This course will introduce students to the archaeological evidence for the introduction and establishment of an Anglo-Saxon population and culture to Britain, and to its subsequent development in the form of the social and economic infrastructure of England, in the period to the Norman Conquest of 1066. This is a key period in the history of Britain, comprising the demise of Roman control of the provinces of Britannia and ending in a politically unified but still culturally diverse England.

This module will examine the major categories of site and principal themes explored by archaeologists and historians studying this period. The course is structured to focus attention in the first semester upon the infrastructure of landscape and types of site of human occupation, moving through to details of life-experience, social relationships and politics, production and trade, and ideology and art in semester 2. The introductory lecture will consider the definition of the period and topic and the historiography of archaeological approaches to them. Both the lectures and the seminars will seek to illustrate the relationship between general topics of debate and specific sites or finds.

Students will gain knowledge of the character of the archaeological record of England from the 5th century to the Norman Conquest, and an understanding of the issues and problems involved in its interpretation, including the challenges of integrating archaeological with historical evidence.

The course will be delivered through 20 weekly lectures (10.00 a.m., Tuesdays) and seminars, of which all students will be encouraged to attend at least four. The lectures will systematically present and explain the topics covered in the course, with particular attention to the evidence and methods used to interpret. Seminars will vary in focus, from directed reading to discussion of specific sites, finds or works of art through plans or photographs, to essay planning and preparation. The class will be divided into a number of seminar groups, according to the total class size.

Listening and learning; discussion of academic evidence and interpretations; examination of primary archaeological records.

Essay  and a half hour exam.

Students who fail or are unable to sit the examination in the summer exam period will be eligible to be assessed by means of an additional 1,500-word coursework essay on a topic chosen from a list of questions and to be submitted by the general deadline for summer re-sit coursework in Archaeology in the summer recess.

SEMESTER 1

1.         Ideas of the Anglo-Saxons: barbarians, migrants and/or the ancestors of the English.

2.         The importance of burial archaeology in the Early Anglo-Saxon Period.

3.         Burial evidence from the 7^th to 11^th centuries: the growing presence and power of the Church.

4.         Rural settlement: buildings and settlement-types, 5^th to 9^th centuries.

5.         The agrarian landscape: from infield-outfield to common- and open-field systems.

READING WEEK

6.         Hierarchy in rural settlement: understanding and identifying estates and manors.

7.         Urban sites: the fate of Roman towns and the rise of the wīcs.

8.         Urban sites: the Viking Period, buhrs and Anglo-Scandinavian towns.

9.         Churches and monasteries: architecture and central-place functions.

10.       Overview: the Anglo-Saxon landscape seen through archaeology, history and place-names.

SEMESTER 2.

11.       The people: life-expectancy and experiences.

12.       The population: gender and age-banding.

13.       Anglo-Saxon societies: regional and ethnic groupings; social ranking.

14.       Kingship and kingdoms in the archaeological record.

15.       The archaeology of jurisdisction in the Late Anglo-Saxon state.

READING WEEK

16.       Production: the principal crafts and technologies.

17.       Coinage for social exchange and trade.

18.       Anglo-Saxon art styles and symbolism.

19.       Display and ideology: the art of the Church.

20.       1066 and the Bayeux Tapestry.

C. J. Arnold, An Archaeology of the Early Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, 2nd ed. (London, 1997).

W. Davies (ed.), From the Vikings to the Normans (Oxford, 2003).

H. Hamerow, D. A. Hinton and S. Crawford (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology (Oxford, 2011).

H. Hamerow, Rural Settlements and Society in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 2012).

H. Härke, ‘Anglo-Saxon immigration and ethnogenesis’. Medieval Archaeology, 55 (2011), 1–28.

N. J. Higham and M. F. Ryan, The Anglo-Saxon World (New Haven and London, 2013).

J. Hines (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons from the Migration Period to the Eighth Century: An Ethnographic Perspective (Woodbridge, 1997).

J. Hines and A. Bayliss (eds.), Anglo-Saxon Graves and Grave Goods of the 6th and 7th Centuries AD: A Chronological Framework (Leeds, 2013).

D. A. Hinton, Archaeology, Economy and Society: England from the Fifth to the Fifteenth Century (London, 1990) esp. 1–41.

D. A. Hinton, Gold & Gilt, Pots & Pins: Possessions and People in Medieval Britain (Oxford, 2005), esp. 1–107.

S. Lucy, The Anglo-Saxon Way of Death (Stroud, 2000).

A. Reynolds, Later Anglo-Saxon England: Life & Landscape (Stroud, 1999).

J. D. Richards, Viking Age England, rev. ed. (Stroud, 2000).

M. G. Welch, Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1992).

An extensive classified bibliography will be provided