This course is intended as an introduction to the archaeology of Britain in the period c400 to 1500.  It will examine the evidence for the ‘End’ of Roman Britain and the Anglo-Saxon ‘Settlement’ of England through both the domestic and the funerary record.  It will look at the evidence for the emergence of ‘Celtic’ and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, consider the fate of Roman towns, the nature of Middle and Late Saxon urbanism and examine the evidence for the evolution of the landscape and settlements from 400 to 1050.  The archaeological evidence for the nature of the Viking impact on the British Isles will also be examined. The relevance of medieval documentary evidence for the archaeologist studying the medieval period will be explored.  The post-Conquest development of military fortifications, towns, monasteries and churches, and the rural landscape will be reviewed through a series of archaeological and textual studies.  The main themes of the course, and their relevance to more recent history, will then be explored through a close study of the development of Cardiff from Roman military fortress to nineteenth-century industrial port.

1.  Students will demonstrate an understanding of the strengths and limitations of key aspects of the archaeological evidence for Britain in the period AD 400-1500.

2.  Students will demonstrate a broad knowledge of the key aspects of the archaeology of the period.

3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the difficulties and potential of combining historical and archaeological evidence.

4. Students will demonstrate that they can write knowledgeably and analytically about current issues concerning early medieval and medieval Britain in both coursework and an exam.

10 weekly 50 minute lectures,  Two 50 minute seminars at times which will be listed on the Archaeology Year 1 noticeboards on Floor 4 and on Blackboard.

SEMINARS

All students will participate in two seminars in this module. All students must do the reading for each seminar and everyone is expected to take part. As part of this seminar you will be expected to prepare an essay outline.  This need only be a series of headings or bullet points.  These will be discussed in the seminar with your tutors and the other students in order to develop your essay writing skills

One assessed essay of not more than 1500 words (50%)

One examination of 60 minutes duration, answering one question (50%).

1.1 Introduction. Aims and objectives of the course; chronology of the period prior to the Norman Conquest and its historical evidence. 1.2 . The coming of the English. The end of Roman Britain, the Anglo-Saxon settlement and the Celtic West – cultural change and identity. The evidence for Anglo-Saxon colonisation. Why is there such discontinuity with the Roman period? The British in Wales and the West and North: the emergence of kingship in the West; hillforts, pottery, metalwork, and Christianity. 2. Burial and kingship. Roman burial; early English cemeteries: cremation and inhumation: signalling status, ethnicity, or the afterlife? The emergence of princely burial; the impact of Christianity; the development of churchyards; burial in the British West. 3. Settlements, villages and towns from 400 to 1066. What are early English houses like? Are they Germanic? When do nucleated villages emerge? How does the landscape change from 400 to 1100? The condition of Roman towns in 400; the emergence of Mid Saxon trading places; the development of burhs - military or urban sites? Late Saxon towns. 4. The Vikings. Are the Vikings something new? How destructive are they? Viking impact on Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales; ships, settlements and treasure. What is the Anglo-Saxon response? 5 The Norman Conquest and castles. An outline of the development of castles from the timber and earth constructions of the Conquest period to the stone fortresses and mansions of the later Middle Ages. 6.Countryside and Villages Historical evidence for manors and vills. Crops, produce and field systems.Village layouts and features. Diachronic changes and the Black Death. 7. Churches and monasteries Norman rebuilding. Form and features of church buildings. Buildings of the close or cloister. Monastic houses of the Benedictines, Cluniacs, Carthusians, Augustinians, Cistercians, mendicant friars and military orders. 8-10. The town and city of Cardiff: a case-study of urban origins and change from Roman to modern times 8. Fortress, castle and defended town An introduction to the debates about the definition of a town. The origins of Cardiff as a military centre in the Roman Period, and the Norman re-use of this fort. The relationships between Cardiff Castle and the town down to the 20th century and their impact on the structure of the castle. 9. Town and port The town as a centre of specialized exchange in the form of trade and administration. The evidence for the economic basis of Cardiff's survival and growth, and its role as a administrative central place. 10. Religious houses, churches and chapels A review of the evidence for the physical presence and influence of the Church on the townscape of medieval and modern Cardiff and the surrounding area. Attention will range from the Early-medieval centres at Llandough and Llandaff to surviving High- and Late-medieval church art and architecture, and the building of nonconformist chapels and later Roman Catholic churches.

Hinton 1990 or 1998; James 2001; Sawyer 1978; Hills 2009; Richards 2009; Fleming 2010

Wood 2003 (online); Cleary 1989; Higham 1992;Hills 2009; Dark 2000

Hills 2003; Driscoll 2009; Charles-Edwards 2003; Fleming 2010, 45-60; Brugmann 2011.

Glasswell 2002;Carver 1998; Carver 2005; Lucy 2000;

 Welch 1992; Arnold 1997; Campbell 1982; Laing 2006; Hills 2003; Driscoll 2009; Parker-Pearson 1999.

Brooks 1986; Hamerow 2002;  White & Barker 1998; Reynolds 1999, Scull 1997; Welch 1992; Taylor 1983; Powlesland 1997; Hall 2011

Wacher 1995;; Dark 1994a; Davies 2003; Clarke & Ambrosiani 1991; Hodges 1989; Ottaway 1992; Carver 1987; Rahtz 1976;

Richards 2000; Ritchie 1993; Roesdahl 1991; Graham-Campbell & Batey 1998; Hadley 2006; Richards 2009

Brown 1976; Coad 1995; Creighton and Higham 2003; Goodall 2011; Grape 1994; Higham and Barker 2004; Kenyon 1990; Liddiard 2005; McNeill 1992; Parnell 1993; Platt 1995b; Renn 1989; Turner 2002; Creighton 2003; Creighton and Liddiard 2008;  Wheatley 2004

Aston 1985; Aston and Dyer 1989; Backhouse 1989; 2000; Beresford and Hurst 1990; Hall 1982; Lewis et al. 2001; Roberts and Wrathmell 2002; Rowley 1978; 1981; Stamper 1999, or 2009; Williamson 2003; Wilson D 1985; Astill and Grant 1988; Dyer 2002; Jones and Page 2006; Gardiner  and Rippon; Williamson 2003

Aston 1993;Coldstream 2002; Coppack 1990; 1993; 1998; Gilchrist 1999 or 2009; Greene 1992; Morris 1979; 1989; Platt 1990; 1995c; Robinson 1998; 2002; Rodwell 1989; Webb 1965; Wilson D 1990; Blair 2005.

Rees 1969, 1-15; Savory ed. 1984, 277-313; Pugh ed. 1971, 426-9; Soulsby 1983, 1-59 & 95-9; Ward 1910; Grant 1923; Wheeler 1922; Webster 1981; Webster 1990; J. Davies 1981; see also Cardiff Castle Guide; Royal Commission 1976a; Royal Commission 1991; Royal Commission 2000.

Rees 1969; Morgan 2001; Schofield & Vince 2003; Webster & Webster 1974; Walker 1978; Webster 1977.

E. T. Davies ed. 1962; Rees 1969 24-47, 68-117 & 184-209; Royal Commission 1976b; W. Davies 1982, 141-93; Guy 1970; Holbrook & Thomas 2005; Knight 2005; Knight 2006; Redknap 2006; Crouch 2006; Jenkins & James 1901.

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