This article explores the complexity and nuance of borderlands and border relations focusing on M... more This article explores the complexity and nuance of borderlands and border relations focusing on Mercia. Identifying a host of border maintenance strategies negotiating control over people, places and resources, mitigation of risk and maximisation of opportunity, but also strategic escalation and de-escalation of tensions, the study re-evaluates how Mercian border traditions supported expanded hegemony between the seventh and ninth centuries. The significant departures of the approach presented here are (i) rethinking the traditional focus on military, religious and ethnic identities to integrate these among other activities and experiences defining early medieval frontiers and borderlands and (ii) considering the reimagining not only Mercia’s frontiers and borderlands during its emergence and heyday as a kingdom but also reflecting on how Mercian territory itself became a borderland under the rule of Aethelred and Aethelflaed during the Viking Age, and as such how it was formative in the creation of the Danelaw and of England. The Alfred/Guthrum Treaty and Ordinance of the Dunsaete are here contextualised against other strategies and scales of negotiation and activity framing Mercian/Anglo-Welsh and Anglo-Danish borderlands. Different ‘Mercian borderlands’ are compared in this study and analysed as complex zones of interaction, responsive to geographical factors, but also criss-crossed by multi-stranded pathways of daily life. Mercian borderlands were understood and maintained militarily, physically, spiritually, and ideologically. The article considers how these zones were shaped by convenience but also need and were reinforced or permeable at locality, community and kingdom levels.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon af... more The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon after its discovery in 2009 during fundraising to secure it for the region, the Hoard has become a source of local pride in Staffordshire, receiving over a million visitors. This article explores the Hoard as a marker of identity, both in the past and in the present, and evaluates how the ‘treasure process’, museums, and museum volunteers are shaping public identification with the Anglo-Saxon past of the Mercian kingdom. Drawing on focus-group data, we argue that aspects of the naming and display of the Hoard have encouraged its inclusion in existing narratives of belonging and ‘authenticity’ in Staffordshire. Such archaeological discoveries have the potential to provide points of continuity between the post-industrial present and the distant past, and stimulate a reconsideration of the present status of the region in contemporary cultural and political discourse.
Mercia and the Britons considers how Guthlac in his warrior career lived in a British context in... more Mercia and the Britons considers how Guthlac in his warrior career lived in a British context in the Welsh March. Through historical scholarship and portable antiquities, archaeology and material culture it seeks to uncover his relationship and fighting against real people, before the English church came to see them as heretics and demons rather than demons. Preprint Draft of Capper, Morn, 'St Guthlac and the ‘Britons’: a Mercian context', in Guthlac of Crowland: Celebrating 1300 Years (Stamford, United Kingdom: Paul Watkins, 2020) Given at the Guthlac Conference 2014.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon af... more The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon after its discovery in 2009 during fundraising to secure it for the region, the Hoard has become a source of local pride in Staffordshire, receiving over a million visitors. This article explores the Hoard as a marker of identity, both in the past and in the present, and evaluates how the ‘treasure process’, museums, and museum volunteers are shaping public identification with the Anglo-Saxon past of the Mercian kingdom. Drawing on focus-group data, we argue that aspects of the naming and display of the Hoard have encouraged its inclusion in existing narratives of belonging and ‘authenticity’ in Staffordshire. Such archaeological discoveries have the potential to provide points of continuity between the post-industrial present and the distant past, and stimulate a reconsideration of the present status of the region in contemporary cultural and political discourse.
This paper for 'The Venerable Bede: Issues and Controversies I' indicated that Bede's reticence o... more This paper for 'The Venerable Bede: Issues and Controversies I' indicated that Bede's reticence or inability to comment on Mercian activities led him to present a view of them which obscures interpretation of factors behind the rise of Mercian power in the later seventh and early eighth centuries.
In the context of erratic documentary evidence for the Irish in Anglo-Saxon England, the paper co... more In the context of erratic documentary evidence for the Irish in Anglo-Saxon England, the paper considered whether portable metalwork could be used as evidence for a legacy of Mercian contacts across the Irish Sea, or whether these objects were more likely to be relics of later Viking connections.
This paper used emerging material evidence to question the prevailing attitudes in the Life of Gu... more This paper used emerging material evidence to question the prevailing attitudes in the Life of Guthlac and other texts for Mercian/British interaction in the late seventh to eighth centuries. It showed how textual analysis and material evidence can be used to question a narrative of simple hostility between Mercia and British groups promoted by the Vita and explored what ends were served by this narrative of hostility for the authors and audiences of the saint's life.
