Books by Rosie Weetch
Crusades - Subsidia, 2020
This volume culls scholars working in the fields of history, archaeology, numismatics, architectu... more This volume culls scholars working in the fields of history, archaeology, numismatics, architecture and archaeothanatology, to provide an updated snapshot into diverse research of medieval archaeology. The sixteen papers thus, the majority delivered at the ninth Congress of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East, highlight common themes and field specific themes responding to the contemporary scientific approach to archaeology. The current collection is structured around five themes: implications of scientific methods, excavations and surveys, architectural analyses, sigillography and the application of social interpretations.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: CURRENT RESEARCH AND APPROACHES
Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel and Rosie Weetch
1. THE TWO SIEGES AND THE CONQUEST OF MONTFORT
Adrian J. Boas and Rabei G. Khamisy
2. REVISITING THE STRANGE GENESIS OF A TECHNIQUE: RADIOCARBON DATING OF FRANKISH MORTAR
Benjamin Z. Kedar
3. CONVERGENCES OF INTERDISCIPLINARY PATHS: THE HOSPITALLER CONVENT OF SAN GIOVANNI DI PRÈ IN GENOA THROUGH HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE (TWELFTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES)
Elena Bellomo
4. LA REDÉCOUVERTE DE DEUX CHÂTEAUX DE L’HÔPITAL EN HAUTE-PROVENCE: MANOSQUE ET PUIMOISSON EXHUMÉS PAR LES SOURCES ÉCRITES
Damien Carraz
5. A CENTURY AND A HALF OF CRUSADER RULE IN THE TOWN AND LORDSHIP OF ARSUR
Hauke Kenzler and Annette Zeischka-Kenzler
6. BREAD FOR ALL: DOUBLE-CHAMBERED BAKING OVENS IN CASTLES OF THE MILITARY ORDERS; LE CRAC DES CHEVALIERS (SYRIA), LE CHASTELLET DU GUÉ DE JACOB, BELVOIR, AND ARSUR (ISRAEL)
Jean Mesqui, Maxime Goepp, and Lisa Yehuda
7. RADIOGRAPHIE DU TOMBEAU DES PATRIARCHES
Herve Barbe avec la collaboration de Clement Laplaige, Marc Lethiecq, Xavier Rodier, et Francois Vander Meulen
8. GOTHIC FOR ALL: FROM MACRO- TO MICROARCHITECTURE ACROSS RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES IN LUSIGNAN AND VENETIAN CYPRUS
Michalis Olympios
9. VILLEHARDOUIN’S CASTLE OF GRAND MAGNE (MEGALI MAINI): A RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE FOR ITS LOCATION
Michael Heslop
10. CIVITAS REGIS REGVM OMNIVM: INVENTING A ROYAL SEAL IN JERUSALEM, 1100–1118
Robert Kool
11. CHANGE OR CONTINUITY? RURAL SETTLEMENT IN EASTERN GALILEE AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES: THE HOSPITALLER ESTATE OF BELVOIR
Simon Dorso
12. ARCHAEOTHANATOLOGY, BURIALS, AND CEMETERIES: PERSPECTIVES FOR CRUSADER ARCHAEOLOGY
Yves Gleize
13. OVERLOOKED ORDNANCE: ARTILLERY PROJECTILES OF THE CRUSADER PERIOD
Michael S. Fulton
14. THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM: NEW CORPUS AND PERSPECTIVES
Estelle Ingrand-Varenne
15. ASCALON, A LANDSCAPE OF CONFLICTS: SOME LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY PERSPECTIVES ON CONFLICTS FROM THE DAYS OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM
Rafael Y. Lewis
16. THE CASTLE CHAPEL OF ARSUR: NEW EVIDENCE FOR ITS LOCATION AND ARCHITECTURE
Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel, Hagi Yohanan, and Oren Tal
While traditional studies of dress and jewellery have tended to focus purely on reconstruction or... more While traditional studies of dress and jewellery have tended to focus purely on reconstruction or descriptions of style, chronology and typology, the social context of costume is now a major research area in archaeology. This refocusing is largely a result of the close relationship between dress and three currently popular topics: identity, bodies and material culture. Not only does dress constitute an important means by which people integrate and segregate to form group identities, but interactions between objects and bodies, quintessentially illustrated by dress, can also form the basis of much wider symbolic systems. Consequently, archaeological understandings of clothing shed light on some of the fundamental aspects of society, hence our intentionally unconditional title.
