This book takes its title from the momentous decision of the Icelandic law-giver, Thorgeir, in AD 1000, to adopt Christianity as the island's official religion. According to tradition, this was taken as he lay "under a cloak", presumably seeking inspiration from his, pagan, deities. First published in 1979, the present edition expands its discussion of the background to this peacable adoption of the new faith, and its growth under succeeding generations. The author shows how tolerance and pragmatism were early features of the Icelandic church.

An exploration of the links between the languages, cultures and traditions of the Celtic peoples of Ireland and Britain through an analysis of literary sources, place or people names and the Gaelic language. Twenty-six English, Gaelic or French essays, include extracts from Celtic texts, accompanied by detailed commentaries, and comparisons between these three main areas of influence.

An assessment excavation was carried out on a low but distinct mound in Oxborough parish where a metal-detector survey and fieldwalking had recovered forty-one Early Saxon objects and a concentration of prehistoric flints, suggesting that the mound represented the remains of a barrow, later re-used as the focus of an Early Saxon cemetery. Although excavation revealed that the mound was natural, it was encircled by a ring-ditch, possibly in prehistoric times. Ten graves were found, some containing articulated skeletons, others jumbled bones. One skull bore the neat and healed hole of a successful trepanation. Grave-goods were few, perhaps because some had been carried away by the plough. The finds are typical of 'Anglian' burials of the 6th century, except for a silvered bronze buckle of possible Kentish origin. The results of the excavation were unexpected in that the quantity of finds from the topsoil were thought to indicate a considerable number of Early Saxon graves. In practice, most had been destroyed by ploughing, and their contents brought up to the ploughsoil. This result has implications for excavation strategy and for the interpretation of fieldwork evidence in areas of intense arable farming.

This volume offers three papers detailing the results of projects in south-west Norfolk: firstly an extensive one-man fieldwalking survey of Barton Bendish parish; secondly, an area excavation within Barton Bendish; thirdly, a very detailed one-man fieldwalking survey of 6.5 hectares in one field. The surveys provided a diverse range and quality of surface scatter evidence, which in conjunction with historical sources, provide a sound basis for the understanding of human settlement and land use patterns in Barton Bendish feom the Iron Age to the seventeenth century. In addition, the two fieldwalking programmes, close geographically but very different in scale and intensity, make an interesting contrast in both methodology and results when presented side by side.

^Aby Beric Morley and David Gurney ^DThis book starts with a wide-ranging overview of Castle Rising, going on to review the archaeological evidence, in conjunction with comment on the archaeological explorations themselves, for the site from prehistoric times up to the post-medieval period. Three chapters are devoted to finds, including coins, building materials, pottery and zoological evidence. The development of the main building and its surrounds is fully documented, and the entire text is amply supplemented by illustrations.

A vivid retelling of the story of the people who went on the first crusade. Urban II's appeals to the West to aid the Christians of the East attracted a great diversity of individuals. Foss uses many original sources to support a highly readable narrative, which combines descriptions of campaigns and events with fascinating character sketches of Crusaders and Saracens.

Nineteen papers on early medieval Irish and Welsh texts. Contents include: St Patrick in Cornwall? The origin and transmission of Vita Tertia S. Patricii ( David Dumville ); Re-reading Dafydd ap Gwilym ( Patrick Ford ); The spoils of Annwn: Taliesin and material poetry ( Sarah Lynn Higley ); Aldfirth of Northumbria and the learning of a sapiens ( Colin Ireland ); Narrative openers and progress markers in Irish ( Proinsias Mac Cana ); The Hagiographic poetics of Canu Cadfan ( Catherine McKenna ); The introduction of alphabetic writing to Ireland ( Michael Richter ); Daring young men in their chariots ( Joseph Falaky Nagy ); The Celtic bard ( J. E. Caerwyn Bard ).

As part of a long-term survey of southern Etruria, the site of Monte Gelato, about 30 km north of Rome, was excavated from 1986-90. An exceptionally rich stratigraphy provided excavators with a detailed occupation narrative. An Augustan villa where dormice were eaten and eels kept as pets was abandoned in the early 3rd century AD. Sporadic settlements on the `frontier zone' of Lombard incursions were succeeded by the establishment of a fortified ecclesiastical centre and papal estate in the 9th century AD. Two major issues shaped the project design: firstly the chronology of the abandonment of Roman villas and the move to fortified castelli and secondly, the cycles of isolation from and linkage to Rome which continue to affect this beautiful area of Italy.

