Normanising the North: The Evidence of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture
Abstract This Study Probes the destruction of material culture to illuminate the introduction of Norman political authority into northern England. A brief overview of Norman destruction of churches provides the background to a review of the potential relationship of Anglo-Saxon monuments with memory and identity, in the context of recent discussions of monument reuse. Durham and York, the Anglo-Saxon monastic sites at Wearmouth/Jarrow, Lindisfarne and Jedburgh, and a selection of local churchyards provide case studies. It argues that some monuments seem to have been deliberately targeted, but a wider range of factors, all ultimately derived from changing political circumstances, can be identified that explain why sculpture was removed and reused. The paper serves as a platform for further debate about the significance of monuments in the Middle Ages, and as a contribution to the broader discourse within archaeology about their social meanings.
The Anglo-Saxon Cathedral at York and the Topography of the Anglian City
Abstract Topographical analysis of the medieval buildings around the Minster at York indicates that they preserve certain features of the pre-Conquest lay-out. The probable location of the Anglo-Saxon cathedral can be identified, along with other features of the early cathedral complex. A chronology of the development of the complex can be proposed, and this in turn sheds new light on the early development of Anglian York as a whole.
The Making of England
IN an instructive article in Macmillan's Magazine for this month, Prof. Geikie shows what important influences the geological development of our country has had upon its history. Prof. Geikie begins in long past prehistoric times, when England formed part of the European continent, and rapidly traces the changes which have gone to make England what it is; shows the bearing which the physical geography of the country had on the settlements of the early inhabitants, pre-Aryan and Aryan, and in later times on the development of England's commerce, and the growth of her greatness. What Prof. Geikie does for England as a whole Mr. Green attempts to do for “Anglo-Saxon” England, for that England which was destined to form the broad basis of the England of the present day. Mr. Green, in his well-known “History of England,” as we pointed out at the time of its publication, made some attempt to take account of the physical conditions of our country in so far as they have influenced her history; and this is essentially the method he followed in his valuable text-book of British Geography. Hitherto historians have taken little or no account of the environment of nations, although it is evident that that must be a factor of the first importance in determining the character of a people and their historical development. In a general way every one must admit that the climate and physical condition of a country have their influence on the character of a people; but in its strictly scientific aspect the subject is yet in its infancy, and we hope that Mr. Green's example will encourage others, both historians and scientific geographers, to work it out thoughtfully and minutely. It is not our province to examine Mr. Green's work critically, as an historical treatise; we shall leave it to others to say whether all his statements and inferences are authorised by the documents on which they are based. But that the work is full both of interest and instruction every one must admit. Mr. Green's geographical and topographical instincts are unusually keen, and his faculty for clothing the dry bones of chronicles, and antiquarian discoveries, and ethnological data with living flesh and blood is probably unsurpassed. In a series of pictures he brings before us our Teutonic forefathers with a vivid force that has all the interest and excitement of reality. We see them hovering off the shores of England, even while the Romans were in possession, watching their opportunity to pounce down upon the prosperous towns and homesteads; we see them at last get a firm footing, south and east and north, holding the coast regions with comparative ease, but baffled for years by the primeval forests and thick underwood, the widespread marshes and impassable rivers. Not for at least two centuries were they able quite to overcome these obstacles, and these, with the other physical features of the country, determine the relative positions ultimately occupied by Jute, Angle, Saxon, and Celt. With regard to the last-mentioned, Mr. Green, from a study of the finds in the Settle and other caves, is able to bring before us a touching picture of the flight of the Celtic men, women, and children with what utensils and ornaments they could carry with them before the advance of the ruthless Saxon.