Approaches to History: Archaeology

Burials: Identity and Status

What can burials tell us about status and power in early medieval Europe?

• What determined social status? Gender, age-grades, descent, etc. – not profession or ‘class’

• Early medieval social structure: written sources

• The importance of gift-giving and portable wealth in a non-monetised society

Earliest Frankish laws: the Lex Salica

Conspicuous consumption of surplus through gift-giving:

The Staffordshire Hoard: c 7th century

Conspicuous consumption of surplus: the Kingston brooch

Case Study I: The burial of Childeric I(Merovingian ‘king’, d. 481-2)

Stilicho, leader of the western Roman army: nb crossbow brooch

Childeric’s signet ring: ‘Childerici regis’, a ‘long-haired king’

Childeric: Romanitas

5th-century horse sacrifices near Childeric’s grave

(St Brice, Tournai)

Early Anglo-Saxon ‘kingdoms’

Case Study II: Sutton Hoo, SE Suffolk (R. Deben)

Plan of the Sutton Hoo cemetery: 16 burial mounds (barrows)

The Sutton Hoo ship burial (Mound 1) under excavation, 1939

3 symbolic categories of finds hold the key to ‘reading’ the status of ‘Mound 1

Man’ (Maybe Redwald d. 624-5?):

• Feasting and drinking equipment: symbolic of the provision of hospitality/gifts

• Roman/Byzantine objects & imitations: symbolic of ‘Romanitas’

• Objects symbolizing international connections

Byzantine silver bowls: for washing?

Preparing the feast: the cauldron

The drinking horns

Sutton Hoo: the drinking set

The drinking set: The burr wood cups

Sutton Hoo: the ‘tub’

Sutton Hoo: reconstruction of the lyre

Gifts of gold: the great gold buckle

‘Romanitas’: The ‘Coptic’ bowl from the Eastern mediterranean

The ‘Anastasius’ dish

The Sutton Hoo Helmet

Late Roman helmets

Mound 1 Man

8th-century genealogy of the East Anglian kings

International connections: the purse-lid, coins and blanks

The Sutton Hoo ship: links to the Svea region of Sweden (a link to the Wylfings?)

The Sutton Hoo ship: half-size replica

Case Study III: Late Saxon execution burials

Late Saxon Execution Burials placed near prehistoric/pagan Saxon burial

mounds

Execution burials near boundaries