Letty ten Harkel
Universiteit Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology, Faculty Member
- University of Oxford, School of Archaeology, Department Memberadd
- Anglo-Saxon history, Vikings, Material Culture Studies, Monetary history, Urbanism (Archaeology), Anglo-Saxons, and 22 moreEarly Medieval And Medieval Settlement (Archaeology), Mortuary archaeology, Old English Literature, Frankish history, Landscape Archaeology, Archaeology, Identity, Urbanism, Early Medieval History, Viking Age Archaeology, Material Culture, Viking Studies, Medieval Chronicles, Early Medieval Period, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Heritage Management, Levantine Archaeology, Crusader Archaeology, Ottoman History, Protection of cultural heritage, Lebanon, and Egyptian Archaeologyedit
- My interdisciplinary research focuses on past and present identities in the North Sea and Mediterranean regions, forg... moreMy interdisciplinary research focuses on past and present identities in the North Sea and Mediterranean regions, forging links between history, archaeology, literature and archaeological science. Key themes include:
• Material culture and identity
• Archaeological method, practice and heritage at risk in the 21st century
• Cultural interactions
• Settlement development and the rise of urban identities
• Landscape archaeology
• Stable isotopes and burial archaeology
Current and recent projects at the University of Oxford:
• Postdoctoral Researcher, EAMENA project (Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa: eamena.arch.ox.ac.uk)
• Principal Investigator, Medieval Migrant of the North Sea World (https://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/medieval-migrants-north-sea-world)
From 2017-2020, I was Editor of the peer reviewed journal Medieval Settlement Research, which welcomes research papers and reports on all aspects of medieval landscape and settlement archaeology (https://medieval-settlement.com/publications/journal).
Publication project, together with Pieterjan Deckers: A Central Place on the World's Edge (working title), an English-language volume presenting new and existing research on early medieval Domburg and surroundings to an international audience (jointly published by Brepols and Zeeuwsch Genootschap).
Past projects:
• Investigating the Dead in Early Medieval Domburg (IDEMD), with Robert van Dierendonck (joint PI)
• Landscapes and Identities: the case of the English landscape 1500 BC - AD 1066 (EngLaId) (early medieval researcher)edit
Long before the Norman Conquest of 1066, England saw periods of profound change that transformed the landscape and the identities of those who occupied it. The Bronze and Iron Ages saw the introduction of now-familiar animals and plants,... more
Long before the Norman Conquest of 1066, England saw periods of profound change that transformed the landscape and the identities of those who occupied it. The Bronze and Iron Ages saw the introduction of now-familiar animals and plants, such as sheep, horses, wheat, and oats, as well as new forms of production and exchange and the first laying out of substantial fields and trackways, which continued into the earliest Romano-British landscapes. The Anglo-Saxon period saw the creation of new villages based around church and manor, with ridge and furrow cultivation strips still preserved today.
The basis for this volume is The English Landscapes and Identities project, which synthesised all the major available sources of information on English archaeology to examine this crucial period of landscape history from the middle Bronze Age (c. 1500 BC) to the Domesday survey (c. 1086 AD). It looks at the nature of archaeological work undertaken across England to assess its strengths and weaknesses when writing long-term histories. Among many other topics it examines the interaction of ecology and human action in shaping the landscape; issues of movement across the landscape in various periods; changing forms of food over time; an understanding of spatial scale; and questions of enclosing and naming the landscape, culminating in a discussion of the links between landscape and identity. The result is the first comprehensive account of the English landscape over a crucial 2500-year period. It also offers a celebration of many centuries of archaeological work, especially the intensive large-scale investigations that have taken place since the 1960s and transformed our understanding of England's past.
The basis for this volume is The English Landscapes and Identities project, which synthesised all the major available sources of information on English archaeology to examine this crucial period of landscape history from the middle Bronze Age (c. 1500 BC) to the Domesday survey (c. 1086 AD). It looks at the nature of archaeological work undertaken across England to assess its strengths and weaknesses when writing long-term histories. Among many other topics it examines the interaction of ecology and human action in shaping the landscape; issues of movement across the landscape in various periods; changing forms of food over time; an understanding of spatial scale; and questions of enclosing and naming the landscape, culminating in a discussion of the links between landscape and identity. The result is the first comprehensive account of the English landscape over a crucial 2500-year period. It also offers a celebration of many centuries of archaeological work, especially the intensive large-scale investigations that have taken place since the 1960s and transformed our understanding of England's past.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Environmental History, Early Medieval Archaeology, and 15 moreCommercial/ Contract Archaeology, Archaeological GIS, Iron Age Britain (Archaeology), Early medieval Britain (Archaeology), Roman Britain, British Prehistory (Archaeology), Prehistoric Europe (Archaeology), Bronze Age (Archaeology), Late Iron Age (Archaeology), Archaeological Methodology, Iron Age (Archaeology), Historical Ecology, Roman Provincial Archaeology, Prehistoric Archeology, and Roman Archaeology
Issue 35 of Medieval Settlement Research (2020)
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Medieval Settlement Research issue 34 (2019)
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Volume 33 (2018) of Medieval Settlement Research includes a range of papers relevant to the British Isles, the Netherlands, Italy and even the Middle East and North Africa, ranging from artefact studies to remote sensing, and from studies... more
Volume 33 (2018) of Medieval Settlement Research includes a range of papers relevant to the British Isles, the Netherlands, Italy and even the Middle East and North Africa, ranging from artefact studies to remote sensing, and from studies of individual houses to entire landscapes.
