THE SPEAR IN EARLY ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND: A SOCIAL-TECHNOLOGICAL HISTORY By ANDREW JOHN WELTON A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Andrew John Welton To Rachel, and to our longsuffering cat. For five years they received less of my attention than they deserved, and each found little consolation in the other’s company. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS During the five years it took to research and write this dissertation, I received support, help, and friendship at every turn. For this, I feel deep gratitude. Many groups generously financed my research, and I offer each of them my thanks. A Mellon dissertation grant from the Council for Library and Information Resources funded a year of travel to UK museum and library collections. Support from many smaller grants funded shorter trips. These include the Medieval Academy of America’s Helen Maud Cam grant, alongside multiple awards from the University of Florida’s History Department, Rothman Endowment, Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere, Graduate School, Office of Research, and History Graduate Society. My research and writing while resident in Florida was supplemented with additional fellowships from the Lilly Graduate Fellows Program and the University of Florida graduate school. Without this generous support, I would not have been able to see the objects about which I write, below. This dissertation, in short, would not exist. This research also could not exist without the assistance of the many library staff and museum curators who welcomed me to their spaces and facilitated my access to the materials in their collections. I want to thank the many curators who helped me access the artifacts I study: David Allen, John Clark, Gabrielle Day, Jill Greenaway, James Harris, Ann-Rachael Harwood, Ann Insker, Adam Jaffer, Jackie Keily, Rose Nicholson, Georgina Muskett, Pernille Richards, and Gill Woolrich for their time and help. I also thank the University of Florida’s interlibrary loan staff. They are heroes, and I would know nothing if it weren’t for them. I was never lonely while I researched, and for this I thank many wonderful colleagues and friends. Many welcomed me as I traveled, and I feel particular gratitude toward James Harland, Guy Halsall, Heinrich Härke, Indra Werthman, Mathew and Katie Delvaux, Heidi Stoner, Matt Austin, Andreas Duering, Toby Martin, and Sihong Lin for welcoming me into their 4 communities and, in many cases, into their homes. I must also thank Helena Hamerow, David Starley, Brian Gilmour, Robin Fleming, James Gerrard, John Hines, and Sarah Semple for their warm welcomes and intellectual generosity. Sharing these years with my fellow Lilly cohort members and our mentors, Susan VanZanten and Patrick Byrne, has enriched my life. My colleagues in Florida are too many to mention, but I am grateful for the climate of warm camaraderie we built together inside our department. Many poor souls took the time to read and comment on parts of this manuscript, and I thank them for the errors, confusions, and poorly argued claims they brought to my attention. Rebecca Devlin, Michael Genaro, Alana Lord, Mallory Szymanski, Rob Taber, Reid Weber, and the other members of our informal writing group suffered many drafts and always helped me find my missing argument. Dan’o Reid and Matthew Delvaux gave me invaluable feedback, comments, and conversation across all the stages of my research and writing. I am grateful to Howard Williams and the anonymous reviewers at the Archaeological Journal for detailed and extremely helpful comments on the article which became part of Chapter 4. Especially, however, I want to thank the members of my committee for their years of feedback—particularly Florin Curta for teaching me how to read and write about an archaeological site report, and Susan Gillespie for exposing me to new tools to think with and for never relaxing her expectation of excellence. On the pages below, I have done my best to follow their good counsel, but I know I have in many places fallen short. These mistakes are mine. There are several persons without whom this dissertation would not have been possible who deserve special thanks. Mark Graham was the first person who showed me what it meant to be a historian. He drove me to my first conference and took me to my first archaeological dig. I would not be here if it were not for him. James Harland, my comrade across the Atlantic, gave 5 me friendship, good conversation, and more than once a roof over my head. My mom and dad taught me to read and write and to love books, and they unflinchingly supported me through a long education. Anna Lankina showed me what it means to build a community; without her, Gainesville would have been a lonely place. Finally, Bonnie Effros, my advisor, who gave me the tools I needed and the freedom to use them. She has been the best advisor, and a good friend. Above all, I thank my wife Rachel who read innumerable drafts, shared my travels, and bore at times an entirely unfair share of the emotional labor of my graduate degrees. What is good in the pages below, I dedicate to her. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES .........................................................................................................................10 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................11 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................15 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................17 Relics of a Germanic Past? .....................................................................................................18 Social Products, or Producers? ...............................................................................................21 The Spear as an Agentive Material Thing ..............................................................................24 The Spear in Archaeology and Text .......................................................................................30 Making, Living, and Dying with Spears .................................................................................31 Spears as “Vibrant Matter” .....................................................................................................35 A Note on Terminology ..........................................................................................................36 2 RECOVERING THE SPEAR AS A PHYSICAL THING ....................................................41 The Effects of Corrosion ........................................................................................................42 The Iron Spearhead .................................................................................................................46 Bloomery Iron .................................................................................................................46 Iron Alloys .......................................................................................................................48 Forging Bloomery Iron ....................................................................................................51 Surface Finishes and Decoration .....................................................................................57 Physical Properties of the Iron Spearhead .......................................................................60 The Shapes of Blades ......................................................................................................66 The Shaft and its Fittings ........................................................................................................71 Timber Selection .............................................................................................................71 The Physical Dimensions of the Shaft .............................................................................74 Surface Finishes and Decoration .....................................................................................76 Joining Spearhead to Shaft ..............................................................................................77 The Ferrule ......................................................................................................................78 Assembling the Spear .............................................................................................................81 Conclusions.............................................................................................................................82 3 CHRONOLOGY, TYPOLOGY, AND THE PROBLEM OF CORROSION .......................95 The Search for Chronology ....................................................................................................96 Michael Swanton’s Spearhead Typology ........................................................................98 New Developments in Chronological Methods after Swanton .....................................102 The Limitations of Current Typologies: Testing Hines and Bayliss .............................105 A New Spearhead Typology .................................................................................................111