Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:13:04.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Late Anglo-Saxon metal-work: an assessment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

David A. Hinton
Affiliation:
The University of Southampton

Extract

It is a decade since the British Museum published its catalogue of late Anglo-Saxon metal-work – ‘late’ in this context meaning between the eighth century and the eleventh – and the only museum with a comparable collection has now produced an equivalent volume. Probably there will not be any more such catalogues, for no other museum has enough metal-work to make a separate publication worthwhile, although composite catalogues, like the numismatists' sylloges, could be produced; for example, Cambridge, Ipswich, King's Lynn and Norwich would make a substantial East Anglian contribution. Except for catalogues, it seems unlikely that there will ever be books devoted exclusively to the metal-work of post-pagan England, since this is not a subject that can be isolated from its archaeological and art-historical contexts. If there is a distinction between archaeology and art history, metal-work, since it is relevant to both, provides a bridge between them, although often a minor one.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 171 note 1 Wilson, D. M., Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700–1100 in the British Museum (London, 1964).Google Scholar

page 171 note 2 Hinton, D. A., Anglo-Saxon Ornamental Metalwork 700–1100 in the Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1974).Google Scholar

page 171 note 3 Wilson, D. M. and Blunt, C. E., ‘The Trewhiddle Hoard’, Archaeologia 98 (1961), 106–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 172 note 1 Okasha, E. and Webster, L., ‘An Anglo-Saxon Ring from Bodsham, Kent’, AntJ 50 (1970), 102–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 172 note 2 Bruce-Mitford, R. L. S., ‘Late Saxon Disc-Brooches’, Dark Age Britain, ed. Harden, D. B. (London, 1956), pp. 178–80.Google Scholar

page 172 note 3 Brown, P. D. C. and Schweizer, F., ‘X-Ray Fluorescent Analysis of Anglo-Saxon Jewellery’, Archaeometry 15. 2 (1973), 175–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 172 note 4 McKerrell, H. and Stephenson, R. B. K., ‘ Some Analyses of Anglo-Saxon and Associated Oriental Silver Coinage’, Methods of Chemical and Metallurgical Investigation of Ancient Coinage, ed. Hall, E. T. and Metcalf, D. M. (London, 1972), pp. 195209.Google Scholar

page 172 note 5 Hand-List of Anglo-Saxon Non-Runic Inscriptions (Cambridge, 1971).Google Scholar

page 172 note 6 Okasha, E., ‘The Non-Runic Scripts of Anglo-Saxon Inscriptions’, Trans. of the Cambridge Bibliographical Soc. 4 (19641968), 331 and 336–7.Google Scholar

page 173 note 1 Wilson and Blunt, ‘Trewhiddle’, p. 107, n. 1.

page 173 note 2 Anglo-Saxon Wills, ed. Whitelock, D. (Cambridge, 1930), p. 13.Google Scholar

page 173 note 3 Report by Wilson, D. M., in Addyman, P. V. and Hill, D. H., ‘Saxon Southampton: a Review of the Evidence. Part II’, Proc. of the Hampshire Field Club 26 (1969), 71.Google Scholar

page 173 note 4 Hinton, Ashmolean Catalogue, no. 7.

page 173 note 5 Radford, C. A. R., ‘Excavations at Cricklade’, Wiltshire Archaeol. Mag. 67 (1972), 96.Google Scholar

page 173 note 6 Peers, C. R. and Radford, C. A. R., ‘The Saxon Monastery of Whitby’, Archaeologia 89 (1943), 2788.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 173 note 7 Addyman and Hill, ‘Southampton’, pp. 66–72.

page 173 note 8 Waterman, D. M., ‘Late Saxon, Viking and Early Medieval Finds from York’, Archaeologia 92 (1959), 59105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 173 note 9 Metcalf, D. M., ‘The Prosperity of North-Western Europe in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries’, EconHR 2nd ser. 20 (1967), 344–57Google Scholar, and The “Bird and Branch” Sceattas in the Light of a Find from Abingdon’, Oxoniensia 38 (1972), 5165.Google Scholar

page 173 note 10 ‘Prosperity’, p. 346 and ‘Sceattas’, p. 54. I am very grateful to Dr Metcalf for allowing me to use his maps and lending me his notes and for many discussions.

page 175 note 1 Metcalf, D. M., ‘Monetary Expansion and Recession’, Coins and the Archaeologist, ed. Casey, J. and Reece, R. (Oxford, 1974), p. 216.Google Scholar

page 175 note 2 Hinton, Ashmolean Catalogue, no. 8.

page 175 note 3 Biddle, M., ‘Winchester: the Development of an Early Capital’, Vor- und Frübformen der euro-päiscben Stadt im Mittelalter, ed. Jankuhn, H., Schlesinger, W. and Steuer, H. (Göttingen, 1974), p. 245.Google Scholar

page 175 note 4 Wilson, British Museum Catalogue, pp. 34–5.

