This volume provides a detailed study of the archaeology of Britain and its inshore islands between AD 400 and 1100. For the first time a single-author book treats early medieval Britain as a whole, enabling Carver to show that the primary cultural, political and ideological foundations of the island's population were laid during this time.
Martin Carver was an army officer for 15 years, a freelance commercial archaeologist for 13 years and Professor of Archaeology at the University of York for 22 years, retiring in 2008. From 2002 until 2012 he was editor of the global archaeology journal Antiquity. He has researched post-Roman towns in Britain, France, Italy and Algeria and excavated large sites of the first millennium AD at Sutton Hoo (Suffolk) and Portmahomack (north-east Scotland). He has produced numerous articles, lectures and broadcasts on the peoples of early Britain, and his latest books are Sutton Hoo: Encounters with Early England, Portmahomack: Monastery of the Picts and Archaeological Investigation (for Routledge).
CONTENTS
List of figures
List of abbreviations
Picture credits
Preface
Chapter 1 Inheritance: landscapes and predecessors
Chapter 2: Looking for personhood: physique and adornment
Chapter 3: Working from home: settlement and economies
Chapter 4 Addressing eternity: cemeteries as ritual places
Chapter 5 Monumentality: sculpture, churches and illuminated books
Chapter 6: Materiality of words: myths and records
Chapter 7 Narratives - reflections - legacies
References
Index