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