The Material Culture of Daily Living in the Anglo-Saxon World

Contributions by
C. P. Biggam, Esther Cameron, Elizabeth Coatsworth, Christopher Grocock, David Hill, David A. Hinton, Maren Clegg Hyer, Christina Lee, Michael Lewis, Quita Mould, Michael Pinder, Andrew Richardson, Ian Riddler, Winifred Stephens, Katrin Thier, Nicola Trzaska-Nertowski and David Williams

Maren Clegg Hyer is Associate Professor of English at Valdosta State University (Georgia), and specialises in researching material culture, including textiles and textile imagery, in Anglo-Saxon England.

Gale R. Owen-Crocker is Professor of Anglo-Saxon Culture at the University of Manchester. She is editor of Working with Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (University of Exeter Press, 2009).

Carole Biggam is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of English Language, University of Glasgow, where she is Director of the Anglo-Saxon Plant-Name Survey, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. She has a degree in archaeology, a doctorate in historical semantics, andspecialisesin multidisciplinary approaches to Old English semantics.

Esther Cameron is an Honorary Research Associate of the Institute of Archaeology, Oxford University. She has a degree in archaeology, a doctorate in artefact studies and a special interest in Anglo-Saxon leatherwork. She also has an MA in museum studies and is Curator of Archaeology for Oxfordshire County Museums Service.

Elizabeth Coatsworth is Honorary Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University, formerly in the department of History of Art and Design, now in MIRIAD (Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and design) in the same university. She is co-author of The Art of the Anglo-Saxon Goldsmith (2003).

Christopher Grocock studied at the University of London, specialising in Medieval Latin studies. He is editor of critical editions of The Ruodlieb (1985), Gilo of Paris’ Historia Vie Hierosolimitane (with Elizabeth Siberry: 1997), and Apicius (with Sally Grainger: 2006), as well as several other articles and papers. He is currently preparing for an edition (with Prof. Ian Wood) of historical work by the Venerable Bede. He was Project Director of the Bede’s World Museum from 1993 to 1996. He teaches Latin, Religious Studies and Philosophy in schools in Surrey and Hampshire.

David Hill has been one of Britain’s leading archaeologists for many years. His excavation work included field survey and mapping in both British Isles and Continental Europe:  multiple sites in England, Wales and Scotland; an enormous survey over 30 years on Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes; 8 seasons in France at the Carolingian site of Quentovic and the riverine defence at Pont de l’Arche on the Seine; and 6 seasons of survey and recording at Monemvassia, a vital Byzantine port on the Peloponessus.

David A. Hinton has recently retired from the University of Southampton. His career began at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, where he developed the interest in artefacts which remained a focus of his research and publications, culminating in Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins (Oxford University Press, 2005).

Christina Lee was awarded a PhD on ‘Food and drink in Anglo-Saxon England’ from the University of Manchester and has been a member of staff at the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham since 2001, where she lectures in Viking Studies. Her monograph Feasting the Dead was published in 2007. She is co-founder on the network on ‘Disease and Disability in early Medieval Europe’, which runs an annual workshop, and is also a member of the Viking Identities Network.

Michael Lewis is Deputy Head of the Department of Portable Antiquities & Treasure, British Museum. His doctorate was on the archaeological authority of the Bayeux Tapestry and was published by British Archaeological Reports (BAR 404). He has also published on aspects of the Bayeux Tapestry as well as archaeological small finds.

Quita Mould is a freelance finds specialist working on material culture, particularly leather and metalwork, recovered by archaeological excavation from English sites. Her first degree is in Archaeology and Geography and her Masters in Archaeology.

Michael Pinder, now retired, was until 2006 a senior lecturer, Department of Three-Dimensional Design at Manchester Metropolitan University, and is still apractisingjeweler. He is co-author of The Art of the Anglo-Saxon Goldsmith (2003).

Andrew Richardson was formerly the Finds Liaison Officer for archaeological sites in Kent, based with Kent County Council’s Heritage Conservation team. His doctorate on the Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries of Kent has been published by British Archaeological Reports (BAR 391).

Ian Riddler is a specialist on objects and waste of bone, antler and ivory, particularly of the Anglo-Saxon period. He has worked on material from both urban and rural sites, including Abbots Worthy, Pennyland, Gisleham, Canterbury, Dublin, Hamwic, Ipswich and London, and is an author of numerous articles on the subject.

Winifred Stephens completed an M.Phil degree at Manchester University and published a monograph Early Medieval Glass Vessels Found in Kent in 2006 (BAR 424), the result of five years’ research to locate medieval glass vessels found in Kent belonging to the fifth and seventh century.

Katrin Thier studied Archaeology, Historical Linguistics, and English in Münster (Westphalia) and Edinburgh. She now works as a lexicographer in Oxford.

Nicola Trzaska-Nartowski graduated from University of Durham. She has directed a number of excavations in the South West and has co-written publications with Ian Riddler on objects and waste of bone, antler and horn. She is a specialist in Viking period archaeology and is working on items from the Dublin excavations undertaken by the National Museum of Ireland.

David Williams is the Portable Antiquities Scheme Finds Liaison Officer for archaeological sites in Surrey. He is the author of a classification of 11-century stirrup-strap mounts and works on other Anglo-Scandinavian horse-related metalwork.