Towns and Topography: Essays in Memory of David H. Hill - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1782977023 ISBN 13: 9781782977025

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2014

Synopsis

Fifteen papers examine a variety of aspects of medieval towns and their topography. The first part of the volume comprises essays on the excavations in the Frankish emporium of Quentovic, directed by David Hill; London; Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian mints; the burhs of Somerset; and urban perspectives in literature. The second part concentrates on topographical subjects including an examination of the significance of the distribution through trade of Mayen Lava quernstones in early medieval north-west Europe and the evidence of a charter for the topography of late Anglo-Saxon Worcester which reveals that standing crosses were, by then, considered old fashioned. Other papers consider landscape through place-name studies; long term archaeology projects in The Vale of Pickering, Yorkshire, and western Cheshire; medieval dykes; land holdings needed supporting the monasteries of Jarrow and Monkwearmouth; and aspects of mapping and the understanding of geographical space from Anglo-Saxon times and in the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. The papers are preceded by a tribute to archaeologist and historian David Hill, and a bibliography of his publications.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part one: David Hill
David Henry Hill, Nicholas J. Higham
The published work of David Hill, Compiled by Margaret Worthington Hill and edited by Gale R. Owen-Crocker with the Assistance of Celeste Andrews
Part two: towns
Quentovic, Margaret Worthington Hill
Putting lava on the map, Jonathan Parkhouse
Hemming’s crosses, Michael Hare
Control of London in the seventh century, Damian Tyler
London: acrchaeological evidence for the events of 886 and its aftermath, David Beard
The Late Saxon Burhs of Somerset – a review, Jeremy Haslam
The mints of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian England , 871–1066, Martin Allen
‘Sudden wonder’: urban perspectives in late Anglo-Saxon literature, Mark Atherton

Part three: topography
Bursting the bounds of the Danelaw, Gillian Fellows-Jensen
A hill by any other name’: onomastic alternatives in the Anglo-Saxon bounds of Taunton, Somerset, Alexander R. Rumble
The early medieval dykes of Britain, Erik Grigg
Reflections upon the Anglo-Saxon Landscape and Settlement of the Vale of Pickering, Yorkshire, Dominic Powlesland
‘Ploughing old furrows afresh’ – the importance of the practical in the study of the Anglo-Saxon world, Christopher Grocock
The Late Anglo-Saxon landscape of western Cheshire: open field, ploughs and the manor within the dykes, N. J. Higham
Mapping Late Anglo-Saxon manuscripts and documents, Donald Scragg
Mapping the Anglo-Saxon past, Simon Keynes
Bibliography
Index of persons and places
Index of manuscripts

About this title

About the Author:

Gale R. Owen-Crocker is Professor Emerita at the University of Manchester, having previously been Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture and Director of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies. She has written extensively on Anglo-Saxon culture, particularly in the field of dress and textiles and has published several books. She directed the production of a database of dress/textile terms in all languages of the British Isles

Susan D. Thompson is a former research fellow of the Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies.

Review:

This handsomely presented new edited collection of essays is a tribute to the late David Hill, the Anglo-Saxon archaeologist celebrated for his excavations and writing on early medieval towns, for his great Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England and for his fieldwork on the dykes of the Welsh Marches. Eighteen varied papers highlight the fruitfulness of dialogue between archaeology and documentary history and supply a rich mix of new data and thinking on burhs, towns, trade, and mints; on territoriality, boundaries, and the linear earthworks of early medieval kingdoms; and on Anglo-Saxon agriculture, fields, settlements, and landscape. (Oliver Creighton, University of Exeter 16.02.33)

“[ The book ] reflects David Hill’s energy, enthusiasm and scholarship...” (Journal of the English Place-Name Society)

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1782977023
• ISBN 13: 9781782977025
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 196
• Editor: Owen-Crocker Gale R., Thompson Susan D.