Born in the late 9th century Baghdad, the ʿAbbāsid grammarian ‘Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Saḥl Ibn al-Sarrāj came to be remembered as the Banisher of Madness and the virtuous scholar whose life has exemplified the culture of Arabs in its fullness. Lauded as the arch-enemy of Hellenistic sciences and, at the same time, as the main source of transmission of Aristotelian logic from the 10th century philosophers to the grammarians of Baghdad; Ibn al-Sarrāj nonetheless remains a shadowy figure in the history of Arabic grammar studies up until today. This book addresses this issue by examining the problematic relationship between language, logic and grammar in Ibn al-Sarrāj’s teachings.

This first volume, presenting research carried out through the Exeter: A Place in Time project, provides a synthesis of the development of Exeter within its local, regional, national and international hinterlands. Exeter began life in c. AD 55 as one of the most important legionary bases within early Roman Britain, and for two brief periods in the early and late 60s AD, Exeter was a critical centre of Roman power within the new province. When the legion moved to Wales the fortress was converted into the civitas capital for the Dumnonii. Its development as a town was, however, relatively slow, reflecting the gradual pace at which the region as a whole adapted to being part of the Roman world. The only evidence we have for occupation within Exeter between the 5th and 8th centuries is for a church in what was later to become the Cathedral Close. In the late 9th century, however, Exeter became a defended burh, and this was followed by the revival of urban life. Exeter’s wealth was in part derived from its central role in the south-west’s tin industry, and by the late 10th century Exeter was the fifth most productive mint in England. Exeter’s importance continued to grow as it became an episcopal and royal centre, and excavations within Exeter have revealed important material culture assemblages that reflect its role as an international port.

The British countryside is on the brink of change. With the withdrawal of EU subsidies, threats of US-style factory farming and the promotion of ‘rewilding’ initiatives, never before has so much uncertainty and opportunity surrounded our landscape. How we shape our prospective environment can be informed by bygone practice, as well as through engagement with livestock and landscapes long since vanished. This study examines aspects of pastoralism that occurred in part of medieval England. It suggests how we learn from forgotten management regimes to inform, shape and develop our future countryside. This book focuses on a region of southern England the pastoral identity of which has long been synonymous with the economy of sheep pasture and the medieval right of swine pannage. These aspects of medieval pastoralism, made famous by iconic images of the South Downs and the evidence presented by Domesday, mask a pastoral heritage in which a signifi cant part was played by cattle. This aspect of medieval pastoralism is traceable in the region’s historic landscape, documentary evidence and excavated archaeological remains. Past scholars of the South-East have been so concerned with the importance of medieval sheep, and to a slightly lesser extent pigs, that no systematic examination of the cattle economy has ever been undertaken. This book therefore represents a deep, multi-disciplinary study of the cattle economy over the longue durée of the Middle Ages, especially its importance within the evolution of medieval society, settlement and landscape. Nationally, medieval cattle have been one of the most important and neglected aspects of the agriculture of the medieval period. This book shows us how, as part of both a mixed and specialised farming economy, they have helped shapethe countryside we know today.

The study of early medieval towns has frequently concentrated on urban beginnings, the search for broadly applicable definitions of urban characteristics and the chronological development of towns. Far less attention has been paid to the experience of living in towns.The thirteen chapters in this book bring together the current state of knowledge about Viking-Age towns (c. 800–1100) from both sides of the Irish Sea, focusing on everyday life in and around these emerging settlements. What was it really like to grow up, live, and die in these towns? What did people eat, what did they wear, and how did they make a living for themselves? Although historical sources are addressed, the emphasis of the volume is overwhelmingly archaeological, paying homage to the wealth of new material that has become available since the advent of urban archaeology in the 1960s.

Medieval Rural Settlement: Britain and Ireland, AD 800-1600 is a major assessment and review of the origins, forms and evolutions of medieval rural settlement in Britain and Ireland across the period c. AD 800-1600. It offers a comprehensive analysis of early to late medieval settlement, land use, economics and population, bringing together evidence drawn from archaeological excavations and surveys, historical geographical analysis and documentary and place-name study. It is intended to be the flagship publication of the Medieval Settlement Research Group (MSRG) which has a long and distinguished history of exploring, debating and promoting research and offers systematic appraisal of 60 years' work across the whole field of medieval settlement, designed to inspire the next generation of researchers.Part I comprises a set of papers exploring the history of medieval rural settlement research in Britain and Ireland, the evolving methodologies, the roots of the medieval landscape and the place of power in these settlements and landscapes. Part II presents an extensive series of regional and national reviews detailing contexts, histories of study, forms, evolutions and future research needs. These extensive contributions also include "feature boxes" on key themes, sites to visit and main excavations in the study areas discussed. A final section provides guidance on how to research and study medieval rural sites - from laptop to test-pit.Extensively illustrated in colour and black and white, and written by expert contributors, the volume includes a comprehensive, integrated bibliography and an index. Medieval Rural Settlement: Britain and Ireland, AD 800-1600 will be essential reading for everyone researching and interested in medieval settlements and the medieval rural landscape.

