Where power lies: the archaeology of transforming elite centres in the landscape of medieval England c. AD 800-1200

权力所在：中世纪英格兰景观中精英中心转型的考古学 c．

• 批准号: AH/W001187/1
• 负责人: Duncan Wright
• 金额: $ 25.42万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FW001187%2F1
• 关键词: Where; power; lies; archaeology; transforming

This project offers the first systematic examination of the physical evidence for elite centres in the landscape of medieval England between the late Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods (c. 800-1200AD). It will use a combination of archaeological survey techniques and digital approaches to transform our understanding of the origins, development, and character of aristocratic power in the Middle Ages. In the rural landscape in this period, high-status centres typically consisted of a residence alongside a church and its burial ground. One or more halls formed the accommodation and focus of elite life and consumption, often served by other buildings, all of which were surrounded by a fenced and ditched enclosure. Churches or chapels that adjoined these domestic complexes were invariably founded by lords and their families, and were furnished with sculpture. Together, these components were the very embodiment of aristocratic or 'lordly' power in the English landscape, and were the spaces in which elite identities were established, perpetuated, and reinvented. From them, high-status individuals articulated their authority, impacting aspects of medieval society as diverse as the agricultural economy, the form and function of settlement, and the character of religious worship and investment. Research into elite centres, therefore, not only tells us about high-status life and death, but informs us about the composition of medieval communities on a far wider social scale. These sites are crucial to how we view the medieval period, so it is surprising that so few have been examined in detail by archaeologists. Understanding of them as a nationwide phenomenon is very limited, and we remain unsure of fundamental issues such as their distribution across the landscape, what they looked like, and how they transformed over the medieval centuries. Significantly, many elite places were transformed into castles during the period but, partly due to lack of evidence, we are unsure why some places were selected for this treatment over others. This project will transform our understanding of lordly sites, and assess for the first time the national distribution of places that have evidence for both residential and ecclesiastical investment. This data will be used as a platform for detailed investigation of a carefully selected sample of case study sites, which will be subject to comprehensive archaeological survey and digital mapping techniques. These methods approaches will allow us to reconstruct the biography of the case study locations in detail, and to explore how the character and expression of elite power evolved over time. Working with the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, the project will also produce a new profile of the artefacts of the aristocrats who built and occupied these sites. The different strands of evidence will be integrated to produce a rounded and holistic understanding of how elite centres developed across the Anglo-Saxon and Norman periods. A programme of outreach work will engage communities in co-creation of knowledge about their landscapes and built heritage, while the project's academic findings will be communicated to the scholarly community through a portfolio of publications and conference presentations. The results will contribute to debate in the fields of medieval archaeology and medieval history generally, and in the specific fields of landscape studies, material culture studies, and castle studies. Digital outputs, including new and enhanced datasets, maps and fieldwork data will be deposited and curated online for sustainable future use.

该项目首次对盎格鲁-撒克逊晚期和诺曼时期(约公元800-1200年)之间的中世纪英格兰地区精英中心的实物证据进行了系统的检查。它将结合考古调查技术和数字方法来改变我们对中世纪贵族权力的起源、发展和特征的理解。在这一时期的乡村景观中，地位较高的中心通常由教堂旁边的住宅及其墓地组成。一个或多个大厅构成了精英生活和消费的住宿和焦点，通常由其他建筑提供服务，所有这些建筑都被围栏和沟渠包围。毗邻这些家庭建筑群的教堂或小教堂总是由勋爵及其家人建立的，并配备了雕塑。这些元素加在一起，正是贵族或“尊贵”力量在英国景观中的体现，也是精英身份得以确立、延续和重塑的空间。通过他们，地位较高的个人表明了他们的权威，影响了中世纪社会的各种方面，如农业经济、定居点的形式和功能，以及宗教崇拜和投资的特点。因此，对精英中心的研究不仅告诉我们地位较高的人的生死，还让我们了解中世纪社区在更广泛的社会规模上的构成。这些遗址对我们如何看待中世纪时期至关重要，所以令人惊讶的是，考古学家仔细检查的遗址如此之少。作为一种全国性的现象，我们对它们的了解非常有限，我们仍然不确定它们在整个景观中的分布、它们的样子，以及它们在中世纪几个世纪里是如何变化的。值得注意的是，在此期间，许多精英场所被改造成城堡，但部分由于缺乏证据，我们不确定为什么一些地方被选为这种治疗而不是其他地方。这个项目将改变我们对贵族遗址的理解，并首次评估有证据表明住宅和教会投资的地方在全国的分布。这些数据将被用作对精心挑选的案例研究遗址样本进行详细调查的平台，这些样本将受到全面的考古调查和数字制图技术的影响。这些方法将使我们能够详细重建案例研究地点的传记，并探索精英权力的特征和表达如何随着时间的推移而演变。与大英博物馆的便携式文物计划合作，该项目还将产生一个新的概况，谁建造和占领这些遗址的贵族文物。不同的证据将被整合在一起，以全面和全面地理解精英中心是如何在盎格鲁-撒克逊和诺曼时期发展起来的。外展工作方案将促使社区共同创造关于其景观和建筑遗产的知识，同时将通过一系列出版物和会议演讲将该项目的学术成果传达给学术界。这一结果将有助于在中世纪考古学和中世纪历史领域以及在景观研究、物质文化研究和城堡研究等特定领域进行辩论。数字产出，包括新的和改进的数据集、地图和实地工作数据，将在网上存放和整理，以供今后可持续使用。

项目成果

Laughton en le Morthen, South Yorkshire: Evolution of a Medieval Magnate Core

南约克郡劳顿·勒莫滕：中世纪权贵核心的演变

• DOI: 10.1080/14662035.2023.2219082
• 发表时间: 2023
• 期刊: Landscapes
• 作者: Wright D