Wessex

Edward was formative in the creation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. His burhs were important strategic locations but they were also ideological centres, used to convince locals of his strength and therefore also his legitimacy as king. This is presented convincingly in his annals, which could have been used as a vehicle to make his policies widely known. Taken with the literary developments of Edward’s reign, this points to a comprehensive ideological policy being developed and propagated. It is as much this policy which led the path to a unified England as that of Edward’s father, King Alfred, before him. This article therefore argues for a re-evaluation of early tenth-century kingship, with the Edwardian annals as a central source for Edward’s concept of kingship.

This book brings together a collection of chapters reflecting the scholarship of Tom Beaumont James, Emeritus Professor at the University of Winchester, in advancing the study of medieval and early modern artefacts, buildings, gardens, and towns. The seventeen essays represent substantive contributions on specific topics and many of the authors started out as Tom’s students. Some focus on buildings, others on people, some on documentary evidence and some on material culture. The chapters range chronologically from early medieval Southampton through sixteenth-century Winchester to an analysis of that city’s nineteenth-century censuses. Although the work coheres around central Southern England there are also papers on Edward I’s Tower of London, the medieval and early modern gardens of two Oxford colleges, and the English occupation of Normandy in the fifteenth century.

http://ijlls.org/index.php/ijlls/article/view/115/52 Thomas Hardy is mostly acclaimed as a pessimist novelist whose plots are full of tearful tragic tales. In all his novels, the adverse situations come from the uncertain conditions of the role of the chance that emerges based on the characters’ psycho-analytic states and eccentric impulses, financial variations and barriers, irregularities of social status and standards, communal, cultural and ethnic misunderstanding, lack of trust in the marital relationship, thrust and lust of sexual pleasure, historical attitudes and backgrounds, highness of royal families, and religion egoism on the unmatched unities of action, place, and time in the Victorian modernity that forces all the characters to survive a life full of sufferings and misfortunes throughout the plots. But this paper has a fresh approach to exploring the philosophy of optimism in Hardy’s novels that how the male and female characters, despite facing the irony of fate and c...

Over the course of the twentieth century a number of experimental studies have investigated the construction of megalithic monuments such as Stonehenge (Atkinson, 1956; Osenton, 2001; Parry, 2000; Pavel, 1992; Ravilious, 2010; Richards & Whitby, 1997). These studies have typically highlighted the challenges posed — or benefits offered — by one method of manipulating a heavy load in relation to another. In certain cases (e.g. Atkinson, 1956), archaeologists have used data from such experiments to estimate the probable length of time that the construction of Stonehenge, or similar monuments, would have taken. These experiments have occasionally generated significant interest from national and international media outlets, a fact that illustrates their potential to act as powerful devices for academic outreach and/or public archaeology initiatives today. The experiment discussed below, ‘Moving Stonehenge’, was conducted on 23 May 2016 as part of UCL’s Festival of Culture, and succeeded in capturing the public’s imagination. It was reported extensively by the UK national press (BBC, 2016;Beal & O’Hare, 2016; Knapton, 2016), the international Associated Press, and a number of popular science and technology websites (Condliffe, 2016; Metcalfe,
2016). In addition to documenting the planning and execution of the experiment, this report also explores aspects of its public engagement.

Considers the evidence for framing a narrative of the containment of the Viking threat to Wessex in the late 870s by the building of a system of burhs or strongholds over all of Wessex (the extent of Alfred's kingdom at the time), arguing that this time (879-880) provides the most suitable histtorical window for what can be recognised as a dramatic reorganisation of the political and military landscape.  This was made possible through King Alfred's decisive victory against the Vikings at Edington at the time.

In 1874, Thomas Hardy was thirty-four and moonlighting as a writer. His day job as an architect paid the bills. Far from the Madding Crowd, his fourth published novel, was being anonymously serialized in the popular London magazine Cornhill. Rumor had it that it was George Eliot's new novel. 1 It was a hit. Its success allowed Hardy to become a full-time writer. Like the fi ctional events in the novel, the real-life events that led to his breakthrough were full of chance, risk, and the random element. The coincidences that led to Hardy's rise began in 1862 when he started working for Arthur Blomfi eld, a London architect located at 9 St. Martin's Place (Millgate 74). In the same building, at 8 St. Martin's Place, was the Alpine Club (Halperin 740). Its president was Leslie Stephen. In 1862, Stephen published Peaks, Passes, and Glaciers, recounting his ascent-the fi rst-of the Schreckhorn, a 4078 meter alpine peak. Hardy was familiar with Stephen's book (Halperin 740-41). His familiarity was unsurprising: it was the golden age of mountaineering. What is surprising, however, is that years later, Stephen would be the one to give Hardy his golden opportunity. By chance, their paths had crossed; and by chance, their paths would keep crossing. Flash forward ten years. Hardy has moved to Dorset, where he was working on his third novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes. In November 1872, he picked up a copy of Fraser's Magazine. One of the pieces was Stephen's fi ctional short story "A Bad Five Minutes in the Alps," about a fall that leaves a mountaineer two hundred feet above a torrent hanging by a rhododendron stem. Hardy, captivated, rewrites Stephen's story into his own (literal) cliff hanger scene in A Pair of Blue Eyes (Halperin 742-44). 2 Their paths were crossing again.