In 2006, Claus Feveile published Det ældste Ribe [The earliest Ribe], launching the publication series Ribe Studier [Ribe Studies]. The goal of that series was to make the core archaeological evidence from excavations in the town of Ribe between 1984 and 2000 accessible to the scholarly world and to give an account of Ribe’s special status in the archaeological landscape of Denmark and northern Europe. Ribe 700-1050: From Emporium to Civitas in Southern Scandinavia is volume 2 in Ribe Studies. The main text here provides a comprehensive presentation and analysis of the archaeology of the town through to the end of the Viking Period. Alongside that, the book has a major topographical section which discusses West Jutland in this period and the connexions between Ribe and the hinterland of the town. In addition, a concluding chapter discusses the origin of towns in southern Scandinavia.

The Viking Congresses bring together scholars of archaeology, philology, history, toponymy, numismatics and a number of other disciplines to discuss the Viking Age from a variety of viewpoints. This volume contains 44 peer-reviewed papers selected from those presented at the 18th Viking Congress held in Denmark in August 2017. The contributors take up the interdisciplinary challenge, and the papers cover a wide range of subjects, rooted in the past, but also connecting to the present.

Exploring Celtic Origins is the fruit of collaborative work by researchers in archaeology, historical linguistics, and archaeogenetics over the past ten years. This team works towards the goal of a better understanding of the background in the Bronze Age and Beaker Period of the people who emerge as Celts and speakers of Celtic languages documented in the Iron Age and later times. Led by Sir Barry Cunliffe and John Koch, the contributors present multidisciplinary chapters in a lively user-friendly style, aimed at accessibility for workers in the other fields, as well as general readers. The collection stands as a pause to reflect on ways forward at the moment of intellectual history when the genome-wide sequencing of ancient DNA (a.k.a. ‘the archaeogenetic revolution’) has suddenly changed everything in the study of later European prehistory. How do we deal with what appears to be an irreversible breach in the barrier between science and the humanities? Exploring Celtic Origins includes colour maps and illustrations and annotated Further Reading for all chapters.

This book is intended to pull together our current knowledge of the ‘lost’ group of people called the Pecsaetna (literally, meaning the ‘Peak Sitters’) by synthesising more recent historical and archaeological research towards a better understanding of their activities, territory and identity. This group of people is shrouded in the mists of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’ and are only known to us by the chance survival of less than a handful of documents.Since the mid-20th century, valuable work has been done to identify former Anglo-Saxon estates in the Peak from the analysis of charters and from the Domesday survey, together with recent wider historical analysis. In addition, some have also attempted reconstructions of geographical territories from the Tribal Hidage, the document, which first mentions the Pecsaetna. To this historical analysis can be added further archaeological evidence which ranges from Anglo-Saxon barrow investigation in the limestone Peak District, to studies into the geographical distributions of free-standing stone monuments of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian periods. It is this latter study that has prompted the writer to attempt this study.

This edited volume delves into the current state of Iron Age and Early Medieval research in the North. Over the last two decades of archaeological explorations, theoretical vanguards, and introduction of new methodological strategies, together with a growing amount of critical studies in archaeology taking their stance from a multidisciplinary perspective, have dramatically changed our understanding of Northern Iron Age societies. The profound effect of 6th century climatic events on social structures in Northern Europe, a reintegration of written sources and archaeological material, genetic and isotopic studies entirely reinterpreting previously excavated grave material, are but a few examples of such land winnings. The aim of this book is to provide an intense and cohesive focus on the characteristics of contemporary Iron Age research; explored under the subheadings of field and methodology, settlement and spatiality, text and translation, and interaction and impact. Gathering the work of leading, established researchers and field archaeologists based throughout northern Europe and in the frontline of this new emerging image, this volume provides a collective summary of our current understandings of the Iron Age and Early Medieval Era in the North. It also facilitates a renewed interaction between academia and the ever-growing field of infrastructural archaeology, by integrating cutting edge fieldwork and developing field methods in the corpus of Iron Age and Early Medieval studies. In this book, many hypotheses are pushed forward from their expected outcomes, and analytical work is not afraid of taking risks, thus advancing the field of Iron Age research, and also, hopefully, inspiring to a continued creation of new knowledge.

In 1970 a concrete replica of the St John’s Cross arrived in Iona sitting incongruously on the deck of a puffer delivering the island’s annual supply of coal. What is the story behind this intriguing replica? How does it relate to the world’s first ringed ‘Celtic cross’, an artistic and technical masterpiece, which has been at the heart of the Iona experience since the eighth century? What does it tell us about the authenticity and value of replicas? In this fascinating book, Foster and Jones draw on extensive interdisciplinary research to reveal the composite biography of the St John’s Cross, its concrete replica, and its many other scale copies. They show that replicas can acquire rich forms of authenticity and value, informed by social relations, craft practices, creativity, place and materiality. Thus, the book challenges traditional precepts that seek authenticity in qualities intrinsic to original historic objects. Replicas are shown to be important objects in their own right, with their own creative, human histories - biographies that people can connect with. The story of the St John’s Cross celebrates how replicas can ‘work’ for us if we let them, particularly if clues are available about their makers’ passion, creativity and craft.

