The dissertation is an investigation into sokemen and freemen, a group of higher status peasants, in tenth- and eleventh-century East Anglia (hereafter and throughout the dissertation referred to as less dependent tenants). The study considers four themes. The first concerns the socio-economic condition of less dependent tenants. Previous commentators have focused on, for example, light or non-existent labour services and a connection with royal service and public obligations, but the reality may have been more complex. The second theme considers the distribution of the group across East Anglia. The third and fourth themes consider, respectively, the reliability of the Domesday evidence for less dependent tenants and how far the eastern counties differed from the rest of England. It has been argued that the significant number of less dependent tenants recorded in the eastern counties in Domesday Book indicates that region's unique social structure. This view increasingly has been questioned. The dissertation uses a partially retrogressive approach, combining pre-Conquest sources with Domesday Book and manorial sources from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It argues that less dependent tenants formed a varied group, including both smallholders (probably constituting the greater part of the group) and prosperous landholders defined by high-status service. These individuals were not always clearly distinguished from those immediately above and below them in the hierarchy. There was no intrinsic connection between less dependent tenants and royal service. Less dependent tenants experienced upward and downward social mobility in the tenth and eleventh centuries, affected by the land market and the influence of lordship. The group's local distribution, and, by implication, the extent of manorialisation, could vary widely and was influenced primarily by the strength of lordship. There were longstanding and important differences between East Anglia and counties elsewhere in England. But these differences also were exaggerated by the Domesday evidence.

(in English): This thesis analyses and evaluates three Early Medieval burial sites in Bohemia: the site in Lumbe Garden, in Stará Kouřim and known graves from the burial sites Kanín II and III in view of definition of elite graves and social structure. Each burial site is analysed demographically and possession classification of male graves is made. Elite graves are the most remarkable group. They differ by the grave goods and usually also by the arrangement of the burial pit. Exceptional graves and burial sites are compared and contrasted mutually and with other remarkable graves from Bohemia. The site Saint-Estève le Pont in France is presented as an example of burial site with evident placement of members of one population in different sites according to their social status.

The presented thesis deals with prehistoric and early medieval settlement in the Český Dub region. The main aim is to describe finds belonging to different archaeological periods and cultures from the Palaeolithic to the Early Middle Ages (until the 12th century), which mostly come from the surface collection. The attention was mainly focused on the collections deposited in Podještědské muzeum in Český Dub. More information was obtained from the published literature and some new data, about the settlement, was acquired from the authorʼs surface survey. Based on the available information, a catalogue, which contains all the archaeological sites and finds dated until the 12th century, was compiled. The work is accompanied by maps of finds, belonging to certain archaeological periods and by a picture catalogue of chipped and polished stone industry. Keywords: North Bohemia - Podještědí - Český Dub Region - settlement - prehistory - Early Middle Ages

Opinions on the relationship between non-specific stress and age at death on adults are not uniform. The inspiration for our diploma thesis was a study by Croatian authors Becic et al. (2014) who reported that individuals with non-specific stress indicators (cribra orbitalia) lived longer. Our aims were following: to estimate the longevity and compared influence of used methods on the relationship between non-specific stress and age at death, to test the relationship between age at death and non-specific stress indicators, particularly cribra orbitalia and linear enamel hypoplasia, and also to test the relationship between non-specific stress indicators and stature. Methods for age estimation are divided into two parts, methods used in the study Becic et al. (2014) and our method selection chosen from the literature appropriate for the oldest individuals. In this study, the presence of cribra orbitalia and enamel hypoplasia was observed in 294 adult individuals (111 women, 135 men and 48 undetermined individuals) from the Early Mediaeval (9th - 10th century) Slavic skeletal series at Mikulčice (Great Moravia), IIIrd church. When comparing age at death estimated by two different technics we found reduced age at death for the individuals with cribra orbitalia and also with enamel hypoplasia. There...

The early medieval burial ground in Prague-Lahovice is so far the largest village necropolis and is for the time being unprecedented in Bohemia. The submitted work will be devoted to a comprehensive analysis of this burial complex, which was located near the confluence of the Vltava and Berounka. The main basis for the elaboration of the overall analysis will be electronic records of funerary units, which will be linked to the overall plan of the Lahovice burial ground and will provide the main graphical background. The work will also be devoted to specifying the internal chronology of the burial ground and its spatial distribution. Attention will also be paid to the burial rite, the demography of the buried population and the evaluation of its settlement environment in the Early Middle Ages. Finally, the importance of the early medieval burial ground in Prague-Lahovice will be evaluated in the context of the development of the Prague basin in the Early Middle Ages. Keywords Prague-Lahovice - early medieval - burial ground - analysis

The dissertation focuses on the texts of a religious movement known as Tianshidao (the Way of the Celestial Masters) from the 2nd to the 5th century CE. Tianshidao is presented as a multifaceted tradition that should not be reduced by a predefned essence or a teleological vision of history. Instead of reconstructing one coherent cosmology, the author interprets the texts as representing various alternative cosmologies. They are compared according to the theory of cultural bias of Mary Douglas, in terms of grid and group. Special atention is paid to the employment of the bureaucratic imagery and the representations of time which are interpreted in the context of the cultural bias and the various modes of relationship towards the institutions of Tianshidao and the state. The author also analyses the millennialist character of the movement which was noted by previous research and distinguishes between various types of millennialism. Key words Tianshidao, Daoism, Early-Medieval China, cosmology, millennialism.

