. Recent discussion in, for example, material culture and language have shown that they were active, constituent elements in creating and re-creating social and cultural identities. Where the volume focuses on the creation of local and regional identities and affinities it moves on from the traditional depiction of the issues in terms of a simple dichotomy of 'Scandinavian' and 'English'.
The Viking Great Army that swept through England between AD 865 and 878 altered the course of British history. Since the late 8th century, Viking raids on the British Isles had been a regular feature of life, but the winter of 865 saw a fundamental shift that would change the political, economic and social landscape forever. Instead of making quick smash-and-grab summer raids for silver and slaves, Vikings now remained in England for the winter and became immersed in its communities. Some settled permanently, acquiring land and forming a new hybrid Anglo-Scandinavian culture. The Viking army was here to stay. Its presence was a catalyst for new towns and new industries, while transformations...
Provides a starting point for researchers and students investigating the Viking settlement of Britain. This book considers the history and development of contemporary debates about Scandinavian settlement, and examines differences between rural and urban Viking settlement. It looks at the Scandinavian conversion to Christianity.
In this volume, experts from around the world investigate childhood in the past, showing why it is important to understand childhood, why different cultures construct different ideas of how to rear children, what part children play in the community, and when and why childhood ends.
This multidisciplinary book explores the social practice of dining over 2000 years, examining the archaeological, documentary, material culture, and art historical evidence for the consumption of food and drink in various historical, social, and cultural contexts. The authors look at the locations for dining and the concomitant decoration, furniture, and tableware. They explore the norms for appropriate and inappropriate behavior and the rituals of dining, such as food preparation and presentation, the serving of food, and its means of consumption.
Drawing on a cross-section of evidence--excavated cemeteries, sculpture and funerary monuments, documentary sources, and iconography--and using a series of regional case studies, this book explores the changing attitudes to death and the commemoration of the dead during the medieval period. The book addresses a number of themes, including the changing location of burial, the evidence for burial rite and funerals, the great wealth of funerary monuments and other forms of ecclesiastical patronage, the nature of the funerary industry, and the relationship of the dead to the living community.
The nine papers presented here set out to broaden the recent focus of archaeological evidence for medieval children and childhood and to offer new ways of exploring their lives and experiences. The everyday use of space and changes in the layout of buildings are examined, in order to reveal how these impacted upon the daily practices and tasks of household tasks relating to the upbringing of children. Aspects of work and play are explored: how, archaeologically, we can determine whether, and in what context, children played board and dice games? How we may gain insights into the medieval countryside from the perspective of children and thus begin to understand the processes of reproduction o...
The King's Body investigates the role of royal bodies, funerals, and graves in English succession debates from the death of Alfred the Great in 899 through the Norman Conquest in 1066. Using contemporary texts and archaeological evidence, Nicole Marafioti reconstructs the political activity that accompanied kings' burials, to demonstrate that royal bodies were potent political objects which could be used to provide legitimacy to the next generation. In most cases, new rulers celebrated their predecessor's memory and honored his corpse to emphasize continuity and strengthen their claims to the throne. Those who rose by conquest or regicide, in contrast, often desecrated the bodies of deposed royalty or relegated them to anonymous graves in attempts to brand their predecessors as tyrants unworthy of ruling a Christian nation. By delegitimizing the previous ruler, they justified their own accession. At a time when hereditary succession was not guaranteed and few accessions went unchallenged, the king's body was a commodity that royal candidates fought to control.
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