James M. Harland
S. 113 - 142
doi:
10.1553/medievalworlds_no5_2017s113
Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften
Abstract:
This article considers a recent critical problematisation of the discussion of ›Otherness‹ in Merovingian archaeology, and extends this problematisation to the early mortuary archaeology of post-Roman/early Anglo-Saxon England. The article first examines the literary goals of Gildas’ De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, and especially its representation of military activity, to reject popular arguments that Gildas’ conceptual framework described the emergence of an authentic, ›post-colonial‹ British ethnic consciousness that was grounded in a conscious rejection of Romanness and separation from a ›Germanic‹, barbarian other. The article then examines the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery of Wasperton, Warwickshire, and rejects previous interpretations of the site, which argue that its inhabitants expressed in burial the ideological demarcation of Romanness from a Germanic ›Other‹. Drawing upon the distinctions made by Gildas between legitimate and illegitimate military authority and the clear use of symbols of military ideology present at the site, the article suggests that such sites instead offer evidence for the material expression of a new military ideology which, though deviant from the normative expectations of civic Romanness, was primarily drawn upon by the inhabitants of early Anglo-Saxon England to make appeals for the inclusion of the deceased as key members of their communities.
Anglo-Saxon; archaeology; late Roman; Otherness; identity; ethnicity; Gildas; historiography
Published Online:
2017/06/30 14:11:04
Object Identifier:
0xc1aa5572 0x00369e4f
Rights:All rights reserved.For questions regarding copyright and copies please contact us by email.
MEDIEVAL WORLDS provides a new forum for interdisciplinary and transcultural studies of the Middle Ages. Specifically it encourages and links comparative research between different regions and fields and promotes methodological innovation in transdisciplinary studies. Focusing on the Middle Ages (c. 400-1500 CE, but can be extended whenever thematically fruitful or appropriate), MEDIEVAL WORLDS takes a global approach to studying history in a comparative setting.
MEDIEVAL WORLDS is open to regular submissions on comparative topics, but also offers the possibility to propose or advertise subjects that lend themselves to comparison. With a view to connecting people working on related topics in different academic environments, we publish calls for matching articles and for contributions on particular issues.
Table of Contents
Walter POHL, Editor’s Introduction
The Sudden Success of Prose –
a Comparative View of Greek, Latin, Old French and Old Norse
Lars Boje Mortensen
Could Isidore’s Chronicle Have Delighted Cicero? A Response
Richtard W. Burgess and Michael Kulikowski
Revisiting Pre-Modern Ethnicity and Nationhood: Preface
Ilya Afanasyev and Nicholas S. M. Matheou
»Becoming English«: Nationality, Terminology,
and Changing Sides in the Late Middle Ages
Andrea Ruddick
Reinventing Roman Ethnicity in High and Late Medieval Byzantium
Yannis Stouraitis
The Characteristics of Bodies and Ethnicity c. 900-1200
Claire Weeda
Rethinking Ethnicity and ›Otherness‹ in Early Anglo-Saxon England
James M. Harland
Church, Apostle and People in Early Ireland
Patrick Wadden
Digitising Patterns of Power (DPP):
Applying Digital Tools in the Analysis of Political and Social Transformations
in the Historical Region of Macedonia (12th–14th Centuries)
Mihailo St. Popović and Veronika Polloczek
The Bible in Historical Perception and Writing
of the Transcultural Iberian Societies, Eighth to Twelfth Centuries
Matthias Tischler und Patrick Marschner
The journal is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
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