Dress and Society illustrates the range of current archaeological approaches to dress using a number of case studies drawn from prehistoric to post-medieval Europe. Individually, each chapter makes a strong contribution in its own field whether through the discussion of new evidence or new approaches to classic material. Presenting the eight papers together creates a strong argument for a theoretically informed and integrated approach to dress as a specific category of archaeological evidence, emphasising that the study of dress not only draws openly on other disciplines, but is also a sub-discipline in its own right. However, rather than delimiting dress to a specialist area of research we seek to promote it as fundamental to any holistic archaeological understanding of past societies.
Articles and Chapters by Rosie Weetch
Crusading and Archaeology: Some Archaeological Approaches to the Crusades, 2021
This introduction includes a brief summary of recent studies and
developments in 11 such fields, ... more This introduction includes a brief summary of recent studies and
developments in 11 such fields, directly influenced by the archaeology of the crusades.
Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society CVII pp. 41–94, 2018
Jon House, Tom Woolhouse, Rosie Weetch and Aileen Tierney
With additional contributions by Sue Ha... more Jon House, Tom Woolhouse, Rosie Weetch and Aileen Tierney
With additional contributions by Sue Harrington and Berni Sudds
The excavation at the Three Kings, Haddenham, revealed evidence of early Anglo-Saxon activity, most significantly a
continuation of the cemetery uncovered by previous excavations in 1989–1990 and reported on in PCAS 81 (Robinson
and Duhig 1992). The current excavation uncovered eight graves containing nine individual burials, six of the burials
having associated grave goods which date them to the sixth century AD. The grave goods include a spearhead
and shield boss and fittings, associated with a male burial, and dress accessories, including beads and brooches,
associated with a female burial. Many of the accompanying grave goods are typical of the period, but some are more
unusual, including a horse bridle which had been modified as a brooch and shield appliqués in the form of fish. In
addition to the graves, four charnel pits were identified, containing disarticulated bones of numerous individuals,
indicative that the cemetery was larger at one time. Some of the burials had been disturbed by broadly contemporary
and later pitting, suggesting an adjacent settlement occupied from the early Saxon to the medieval period.
Material Religion , 2019
Using the large collection of crusader coins at the Museum of the Order of St. John as a starting... more Using the large collection of crusader coins at the Museum of the Order of St. John as a starting point, this paper explores some of the non-monetary roles that coins played in the crusading world. A significant number show evidence of secondary use, with some being pierced for suspension to be used as items of jewelry. Through this transformation such coins would have lost their monetary value but would have gained new values that were just as powerful. These coins were probably worn as amulets, their effectiveness and power being aided by the materiality, function, and iconography of the coins themselves. This paper argues that in being worn, held, and touched, these repurposed coins were used by individuals in their everyday experience and expression of belief within the changing sociopolitical landscape of the Latin East.
This chapter examines continuity and change in brooch fashions in the 11th century. As a
previou... more This chapter examines continuity and change in brooch fashions in the 11th century. As a
previously untapped source of evidence for the period of the Norman Conquest, the corpus of lead-alloy brooches from England, including the largely unpublished assemblage from London, is reassessed within the socio-cultural contexts of the 11th century. It explores the impact of conquest, urban expansion, and changing networks of contacts on brooch fashions and shifting social identities. It concludes that developing urban identities – especially in London – were articulated through brooch fashions, which were available to a wide cross-section of urban society.
An art-historical and metallurgical discussion of an early medieval polychrome-enamelled brooch f... more An art-historical and metallurgical discussion of an early medieval polychrome-enamelled brooch from Lincoln (UK), and its wider implications.
PhD Thesis by Rosie Weetch
Talks and Conference Papers by Rosie Weetch
Using the large collection of crusader coins at the Museum of the Order of St John
as a starting... more Using the large collection of crusader coins at the Museum of the Order of St John
as a starting point, this paper will explore some of the non-monetary roles that
coins played in the crusading world. A significant number show evidence of
secondary use, with some being pierced for suspension to be used as items of
jewellery. Through this transformation such coins would have lost their
monetary value, but would have gained new values that were just as
powerful. These coins were probably worn as amulets, their effectiveness and
power being aided by the materiality, function, and iconography of the coins
themselves. This paper will argue that in being worn, held, and touched, these
repurposed coins were used by individuals in their everyday experience and
expression of belief within the changing socio-political landscape of the Latin
East.
Brooches with christian symbols and motifs become increasingly popular in north west Europe in th... more Brooches with christian symbols and motifs become increasingly popular in north west Europe in the 8th to 10th centuries. This paper explores how these objects, in being worn, held, and touched, were used by individuals in their everyday experience and expression of Christianity. Further, it will examine how the common use of these brooches created community religious identities within the context of the changing socio-political landscape of early medieval Europe.
