Blackwell, Alice (2018) A reassessment of the Anglo-Saxon artefacts from Scotland: material interactions and identities in early medieval northern Britain. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/30708/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] A reassessment of the Anglo-Saxon artefacts from Scotland: material interactions and identities in early medieval northern Britain Alice Blackwell Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD in Archaeology School of Humanities, College of Arts University of Glasgow March 2018 2 3 Abstract This thesis identifies and interprets the 5th to 9th-century Anglo-Saxon artefacts found within modern Scotland. It uses them to consider material expressions of ethnogenesis and to examine political, economic and ecclesiastical relations within early medieval northern Britain. In total, 221 objects are catalogued and discussed. The earliest finds suggest contact with the changing late/post-Roman frontier, while among the latest objects is a hacked finger ring deposited in a Viking-age hoard. The corpus includes several pieces of early 6th-century Style I metalwork, a cluster of 7th-century elite gold and garnet fittings, a large number of glass beads, a group of loom weights, and a substantial body of 8th/9th-century strap-ends and pins. Many are stray finds, though material was identified among excavated assemblages from monastic, chapel, settlement, hillfort and crannog sites, and from the chance discovery of several hoards and burials. In an attempt to move beyond a culture-history paradigm that has been deeply embedded in past work on these artefacts, this thesis employs the theories of hybridisation and entanglement, emphasising agency in the selection and reimagination of material culture in processes of identity creation. It identifies evidence for the promulgation of an elite Anglo-Saxon identity in 7th-century Lothian and argues that the region was being presented as a royal heartland. Bordering areas appear to have rejected Anglo-Saxon material culture outright, while regions further away, particularly Galloway and Argyll, were receptive to using and hybridising it. It is suggested that these differences were governed by the desire to show difference from immediate neighbours (for instance between polities within the Solway region) or create new identities (for instance incorporating former kindred-groups in Argyll). Different patterns were apparent in the 8th/9th-century finds: south-east and south-west Scotland appear to have had similar access to late Anglo-Saxon material, including a handful of high-status objects manufactured within Northumbria, while other parts of Scotland produced relatively few finds beyond imported vessel glass and a scatter of metal finds along the coast. While this might suggest a similar cultural context across southern Scotland and a contrast to that north of the Forth–Clyde, differences in deposition, particularly in the presence of hoards in the south-west, show the material was clearly being used and conceived differently. Above all else, this thesis demonstrates that no work on early medieval Northumbria should ignore material found north of the modern national border. 4 5 Table of contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 3 List of tables ......................................................................................................................... 12 List of maps .......................................................................................................................... 13 List of charts ......................................................................................................................... 14 List of illustrations ................................................................................................................ 15 List of accompanying material ............................................................................................. 15 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................... 16 Author’s declaration ............................................................................................................ 17 Chapter 1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 19 1.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 19 1.2 Context ...................................................................................................................... 19 1.2.1 Early medieval Scotland ..................................................................................... 19 1.2.2 Anglo-Saxon Scotland ........................................................................................ 21 1.3 Research aims ........................................................................................................... 23 1.4 Interpretative approach ............................................................................................ 23 1.5 Parameters ................................................................................................................ 24 1.5.1 Geography .......................................................................................................... 24 1.5.2 Material .............................................................................................................. 24 1.6 Data collection .......................................................................................................... 27 1.7 Catalogue .................................................................................................................. 29 1.8 Thesis structure ......................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 2 Northumbria and northern Britain: a historical review ............................ 33 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 33 2.2 Pre 8th century AD .................................................................................................... 34 2.2.1 Battles ................................................................................................................ 35 2.2.2 Bernicia’s origins ................................................................................................ 39 2.2.3 Bernicia’s ‘cultural cores’ ................................................................................... 42 2.2.4 Northumbrian expansion into south-west Scotland ......................................... 45 2.2.5 Relations north of the Forth .............................................................................. 48 2.2.6 Northumbrian overlordship ............................................................................... 49 2.3 8th–9th centuries ...................................................................................................... 51 2.3.1 Ecgwulfings ........................................................................................................ 52 2.3.2 Northumbrian successor states ......................................................................... 55 2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 56 6 Chapter 3 Anglo-Saxon small finds from Scotland: a review .................................... 57 3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 57 3.2 Anglo-Saxon finds from Scotland.............................................................................. 57 3.3 Anglo-Saxon small finds from Wales ........................................................................ 66 3.4 Anglo-Saxon finds from Ireland ................................................................................ 70 3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 71 Chapter 4 Theoretical approach ............................................................................. 75 4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 75 4.2 Hybridisation theory ................................................................................................. 75 4.3 Hybridisation/entanglement in the archaeology of post-Roman Britain ................. 80 4.4 The theoretical approach of this study ..................................................................... 83 Chapter 5 Corpus summary and regional discussion ............................................... 85 5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................