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Animals, Identity and Cosmology: Mortuary Practice in Early Medieval Eastern England

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Animals, Identity and Cosmology: Mortuary Practice in Early Medieval Eastern England Animals, Identity and Cosmology: Mortuary Practice in Early Medieval Eastern England Item Type Thesis Authors Rainsford, Clare E. Rights <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by- nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. Download date 28/09/2021 02:34:42 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10454/17224 Animals, Identity and Cosmology: Mortuary Practice in Early Medieval Eastern England Clare Eleanor RAINSFORD Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences Faculty of Life Sciences University of Bradford 2017 Abstract Clare Eleanor Rainsford Animals, Identity & Cosmology: Mortuary Practice in Early Medieval Eastern England Keywords: zooarchaeology, animals, burial, ritual, cemetery, Anglo-Saxon, cremation, inhumation, Norfolk. The inclusion of animal remains in funerary contexts was a routine feature of Anglo-Saxon cremation ritual, and less frequently of inhumations, until the introduction of Christianity during the 7th century. Most interpretation has focused either on the animal as symbolic of identity or as an indication of pagan belief, with little consideration given to the interaction between these two aspects. Animals were a fundamental and ubiquitous part of early medieval society, and their contribution to mortuary practices is considered to be multifaceted, reflecting their multiple roles in everyday life. This project considers the roles of animals in mortuary practice between the 5th-7th centuries across five counties in eastern England – Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Essex – in both cremation and inhumation rites. Animal remains have been recognised in 5th to 7th century burials in eastern England from an early date, and the quality of the existing archives (both material and written) is investigated and discussed as an integral part of designing a methodology to effectively summarise data across a wide area. From the eastern England dataset, four aspects of identity in mortuary practice are considered in terms of their influence on the role of animals: choice of rite (cremation/inhumation); human biological identity (age & gender); regionality; and changing expressions of belief and status in the 7th century. The funerary role of animals is argued to be based around broadly consistent cosmologies which are locally contingent in their expression and practice. i Acknowledgements “You must depend upon affection, reading, knowledge, skill – more of each than you have…” Wendell Berry (2013: 354) This research was funded by an Arts & Humanities Research Council Studentship under the Collaborative Doctoral Award scheme, with Norwich Castle Museum as the partner organisation. Within this project, I have benefited from the support of my three supervisors – Dr Julie Bond and Dr Jo Buckberry from the University of Bradford, and Dr Tim Pestell from Norwich Castle Museum. The comments and support received have helped make this thesis what it is. Thanks also to my co- student, Michelle Williams-Ward, who shared the data collection and the data from Illington and Markshall. The following people provided access to unpublished data, reports, articles or theses, without which this research would be much the poorer: Jo Caruth (Lakenheath); Kenneth Penn (Field Dalling); Kris Poole (PhD thesis; Sedgeford); James Nottingham (MSc thesis on Oakington); Katie McCullough-French (PhD thesis on Midlands cremations); Lucy Sladen (MA thesis on Kent inhumation burials). Thanks to Karen Weston for creating the maps used in this thesis with her GIS wizardry. David Orton kindly provided access to University of York lab space and reference collections; and Eva Fairnell showed me how to use MS Word properly. For conversations which helped knock my thinking into shape, I am indebted to the research community at the University of Bradford. Most particularly, I am also indebted to Terry O’Connor and David Roberts, for being the best kind of friends, colleagues and readers. The process of research involved a lot of largely unfunded travelling, mostly between Yorkshire and East Anglia. A number of people made this possible for me, whether by having me to stay when I was working and grumpy, or looking after house, home and the succession of hamsters over the many times I was away: namely, Sarah Shailes, Carol Backhouse, Karen Weston, Valerie Clay, Sian Eastwood, Jo Nic, Lucy Pell-Walpole, Terry & Sonia O’Connor, and particularly my parents, without whose support this wouldn’t have happened. ii This thesis was fuelled by the music of Show of Hands and Public Service Broadcasting, and approximately 2,920 cups of Yorkshire Tea. iii List of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………i Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………...ii List of Contents…………………………………………………………………….iv List of Figures...…………………………………………………………………….x List of Tables….…………………………………………………………………...xv 470AD……………………………………………………………………………..xvii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Research Aims & Direction ................................................................... 3 1.1.2 Objectives ............................................................................................. 4 1.2 Locating the Project ................................................................................. 6 1.2.1 Defining Animal Remains ...................................................................... 6 1.2.2 Temporal and Spatial Boundaries ......................................................... 8 1.2.3 Role of the Norfolk CDA ...................................................................... 10 1.3 Early Anglo-Saxon England: Society, Burial and Belief ......................... 12 1.3.1 Society ................................................................................................ 12 1.3.2 Burial ................................................................................................... 14 1.3.3 Belief ................................................................................................... 17 1.3.4 Conclusions ........................................................................................ 19 Chapter 2: The Nature of Belief 2.1 Animal Remains in Anglo-Saxon Mortuary Context: A Short Historiography .............................................................................................. 21 2.1.1 Origins................................................................................................. 21 2.1.2 Cremations and Inhumations: Bodies of Evidence .............................. 23 2.1.2.1 Cremation .................................................................................. 24 2.1.2.2 Inhumation ................................................................................. 27 2.1.3 Flogging a Dead Horse? Anglo-Saxon Horse Burials and Mortuary Ritual ............................................................................................................ 30 2.1.4 Conclusions ........................................................................................ 33 2.2 ReTheorising Animal Inclusions: From Eschatology to Cosmology ....... 34 2.2.1 Animal Transformations & Shamanism ............................................... 34 2.2.2 The Anglo-Saxon Funeral as Remembrance ...................................... 37 iv 2.2.3 What did this Sheep Mean To You? Animals, Identity and Cosmology ..................................................................................................................... 39 2.3 Animals and Belief Beyond The Grave .................................................. 41 2.3.1 Anglo-Saxon Animals – An Exercise In Source Pluralism ................... 42 2.3.2 Animals in Anglo-Saxon England: Non-mortuary Contexts ................. 45 2.3.2.1 Early Anglo-Saxon Animals: The Settlement Evidence ............. 45 2.3.2.2 The Later Anglo-Saxon Period and the Christianisation of the Animalscape .......................................................................................... 48 2.3.3 An Anglo-Saxon Cosmology? ............................................................. 52 2.4 Summary................................................................................................ 55 Chapter 3: Data Quality and Validity 3.1 Constructing a Dataset .......................................................................... 57 3.2 Data Quality: A Norfolk Case Study ....................................................... 58 3.2.1 Cremation ........................................................................................... 60 3.2.2 Inhumation .......................................................................................... 63 3.2.3 Summary ............................................................................................. 66 3.3 Inhumation Cemeteries .......................................................................... 68 3.3.1 On Determining Intentionality of Deposits ........................................... 68 3.3.2 Mortuary Feasting and Disarticulated Bone ........................................ 73 3.3.2.1 Methods ..................................................................................... 74 3.3.2.2 Caister-by-Yarmouth
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