"This paper examines the mechanisms by which ansate brooches were imported and produced on either... more "This paper examines the mechanisms by which ansate brooches were imported and produced on either side of the southern North Sea, and how their study can shed light on the nature of cross-cultural contact and the formation of social identities in the eighth to tenth centuries. These brooches are found in great numbers across Continental Europe, but especially strong affinities can be seen between those found on the Frisian coast and in Anglo-Saxon England.
Drawing on current theoretical models, this paper will ask how identities were created and maintained through dress practices in the southern North Sea region. In particular it will place ansate brooches in the context of dynamic maritime trading activity at emporia and other sites. These types of settlements played host to highly mixed cultural communities of permanent and temporary inhabitants holding multiple and shifting concepts about their own and others’ socio-cultural identities. It will be argued that a common maritime-based identity emerged in the eighth and ninth centuries in the coastal regions around the southern North Sea, and that this was in part created and articulated through the wearing of ansate brooches.
"
The production and use of coin-based brooches in Anglo-Saxon England emerged in the eighth centur... more The production and use of coin-based brooches in Anglo-Saxon England emerged in the eighth century and continued into the eleventh century (and indeed beyond). During this time many changes can be identified in the fashion for wearing coins, the most significant being the shift from so-called pseudo-coin brooches (which were cast and decorated with motifs drawn from coinage) to actual coins which were converted into brooches through the addition of a pin. This paper examines this chronological shift, drawing on the much expanded corpus of metal-detected finds. Further, this paper explores how it was the reproduction of both the monetary and non-monetary value of coins, through the process of imitating and re-using them, that gave these brooches a social significance that can be related to the construction and display of social identities.
"During the last ten years there has been a massive increase in the number of early medieval find... more "During the last ten years there has been a massive increase in the number of early medieval finds made through metal-detecting, the majority of which are related to personal adornment, including brooches. This expanding corpus of brooches provides a new and important tool for exploring the creation, expression and negotiation of social identities in England and how they relate to the rest of Europe.
Significant numbers of Continental style brooches – including ansate, cross-shaped, and enamelled disc brooches – which can be dated to the 8th and 9th centuries, are now known in England. Such brooches flourished in the southern North Sea region, and are common finds in various ‘trading’ sites along the Frisian and English coasts. These types of settlements played host to highly mixed cultural communities of permanent and temporary inhabitants holding multiple and shifting concepts about their own and others’ socio-cultural identities. This paper will explore the potential of brooches to inform our discussions of perceived and expressed identities, relating especially to place, religion, and gender, of such communities. The notions that material-cultural identities are situational and adaptive, involving complex negotiations between wearer, object, and viewer, are key to the interpretation these objects.
In examining the extent to which English brooch fashions were formed in response to an expanding North-West European aesthetic, which was facilitated by maritime contact and coastal settlements, it is hoped that this paper will further our understand personal and community identities in early medieval Europe."
The wealth of metalwork held by the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre provides a ... more The wealth of metalwork held by the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre provides a rare glimpse into eleventh-century life. This material is little known and has never published, yet it offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine socio-cultural transformations at the time of the Norman Conquest. The corpus of lead-alloy brooches in particular will be used to explore: the evidence for production and innovation in London’s workshops and markets; the emergence of a trend-setting urban society who used jewellery in socially meaningful ways; and how these new ‘urban’ fashions compare with finds from the rest of England and on the Continent.
"During the eighth century there emerged a range of new brooch fashions in England which appear u... more "During the eighth century there emerged a range of new brooch fashions in England which appear unrelated to those of the previous centuries known to us from furnished burials. Many of these new brooches can be related to Continental forms and styles, including ansate brooches, cross-shaped brooches, and disc brooches with enamelled cross and saint motifs. These brooches were once considered rare in England, but they now make-up a huge proportion of the known corpus.
Looking at the mechanisms by which these brooches were imported, produced and worn can shed light on the nature of cross-cultural contact in the eighth and ninth centuries in North West Europe. A spotlight will be placed on the potential of these objects to inform our discussions of social identities, especially those related to Christianity, during this period. This approach emphasises the notion that material-cultural meanings are situational and adaptive, involving complex negotiations between wearer, object and viewer. This poster aims to reveal the extent to which England was part of an expanding North-West European aesthetic, and what this meant for people wearing such objects in England.