Do you know why the circular stairs in castles ascended clockwise? Have you ever wondered where the toilets were, or how they worked? Do you know what the best way to attack a castle was? Can you guess why hundreds of pigs would be slaughtered in order to conquer a castle? Ewart Oakeshott knows, and you will too when you finish this book. He is the foremost authority on Medieval weaponry, and in this book he provides a lively and informative history of Europe's castles. Superbly illustrated by the author, he traces the design, building, and defense of castles throughout the Middle Ages, and explores the castle armory, daily life, the training of boys to become knights (including their lessons in both the arts of warfare and courtly behavior), sieges, and favorite pastimes such as hunting and hawking. "This delightful little work does admirably what it sets out to do..So well done that it deserves a place in the library purely as an elementary work of reference." - School Librarian

Ships and shipbuilding were important elements of Viking culture and a precondition for trade, warfare and conquest. The important excavations at the Viking towns of Hedeby and Schleswig-Holstein revealed a rich body of finds of wrecks and parts of ships. This is a report on this material and also examines the role of the towns as ports and the role of trading in their development.

Aby Phil Andrews and othersWhilst the earliest evidence for major occupation in Thetford, Norfolk, comes from the Iron Age, it was during the 10th and 11th centuries that the town developed into a major town so that by Domesday , population estimates place it amongst the six most important towns in England. In 1987 a sizeable area became availalble for excvation ahead of housing development, providing an opportunity to look for further evidence of occupation in the Early and Middle Saxon periods, as well as to investigate a part of the town which was still occupied during the late 11th and 12th centuries whan the Late Saxon settlement was in decline. This report contains details of the excavations, finds, and zoological and botanical evidence.

Sparse Iron Age occupation was followed by extensive rural occupation, building up over three phases in the Roman period to a large 2nd-4th AD farmstead. In the late 4th century AD this was abandoned for no archaeologically discernible reason to lay the ground for the famous Anglo-Saxon cemetery. Ecofactual evidence for crop-processing (including flax) and artefactual evidence for many craft activities are presented. The large collection of Roman pottery is the first from an excavation in Central Norfolk to receive detailed analysis and indicates fineware flows mostly from the Nene valley. This report fills the gap between Spong Hill 6 (prehistoric occupation) and the cemetery reports, most of which are still available.

A hoard of coins of the shadowy East Anglian King Beonna triggered off a project which revealed not only late Neolithic activity but also a Viking burial and a small part of a rural settlement of the 8th to 13th centuries AD. Saturation coverage by metal detector at all stages of the work produced a large assemblage of metal objects which suggests that the 'normal' quantity and range of finds collected from conventionally excavated sites may often fall short of the true population.

This volume presents the second part of the detailed report on the British School at Rome's excavations between 1980 and 1986 at the early medieval Benedictine abbey of San Vincenzo in Molise, central Italy. It contains discussion of the Vestibule, the Assembly Room containing the reconstructed wall of painted prophets, the Refectory, the terraces, the hilltop cemetery, and the late Roman settlement. It also includes essays on the historical context of the site: Christians and countrymen' (Samuel Barnish) , Monastic lands and monastic patrons' (Chris Wickham) , and `San Vincenzo and the Plan of Saint Gall' (Richard Hodges) .

^Aby Brian S. Ayers ^DReport on excavations undertaken off Norwich's Fishergate to the north of the River Wensum, the first to reach Saxon deposits in this important southern end of the city. The site produced the largest single assemblage of Ipswich-type ware from Norwich, imported pottery of Middle Saxon and Saxo-Norman date, a range of 8th-century finds, as well as quantities of later Saxon and Saxo-Norman material. The report examines the excavation sequence; the artefacts; the environmental evidence, detailing knowledge of the river and its environs; the documentary evidence, drawing on material from the Enrolled Deeds and other sources, outlining the development of the area; post-medieval industrial buildings on the site.

^Aby Carolyn Dallas ^DReport on the excavations of Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Thetford carried out between 1964 and 1970, including Brandon Road (1964-66) and the Kilnyard (1966), with reports on the finds, zoological and botanical evidence, documentary evidence, and a general discussion. Important discoveries included six related Late Saxon pottery kilns and the complete plan of a pre-Conquest timber church which was replaced in stone.