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Volume 32 of international peer-reviewed journal Medieval Settlement Research - see https://medieval-settlement.com/publications/journal/ for more information.
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Guest editor on specialist issue of Landscapes, publishing the proceedings of the first workshop of the English Landscapes and Identities project, held in Oxford in 2012.
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This paper discusses the role of ‘towns’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on insights from the discipline of archaeology. How did the Chronicle depict these places? Can we discern changes over... more
This paper discusses the role of ‘towns’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on insights from the discipline of archaeology. How did the Chronicle depict these places? Can we discern changes over time? Through an analysis of the Chronicle texts as a living set of documents, the paper comments both on the role of ‘towns’ in early medieval England and on the function of the Chronicle in contemporary society. It concludes that ‘towns’ in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle existed between material reality and literary topos: their physicality carried as much symbolism as their literary depictions.
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This paper asks, what can decorative metalwork tell us about the way in which identities were expressed in Viking- Age Lincoln? It presents the non-ferrous metalwork material from early medieval Lincoln, England (c. AD 800–1100), for the... more
This paper asks, what can decorative metalwork tell us about the way in which identities were expressed in Viking- Age Lincoln? It presents the non-ferrous metalwork material from early medieval Lincoln, England (c. AD 800–1100), for the first time as a coherent assemblage. The artefact types – mainly dress-accessories and related decorative objects – are described in terms of their art-historical and stylistic characteristics, and placed within the context of manufacturing evidence from Lincoln. The question is asked, did the production of decorative metalwork play a key role in the deliberate creation or manipulation of ‘ethnic’ identities? Many of the objects found in Lincoln reveal Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian, Hiberno-Norse and Frankish influences, and provide insights into the complex identities of Lincoln’s ninth- to eleventh-century inhabitants on multiple levels. However, the manufacturing evidence, providing an insight into the deliberate choices that were made by Lincoln’s metalworkers with respect to the manipulation of such identities, suggests that ethnic considerations may perhaps have been less important than is sometimes assumed.
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This paper discusses the relationship between agricultural activity and ritualized/religious practices in England from the middle Bronze Age to the early medieval period (c.1500 BC–AD 1086). It is written in the context of the ERC-funded,... more
This paper discusses the relationship between agricultural activity and ritualized/religious practices in England from the middle Bronze Age to the early medieval period (c.1500 BC–AD 1086). It is written in the context of the ERC-funded, Oxford-based 'English Landscapes and Identities project' (EngLaId), which involved the compilation of an extensive spatial database of archaeological 'monuments', finds and other related data to chart change and continuity during this period. Drawing on this database alongside documentary and onomastic evidence, we analyze the changing relationship between fields, ritual and religion in England. We identify four moments of change, around the start of the middle Bronze Age (c.1500 BC), in the late Bronze Age (c.1150 BC), the late Iron Age (c.150 BC) and the middle/late Anglo-Saxon period (c.800 AD). However, despite changes in both agricultural and ritual/religious practices during this extensive timeframe, a clear link between them can be observed throughout.
