Thegns of Mercia

#medieval #lateantiquity #middleages #britishhistory #migrationperiod #vendelperiod #lincolnshire

coming not from distant lands, but rather, captured from their own communities & from rival tribes — one of Britain’s chief exports, helping pay for the celebrated treasures of the age. These enslaved people are themselves archaeologically invisible to us, but should be remembered.

It is easy for enthusiasts of #Anglo-Saxon #history & #archaeology to present a rose-tinted picture of the period, but it is important we acknowledge darker aspects too. Enslavement of people was an endemic part of Anglo-Saxon society, with enslaved people usually…

So, these uncommon 6th century neck-rings may be the Anglo-Saxon descendent of the Roman bulla, and intended to protect high-status children from very real threats.

Indeed, according to Bede, it was an encounter with 6th century enslaved Anglo-Saxon boys in the markets of Rome which inspired Pope Gregory the Great to send Saint Augustine to Britain.

under the protection of a rich / powerful family, so as to ward off any who might threaten the child or try to kidnap & sell them into slavery. The trafficking of children for slavery was a major concern in antiquity and certainly persisted into the Anglo-Saxon period.

High-status Roman boys wore a pendant called a ‘bulla’ until maturity. Sometimes inscribed with their family name, these pendants were intended to superstitiously protect them from misfortune, but in reality likely served a more practical function: to advertise that a particular child was…

They were certainly expensive & usually come from well-furnished graves, so associated with status/wealth, yet appear not to have been worn into adulthood. Often from cemeteries near Roman sites where cultural continuity into C6th is plausible. Is there a Roman precedent for these accessories?

& find comparanda particularly in the Netherlands from the same period. They have been found with both masculine & feminine grave-goods sets so were worn by both genders. Why were they specifically worn by children? What do they mean?

…(silver or copper alloy, sometimes called ‘lunula’ after the superficially similar gold necklaces of the Iron Age) are usually found in burials of juveniles, typically dated to the 6th century, in cemeteries from northern England, the Midlands & East Anglia…

An archaeological silver collar formed of thick wire, now broken into two pieces but originally one piece & in penannular form with the wire bending into a small hook, at each end, which could fasten to each-other (the hooks sitting at the right-back of the wearer’s neck). The front has been hammered flat forming a curving strip which would sit on the collar bones and may once have been decorated or inscribed.

Child’s Silver Neck-Ring (c6th) — a simple symbol of status, or something darker? #findsfridsy

This neck ring was found in the burial of a child in the piecemeal-excavated early #AngloSaxon cemetery at Ruskington Lincolnshire. (Displayed at Lincoln Museum).

Rare #archaeology finds, such collars…

#anglosaxon #medieval #earlymedieval #vendelperiod (way cooler than #viking #roman #ironage) #migrationperiod #middleages #medievalart #jewellery #filligree #weaving #tabletweaving #plantdyed #wool #craft #historiccostume #livinghistory #reenactment #kent #history #archaeology

The tabletweave by member Æd Thompson is entirely of plant-dyed wool (woad, madder and weld) of a bespoke design of swimming lozenges, broadly in keeping with evidenced motifs, & with borders designed to complement the (themselves tabletweave-like) alternating-twist filligree borders of the buckle.

Such a special buckle deserves a special belt! The related buckle from Taplow (itself probably of Kentish origin) was associated with leather traces which showed the impression of woven textile, suggestive of a tabletweave-on-leather belt or baldric, so Phil chose to have his belt made similarly.

but the highest concentration are found in the fashion-forward Kingdom of Kent. This example — originally silver-gilt and displayed in the British Museum — was found in the 19th century in Kings Field, Faversham — the site of an extensive cemetery with many richly furnished graves.

are found in high status male graves, often accompanied by weapons. Such buckles reach their most exquisite during the “Gold Age” of the late C6th first half of the 7th century. Famous examples include the jewelled buckles from Sutton Hoo and Taplow…

Anglo-Saxon men tended not to wear jewellery - a later OE maxim stipulates that jewels should only be seen on a woman, or else on a man’s sword. The only recurring exception are fancy buckles which (following precedent of late Roman military belt sets)…

A large triangular buckle with shield-on-tongue and three bossed rivets, with alternate-twist filligree borders and intertwined filligree beasts filling the centre panel. The buckle is mounted on a belt made of colourful patterned, woven braid of red, yellow, orange and blue sewn onto leather backing. The outer borders are dark blue, then yellow, with the central zone comprised of red-in-orange-in-yellow-in-blue lozenges, set into a dark red background. Arms reach out from the lozenges - those on the right reaching forward, those on the left reaching backward. A pattern described as “colourful diamonds swimming freestyle through a river of lava”.

A princely belt from early C7th Kent — thanks to member Phil Ratcliffe.

Replica of the Faversham buckle (found in c19th & displayed in the British Museum @britishmuseum.bsky.social) by Danegeld Historic Jewellery. Belt by member @aedthompson.bsky.social woven from plant dyed wools, on leather.

with a ‘travelling’ chasuble over the top to protect them.
The Gregory epistles do emphasise that the pallium (which our priest won’t be wearing…) must only be worn during liturgy, however, so might be considered to represent a pragmatic concentration of ritual purity of vestments into one garment

The chasuble (ours yet to be unveiled) so familiar today, was originally a duller cloak / overcoat for protecting the white vestments from dirt & censor ash, and evolved from the Roman travelling cloak - the pænula. So it’s likely that the early AS priests sometimes went about in their vestments but

…while plainer garb may have been used for travelling, it’s likely that the ideal re. vestments (only wearing them liturgy) was bent. We know from the epistles of Pope Gregory the Great to St Augustine that the guidance on the founding of the AS church was highly pragmatic.

…things get more complicated. On the frontiers of Christian Europe the priests of the Augustinian mission, with few churches yet having been built, would have been frequently preaching in the open and would have needed to be recognisable among the Anglo-Saxon communities they visited. So…

bishop Maximian, deacons, other court officials and armed soldiers flanking Emperor Justinian in an idealised / legible, but clearly non-liturgical scene, suggesting the bending of these rules when it came to public ceremony — the vestments used to make the priests recognisable.
For our c7th priest…

That’s a really good question. The concept of special clothes specifically for liturgy was established by the 5th century yet Byzantine mosaic depictions always show priests wearing liturgical dress regardless of the context. For example the Justinian mosaic at basilica San Vitale, Ravenna, shows…

I’m not sure who you’re calling a zealot. We are not pushing a religious agenda. The member pictured is an atheist but happens to be an expert in the history of the conversion period.
If you prefer Anglo-Saxon paganism other members are available.

#anglosaxon #saxon #medieval #earlymedieval #migrationperiod #middleages #historiccostume #earlychurch #roman #celtic #lateroman #christianity #vestments #livinghistory #reenactment #archaeology #textiles #craft #textilearchaeology

Absent from depictions but emerging as a clerical vestment later, in the 8th century, a fabric girdle or ‘cincture’ may have been used, again originally for purely practical reasons, to gather and belt the dalmatic when necessary.

we have explored the possibility that the tunic could be cinched up on the shoulders using internal ties, bringing the sleeves up from the wrists.

The overly wide shoulders and draping sleeves depicted on the mosaics might be impractical if the dalmatic was worn as an every-day garment, but as later depictions often emphasise heavy draping on the shoulders & torso….

it is likely that the precious & expensively dyed clavii would often be recycled & sewn onto new vestments, as with the madder-dyed diamond twill wool clavii here.