This is the third book on material studies in this series on medieval Novgorod and its territory, and deals with a substantial body of animal bones that has been recovered over the last decade. The zooarchaeological evidence is discussed by the editor and a number of other British and Russian specialists looking at the remains of mammals, birds and fish. Topics discussed include diet, butchery practices, the exploitation of fur and skins, mortality patterns of mammals, and metrical analyses of a wide range of species. Detailed data sets are provided to enable the reader to make comparisons with their own research, but the book is also suitable for those with a more general interest in medieval Russian archaeology.

The location known as ‘A Riverine Site Near York (ARSNY)’ represents a category of Viking site known from the historical record but one that until recently had remained largely undetected archaeologically: the Viking camp. The published investigations at Repton, Derbyshire, although undoubtedly important, created a false paradigm for the scale and character of such sites. The discovery and investigation of ARSNY, along with Torksey in Lincolnshire and Woodstown in Ireland, has revolutionised understanding of the size and character of such sites, with wider implications for the aspects of Viking warfare, urbanisation, precious metal economies and the transition from raiding to permanent settlement. This volume includes the detailed publication of the ARSNY site, along with the first detailed comparison of the sites as a group and of their wider significance.One particular feature of the site is that the finds shed new light on the character of Viking exchange in Northumbria on the eve of settlement. The volume concludes with a synthesis of the evidence from ARSNY and York with these other groups of finds to provide a comprehensive overview of the monetary developments which took place in Yorkshire in the period between the Viking settlement of the mid-870s and the expulsion of the last Viking king of Northumbria in 954, making this a milestone publication for the understanding of precious metal economies in the Viking Age.

This is the second volume arising from the 1994–2003 excavations of the Triconch Palace at Butrint (Albania), which charted the history of a major Mediterranean waterfront site from the 2nd to the 15th centuries AD. The sequence (Butrint 3: Excavations at the Triconch Palace: Oxbow, 2011) included the development of a palatial late Roman house, followed by intensive activity between the 5th and 7th centuries involving domestic occupation, metal-working, fishing and burial. The site saw renewed activity from the 10th century, coinciding with the revival of the town of Butrint, and for the following 300 years continued in intermittent use associated with its channel-side location. This volume reports on the finds from the site (excluding the pottery), which demonstrate the ways in which the lives, diet and material culture of a Mediterranean population changed across the arc of the late Roman and Medieval periods. It includes discussion of the environmental evidence, the human and faunal remains, metal-working evidence, and the major assemblages of glass, coins and small finds, giving an insight into the health, subsistence base and material culture of the population of a Mediterranean site across more than 1000 years. The findings raise important questions regarding the ways in which changes in the circumstances of the town affected the population between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. They illustrate in particular how an urban Roman centre became more rural during the 6th century with a population that faced major challenges in their health and living conditions.

The crannog on Llangorse Lake near Brecon in mid Wales was discovered in 1867 and first excavated in 1869 by two local antiquaries, Edgar and Henry Dumbleton, who published their findings over the next four years. In 1988 dendrochronological dates from submerged palisade planks established its construction in the ninth century, and a combined off- and on-shore investigation of the site was started as a joint project between Cardiff University and Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales. The subsequent surveys and excavation (1989-1994, 2004) resulted in the recovery of a remarkable time capsule of life in the late ninth and tenth century, on the only crannog yet identified in Wales. This publication re-examines the early investigations, describes in detail the anatomy of the crannog mound and its construction, and the material culture found. The crannog’s treasures include early medieval secular and religious metalwork, evidence for manufacture, the largest depository of early medieval carpentry in Wales and a remarkable richly embroidered silk and linen textile which is fully analysed and placed in context. The crannog’s place in Welsh history is explored, as a royal llys (‘court’) within the kingdom of Brycheiniog, as well as its subsequent significance of the crannog in local traditions and its post-medieval occupation during a riotous dispute in the reign Elizabeth I. The cultural affinities of the crannog and its material culture is assessed, as are their relationship to origin myths for the kingdom, and to probable links with early medieval Ireland. The folk tales associated with the lake are explored, in a book that brings together archaeology, history, myths and legends, underwater and terrestrial archaeology.

The island of Sicily is at the heart of the Mediterranean and from ancient times to the present day it has been a hub of migration and settlement. Following on from the British Museum’s critically acclaimed 2016 exhibition Sicily: culture and conquest, this volume considers the history and material culture of the different peoples occupying Sicily at key points in the island’s history. Part I concentrates on ancient Sicily during the time of Greek settlement, exploring themes such as the creation of urban centres during this period and the production of Sicilian terracotta between the 5th and 4th centuries BC. In Part II, the focus shifts to the Middle Ages, Sicily’s period of enlightenment under Muslim and Norman rules, with key themes including Norman identity and the use of the Norman legacy in the 19th century. With contributions from international experts in the field, the volume presents new insights into the economy, architecture and social identity of the island, including research on recently excavated sites. The result is a rich collection of essays that provides a comprehensive overview of this cosmopolitan island’s unique identity and its significance in a wider Mediterranean context.