"
""The success of the Portable Antiquities Scheme has led to a greatly expanded corpus of ornament... more ""The success of the Portable Antiquities Scheme has led to a greatly expanded corpus of ornamental metalwork datable to the late Saxon period (8th-11th centuries A.D.). Archaeologists have been quick to utilise this new data to further our understanding of how material culture was used to negotiate and express cultural identities during a period of dynamic social change and upheaval. These studies have been successful in applying current theoretical approaches to material culture, yet they remain limited in their scope by only assessing material from the Danelaw with Scandinavian connections. This has led to an unbalanced picture of metalwork in the late Saxon period, for the expanded corpus also displays significant influence from the Carolingian continent.
This paper will focus on one category of dress accessory – the brooch - to redress the balance and highlight the impact of Carolingian imports and art-styles on metalwork production in late Saxon England. By examining the various brooch types it will possible to identify those which were imported and the extent to which Anglo-Saxon craftsmen copied and re-invented these styles and forms. Emphasis will also be placed on the roles of brooches as markers of social identity connected to expressions of ethnicity, gender and religion. Overall, it will be argued that brooches of Carolingian inspiration found on English soil constitute important evidence for the emergence of a pan-northern European aesthetic in metalwork styles over the 8th and 11th centuries AD.""
Blog posts by Rosie Weetch
The British Museum Blog, http://blog.britishmuseum.org/2014/05/28/decoding-anglo-saxon-art/
Websites by Rosie Weetch
‘Bearers of the Cross: Material Religion in the Crusading World, 1095–c.1300’ is an AHRC Leadersh... more ‘Bearers of the Cross: Material Religion in the Crusading World, 1095–c.1300’ is an AHRC Leadership Fellows project, led by Dr William Purkis (University of Birmingham). It will run from October 2015 to December 2017 and its primary aim is to develop new knowledge and understanding of the lived, material religion of medieval crusaders through a wide-ranging analysis of the texts, art, architecture and material culture associated with crusader belief. Dr Purkis is exploring the devotional worlds that those who ‘took the cross’ inhabited, examining the ritual practices crusaders observed, the religious objects and images they treasured, and the sacred spaces they shaped and were shaped by. The principal output of the project will be a monograph, to be published by Yale University Press.
Dr Purkis’s research into the materiality of crusader belief involves a partnership with the Museum of the Order of St John (MOSJ) – ‘a hidden jewel in the City of London’. With a direct connection to a religious order founded in Jerusalem in the early twelfth century, MOSJ has an important but little-known collection of medieval material culture, including seals and seal casts, manuscripts and a substantial number of coins originating from the Crusader States. The project’s Research Fellow, Dr Rosie Weetch, and Inventory Officer, Dickon Whitewood, are working with one of the Museum’s curators, Abigail Turner, to study, catalogue and photograph this collection for publication as an online open access database. The first objects within MOSJ’s medieval collection will be published early in 2016 and the final version of the database will be available towards the end of the year.
There will be a number of public events taking place as part of the project, including a series of lectures at the Museum in 2016 and 2017, as well as a research workshop on medieval material religion (June 2016), and a workshop on best practice in collaborations between academics and heritage professionals (December 2017).
To keep up to date with the project please visit the website and follow us on Twitter: @CrusaderMatter
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Books by Rosie Weetch
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: CURRENT RESEARCH AND APPROACHES
Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel and Rosie Weetch
1. THE TWO SIEGES AND THE CONQUEST OF MONTFORT
Adrian J. Boas and Rabei G. Khamisy
2. REVISITING THE STRANGE GENESIS OF A TECHNIQUE: RADIOCARBON DATING OF FRANKISH MORTAR
Benjamin Z. Kedar
3. CONVERGENCES OF INTERDISCIPLINARY PATHS: THE HOSPITALLER CONVENT OF SAN GIOVANNI DI PRÈ IN GENOA THROUGH HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE (TWELFTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES)
Elena Bellomo
4. LA REDÉCOUVERTE DE DEUX CHÂTEAUX DE L’HÔPITAL EN HAUTE-PROVENCE: MANOSQUE ET PUIMOISSON EXHUMÉS PAR LES SOURCES ÉCRITES
Damien Carraz
5. A CENTURY AND A HALF OF CRUSADER RULE IN THE TOWN AND LORDSHIP OF ARSUR
Hauke Kenzler and Annette Zeischka-Kenzler
6. BREAD FOR ALL: DOUBLE-CHAMBERED BAKING OVENS IN CASTLES OF THE MILITARY ORDERS; LE CRAC DES CHEVALIERS (SYRIA), LE CHASTELLET DU GUÉ DE JACOB, BELVOIR, AND ARSUR (ISRAEL)