Research Interests: Classical Archaeology, Roman History, Landscape Archaeology, Early Christianity, Roman Religion, and 20 moreCultural Landscapes, Early Medieval Archaeology, Early Medieval History, Agriculture, Iron Age Britain (Archaeology), Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Early Medieval And Medieval Settlement (Archaeology), Roman Britain, British Prehistory (Archaeology), Remote sensing and GIS applications in Landscape Research, Late Bronze Age archaeology, Bronze Age (Archaeology), Iron Age (Archaeology), Ancient Agriculture & Farming (Archaeology), Archaeology of Roman Religion, Iron Age, GIS and Landscape Archaeology, Roman Provincial Archaeology, Landscape and Land-use-history, and Roman Archaeology
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Variation in the density of archaeological evidence is caused by a multitude of interacting factors, some of which reinforce each other and some of which act to disguise genuine patterns of past practice. This paper initially presents a... more
Variation in the density of archaeological evidence is caused by a multitude of interacting factors, some of which reinforce each other and some of which act to disguise genuine patterns of past practice. This paper initially presents a set of density models for England constructed by the members of the English Landscape and Identities (EngLaId) project and then goes on to discuss three possible explanations for the variation seen: modern affordance, variability in past usage of material culture, and past population density. The various members of the project team (with the aid of Andrew Lowerre) then provide their thoughts on the models and ideas presented from their own specific period specialist perspectives. The article is presented in this discursive format to reflect the differing opinions and approaches across an unusual multi-period project, in the spirit of multi- vocality and healthy debate.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Classical Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Roman History, Landscape Archaeology, and 30 moreArchaeological Method & Theory, Early Medieval Archaeology, Early Medieval History, Medieval Archaeology, Archaeological GIS, Iron Age Britain (Archaeology), Bronze Age Europe (Archaeology), Early Medieval And Medieval Settlement (Archaeology), Early medieval Britain (Archaeology), Roman Britain, British Prehistory (Archaeology), Remote sensing and GIS applications in Landscape Research, Roman Pottery, Late Bronze Age archaeology, Geo-spatial analysis with GIS and GPS, Bronze Age (Archaeology), Late Iron Age (Archaeology), Iron Age (Archaeology), Middle Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman rural settlements, GIS and Landscape Archaeology, Roman Provincial Archaeology, Early Iron Age, British Archaeology, Romano-British history and archaeology, Late Bronze Age, Big Data, Roman Archaeology, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
An art-historical and metallurgical discussion of an early medieval polychrome-enamelled brooch from Lincoln (UK), and its wider implications.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Art History, Anglo-Saxon Studies, Material Culture Studies, Medieval Studies, and 9 moreUrban History, Metallurgy, Early Medieval Archaeology, Medieval Archaeology, Urban archaeology, Early Medieval Europe (Archaeology), Anglo-Saxon archaeology, Early Medieval Metalwork, and Portable Antiquities Scheme
Updated project methodology paper of English Landscapes and Identities Project, Oxford 2011-2016.
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Summary paper of my PhD research.
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Summary of the project 'English Landscapes and Identities: the case of the English landscape 1500 BC - AD 1086'.
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The attached file includes the Dutch journal paper as well as the dissertation chapter - in English - on which it was based.
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THIS PAPER ADDRESSES THE QUESTION, who were the people who were buried at the early medieval North Sea emporia? Conclusions about the mercantile character of the North Sea emporia are often based on portable material culture. In... more
THIS PAPER ADDRESSES THE QUESTION, who were the people who were buried at the early medieval North Sea emporia? Conclusions about the mercantile character of the North Sea emporia are often based on portable material culture. In recognition of the fact that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the identities of people based on finds assemblages, two pilot projects have been completed that involved bioarchaeological analyses of cemetery populations associated with these sites. The first of these, the Investigating the Dead in Early Medieval Domburg project, undertook multi-disciplinary analyses of the (very small) surviving burial population from the mostly destroyed sites in the Domburg area (Netherlands), combining isotope analysis, radiocarbon dating, biological anthropology, dendro-chronology, and provenancing and study of previous use of coffin wood. The second, the Medieval Migrants of the North Sea World project, inventoried available isotopic evidence for human remains from emporia sites in England, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, alongside contextual archaeological information. This paper presents both projects, providing the detailed information from Domburg in its wider, international context, and highlighting the need for a comprehensive research agenda to fill current gaps in our understanding of early medieval emporia populations.
Research Interests: Archaeology, Stable Isotope Analysis, Early Medieval Archaeology, Early Medieval History, Medieval Archaeology, and 11 moreStable Isotopes, Funerary Archaeology, Dendrochronology, Coastal and Island Archaeology, Death and Burial (Archaeology), Palaeopathology, Strontium Isotope Analysis, Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology), North European Archaeology, North Sea Emporia, and Ringforts
Ringwalburgen in Zeeland: A paper discussing the different types of supra-local power that had an impact on the early medieval coastal island of Walcheren in the Netherlands, combining historical and literary sources relevant to the area... more
Ringwalburgen in Zeeland: A paper discussing the different types of supra-local power that had an impact on the early medieval coastal island of Walcheren in the Netherlands, combining historical and literary sources relevant to the area with an archaeological discussion of the ringforts (ringwalburgen) of Middelburg, Domburg and (Oost-)Souburg.
