The phenomenon of the reuse of prehistoric monuments—notably Bronze Age barrows—for early medieval burial has long been recognised as remarkably prevalent in the archaeological record. This systematic study of the landscape context of ‘Early-Middle Saxon’ burial in Wessex assumes a broader outlook, and considers all aspects of the antecedent landscape which may have influenced the siting of funerary locales. Engaging primarily with archaeological evidence, complemented by documentary and place-name sources, it examines the influence of topography, land-use, territorial organisation, and perceptions of ancient features on the location of burial sites, and the role played by burial in the formation of group identities. Moreover, it investigates the emergence and evolution of the practice of monument appropriation, and its exploitation and adaptation by an increasingly defined elite class. The selection of three case study counties—Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset—within a discrete area of southern England which, by the latter part of the period of study, had been incorporated into the kingdom of Wessex, allows the evidence to be examined at local and sub-regional levels, and facilitates supra-regional comparisons. The burial record is scrutinised and analysed with the aid of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in order to construct a detailed picture of the influence of topography and other aspects of the natural and man-made environment on burial location. It also reveals the significant impact that antiquarian and modern archaeological investigation patterns have had on the distribution and nature of the burial record.

"Contextualizing the Vikings in Anglo-Saxon History and Literature" examines the Scandinavian impact of Viking presence in Anglo-Saxon England during the so-called First and Second Viking Age, concentrating on the portrayals of the Viking activity in Anglo-Saxon chronicles and annals, as well as Scandinavian (chiefly Icelandic and Danish) sources. It aims to identify the patterns of representation in those portrayals and their development relative to the historical events of the period, the political situation in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, the state and progress of the Church, and contemporary literary tendencies, including the influence of heroic literature and the development of the Anglo-Saxon kingship. Three distinct accounts that came into existence as a result of the Viking invasion of England in 866 are examined. Three main traditions can be discerned - the Scandinavian tradition, reflecting the battle of York, the slaying of king Ella and king Edmund, the East Anglian tradition, reflecting the slaying of king Edmund, and the Wessex tradition, reflecting king Alfred's struggle with the Danes. The thesis proposes to trace the historical origins and development of these traditions, attempting to discern their historical and fictional elements by comparing them with the record of the historical...

The aim of this thesis is to establish a chronological framework for the grave-goods, and hence the graves, from all known Anglo-Saxon burial sites in the Upper Thames Region. Such a framework is considered essential to any reconstruction of early Saxon activity in the area and especially to any solution of the problems which surround the origin and early development of Wessex. It is based on a detailed typological study of material from 168 sites within a defined area. This area is bounded approximately on the west by the source of the Thames and the Cotswolds scarp, on the north by the Oxfordshire/Northamptonshire county boundary, on the east by the Thames/ Ouse watershed and the Chilterns scarp, and in the south by the Kennet Valley. The thesis is presented in three volumes, text (I), catalogue (II), and illustrations (III). The text is divided into three parts. Part I is introductory. The subject is set in the context of broader problems and previous hypotheses, and the value of the material to be analysed is assessed. The physical identity of the Upper Thames Region, the problems and methods of cataloguing sites, and the history of their discovery and recording are briefly discussed. Part II, in which the typology and chronology of the grave-goods are established, forms the core of the thesis. It consists of seventeen chapters and a summary chronological chart. The first chapter considers some general methodological problems and outlines the fundamental points of archaeological chronology for the period, on which that of the Upper Thames Region depends. Chapter 2 is a long analysis of brooches. The greatest attention is given to the manufacture and chronology of cast saucer brooches, but the dating of disc brooches is also set on a firmer basis, and there are important comments on all remaining forms (penannular, annular, button, great and small square-headed, small-long, and miscellaneous). Chapters 3 to 8 deal with the other objects found principally in women's graves (pins, finger rings and bracelets, necklaces, combs, toilet items, and bags, boxes, and girdlehung objects); they include discussion of the function of some of these items as well as their dating. Chapter 9 is about belt-equipment. The weapons found in men's graves are discussed in chapters 10 to 14 (swords, seaxes, shields, spears, and miscellaneous); in chapter 12 the first attempt at a typology of English shield bosses, based on computerised numerical taxonomy, is presented, while in chapter 13 Dr. M.J. Swanton's recently published typology of spearheads receives detailed criticism. Knives are briefly considered in chapter 15. Chapter 16, an analysis of the pottery, includes several modifications of Dr.J.N.L.Myres' work. This part concludes with chapter 17 on vessels of glass, metal, and wood. The chronologies thus established help to provide a date of burial for about one third of the catalogued graves and to indicate a date-range for the use of most sites. These data form the basis for deductions, made in Part III, about the history of the Saxon settlement in the Upper Thames Region. The background to this discussion is set out briefly in two sections, one on the nature of the Roman settlement in the Region, the other a critical survey of documentary evidence pertaining to the period. The synthesis deals in turn with the archaeology of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, and its possible historical interpretation. It is argued that the initial settlement during the first quarter of the fifth century consisted of a group of Saxons hired as foederati, who were posted at and near Dorchester-on- Thames; in the second quarter of the century their leaders usurped authority from their erstwhile British employers and assumed control of a wide area, planting out groups of settlers, probably including many new immigrants, during the second half of the century throughout most of the Region. These settlements grew in size, number, and wealth; their prosperity is reflected in the emergence of well furnished graves, probably belonging to leading families, the most spectacular of which is the early seventhcentury 'princely' burial at Cuddesdon near Dorchester. During the fifth and sixth centuries the Upper Thames Region appears to have been most closely connected with the other Saxon settlement along and south of the Thames, but in the sixth century connections with the Midlands, especially the West Midlands, were established, and there is some evidence of direct contact with East Kent. In the seventh century the Upper Thames shares the uniform material culture associated with 'Final Phase 1 or 'Proto-Christian' cemeteries. Direct connections between this evidence and documentary history are few, though it is argued forcibly that there is no evidence that the battle a of Badon had any effect on the Saxon settlement of the Upper Thames Region. The archaeological evidence also suggests that the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entries relating to the battles fought by Ceawlin and Cuthwulf should not be taken at face value. In a final section the documentary evidence for the history of Wessex is specifically examined in the light of the archaeological conclusions. It is suggested that during the second half of the sixth century one of the leading families of the Upper Thames Region asserted its power not only over an enlarged Upper Thames Region, but also over Hampshire and Wiltshire, thus founding the royal dynasty of Cerdic and Cymric and creating what became known as the kingdom of the West Saxons.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 65-67). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Zürich, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-151).