Jean Mesqui, Maxime Goepp, and Lisa Yehuda
7. RADIOGRAPHIE DU TOMBEAU DES PATRIARCHES
Herve Barbe avec la collaboration de Clement Laplaige, Marc Lethiecq, Xavier Rodier, et Francois Vander Meulen
8. GOTHIC FOR ALL: FROM MACRO- TO MICROARCHITECTURE ACROSS RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES IN LUSIGNAN AND VENETIAN CYPRUS
Michalis Olympios
9. VILLEHARDOUIN’S CASTLE OF GRAND MAGNE (MEGALI MAINI): A RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE FOR ITS LOCATION
Michael Heslop
10. CIVITAS REGIS REGVM OMNIVM: INVENTING A ROYAL SEAL IN JERUSALEM, 1100–1118
Robert Kool
11. CHANGE OR CONTINUITY? RURAL SETTLEMENT IN EASTERN GALILEE AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES: THE HOSPITALLER ESTATE OF BELVOIR
Simon Dorso
12. ARCHAEOTHANATOLOGY, BURIALS, AND CEMETERIES: PERSPECTIVES FOR CRUSADER ARCHAEOLOGY
Yves Gleize
13. OVERLOOKED ORDNANCE: ARTILLERY PROJECTILES OF THE CRUSADER PERIOD
Michael S. Fulton
14. THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM: NEW CORPUS AND PERSPECTIVES
Estelle Ingrand-Varenne
15. ASCALON, A LANDSCAPE OF CONFLICTS: SOME LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY PERSPECTIVES ON CONFLICTS FROM THE DAYS OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM
Rafael Y. Lewis
16. THE CASTLE CHAPEL OF ARSUR: NEW EVIDENCE FOR ITS LOCATION AND ARCHITECTURE
Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel, Hagi Yohanan, and Oren Tal
Dress and Society illustrates the range of current archaeological approaches to dress using a number of case studies drawn from prehistoric to post-medieval Europe. Individually, each chapter makes a strong contribution in its own field whether through the discussion of new evidence or new approaches to classic material. Presenting the eight papers together creates a strong argument for a theoretically informed and integrated approach to dress as a specific category of archaeological evidence, emphasising that the study of dress not only draws openly on other disciplines, but is also a sub-discipline in its own right. However, rather than delimiting dress to a specialist area of research we seek to promote it as fundamental to any holistic archaeological understanding of past societies.
Articles and Chapters by Rosie Weetch
developments in 11 such fields, directly influenced by the archaeology of the crusades.
With additional contributions by Sue Harrington and Berni Sudds
The excavation at the Three Kings, Haddenham, revealed evidence of early Anglo-Saxon activity, most significantly a
continuation of the cemetery uncovered by previous excavations in 1989–1990 and reported on in PCAS 81 (Robinson
and Duhig 1992). The current excavation uncovered eight graves containing nine individual burials, six of the burials
having associated grave goods which date them to the sixth century AD. The grave goods include a spearhead
and shield boss and fittings, associated with a male burial, and dress accessories, including beads and brooches,
associated with a female burial. Many of the accompanying grave goods are typical of the period, but some are more
unusual, including a horse bridle which had been modified as a brooch and shield appliqués in the form of fish. In
addition to the graves, four charnel pits were identified, containing disarticulated bones of numerous individuals,
indicative that the cemetery was larger at one time. Some of the burials had been disturbed by broadly contemporary
and later pitting, suggesting an adjacent settlement occupied from the early Saxon to the medieval period.
previously untapped source of evidence for the period of the Norman Conquest, the corpus of lead-alloy brooches from England, including the largely unpublished assemblage from London, is reassessed within the socio-cultural contexts of the 11th century. It explores the impact of conquest, urban expansion, and changing networks of contacts on brooch fashions and shifting social identities. It concludes that developing urban identities – especially in London – were articulated through brooch fashions, which were available to a wide cross-section of urban society.
PhD Thesis by Rosie Weetch
A thesis submitted for the degree of doctor of philosophy
University of Reading, Department of Archaeology
2014
Talks and Conference Papers by Rosie Weetch
as a starting point, this paper will explore some of the non-monetary roles that
coins played in the crusading world. A significant number show evidence of
secondary use, with some being pierced for suspension to be used as items of
jewellery. Through this transformation such coins would have lost their
monetary value, but would have gained new values that were just as
powerful. These coins were probably worn as amulets, their effectiveness and
power being aided by the materiality, function, and iconography of the coins
themselves. This paper will argue that in being worn, held, and touched, these
repurposed coins were used by individuals in their everyday experience and
expression of belief within the changing socio-political landscape of the Latin
East.
