No / This study examines whether German multinationals operating in an Anglo-Saxon setting design their employee relations primarily on the German or the Anglo-Saxon model. The authors¿ cross-sectional comparison with UK-owned firms provides no evidence of a transfer of the current German approach but does point to a distinctive Germanic version of the `high-road¿ variant of the Anglo-Saxon approach. Intra-German analysis shows that this is most pronounced among the types of subsidiaries that are particularly significant for disseminating employment relations innovations across the multinational, but that these also have the highest incidence of collective arrangements and the lowest incidence of the `low-road¿ variant of the Anglo-Saxon approach. In the light of recent reforms in the German industrial relations system, the findings point to an emerging new flexible collective approach with a comprehensive direct employee involvement dimension.

Yes

No

No / Recent research by Andrew Reynolds has interrogated the archaeological record for evidence of Anglo-Saxon execution cemeteries (Reynolds 2009). This paper will discuss how osteological evidence can aid our interpretation of Anglo-Saxon capital punishment and give insight into the type of evidence that might aid in the identification of corporal punishment from skeletal populations. The importance of correctly interpreting skeletal trauma is essential, but this can be supported by scrutinising the palaeodemographic profile of execution populations, burial position, an understanding the decomposition process and the significance of post-depositional disturbance of burials. It will lay down a framework for the successful identification of corporal and capital p unishments, with reference to Anglo-Saxon documentary sources. / Full text of the author's final draft is unavailable due to copyright restrictions.

No / This study investigated stable-isotope ratio evidence of weaning for the late Anglo-Saxon population of Raunds Furnells, Northamptonshire, UK. δ15N and δ13C values in rib collagen were obtained for individuals of different ages to assess the weaning age of infants within the population. A peak in δ15N values at about 2-year-old, followed by a decline in δ15N values until age three, indicates a change in diet at that age. This change in nitrogen isotope ratios corresponds with the mortality profile from the site, as well as with archaeological and documentary evidence on attitudes towards juveniles in the Anglo-Saxon period. The pattern of δ13C values was less clear. Comparison of the predicted age of weaning to published data from sites dating from the Iron Age to the 19th century in Britain reveals a pattern of changing weaning practices over time, with increasingly earlier commencement and shorter periods of complementary feeding in more recent periods. Such a change has implications for the interpretation of socioeconomic changes during this period of British history, since earlier weaning is associated with decreased birth spacing, and could thus have contributed to population growth.

Yes / Early life is associated with high vulnerability to morbidity and mortality - risks which can be reduced in infancy and early childhood through strategically high levels of parental or alloparental investment, particularly in the case of maternal breastfeeding. Recent evidence has supported links between early-life health and care patterns and long-term population health. This growing body of research regarding the broader impacts of infant-parent interactions transcends a traditional partitioning of research into discrete life stages. It also highlights implications of childhood data for our understanding of population health and behaviour. Skeletal and environmental data indicate that the 5-7th century cemeteries at Littleport and Edix Hill (Barrington A), Cambridgeshire represent populations of similar material culture but contrasting environments and health. The high prevalence of skeletal stress markers at Littleport indicates a community coping with unusual levels of biological stress, potentially a consequence of endemic malaria present in the marshy Fen environs. In contrast, Edix Hill was an inland site which exhibited lower skeletal stress marker prevalence comparable to wider British data for the early medieval period. Early life patterns relating to diet and physiological stress at Littleport (n=5) and Edix Hill (n=8) were investigated through analyses of carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from incrementally-sampled deciduous dentine. Meaningful variation in isotopic values within and between populations was observed, and should be a focus of future interdisciplinary archaeological childhood studies. / The Society for the Study of Human Biology, the Durham University Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, and by the Rosemary Cramp Fund.

No / This paper reviews the osteological evidence for execution in Anglo-Saxon England, which, in the cases of modern analysis, can reveal considerable detail about the methods of decapitation, in particular, and it also provides a critical appraisal of the considerably less reliable antiquarian reports. We suggest that secure evidence for execution, principally decapitation, can be identified through modern osteological analysis but it is limited, and we also argue that assertions made in antiquarian excavation reports about apparent examples of execution need to be treated with caution.