Sigtuna is one of the first settlements in Sweden considered to be a proper town. Taking over Birka´s function as a central trading hub when it was founded in the late 10th century AD, Sigtuna was characterized by its early connection to Christianity, and many churches were built there. The foundations of one of these medieval stone churches and its churchyard lie beneath Sigtuna museum’s plot on the block S: t Gertrud 3. However, the full extent of this church and churchyard as well as its foundation date and function is not fully known. The over-arching purpose of this study is to achieve a better understanding of this church’s function. This will be done by geochemically analysing soil samples taken from the museum plot under which the churchyard is located. The first aim of this study is to establish the extent of the churchyard. During excavations carried out between 1990- 1991 in the neighbouring block Urmakaren, archaeologists discovered the remains of King Olof Skötkonung’s minting house along with various finds, notably two lead pieces with imprints of coin stamps. The second aim of this study is to see if traces of these metalworking activities can be detected on the museum plot. The third aim is to see how the church and churchyard related to the minting house on a spatial plane.

No description available.

Until recently, individuals with physical impairment have been overlooked within the field of archaeology due to the controversy surrounding the topics of disability and care in the past. The current research adds to the growing body of archaeological disability studies with an exploration of physical impairment and the possibility of disability-related care in Anglo-Saxon England (5th-11th centuries AD), utilising palaeopathological, funerary, and documentary analyses. Palaeopathological analysis of 86 individuals with physical impairment from 19 Anglo-Saxon cemetery populations (nine early, five middle, and five later) was performed, and the possibility of disability-related care was explored for several individuals. The mortuary treatment data (e.g. grave orientation, body position, grave good inclusion) was gathered for the entire burial population at each site (N=3,646), and the funerary treatment of the individuals with and without physical impairment was compared statistically and qualitatively, both within and between the Anglo-Saxon periods. No obvious mortuary differentiation of individuals with physical impairment was observed, although several patterns were noted. In three early Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, spatial association between individuals with physical impairment, non-adults, and females was observed. Early Anglo-Saxon individuals with physical impairment were more frequently buried in marginal locations, and two such individuals were buried in isolation. In the middle and later Anglo-Saxon periods, the funerary treatment of individuals with physical impairment became less variable, they were less frequently buried in marginal locations, and at three middle Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, they were buried in association with socially significant features in the cemetery landscape. The provision of care to ensure survival was not necessary for a majority of the individuals with physical impairment, but several individuals (lower limb paralysis, mental impairment) may have received regular, long-term care. This research proposes that the decreasing variability of mortuary treatment of individuals with physical impairment observed throughout the Anglo-Saxon period suggests that more variable attitudes about disability existed both within and between early Anglo-Saxon communities, while the political, social, and religious unification starting in the middle Anglo-Saxon period may have led to the development of more standardised perceptions of disability in later Anglo-Saxon England.

This project presents a study of iron technology in Early Medieval (fifth to eleventh centuries AD) Britain through the examination of iron found in settlement contexts. This is a period characterized by significant cultural, political and social changes. The effect of these changes on iron technology has never been investigated on a large scale. Previous studies on iron focused either on individual sites or on single artefact types, and did not provide any clear multi-region interpretive framework. A longstanding problem has been in identifying the extent of usage of a key alloy: phosphoric iron. This research project examined iron assemblages from eight settlement sites of varying size, culture, economic and social status from across Britain. From each settlement a mixed assemblage of iron artefacts was sampled, including edged tools, items of personal adornment, construction materials, and craft tools. Analysis was by traditional archaeometallurgical techniques alongside SEM-EDS elemental analysis. Alloy usage, specifically relating to phosphoric iron, was examined and the manufacturing techniques assessed. It was shown that elemental analysis is the only reliable method to determine the presence of phosphorus in iron and demonstrated that the traditional phosphoric indicators as observed during optical microscopy are insufficient. Results were subjected to a series of comparisons based on settlement size, the inferred social status, and cultural affinities. The results demonstrate the high technological level of iron artefact production across the country. All areas had access to the full range of iron alloys and employed a highly developed range of smithing techniques. Phosphoric iron was a prevalent alloy in this period. Based on these results, a model of the Early Medieval iron industry is generated, suggesting a vibrant economy in which both local and traded irons were significant. / The accompanying data files and image files are not available online.