Drawing on current theoretical models, this paper will ask how identities were created and maintained through dress practices in the southern North Sea region. In particular it will place ansate brooches in the context of dynamic maritime trading activity at emporia and other sites. These types of settlements played host to highly mixed cultural communities of permanent and temporary inhabitants holding multiple and shifting concepts about their own and others’ socio-cultural identities. It will be argued that a common maritime-based identity emerged in the eighth and ninth centuries in the coastal regions around the southern North Sea, and that this was in part created and articulated through the wearing of ansate brooches.
"
Significant numbers of Continental style brooches – including ansate, cross-shaped, and enamelled disc brooches – which can be dated to the 8th and 9th centuries, are now known in England. Such brooches flourished in the southern North Sea region, and are common finds in various ‘trading’ sites along the Frisian and English coasts. These types of settlements played host to highly mixed cultural communities of permanent and temporary inhabitants holding multiple and shifting concepts about their own and others’ socio-cultural identities. This paper will explore the potential of brooches to inform our discussions of perceived and expressed identities, relating especially to place, religion, and gender, of such communities. The notions that material-cultural identities are situational and adaptive, involving complex negotiations between wearer, object, and viewer, are key to the interpretation these objects.
In examining the extent to which English brooch fashions were formed in response to an expanding North-West European aesthetic, which was facilitated by maritime contact and coastal settlements, it is hoped that this paper will further our understand personal and community identities in early medieval Europe."
Looking at the mechanisms by which these brooches were imported, produced and worn can shed light on the nature of cross-cultural contact in the eighth and ninth centuries in North West Europe. A spotlight will be placed on the potential of these objects to inform our discussions of social identities, especially those related to Christianity, during this period. This approach emphasises the notion that material-cultural meanings are situational and adaptive, involving complex negotiations between wearer, object and viewer. This poster aims to reveal the extent to which England was part of an expanding North-West European aesthetic, and what this meant for people wearing such objects in England.
"
This paper will focus on one category of dress accessory – the brooch - to redress the balance and highlight the impact of Carolingian imports and art-styles on metalwork production in late Saxon England. By examining the various brooch types it will possible to identify those which were imported and the extent to which Anglo-Saxon craftsmen copied and re-invented these styles and forms. Emphasis will also be placed on the roles of brooches as markers of social identity connected to expressions of ethnicity, gender and religion. Overall, it will be argued that brooches of Carolingian inspiration found on English soil constitute important evidence for the emergence of a pan-northern European aesthetic in metalwork styles over the 8th and 11th centuries AD.""
Blog posts by Rosie Weetch
Websites by Rosie Weetch
Dr Purkis’s research into the materiality of crusader belief involves a partnership with the Museum of the Order of St John (MOSJ) – ‘a hidden jewel in the City of London’. With a direct connection to a religious order founded in Jerusalem in the early twelfth century, MOSJ has an important but little-known collection of medieval material culture, including seals and seal casts, manuscripts and a substantial number of coins originating from the Crusader States. The project’s Research Fellow, Dr Rosie Weetch, and Inventory Officer, Dickon Whitewood, are working with one of the Museum’s curators, Abigail Turner, to study, catalogue and photograph this collection for publication as an online open access database. The first objects within MOSJ’s medieval collection will be published early in 2016 and the final version of the database will be available towards the end of the year.
There will be a number of public events taking place as part of the project, including a series of lectures at the Museum in 2016 and 2017, as well as a research workshop on medieval material religion (June 2016), and a workshop on best practice in collaborations between academics and heritage professionals (December 2017).