The diploma thesis is focused on analysis, comparison and interpretation of Thomas Hardy?s literary work, especially on the attitude of characters towards the environment in the chosen ?Wessex novels? by Thomas Hardy. The principle of this work is to contextualize and characterize Hardy?s writings in general, together with his historical background and philosophical inspiration, which influenced his concept of space. The main aim is to point out the importance of the environment in Hardy?s literary work, problems of his protagonists? existence and their tragic fatality stemming for their connection with the place they dwell in. Furthermore, this thesis underlines other, mainly social circumstances that influence characters? lives. Another aim is to concentrate on the development of themes and motifs and to find out how Hardy?s work develops in particular, chronologically ordered novels. Answers to these questions can be found in the fundamental part of the diploma thesis, which is based on literary analysis of particular novels, in which the environment plays the very crucial role.

No description available.

No / Following Wheeler's excavations at Maiden Castle, the multivallate hillforts of Wessex came to be seen as responses to a specific form of warfare based around the massed use of slings. As part of the wider post-processual 'rethink' of the British Iron Age during the late 1980s and 1990s, this traditional 'military' interpretation of hillforts was increasingly subject to criticism. Apparent weaknesses in hillfort design were identified and many of the most distinctive features of these sites (depth of enclosure, complexity of entrance arrangements, etc) were reinterpreted as symbols of social isolation. Yet this 'pacification' of hillforts is in many ways as unsatisfactory as the traditional vision. Both camps have tended to view warfare as a detached, functional, and disembedded activity which can be analysed in terms of essentially timeless concepts of military efficiency. Consideration of the use of analogous structures in the ethnographic record suggests that, far from being mutually exclusive, the military and symbolic dimensions are both essential to a more nuanced understanding of the wider social role of hillforts in Britain and beyond.

L'objet de cette recherche est l'étude des logiques de production des espaces et des paysages de bocage en domaine laitier. Elle a été menée classiquement suivant un jeu d'échelle allant de la région à l'exploitation agricole. La manière dont a été abordé le paysage agricole, vu ici comme la face visible de l'espace, s'est située à l'interface des deux types de démarches les plus communément employées en géographie : celle qui vise à comprendre la dimension matérielle de la production de l'espace et celle qui s'intéresse davantage à sa dimension idéelle. Les terrains sur lesquels ont été menées les investigations se situent tous dans l'arc laitier de l'Europe Atlantique mais présentent néanmoins des contextes agricoles variés (Basse-Normandie, Galice, Sud de l'Angleterre). Les principales transformations des systèmes agricoles ont d'abord été identifiées à partir des statistiques agricoles à l'échelle régionale entre 1990 et 2000. Les formes et les structures des espaces et des paysages produits par les activités agricoles ont ensuite été analysées à travers une démarche classique d'analyse spatiale s'attachant à mettre en lumière leurs grands principes d'organisation (distance au siège d'exploitation, morphologie parcellaire). Cette démarche a enfin été couplée à l'analyse compréhensive des logiques d'action qui animent les agriculteurs dans la mise en œuvre de leurs pratiques et à l'étude de leurs représentations paysagères. Cette dernière partie du travail a ainsi révélé l'importance des modèles professionnels auxquels se réfèrent les agriculteurs dans leur lecture du paysage. Ces modèles participent ainsi à définir ce que représentent pour eux les différentes formes du paysage et à travers elles les pratiques qui leur sont associées. Le travail mené s'est donc appuyé sur la mobilisation d'une démarche comparative et multiscalaire qui a permis de mettre en lumière toute la complexité des processus à l'œuvre dans l'organisation des espaces et des paysages de bocage par les activités agricoles et laitières en Europe de l'ouest.