Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins: Possessions and People in Medieval Britain (Medieval History and Archaeology)

452 Pages·2005·6.77 MB·English

by  David A. Hinton

Medieval History and Archaeology
General Editors
JOHN BLAIR HELENA HAMEROW
Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins
MEDIEVAL HISTORY AND
ARCHAEOLOGY
General Editors
John Blair Helena Hamerow
The volumes in this series bring together archaeological, historical, and
visual methods to offer new approaches to aspects of medieval society,
economy, and material culture. The series seeks to present and interpret
archaeological evidence in ways readily accessible to historians, while
providing a historical perspective and context for the material culture of the
period.
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED IN THIS SERIES
THE ICONOGRAPHY OF EARLY ANGLO-SAXON COINAGE
Anna Gannon
EARLY MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS
The Archaeology of Rural Communities in North-West Europe 400–900
Helena Hamerow
GOLD AND GILT,
POTS AND PINS
Possessions and People
in Medieval Britain
DAVID A. HINTON
3
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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© David A. Hinton 2005
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Preface and Acknowledgements
My interest in medieval artefacts began more than forty years ago when I had
the good fortune to be accepted by the late Rupert Bruce-Mitford as a tem-
porary assistant in the British Museum. Similar luck led to an appointment at
the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, where I looked after the Alfred Jewel
(Hinton 1973). Although it is now thirty years since I left there, I have con-
tinued to work on medieval metal objects as opportunities presented them-
selves (e.g. Hinton 1990, 1996, 2000). This book therefore draws on long
experience, though it will be obvious from the Bibliography how much I owe
to the work of others; in most cases, the debt is directly proportional to the
number of entries (e.g. J. Cherry, J. Graham-Campbell, and L. Webster), but
the endnotes reveal how much I have also drawn from a few authors who have
written fundamental books (e.g. G. Egan and R. Lightbown). All those who
knew her will understand why I feel it appropriate to record here the contri-
bution to studies of medieval material culture made by the late Sue Margeson
of Norwich Castle Museum, who was always so generous in sharing her
knowledge.
The first draft of the book was written in the second half of 2002 and the
first half of 2003, during sabbatical leave; I am grateful to the University of
Southampton for allowing me to defer one leave entitlement so that I could
work on it for a whole year almost without interruption, and for financial help
towards the cost of illustrations.
The book benefits greatly from the drawings of Nick Griffiths, and it
has been a pleasure to resume a collaboration that began at Winchester in
the mid-1970s. I have also been fortunate to be able to draw on the excel-
lent photographs taken for the Portable Antiquities Scheme for many
colour plates, which has enabled me to reproduce images that are less
familiar than some. (Similarly, I have tried in the later part of the book
when feasible to use documentary examples that have not been quoted by
other writers so far as I know.) In selecting pictures, I have found it very
difficult to know whether to reproduce images at their actual size, as so
many have exquisite detail that deserves detailed enlargement; on the
whole, however, I have felt it better to show these things at their real size,
even though it may look a little bizarre to see a lead badge looking rather
crude at full size when compared to a gold brooch. Some things have had
to be reduced, of course, because of the page size, and a few I have
decided to enlarge because their detail seemed likely to be lost altogether
otherwise.
vi Preface and Acknowledgements
Copyright permission given for illustrations is acknowledged in the captions,
but I have been helped to collect photographs and drawings both by a large
number of friends and by people whom I have never met but many of whom
I hope that I can now consider friends: Vivien Adams, Kay Ainsworth, John
Allan, David Allen, Paul Backhouse, Roger Bland, Thorn Brett, Michael
Burden, Louise Bythell, Thomas Cadbury, Bernice Cardy, John Clark, Julie