To keep up to date with the project please visit the website and follow us on Twitter: @CrusaderMatter
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: CURRENT RESEARCH AND APPROACHES
Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel and Rosie Weetch
1. THE TWO SIEGES AND THE CONQUEST OF MONTFORT
Adrian J. Boas and Rabei G. Khamisy
2. REVISITING THE STRANGE GENESIS OF A TECHNIQUE: RADIOCARBON DATING OF FRANKISH MORTAR
Benjamin Z. Kedar
3. CONVERGENCES OF INTERDISCIPLINARY PATHS: THE HOSPITALLER CONVENT OF SAN GIOVANNI DI PRÈ IN GENOA THROUGH HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE (TWELFTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES)
Elena Bellomo
4. LA REDÉCOUVERTE DE DEUX CHÂTEAUX DE L’HÔPITAL EN HAUTE-PROVENCE: MANOSQUE ET PUIMOISSON EXHUMÉS PAR LES SOURCES ÉCRITES
Damien Carraz
5. A CENTURY AND A HALF OF CRUSADER RULE IN THE TOWN AND LORDSHIP OF ARSUR
Hauke Kenzler and Annette Zeischka-Kenzler
6. BREAD FOR ALL: DOUBLE-CHAMBERED BAKING OVENS IN CASTLES OF THE MILITARY ORDERS; LE CRAC DES CHEVALIERS (SYRIA), LE CHASTELLET DU GUÉ DE JACOB, BELVOIR, AND ARSUR (ISRAEL)
Jean Mesqui, Maxime Goepp, and Lisa Yehuda
7. RADIOGRAPHIE DU TOMBEAU DES PATRIARCHES
Herve Barbe avec la collaboration de Clement Laplaige, Marc Lethiecq, Xavier Rodier, et Francois Vander Meulen
8. GOTHIC FOR ALL: FROM MACRO- TO MICROARCHITECTURE ACROSS RELIGIOUS BOUNDARIES IN LUSIGNAN AND VENETIAN CYPRUS
Michalis Olympios
9. VILLEHARDOUIN’S CASTLE OF GRAND MAGNE (MEGALI MAINI): A RE-ASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE FOR ITS LOCATION
Michael Heslop
10. CIVITAS REGIS REGVM OMNIVM: INVENTING A ROYAL SEAL IN JERUSALEM, 1100–1118
Robert Kool
11. CHANGE OR CONTINUITY? RURAL SETTLEMENT IN EASTERN GALILEE AT THE TIME OF THE CRUSADES: THE HOSPITALLER ESTATE OF BELVOIR
Simon Dorso
12. ARCHAEOTHANATOLOGY, BURIALS, AND CEMETERIES: PERSPECTIVES FOR CRUSADER ARCHAEOLOGY
Yves Gleize
13. OVERLOOKED ORDNANCE: ARTILLERY PROJECTILES OF THE CRUSADER PERIOD
Michael S. Fulton
14. THE INSCRIPTIONS OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM: NEW CORPUS AND PERSPECTIVES
Estelle Ingrand-Varenne
15. ASCALON, A LANDSCAPE OF CONFLICTS: SOME LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY PERSPECTIVES ON CONFLICTS FROM THE DAYS OF THE LATIN KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM
Rafael Y. Lewis
16. THE CASTLE CHAPEL OF ARSUR: NEW EVIDENCE FOR ITS LOCATION AND ARCHITECTURE
Vardit R. Shotten-Hallel, Hagi Yohanan, and Oren Tal
Dress and Society illustrates the range of current archaeological approaches to dress using a number of case studies drawn from prehistoric to post-medieval Europe. Individually, each chapter makes a strong contribution in its own field whether through the discussion of new evidence or new approaches to classic material. Presenting the eight papers together creates a strong argument for a theoretically informed and integrated approach to dress as a specific category of archaeological evidence, emphasising that the study of dress not only draws openly on other disciplines, but is also a sub-discipline in its own right. However, rather than delimiting dress to a specialist area of research we seek to promote it as fundamental to any holistic archaeological understanding of past societies.
developments in 11 such fields, directly influenced by the archaeology of the crusades.
With additional contributions by Sue Harrington and Berni Sudds
The excavation at the Three Kings, Haddenham, revealed evidence of early Anglo-Saxon activity, most significantly a
continuation of the cemetery uncovered by previous excavations in 1989–1990 and reported on in PCAS 81 (Robinson
and Duhig 1992). The current excavation uncovered eight graves containing nine individual burials, six of the burials
having associated grave goods which date them to the sixth century AD. The grave goods include a spearhead
and shield boss and fittings, associated with a male burial, and dress accessories, including beads and brooches,
associated with a female burial. Many of the accompanying grave goods are typical of the period, but some are more
unusual, including a horse bridle which had been modified as a brooch and shield appliqués in the form of fish. In
addition to the graves, four charnel pits were identified, containing disarticulated bones of numerous individuals,
indicative that the cemetery was larger at one time. Some of the burials had been disturbed by broadly contemporary
and later pitting, suggesting an adjacent settlement occupied from the early Saxon to the medieval period.
previously untapped source of evidence for the period of the Norman Conquest, the corpus of lead-alloy brooches from England, including the largely unpublished assemblage from London, is reassessed within the socio-cultural contexts of the 11th century. It explores the impact of conquest, urban expansion, and changing networks of contacts on brooch fashions and shifting social identities. It concludes that developing urban identities – especially in London – were articulated through brooch fashions, which were available to a wide cross-section of urban society.