page 175 note 5 Hinton, D. A., ‘Two Late Saxon Swords’, Oxoniensia 35 (1970), 34.Google Scholar

page 175 note 6 Directed by Mr M. Biddle, who has very kindly allowed me to see the metal objects and to refer to them here.

page 175 note 7 Report by Evison, V. I., in Biddle, M. and Quirk, R. N., ‘Excavations near Winchester Cathedral, 1961’, ArchJ 119 (1961), 186.Google Scholar

page 176 note 1 Report by Wilson, D. M., in Biddle, M., ‘Excavations at Winchester 1964’, AntJ 45 (1965), 263–4.Google Scholar

page 176 note 2 Report by Hinton, D. A., in Cunliffe, B. W., Portchester Castle Excavations, forthcoming.Google Scholar

page 176 note 3 Rahtz, P. and Hirst, S., Beckery Chapel, Glastonbury, 19671968 (Glastonbury, 1974), fig. 23, no. 14.Google Scholar

page 176 note 4 Wormald, F., ‘The “Winchester School” before St ‘Æthelwold’, England Before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Peter, Clemoes and Kathleen, Hughes (Cambridge, 1971), 305–13.Google Scholar

page 176 note 5 ‘The Iconography of the Alfred Jewel’, Oxoniensia 39 (1974), 44–52.

page 176 note 6 Hinton, Ashmolean Catalogue, no. 23.

page 176 note 7 ‘The Nummular Brooch from Sulgrave’, England before the Conquest, ed. Clemoes, and Hughes, , p. 346.Google Scholar

page 176 note 8 Hinton, Ashmolean Catalogue, no. 39; item (h) in Dolley's list (‘Nummular Brooch’, p. 346).

page 177 note 1 Wilson, D. M., ‘Some Neglected Late Anglo-Saxon Swords’, MA 9 (1965), 3940.Google Scholar

page 177 note 2 Evison, V. I., ‘A Sword from the Thames at Wallingford Bridge’, ArchJ 124 (1967), 171–2.Google Scholar

page 177 note 3 Whitelock, Wills, p. 13. See also Bruce-Mitford, ‘Disc-Brooches’, p. 171.

page 177 note 4 Acc. no. 1957.61; Oxoniensia 23 (1958), 133, fig. 40.

page 177 note 5 Acc. no. 1927.6639.

page 177 note 6 BM Cotton Tiberius C. vi, Iov; Evison ‘Sword’, p. 184, fig. 9c, Walpole Soc. 38 (1960–1962), pl. 9.

page 177 note 7 Byrhtnoth ironically offers the Vikings the tribute of ‘old swords’ (47b). I am indebted to Professor Clemoes for drawing my attention to this and other points about the Maldon poem.

page 178 note 1 The Cross as Christ's Weapon: the Influence of Heroic Literary Tradition on The Dream of the Rood’, ASE 2 (1973), 244–50Google Scholar, following Isaacs, N. D., ‘The Convention of Personification in Beowulf, Old English Poetry: Fifteen Essays, ed. Creed, R. P. (Providence, Rhode Island, 1967), pp. 215–48.Google Scholar

page 178 note 2 English Historical Documents c. 500–1042, ed. Whitelock, D. (London, 1955), p. 409.Google Scholar

page 178 note 3 Æfric's Colloquy, ed. Garmonsway, G. N. (London, 1939), p. 40Google Scholar. Loyn, H. R., Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest (London, 1962), pp. 103–6Google Scholar. I owe this suggestion and reference to Mr Patrick Wormald.

page 178 note 4 Wilson, British Museum Catalogue, no. 1.

page 178 note 5 Ibid. no. 31.

page 178 note 6 Irish Art in the Romanesque Period, 1020–1170 (London, 1970), pp. 74–5.Google Scholar

page 179 note 1 Evison, ‘Sword’, p. 174.

page 179 note 2 From Wareham, Dorset, now in the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester. The inscription was revealed after recent restoration by Mr Rodney Alcock. It will be more fully discussed in the report of recent excavations at Wareham by R. Hodges and myself.

page 179 note 3 Evison, ‘Sword’, p. 181.

page 179 note 4 Hinton, Ashmolean Catalogue, no. 1.

page 179 note 5 Bruce-Mitford, ‘Disc-Brooches’, pp. 183–90.

page 179 note 6 Hinton, Ashmolean Catalogue, no. 6.

page 179 note 7 Wilson, British Museum Catalogue, no. 83.

page 180 note 1 Okasha, Hand-List, no. 117. Dr Okasha translates ‘minister’ as ‘priest’, but the Medieval Latin Word-List does not give this meaning until 1166, and it appears that in the charters priests are careful to sign as ‘sacerdos’ or ‘presbyter’. See also the review in Jnl of the Eng. Place-Name Soc. 4 (1972).

page 180 note 2 Sawyer, P. H., ‘The Wealth of England in the Eleventh Century’, TRHS 15 (1965), 145–64.Google Scholar

page 180 note 3 Whitelock, Wills, no. xxvii.