Category: Deep Dive
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The Terracotta Warriors – Artefacts in Context?
The Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi’an China, known popularly for its Terracotta Warriors, is an archaeological marvel. But what does the site actually consist of, how has the museum managed to display a set of artefacts on such a colossal, breath-taking scale. In a new series on MuseumCraft, we take a look at Qinshihuang’s…
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Herman ‘the Crippled’ – Early Medieval Disability
This week, I want to take a quick look at Herman Contractus (elsewhere Hermann of Reichenau). An eleventh-century German Benedictine monk, Herman is the subject of Berthold of Reichenau’s Chronicle, the author of his own chronicle, and an impressive portfolio of music. Despite his contributions, Herman is most remarkable for his Medieval Latin nickname contractus.…
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Icelandic ‘Viking’ Nicknames – My First Conference Paper
This year I was fortunate enough to give a presentation at The Háskóli Íslands Student Conference on the Medieval North, a wonderful conference for graduate students to share their early research across literature, history and archaeology. Sadly, with Covid, this took place in the slightly dingy confines of my room rather than Reykjavik, but it…
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The Prittlewell Prince
Introduction Archaeology is about much more than treasure-hunting but, inevitably, popular attention tends to be drawn towards rich and magnificent finds. Within an early medieval context, the ‘Princely’ burials of the Mid Saxon period are particularly notable in this context. The Sutton Hoo Mound 1 ship-burial is deservedly famous and the most impressive example, but…
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The Complaint Tablet of Ea-nasir
The British Museum is full of all sorts of things that shouldn’t be there. One less well-known example, beyond the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone, is an initially inconspious clay tablet, traditionally referred to as ‘The Complaint Tablet of Ea-nasir’. The tablet itself is made of clay, c.12cm by 5cm, and covered in cuneiform…
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The Viking World – Artefact Database
The Swedish History Museum in Stockholm hosts the world’s largest collection of Viking artefacts, which tell an impressive story of life, religion, and death in Viking-era Scandinavia. This has recently been digitized into an impressive free online collection that can be browsed on their website here. Each item is provided with an impressive amount of…
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Ibn Fadlan and the Rus
What can the writings of a traveller of the Caliphate tell us about the Rus, an elusive and largely invisible set of ‘Viking’ settlers in the east of Europe? Is his account to be taken seriously, or is it essentially a work of fiction? #ComissionsEarned (This post includes Amazon Affiliate links) – As an Amazon…
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Snape – England’s Other Ship Burial
Ship burials in England are a very infrequent occurrence. Unlike their frequency in Scandinavian, especially at Old Upsala, there are only really two major sites in England. Both, interestingly, are located in East Anglia. The two ship burials at Sutton Hoo is by far the most famous examples, one of which may well represent the…
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Westfield Farm – a High-status ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Female Burial
We hear an awful lot about the large-scale male ‘Princely’ burial of the early seventh century. Sutton Hoo, Snape, and Prittlewell dominate the narrative on richly furnished burials. Now, don’t get me wrong, these are some incredibly archaeologically significant sites, and have important things to say about power and status. But by focusing in on…
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‘Anglo-Saxon’ Boat Burials – Why?
The burial at Sutton Hoo Mound 1 is England’s most famous archaeological site, and contains a body buried in a magnificent ship. But why would the ‘Anglo-Saxons’ have buried their dead in ships – what social, religious and economic significance might they have ascribed to this rare but spectacular form of burial? I remember the…