The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain
Edited by Christopher Gerrard and Alejandra Gutiérrez
Abstract
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.This Handbook provides an overview of the archaeology of the later Middle Ages in Britain between ad 1066 and 1550. Sixty entries, divided into ten 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.
Keywords:
later medieval archaeology,
bioarchaeology,
medieval countryside,
medieval towns and economy,
medieval churches,
medieval castles,
medieval landscapes,
medieval artefacts,
medieval industry,
sensual culture studies,
medieval life course
Bibliographic Information
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Print Publication Date:
- Jan 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198744719
- Published online:
- Feb 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198744719.001.0001
Editors
Christopher Gerrard,
editor
Christopher M. 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 seventeenth-century Scottish soldiers under one of Durham University’s libraries.
Alejandra Gutiérrez,
editor
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 (www.dur.ac.uk/spanish.pottery).
