Wearmouth and Jarrow Monastic Sites. Vol. 2

Description

With contributions by S. Anderson, M. M. Archibald, I. K. Bailiff, H. Baker, C. E. Batey, J. Bayley, A. Bečević, G. and F. Bettess, P. Bidwell, D. Birkett, R. Brickstock, R. H. Brill, B. Burke, E. Cambridge, J. Cherry, P. Clogg, B. J. Cook, A. Croom, J. Cronyn, L. Daines, S. Daniels, B. Dickinson, A. Donaldson, V. I. Evison, M. Firby, I. C. Freestone, I. H. Goodall, C. P. Graves, J. Henderson, M. J. Hughes, J. P. Huntley, A. R. Hutchinson, A. Jenner, A. K. G. Jones, J. Jones, P. C. Lowther, A. Mac Mahon, S. A. Mills, B. Noddle, T. P. O’Connor, G. Papageorgakis, E. Pirie, A. J. Price, M. Redknap, I. Riddler, S. Ross, D. Schofield, S. M. Stallibrass, M. S. Tite, M. Trueman, A. Vince, C. Wells, I. Wessels, J. West, H. B. Willmott and R. Young. Edited by Pamela Lowther. Ebook (PDF) published 2013. The Venerable Bede and the twin monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow, Northumbria – an inseparable name and place. Founded by Benedict Biscop in the late 7th century the house achieved an international reputation from the fame of its most renowned inmate, Bede – theologian and historian. Destroyed in the mid-9th century, the house was refounded in the 11th and survives to this day as a seat of religious scholarship. Yet there was almost no archaeological knowledge of the site until the excavations undertaken by Professor Rosemary Cramp over three decades between 1959 and 1988. This book is the definitive report on the excavations. The evidence proved, as said in early texts, that the founder did indeed build in stone 'in the Roman manner', and the data give important insights into the evolution of monastic plans in the Christian West at a time when little was built in stone except churches, pre-dating the Carolingian Revival. The evidence reveals the economic basis and international contacts maintained by the monastery, including exotic pottery and the greatest quantity of 7th – 8th-century coloured window glass from any site of comparable date in Europe. From 11th-century and later monasteries, the earliest Norman religious houses in the region, the data elucidate the changing local and regional economies, and the cemeteries provide long-term demographic evidence from the Early Christian period to the 19th century. Using the archaeological evidence alongside exhaustive research of the historical records and archives, Professor Cramp and her colleagues here provide the most authoritative study of these two long-lived religious establishments. This volume describes the material remains from the excavations. Figures viii Tables xiii Contributors xiv Content and structure of Volume 2 xv Volume 2 Part VI. The Material Remains The built environment 26. Structural materials 1 27. Window glass 56 Sculptured stone 28. The Anglo-Saxon sculpture 162 29. The medieval carved stone 204 Portable objects: the personal and domestic domain 30. The numismatic evidence 218 31. Personal possessions and domestic items 229 32. Vessel glass 313 33. Pottery 325 34. Stone objects 432 35. Industrial/craft processes: the evidence from the Jarrow workshops 470 People and environment 36. The human skeletal remains 481 37. Faunal remains 546 Appendix C. Context catalogues 597 Appendix D. The burial catalogues 598 Appendix E. Units of measurement 625 Appendix F. Analysis of botanical remains 629 Appendix G. Absolute dating 630 Appendix H. The excavation archives 635 Notes 636 Abbreviations and Bibliography 637 Index 663