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A brief summary of preliminary results of the Investigating the Dead in Early Medieval Domburg project, focusing on the radiocarbon dates and stable isotope analysis of a skeleton from the possible emporium or beach market site at... more
A brief summary of preliminary results of the Investigating the Dead in Early Medieval Domburg project, focusing on the radiocarbon dates and stable isotope analysis of a skeleton from the possible emporium or beach market site at Oostkapelle-Berkenbosch in the Netherlands.
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'Early medieval person in hospital': a brief report on a CT scanning project on an early medieval in situ burial from Domburg, the Netherlands.
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Also see ‘Est haec effera gens’: landscapes of negotiation on the former island of Walcheren, the Netherlands for a more up-to-date discussion
The attached link allows the first 50 viewers to download this review for free.
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The archaeology and heritage of South Sinai is rich and varied. Most research to date has focused on the High Mountains, specifically the area around the famous St Catherine’s Monastery, placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002... more
The archaeology and heritage of South Sinai is rich and varied. Most research to date has focused on the High Mountains, specifically the area around the famous St Catherine’s Monastery, placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2002 (Saint Catherine Area, World Heritage Site 954). Recently, the Sinai Peninsula Research and the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa projects have focused on the landscape surrounding the St Catherine’s Monastery. These projects highlighted the wealth of archaeological and heritage sites spanning the prehistoric to modern periods, including sites that are still in use by local communities today, as well as the environmental and anthropogenic factors that threaten their survival, such as climate change, tourism, and the impact of infrastructure developments. By contrast, the archaeology and heritage of the coastal areas was never surveyed systematically until the research presented in this paper. Remote sensing work by the Maritime Endangered Archaeology project revealed a coastal landscape that is likewise rich in archaeological and heritage sites. As in the High Mountains, many of the coastal sites are under significant threat, but they do not enjoy the same level of recognition and protection. This paper compares the coastal sites to those in the High Mountains, including their disturbances and threats, and demonstrates the need for a locally specific heritage management and protection strategy for different parts of South Sinai.
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The Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project (www.eamena.org) is among the most ambitious archaeological documentation projects ever to have taken place across the Middle East and North Africa. This... more
The Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project (www.eamena.org) is among the most ambitious archaeological documentation projects ever to have taken place across the Middle East and North Africa. This paper explores the significance of big data approaches for archaeological research, and the important role of the EAMENA project in driving big data research for the MENA region. As the EAMENA database was developed in a UK based academic environment, by a group of researchers with backgrounds in UK academic research and archaeological practice, this paper also includes a brief overview of the history of UK- based initiatives aiming to document digital information about archaeological and heritage sites on a large scale, which can be traced back to the 19th
century. The processes and decisions that shaped the formation of the EAMENA dataset, including its methodology and the structure of the database, will be discussed next. The final part of this chapter introduces the various papers that make up this Special Issue, starting with those that have helped to shape the project’s most important achievement to date — the database itself — and continuing with a few initial explorations of the research potential of the emerging dataset.
century. The processes and decisions that shaped the formation of the EAMENA dataset, including its methodology and the structure of the database, will be discussed next. The final part of this chapter introduces the various papers that make up this Special Issue, starting with those that have helped to shape the project’s most important achievement to date — the database itself — and continuing with a few initial explorations of the research potential of the emerging dataset.
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When you are looking at historical satellite imagery from the 1960s and 1970s, and comparing it to modern satellite imagery on Google Earth, it feels like you are time travelling. Old satellite imagery, now increasingly available to us,... more
When you are looking at historical satellite imagery from the 1960s and 1970s, and comparing it to modern satellite imagery on Google Earth, it feels like you are time travelling. Old satellite imagery, now increasingly available to us, provides a unique glimpse of past landscapes, and can also lead to important insights into changes that took place over the last half century. The EAMENA project has recently purchased historical imagery from the so-called KH-7 and KH-9 satellite systems for a number of study areas including South Sinai. In this blog post, we give a brief overview of the history of these satellite systems, and then use the images to look at some major landscape changes, focusing on the area near St Catherine’s Monastery in the High Mountains Region (also see Ten Harkel et al. 2018).