A thesis submitted for the degree of doctor of philosophy
University of Reading, Department of Archaeology
2014
as a starting point, this paper will explore some of the non-monetary roles that
coins played in the crusading world. A significant number show evidence of
secondary use, with some being pierced for suspension to be used as items of
jewellery. Through this transformation such coins would have lost their
monetary value, but would have gained new values that were just as
powerful. These coins were probably worn as amulets, their effectiveness and
power being aided by the materiality, function, and iconography of the coins
themselves. This paper will argue that in being worn, held, and touched, these
repurposed coins were used by individuals in their everyday experience and
expression of belief within the changing socio-political landscape of the Latin
East.
Drawing on current theoretical models, this paper will ask how identities were created and maintained through dress practices in the southern North Sea region. In particular it will place ansate brooches in the context of dynamic maritime trading activity at emporia and other sites. These types of settlements played host to highly mixed cultural communities of permanent and temporary inhabitants holding multiple and shifting concepts about their own and others’ socio-cultural identities. It will be argued that a common maritime-based identity emerged in the eighth and ninth centuries in the coastal regions around the southern North Sea, and that this was in part created and articulated through the wearing of ansate brooches.
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Significant numbers of Continental style brooches – including ansate, cross-shaped, and enamelled disc brooches – which can be dated to the 8th and 9th centuries, are now known in England. Such brooches flourished in the southern North Sea region, and are common finds in various ‘trading’ sites along the Frisian and English coasts. These types of settlements played host to highly mixed cultural communities of permanent and temporary inhabitants holding multiple and shifting concepts about their own and others’ socio-cultural identities. This paper will explore the potential of brooches to inform our discussions of perceived and expressed identities, relating especially to place, religion, and gender, of such communities. The notions that material-cultural identities are situational and adaptive, involving complex negotiations between wearer, object, and viewer, are key to the interpretation these objects.
In examining the extent to which English brooch fashions were formed in response to an expanding North-West European aesthetic, which was facilitated by maritime contact and coastal settlements, it is hoped that this paper will further our understand personal and community identities in early medieval Europe."
Looking at the mechanisms by which these brooches were imported, produced and worn can shed light on the nature of cross-cultural contact in the eighth and ninth centuries in North West Europe. A spotlight will be placed on the potential of these objects to inform our discussions of social identities, especially those related to Christianity, during this period. This approach emphasises the notion that material-cultural meanings are situational and adaptive, involving complex negotiations between wearer, object and viewer. This poster aims to reveal the extent to which England was part of an expanding North-West European aesthetic, and what this meant for people wearing such objects in England.
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This paper will focus on one category of dress accessory – the brooch - to redress the balance and highlight the impact of Carolingian imports and art-styles on metalwork production in late Saxon England. By examining the various brooch types it will possible to identify those which were imported and the extent to which Anglo-Saxon craftsmen copied and re-invented these styles and forms. Emphasis will also be placed on the roles of brooches as markers of social identity connected to expressions of ethnicity, gender and religion. Overall, it will be argued that brooches of Carolingian inspiration found on English soil constitute important evidence for the emergence of a pan-northern European aesthetic in metalwork styles over the 8th and 11th centuries AD.""
Dr Purkis’s research into the materiality of crusader belief involves a partnership with the Museum of the Order of St John (MOSJ) – ‘a hidden jewel in the City of London’. With a direct connection to a religious order founded in Jerusalem in the early twelfth century, MOSJ has an important but little-known collection of medieval material culture, including seals and seal casts, manuscripts and a substantial number of coins originating from the Crusader States. The project’s Research Fellow, Dr Rosie Weetch, and Inventory Officer, Dickon Whitewood, are working with one of the Museum’s curators, Abigail Turner, to study, catalogue and photograph this collection for publication as an online open access database. The first objects within MOSJ’s medieval collection will be published early in 2016 and the final version of the database will be available towards the end of the year.
There will be a number of public events taking place as part of the project, including a series of lectures at the Museum in 2016 and 2017, as well as a research workshop on medieval material religion (June 2016), and a workshop on best practice in collaborations between academics and heritage professionals (December 2017).
To keep up to date with the project please visit the website and follow us on Twitter: @CrusaderMatter