The Middle Ages are all around us in Britain. The Tower of London and the castles of Scotland and Wales are mainstays of cultural tourism and an inspiring cross-section of later medieval finds can now be seen on display in museums across England, Scotland, and Wales. Medieval institutions from Parliament and monarchy to universities are familiar to us and we come into contact with the later Middle Ages every day when we drive through a village or town, look up at the castle on the hill, visit a local church or wonder about the earthworks in the fields we see from the window of a train.
The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain provides an overview of the archaeology of the later Middle Ages in Britain between AD 1066 and 1550. 61 entries, divided into 10 thematic sections, cover topics ranging from later medieval objects, human remains, archaeological science, standing buildings, and sites such as castles and monasteries, to the well-preserved relict landscapes which still survive.
This is a rich and exciting period of the past and most of what we have learnt about the material culture of our medieval past has been discovered in the past two generations. This volume provides comprehensive coverage of the latest research and describes the major projects and concepts that are changing our understanding of our medieval heritage.
Part 1: Writing Later Medieval Archaeology 1: Christopher Gerrard: Overview: People and Projects 2: Michael Fradley: Methods In Medieval Archaeology 3: C. P. Graves and Christopher Gerrard: Embracing New Perspectives 4: Simon A. Draper: The Written Evidence for the Later Middle Ages Part 2: The Medieval Countryside 5: Grenville Astill: Overview: Geographies of Medieval Britain 6: Ronan O'Donnell: Field Systems and the Arable Fields 7: Louisa Gidney: The Animal in Late Medieval Britain 8: Lisa Moffett: The Archaeobotany of Late Medieval Plant Remains: The Resource and the Research 9: James H. Barrett: Medieval Fishing and Fish Trade 10: Aleks Pluskowski: The Medieval Wild 11: Peter J. Brown: Coping with Disaster Part 3: Rural Settlement and Buildings 12: Stephen Rippon, Piers Dixon and Bob Silvester: Overview: The Form and Pattern of Medieval Settlement 13: Christopher Dyer: Rural Living 1100-1540 14: Mark Gardiner and Susan Kilby: Perceptions of Medieval Settlement 15: Richard Suggett: Peasant Buildings 16: Jill Campbell: The Medieval Manor House and the Moated Site 17: Niall Brady: Agricultural Buildings Part 4: Living in Towns and Ports 18: Keith D. Lilley: Overview: Living in Medieval Towns 19: John Schofield: Urban Housing 20: Abby Antrobus: Medieval Shops 21: Christopher Dyer: Town and Countryside 22: Gareth Dean: Urban infrastructure Part 5: Power and Display 23: Oliver Creighton: Overview: Castles and Elite Landscapes 24: Tom Beaumont James: Medieval Palaces and Royal Houses 25: Stephen Mileson: Royal and Aristocratic Landscapes of Pleasure 26: Glenn Foard: Medieval Battlefield Archaeology 27: David A. Hinton: Symbols of Power Part 6: Crafts, Industry, and Objects 28: Maureen Mellor: Overview: Medieval Industry and Commerce 29: David Parsons: Quarrying and Extractive Industries 30: David A. Hinton: The Medieval Workshop 31: Colin Rynne: Water and Wind Power 32: Richard Kelleher: Old Money, New Methods: Coins and Later Medieval Archaeology 33: M. A. Hall: Play And Playfulness In Late Medieval Britain: Theory, Concept, Practice Part 7: The Archaeology of Religion and Belief 34: Richard Morris: Overview: Church and Landscape C. 1100-1550 35: James Bond: The Medieval Monastery and its Landscape 36: Richard Fawcett: The Cathedral 37: Richard Fawcett: The Medieval Parish Church: Architecture, Furnishings, and Fittings 38: M. A. Hall: Approaching Medieval Sacrality 39: Matthew Champion: Medieval Graffiti Inscriptions 40: Peter Yeoman: An Archaeology of Pilgrimage 41: Kate Giles and Aleksandra Mcclain: The Devotional Image in Late Medieval England Part 8: An Archaeology of the Senses 42: Emma J. Wells: Overview: The Medieval Senses 43: Hugh Willmott: Cooking, Dining, and Drinking 44: Stephen Mileson: Sound and Landscape 45: Holly Dugan: London Smellwalk Around 1450: Smelling Medieval Cities 46: Michael Huxtable and Ronan O'donnell: Medieval Colour Part 9: Growing Up and Growing Old 47: Rebecca Gowland and Bennjamin Penny-Mason: Overview: Archaeology and the Life-Course 48: Sally Crawford: Birth and Childhood 49: Eleanor R. Standley: Dressing the Body 50: Amanda Richardson: Gender and Space in the Later Middle Ages 51: Charlotte Roberts, Jelena Bekvalac, and Rebecca Redfern: Health and Well-Being: The Contribution of the Study Of Human Remains To Understanding the Late Medieval Period In Britain 52: Martin Huggon: Medieval Medicine, Public Health, and the Medieval Hospital 53: Christopher Daniell: Later Medieval Death and Burial 54: Simon Roffey: The Medieval Afterlife Part 10: A Wider Context: Trade and Exchange, Europe, and Beyond 55: Alejandra Gutiérrez: Overview: Trade and Other Contacts in Late Medieval Britain 56: Terry B. Barry: Looking West: Ireland in the Middle Ages 57: Claire Hanusse: Looking South-West: France in the Middle Ages, 58: Else Roesdahl: Looking North-East: Southern Scandinavia in the Middle Ages 59: Christopher Gerrard and José Avelino Gutiérrez-González: Looking South: Spain and Portugal in the Middle Ages 60: Christopher Gerrard: A Last Word: The Study of Later Medieval Archaeology
Christopher Gerrard is Professor of Medieval Archaeology at Durham University. His eight books include Medieval Archaeology: Understanding Traditions and Contemporary Approaches (2003) and Interpreting the English Village: Landscape and Community at Shapwick, Somerset which won the Best Archaeological Book of the Year award in 2014. His fieldwork includes excavations in Spain and the Azores and projects on qanats, natural disasters in the Middle Ages and, most recently, the discovery of mass graves of 17th-century Scottish soldiers under one of the University's libraries. Alejandra Gutiérrez is a Research Fellow at Durham University. Her interests lie in the study of medieval and later material culture, particularly the movement of goods, trade and exchange, and European contact with Britain in the Middle Ages. She writes about ceramics and other archaeological finds and has authored numerous articles on the subject, including a book, Mediterranean Pottery in Wessex Households and an accompanying web-guide for the identification of medieval and later Spanish pottery ().
Reviews for The Oxford Handbook of Later Medieval Archaeology in Britain
This is a very fine book, equally valuable to experts as to undergraduates. It will immediately establish itself as a key reference work * Paul Stamper, Medieval Archaeology *