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Archaeological research in Lebanon often focuses on settlement from the Bronze Age to Roman periods, while surrounding landscapes, earlier and later periods are under-represented. Large datasets collecting information from all periods and... more
Archaeological research in Lebanon often focuses on settlement from the Bronze Age to Roman periods, while surrounding landscapes, earlier and later periods are under-represented. Large datasets collecting information from all periods and site types, such as the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) database, address this imbalance. EAMENA predominantly uses satellite imagery to identify archaeological sites and the threats posed to them, leading to the recognition of many previously unpublished sites, including abandoned buildings and agricultural terraces. Here we explore how such data can be used to trace patterns of settlement and landscape use. Transects running from coast to uplands in northern and southern Lebanon are compared: the results show profound differences between north and south, and between coastal and inland zones. The importance of large, holistic datasets for previously understudied site types and periods in piecing together past patterns of land use, subsistence economies, burial traditions and change over time are demonstrated.
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Published in the 2021 Spring Newsletter of the SPMA (http://www.spma.org.uk/), this is a summary of a research project recording several Late Ottoman rural buildings in the Jabal Moussa Biosphere Reserve (https://www.jabalmoussa.org) in... more
Published in the 2021 Spring Newsletter of the SPMA (http://www.spma.org.uk/), this is a summary of a research project recording several Late Ottoman rural buildings in the Jabal Moussa Biosphere Reserve (https://www.jabalmoussa.org) in Mount Lebanon. A mill, a lime kiln, a bridge and a farm house were recorded with the help of funding from the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology and the G.A. Wainwright Fund.
With Stephen McPhillips and Owen Murray.
With Stephen McPhillips and Owen Murray.
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A summary blog on the Tahoun project, which records endangered Ottoman heritage relating to rural productive landscapes in the Jabal Moussa UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, Lebanon.
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A summary blog on the SinaiArchaeoWater (SAW) project, carried out in collaboration with Dr Ahmed Shams, focusing on heritage and archaeological sites in the High Mountains area of Sinai.
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In this paper, we trace the way in which remote sensing techniques (aerial photography and satellite image interpretation), first pioneered in British landscape archaeology in the middle decades of the 20th century, are now having... more
In this paper, we trace the way in which remote sensing techniques (aerial photography and satellite image interpretation), first pioneered in British landscape archaeology in the middle decades of the 20th century, are now having world-wide impact. It focuses on the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa (EAMENA) project, which is creating a large database of archaeological sites and monuments across North Africa and the Middle East. It also explores similarities between archaeological study and heritage protection initiatives in the British Isles and the MENA region.
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Follow the link to the full blog..
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A lecture given at the Middlebury/CMRS centre in both 2018 and 2019 on the relationship between archaeology, nationalism and European identity.
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Lecture in UCL/British Museum Early Medieval Archaeology seminar, December 2017.
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A discussion of the research history of early medieval Domburg, including a summary of the IDEMD project (see conference papers), jointly carried out with Robert van Dierendonck, Pieterjan Deckers, Michael Dee, Raphaël Panhuysen, Esther... more
A discussion of the research history of early medieval Domburg, including a summary of the IDEMD project (see conference papers), jointly carried out with Robert van Dierendonck, Pieterjan Deckers, Michael Dee, Raphaël Panhuysen, Esther Jansma, Petra Doeve and Petrus Le Roux.
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A paper based on work carried out by the English Landscapes and Identities project, with Chris Gosden, Chris Green, Anwen Cooper, Tyler Franconi, Laura Morley, Dan Stansbie, Sarah Mallet, Victoria Donnelly, Miranda Creswell, Roger Glyde... more
A paper based on work carried out by the English Landscapes and Identities project, with Chris Gosden, Chris Green, Anwen Cooper, Tyler Franconi, Laura Morley, Dan Stansbie, Sarah Mallet, Victoria Donnelly, Miranda Creswell, Roger Glyde and Zena Kamash.
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As the title suggests...
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A brief exploration of the theoretical complexities of studying Viking identities in the Low Countries, in relation to the circular forts in the province of Zeeland.
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A discussion of the research history of early medieval Domburg, including a summary of the IDEMD project (see conference papers), jointly carried out with Robert van Dierendonck, Pieterjan Deckers, Michael Dee, Raphaël Panhuysen, Esther... more
A discussion of the research history of early medieval Domburg, including a summary of the IDEMD project (see conference papers), jointly carried out with Robert van Dierendonck, Pieterjan Deckers, Michael Dee, Raphaël Panhuysen, Esther Jansma, Petra Doeve and Petrus Le Roux.
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A discussion of the preliminary results of a programme of radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis of a small assemblage of early medieval skeletons from Domburg, the Netherlands
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EAA 2018, Barcelona
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Conference presentation during specialist workshop on Diaspora, Migration, and the Sciences: Towards a New Integrated Approach, 3-7 September 2018
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BANEA conference, 2018
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Conference on Heritage and New Technologies, Vienna, November 2017