This article explores the complexity and nuance of borderlands and border relations focusing on M... more This article explores the complexity and nuance of borderlands and border relations focusing on Mercia. Identifying a host of border maintenance strategies negotiating control over people, places and resources, mitigation of risk and maximisation of opportunity, but also strategic escalation and de-escalation of tensions, the study re-evaluates how Mercian border traditions supported expanded hegemony between the seventh and ninth centuries. The significant departures of the approach presented here are (i) rethinking the traditional focus on military, religious and ethnic identities to integrate these among other activities and experiences defining early medieval frontiers and borderlands and (ii) considering the reimagining not only Mercia’s frontiers and borderlands during its emergence and heyday as a kingdom but also reflecting on how Mercian territory itself became a borderland under the rule of Aethelred and Aethelflaed during the Viking Age, and as such how it was formative in the creation of the Danelaw and of England. The Alfred/Guthrum Treaty and Ordinance of the Dunsaete are here contextualised against other strategies and scales of negotiation and activity framing Mercian/Anglo-Welsh and Anglo-Danish borderlands. Different ‘Mercian borderlands’ are compared in this study and analysed as complex zones of interaction, responsive to geographical factors, but also criss-crossed by multi-stranded pathways of daily life. Mercian borderlands were understood and maintained militarily, physically, spiritually, and ideologically. The article considers how these zones were shaped by convenience but also need and were reinforced or permeable at locality, community and kingdom levels.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon af... more The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon after its discovery in 2009 during fundraising to secure it for the region, the Hoard has become a source of local pride in Staffordshire, receiving over a million visitors. This article explores the Hoard as a marker of identity, both in the past and in the present, and evaluates how the ‘treasure process’, museums, and museum volunteers are shaping public identification with the Anglo-Saxon past of the Mercian kingdom. Drawing on focus-group data, we argue that aspects of the naming and display of the Hoard have encouraged its inclusion in existing narratives of belonging and ‘authenticity’ in Staffordshire. Such archaeological discoveries have the potential to provide points of continuity between the post-industrial present and the distant past, and stimulate a reconsideration of the present status of the region in contemporary cultural and political discourse.
Mercia and the Britons considers how Guthlac in his warrior career lived in a British context in... more Mercia and the Britons considers how Guthlac in his warrior career lived in a British context in the Welsh March. Through historical scholarship and portable antiquities, archaeology and material culture it seeks to uncover his relationship and fighting against real people, before the English church came to see them as heretics and demons rather than demons. Preprint Draft of Capper, Morn, 'St Guthlac and the ‘Britons’: a Mercian context', in Guthlac of Crowland: Celebrating 1300 Years (Stamford, United Kingdom: Paul Watkins, 2020) Given at the Guthlac Conference 2014.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon af... more The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest Anglo-Saxon gold hoard ever found. On display from soon after its discovery in 2009 during fundraising to secure it for the region, the Hoard has become a source of local pride in Staffordshire, receiving over a million visitors. This article explores the Hoard as a marker of identity, both in the past and in the present, and evaluates how the ‘treasure process’, museums, and museum volunteers are shaping public identification with the Anglo-Saxon past of the Mercian kingdom. Drawing on focus-group data, we argue that aspects of the naming and display of the Hoard have encouraged its inclusion in existing narratives of belonging and ‘authenticity’ in Staffordshire. Such archaeological discoveries have the potential to provide points of continuity between the post-industrial present and the distant past, and stimulate a reconsideration of the present status of the region in contemporary cultural and political discourse.
This paper for 'The Venerable Bede: Issues and Controversies I' indicated that Bede's reticence o... more This paper for 'The Venerable Bede: Issues and Controversies I' indicated that Bede's reticence or inability to comment on Mercian activities led him to present a view of them which obscures interpretation of factors behind the rise of Mercian power in the later seventh and early eighth centuries.
In the context of erratic documentary evidence for the Irish in Anglo-Saxon England, the paper co... more In the context of erratic documentary evidence for the Irish in Anglo-Saxon England, the paper considered whether portable metalwork could be used as evidence for a legacy of Mercian contacts across the Irish Sea, or whether these objects were more likely to be relics of later Viking connections.
This paper used emerging material evidence to question the prevailing attitudes in the Life of Gu... more This paper used emerging material evidence to question the prevailing attitudes in the Life of Guthlac and other texts for Mercian/British interaction in the late seventh to eighth centuries. It showed how textual analysis and material evidence can be used to question a narrative of simple hostility between Mercia and British groups promoted by the Vita and explored what ends were served by this narrative of hostility for the authors and audiences of the saint's life.
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Papers by M Diana Capper
http://revistas.jasarqueologia.es/index.php/odjournal/article/view/7735
Preprint Draft of Capper, Morn, 'St Guthlac and the ‘Britons’: a Mercian context', in Guthlac of Crowland: Celebrating 1300 Years (Stamford, United Kingdom: Paul Watkins, 2020) Given at the Guthlac Conference 2014.
http://revistas.jasarqueologia.es/index.php/odjournal/article/view/7735
Preprint Draft of Capper, Morn, 'St Guthlac and the ‘Britons’: a Mercian context', in Guthlac of Crowland: Celebrating 1300 Years (Stamford, United Kingdom: Paul Watkins, 2020) Given at the Guthlac Conference 2014.