The rise of Anglo-Saxon kingship has many influences, yet current scholarly discussion tends to focus on a select few. This thesis aims to analyze an oft-ignored factor in the development of kingship in Anglo-Saxon England. By discussing the influences of domestic production, international trade, food-based tribute, and royal feasting on Anglo-Saxon kingship from the fifth to the eleventh centuries, the role of food consumption in the development of kingship can be articulated. This thesis begins with a discussion of the practices of Anglo-Saxon domestic food production. Systems of agriculture and animal husbandry are analyzed, along with the various methods used to procure domestic prestige foods. This chapter explores the links between conceptions of land ownership and the legitimacy of kingly rule. A discussion of international trade in prestige food follows, analyzing the ways in which the developing relationship between Anglo-Saxon England and the European Continent shaped internal and external conceptions of kingship. Following this chapter, a discussion of the variant chronological forms of Anglo-Saxon kingship is pursued. This discussion culminates in a case study of the collection of food-rents throughout the Anglo-Saxon occupation of England, revealing the connections among land ownership, status goods, and long-distance organization in the rise of kingship. An analysis of the development of Anglo-Saxon feasting follows, displaying the links between the use of prestige foods and relationships based on systems of obligations in solidifying Anglo-Saxon kingship. A general discussion follows, during which the combined influences of production, trade, tribute, and feasting on Anglo-Saxon kingship are made manifest. Finally, an overview of this thesis' findings is presented, along with suggestions for further study.

The Wife 's Lament from the Exeter Book has attracted much notice and speculation due to its mysterious origin and its narrator, who represents one of the few female voices surviving from the Anglo-Saxon period. Many scholars speculate that this work is related to The Husband's Message, another piece of equal length and similar subject matter from the same codex. I propose that the two works were originally symmetrical halves to a single work, in the form of a complaint and reply designed to represent the biblical metaphor of the Church as the Bride of Christ. Extensive parallels to biblical writings as well as to medieval theology suggest that the Wife of The Wife's Lament was intended to personify the voice of the waiting Church between Christ's ascension and his apocalyptic return. Similarly, The Husband's Message seems to embody Christ's promise of return and of the coming of the Kingdom of God: words of encouragement to the Church in her suffering. These voices echo the allegory of Christ the Bridegroom found throughout the Old and New Testaments, especially (in the medieval conception) in the Song of Songs, and provide a context in which the structural similarities of the works become more persuasive. Finally, I postulate that the form of the original work derives from remnants of the ancient Scandinavian cult of Freyja still resident in the cultural consciousness of Anglo-Saxon society even after the conversion to Christianity. In comparing the two stories it can be seen that the Wife's tone of lament echoes the mourning of Freyja at Freyr's seasonal death, and the voice of the Husband recalls Freyr's seasonal return with the spring. With evidence of form, purpose, and context, the argument for original unity accounts for the many mysterious elements in the two works.

The thesis explores burial practices across all three phases (early, middle and late) of the Anglo-Saxon period (c.450–1066 AD) in Norfolk and the relationship with the identity of the deceased. It is argued that despite the plethora of research that there are few studies that address all three phases and despite acknowledgement that regional variation existed, fewer do so within the context of a single locality. By looking across the whole Anglo-Saxon period, in one locality, this research identified that subtler changes in burial practices were visible. Previous research has tended to separate the cremation and inhumation rites. This research has shown that in Norfolk the use of the two rites may have been related and used to convey aspects of identity and / or social position, from a similar or opposing perspective, possibly relating to a pre-Christian belief system. This thesis stresses the importance of establishing biological identity through osteological analysis and in comparing biological identity with the funerary evidence. Burial practices were related to the biological identity of the deceased across the three periods and within the different site types, but the less common burial practices had the greatest associations with the biological identity of the deceased, presumably to convey social role or status. Whilst the inclusion of grave-goods created the early Anglo-Saxon burial tableau, a later burial tableau was created using the grave and / or the position of the body and an increasing connection between the biological and the social identity of the deceased, noted throughout the Anglo-Saxon period in Norfolk, corresponds with the timeline of the religious transition. / Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) / Some images have been removed due to copyright restrictions.