Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain

The Middle Ages are all around us in Britain. The Tower of London and the castles of Scotland and Wales are mainstays of cultural tourism and an inspiring cross-section of later medieval finds can now be seen on display in museums across England, Scotland, and Wales. Medieval institutions from Parliament and monarchy to universities are familiar to us and we come into contact with the later Middle Ages every day when we drive through a village or town, look up at the castle on the hill, visit a local church or wonder about the earthworks in the fields we see from the window of a train.

The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain provides an overview of the archaeology of the later Middle Ages in Britain between AD 1066 and 1550. 61 entries, divided into 10 thematic sections, cover topics ranging from later medieval objects, human remains, archaeological science, standing buildings, and sites such as castles and monasteries, to the well-preserved relict landscapes which still survive. This is a rich and exciting period of the past and most of what we have learnt about the material culture of our medieval past has been discovered in the past two generations. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research and describes the major projects and concepts that are changing our understanding of our medieval heritage.

List of contents

• Part 1: Writing Later Medieval Archaeology


• 1: Christopher Gerrard: Overview: People and Projects


• 2: Michael Fradley: Methods In Medieval Archaeology


• 3: C. P. Graves and Christopher Gerrard: Embracing New Perspectives


• 4: Simon A. Draper: The Written Evidence for the Later Middle Ages


• Part 2: The Medieval Countryside


• 5: Grenville Astill: Overview: Geographies of Medieval Britain


• 6: Ronan O'Donnell: Field Systems and the Arable Fields


• 7: Louisa Gidney: The Animal in Late Medieval Britain


• 8: Lisa Moffett: The Archaeobotany of Late Medieval Plant Remains: The Resource and the Research


• 9: James H. Barrett: Medieval Fishing and Fish Trade


• 10: Aleks Pluskowski: The Medieval Wild


• 11: Peter J. Brown: Coping with Disaster


• Part 3: Rural Settlement and Buildings


• 12: Stephen Rippon, Piers Dixon and Bob Silvester: Overview: The Form and Pattern of Medieval Settlement


• 13: Christopher Dyer: Rural Living 1100-1540


• 14: Mark Gardiner and Susan Kilby: Perceptions of Medieval Settlement


• 15: Richard Suggett: Peasant Buildings


• 16: Jill Campbell: The Medieval Manor House and the Moated Site


• 17: Niall Brady: Agricultural Buildings


• Part 4: Living in Towns and Ports


• 18: Keith D. Lilley: Overview: Living in Medieval Towns


• 19: John Schofield: Urban Housing


• 20: Abby Antrobus: Medieval Shops


• 21: Christopher Dyer: Town and Countryside


• 22: Gareth Dean: Urban infrastructure


• Part 5: Power and Display


• 23: Oliver Creighton: Overview: Castles and Elite Landscapes


• 24: Tom Beaumont James: Medieval Palaces and Royal Houses


• 25: Stephen Mileson: Royal and Aristocratic Landscapes of Pleasure


• 26: Glenn Foard: Medieval Battlefield Archaeology


• 27: David A. Hinton: Symbols of Power


• Part 6: Crafts, Industry, and Objects


• 28: Maureen Mellor: Overview: Medieval Industry and Commerce


• 29: David Parsons: Quarrying and Extractive Industries


• 30: David A. Hinton: The Medieval Workshop


• 31: Colin Rynne: Water and Wind Power


• 32: Richard Kelleher: Old Money, New Methods: Coins and Later Medieval Archaeology


• 33: M. A. Hall: Play And Playfulness In Late Medieval Britain: Theory, Concept, Practice


• Part 7: The Archaeology of Religion and Belief


• 34: Richard Morris: Overview: Church and Landscape C. 1100-1550


• 35: James Bond: The Medieval Monastery and its Landscape


• 36: Richard Fawcett: The Cathedral


• 37: Richard Fawcett: The Medieval Parish Church: Architecture, Furnishings, and Fittings


• 38: M. A. Hall: Approaching Medieval Sacrality


• 39: Matthew Champio

  About the author

  Christopher Gerrard is Professor of Medieval Archaeology at Durham University. His eight books include Medieval Archaeology: Understanding Traditions and Contemporary Approaches (2003) and Interpreting the English Village: Landscape and Community at Shapwick, Somerset which won the Best Archaeological Book of the Year award in 2014. His fieldwork includes excavations in Spain and the Azores and projects on qanats, natural disasters in the Middle Ages and, most recently, the discovery of mass graves of 17th-century Scottish soldiers under one of the University's libraries.
  
  Alejandra Gutiérrez is a Research Fellow at Durham University. Her interests lie in the study of medieval and later material culture, particularly the movement of goods, trade and exchange, and European contact with Britain in the Middle Ages. She writes about ceramics and other archaeological finds and has authored numerous articles on the subject, including a book, Mediterranean Pottery in Wessex Households and an accompanying web-guide for the identification of medieval and later Spanish pottery ().

  Summary

  This Handbook provides an overview of the archaeology of the later Middle Ages in Britain between AD 1066 and 1550. Chapters cover topics ranging from later medieval objects, human remains, archaeological science, standing buildings, and sites such as castles and monasteries, to the well-preserved relict landscapes which still survive.

  Additional text

  This is a very fine book, equally valuable to experts as to undergraduates. It will immediately establish itself as a key reference work

  Report

  The editors have done an exemplary job of knitting this volume together into a cohesive, readable and fluent landmark of scholarship for this field. Patrick Gleeson, Agricultural History Review

Product details

• Authors: Christopher (Professor of Medieval Archae Gerrard
• Assisted by: Christopher Gerrard (Editor), Christopher (Professor of Medieval Archaeology Gerrard (Editor), Gerrard Christopher (Editor), Alejandra (Research Fellow Gutierrez (Editor), Alejandra Gutiérrez (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.02.2018
• EAN: 9780198744719
• ISBN: 978-0-19-874471-9
• No. of pages: 1102
• Series: Oxford Handbooks; Oxford Handbooks
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Europe, European History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology, CE period up to c 1500, Medieval History, Archaeology, United Kingdom, Great Britain, c 1000 CE to c 1500, Archaeology by period / region, History and Archaeology, European history: medieval period, middle ages, Medieval European archaeology, Archaeological science, methodology & techniques, Archaeological science, methodology and techniques