Excavation of an Early Beaker−Early Bronze Age funerary monument at Porton Down revealed an unusually complex burial sequence of 12 individuals, spanning four centuries, including eight neonates or infants and only one probable male, surrounded by a segmented ring-ditch. In the centre was a large grave which contained the disturbed remains of an adult female, accompanied by a Beaker, which had probably been placed within a timber chamber and later 'revisited' on one or more occasions. This primary burial and an antler pick from the base of the ring-ditch provided identical Early Beaker radiocarbon dates. Two burials were accompanied by a Food Vessel and a miniature Collared Urn respectively, others were unaccompanied, and there was a single and a double cremation burial, both within inverted Collared Urns. A C-shaped enclosure nearby may have been contemporary with the funerary monument, but its date and function are uncertain. Other features included an Early Neolithic pit which contained a significant assemblage of worked flint, and several Middle Bronze Age ditches and a Late Bronze Age 'Wessex Linear' ditch that reflect later prehistoric land divisions probably related to stock control.

In  1958 Paul Ashbee undertook the excavation of five barrows at Milton Lilbourne. One of these features, Barrow 4 was found to contain a small log coffin associated with a cremation burial. A number of radiocarbon determinations were obtained from the barrow, however, at that time only low precision radiometric dating was available, and it was not possible to date cremated bone.

This project has re-examined the burial remains in light of advances in the study of cremated bone and has obtained a high precision radiocarbon determination which falls in the period 2016–1888 cal BC. The human remains were identified as those of an older adult male who suffered from a gall stone, osteoarthritis and a congenital back condition which would have restricted his movements. The coffin was charred and it is likely that it was burnt on site at the same time the cremation was undertaken.

This paper explores literary thematic parallels in two of Thomas Hardy's Wessex series novels. Through setting, characterization, and theme, Hardy binds them together creating a "two roads in a diverged wood" effect where characters who seem to be manifestations of each other are faces with similar choices and end with completely different outcomes.

Aspects of the excavation, in 1982, of a ditched bowl barrow and an adjacent embanked
enclosure are reconsidered, setting these within the context of the early Bronze Age monuments of the Dorset Ridgeway. The cremation burial found within the enclosure is fully analysed. A radiocarbon determination on cremated bone calibrates to 3525 ± 30 BP 1935-1756 BC.
The bone was associated with a Camerton-Snowshill type dagger and the date is the first from Wessex for a dagger of this type

A paper stemming from frustration with the orthodoxy that the polities which preceded the historically-attested Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the seventh century onwards were known as (or can be termed) 'regiones' (forgive the unconventional punctuation, this site doesn't provide the functionality to italicise words). Scholars in the 1980s and 90s were keen to advance or else accept a model of kingdom formation whereby competition between smaller, proto-kingdom units – more often than not labelled 'regiones' – resulted in the emergence of a smaller number of much larger kingdoms, only they made one crucial error; no-one undertook a due diligence exercise to ascertain whether or not the terminology being (re)employed was suitable for application to the pre-historical period circa 550-650, the key period for these postulated “building-block” territories.

By going back to the source material from which such authors have drawn their justificatory examples – early charters, histories and hagiographies – it becomes clear that it is inappropriate to characterise polities of the late-fifth, sixth and early-seventh centuries using Latin words (regio, provincia, pagus) since there is not a shred of evidence for the survival of any of the terms from Late-Roman practice, and plenty of justification for such terminology having arisen in conjunction with the literate culture of the Church begun by St Augustine’s famous mission to Kent at the very end of the sixth century, leading to profound changes to both religious and political elite structures in the two centuries that followed.

When the evidence is collated, sifted through and assessed, in south-east England at least there are positive signs that 'provincia' and 'regio' were used from the latter half of the seventh century in specific ways to refer to specific types of political unit, up until the early ninth century when such significances began to wane and the terms are found used in an increasingly scattergun way. Mercia in particular emerges as the kingdom which time and again sought to impose such structures on the territories outside its heartlands, in marked contrast to its great southern rival Wessex, from which there is no such evidence.