Cochrane, Maggie Cox, Hannah Crowdy, Jan Dunbar, Bruce Eagles, Helen
Geake, Mark Hall, Richard Hall, Stephen Harrison, Jill Ivy, Ralph Jackson,
David Jennings, Adrian James, Alan Lane, Christopher Loveluck, Arthur
MacGregor, Victoria Newton-Davies, Helen Nicholson, Ken Penn, Daniel Pett,
Mark Redknap, Paul Robinson, Peter Saunders, Roland Smith, Shovati Smith,
Judith Stones, Tracey Walker, Karen Wardley, Leslie Webster, and David
Williams. I am also grateful to the publishers of Anglo-Saxon England,Archae-
ological Journal, Britannia, and Medieval Archaeology, of the East Anglian
Archaeology and the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society mono-
graphs, and of the Council for British Archaeology research report series for
permission to reproduce illustrations direct from published work.
The launch of the Oxford University Press’s ‘Medieval History and Archae-
ology’ series provided the opportunity for this book to appear, and I am grate-
ful to Ruth Parr for commissioning it, to the joint editors John Blair and
Helena Hamerow for sanctioning it, to the referees of the proposal for rec-
ommending it, to the two anonymous readers (one of whom remains frus-
tratingly unguessed) of the draft for approving it, and to Louisa Lapworth for
seeing it through to publication.
Contents
List of Colour Plates viii
List of Figures ix
Introduction 1
1. Adapting to Life Without the Legions 7
2. Expressions of the Elites 39
3. Kings and Christianity 75
4. Alfred et al. 108
5. An Epoch of New Dynasties 141
6. Feudal Modes 171
7. Material Culture and Social Display 206
8. The Wars and the Posies 233
Envoi 260
Endnotes 262
Bibliography 369
Index 429
List of Colour Plates
between pp. 212 and 213
A.1. Quoit-brooch from Sarre, Kent
A.2. Equal-arm brooch from Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire
B.1. Composite disc-brooch from Sarre, Kent
B.2. Composite disc-brooch from Monkton, Kent
B.3. Sword-pommel from Aldbrough, Yorkshire
B.4. Pyramid stud from near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk
B.5. Seal-ring from near Norwich
C.1. Smith’s tools and scrap from Tattershall Thorpe, Lincolnshire
C.2 and 3. Gold pendants from Hamwic, Southampton
D. Six brooches from Pentney, Norfolk
E. Details of the Pentney brooches
F.1 and 2. Panels from the St Cuthbert stole and maniple
F.3. Disc from Holberrow Green, Worcestershire
F.4–6. Finger-rings from South Kyme and West Lindsey, both
Lincolnshire, and from Shrewsbury
G. Jug from Exeter
H.1–3. Posy-rings from Kirk Deighton, Yorkshire, Alkmonkton,
Derbyshire, and North Warnborough, Hampshire
H.4–5. Iconographic rings from Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, and
Scotton, Lincolnshire
H.6. Seal-ring from Raglan, Monmouthshire
H.7. Badge from Chiddingly, East Sussex
List of Figures
1.1. Late Roman buckle from Stanwick 9
1.2. Traprain Law hoard 10
1.3. Patching hoard objects 11
1.4. Mucking belt-set 14
1.5. Penannular brooch from Caerwent 17
1.6. Mould and reconstruction of penannular brooch from Dunadd 19
1.7. Equal-arm brooch from Collingbourne Ducis 23
1.8. Great square-headed brooch from Pewsey 24
1.9. Great square-headed brooch distribution maps 25
1.10. Button-brooch from Wonston; saucer-brooches from Fairford 26
1.11. Sword and fittings from Pewsey 30
1.12. Claw-beaker from Great Chesterford 37
2.1. Bird-headed penannular brooch moulds from Dunadd 41
2.2. Annular brooch from Llanbedrgoch 42
2.3. Pictish silver chain from Whitecleugh 44
2.4. Norrie’s Law hoard 46
2.5. Motif-piece from Dunadd 47
2.6. The Hunterston brooch 48
2.7. Coin-pendants from Faversham 50
2.8. Balance and weights from Watchfield 52
2.9. The Snape ring 52
2.10. Garnets from Tattershall Thorpe 54
2.11. The Sutton Hoo great gold buckle 55
2.12. Inlaid iron buckle from Monk Sherborne 56
2.13. Hanging-bowl from Loveden Hill 59
2.14. Buckle from Alton 64
2.15. The Finglesham buckle 66
2.16. St Cuthbert’s cross 68
2.17. Woman’s grave and pendant at Lechlade 69
2.18. Fittings from Tattershall Thorpe 71
2.19. Hammers from Tattershall Thorpe 72
2.20. Tools from Tattershall Thorpe 73
3.1. Hamwic grave and contents 76
3.2. Finger-ring with inset solidus from London 78
3.3. Composite disc-brooch from Caistor St Edmund 79
3.4. The St Ninian’s Isle hoard 81
3.5. Seventh-/ninth-century objects 86
3.6. Ipswich ware and sceatta distribution map 90
3.7. Ipswich-ware sherd 91
3.8. Inscribed lead plaque from Flixborough 94