Thomas Hardy accomplished poetic bloom late in his life. He began his literary career with poetry but shifted to novels in 1870 and made his mark as a novelist; he continued writing novels till 1895 and then he stopped writing novels and shifted to poetry. He produced his first volume of poems "Wessex Poems" in 1898. Subsequently, he produced eight volumes of poems one after another. This chapter is a comprehensie study of his poetry from different perspectives.

His name refers to the clothing he used to wear. Lodbrok can be translated as "hairy pants". It can be said that he was a king of Sweden and Denmark, according to the Gesta Danorum, written by Saxo Grammaticus, between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Ragnar would have been the son of Sigurd Ring, a Swedish king who conquered Denmark, a member of the Ynglings lineage, to which legendary deeds were always attributed to the Sagas, as well as, as stated above, a direct link with Odin himself.
Ragnar is believed to have plundered France many times, using the rivers to sail with his fleet to the heart of the Franco empire. Sources report that in his most notable onslaught during the year 845, he did not burn a single house since he accepted the bribe of King Charles the Bald, who paid him over 7,000 pounds of silver. With the fleet of over 5000 warriors, Ragnar set out for the Siena River estuary, plundering every city he could find on his way, including Rouen until he finally arrived in Paris on March 28 according to tradition. Faced with the ease of plundering the city beaucuse the king himself bribed him with an incredibly generous amount of silver, it is not difficult to imagine why he returned to France again and again.
Being an ingenious man, Ragnar preferred to attack Christian cities on the day of greatest festivities, so that he would find the population unprotected and unprepared for a lightning and unstoppable attack. Ever since he felt the taste of conquest, he never stopped, leading a very successful life of "piracy."
When he turned his attention to England, Ragnar found his end. After looting to the region, he was eventually captured by King Aelle of Northumbria, who ordered his execution by throwing him into a pit full of venomous snakes. According to legend, Ragnar fought as he could with poisonous snakes in an attempt to still merit his place in Valhalla. Even swollen and beaten by the venom of the serpents, he sang and begged that the winds in the north would bring his appeal to his children. This song is known as Krákumál and was probably created in the 12th century, where Ragnar claimed a vengeance of blood, the only way for his poisoned soul to deserve Valhalla. Ivar "The Boneless" and Ubbe, both Ragnar's sons, set out for revenge as soon as they heard the story. Composing an immense group of warriors (now called the "Great Heathen Army"), they set out for Northumbria, where they succeeded in avenging Ragnar, subjecting King Aelle to the execution of the Blood Eagle, a terrible ritual reserved for the greatest enemies of the northern people.
Despite being considered almost as the mythical hero in his native Scandinavia, the reliable accounts of his life are only sketches, mainly based on ancient sagas of the Vikings. Even the dating of his kingdom is uncertain: sources are dating from 750 to 794, while others date him from 860 to 865. Neither period confers on what is known about him: he is likely to have had power As a warrior baron from about 835 until his death in 865. He was probably only considered king in the last five years of his life.

Community as a term is much-used, if poorly defined, within papers on British prehistory, displaying a variety of more-or-less explicit physical or emotional connotations. This paper looks at sociological and anthropological work on ‘community’ to see how an unambiguous concern for the fundamental attributes of community can enhance our narratives of life in the Iron Age.
The community is constructed from an individual’s interaction within a number of interconnected cross cutting structural groups that creates a shared affinity between participants. Communal identities are in turn central to the creation of individual identities and provide the basis for social practice. In turn it is crucial to biological and social reproduction as well as economic production, making it a fundamental unit of society.
The current ascendant model of Iron Age social organization focuses on the independent household as the primary unit of social analysis. This paper will highlight how this focus on a largely independent unit, inhibits our understanding of a variety of larger-scale social interactions which constituted key aspects of life in the Iron Age. It explores how a landscape approach, mapping activities spatially and functionally, can be used to investigate community through movement and interaction between structural groups. Finally it reviews evidence from the Earliest Iron Age midden sites in the Vale of Pewsey to show how a community framework can be used to create a more nuanced understanding of the historical conditions of life.

Mémoire de Master 2, soutenu en 2014 à l'université Paris 1 :
Etude analytique et comparative des sources textuelles existantes concernant la question de la transition du Néolithique à l'âge du Bronze en Bretagne, dans le Sud de l'Angleterre et aux Pays-Bas. Si la céramique demeure le vecteur principal de cette étude, les résultats produits sont mis en perspective avec d'autres données matérielles (assemblages funéraires), architecturales (tombes et habitats) et socio-culturelles (hiérarchisation des dépôts, incinération ou inhumation pouvant se faire de manière collective ou individuelle).

... Title: Ritual and rubbish in the Iron Age of Wessex A study on the formation of a specific archaeological record. Authors: Hill, J Tempus Reparatum Archaeological and Historical Associates Ltd., Oxford (United Kingdom). Issue Date: 1995. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10068/ ...