Article
Grave goods in early medieval burials: messages and meanings.
Discussion of the motives for including objects in early medieval graves in Western and Central Europe, using archaeological evidence, ethnographic and modern analogies, and written sources. It is suggested that in many cases, several motives were at play in the case of any individual grave, with different motives for different artefacts, offered possibly by different mourners.
This study identifies a previously unknown reservoir effect at the archaeological site of Klin-Yar in the Russian North Caucasus. AMS-dated human bones yielded results that were older than expected when compared with dates of coins found in the same grave contexts. We investigated the reasons for this offset by AMS dating modern plant, fish, and water samples to examine the source of the old carbon. We identified a potential source in geothermally derived riverine and spring water, with an apparent age of several thousand years, and hypothesize that carbon from here is being transferred through the food chain to humans. An extensive analysis of carbon and nitrogen isotopes of human and animal bone showed evidence for a mixed diet that may be masking the amount of freshwater-derived protein being consumed. Due to the highly variable nature of the 14C offset (0 to ~350 yr), no suitable average correction factor is applicable to correct for the human dates at the site. A 14C chronology based on dates obtained from terrestrial ungulate bones, which we subsequently obtained, is instead a more reliable indicator of age.
Detailed presentation of archaeological data on, and discussion of, the typology, construction, practical and ritual use of the shield in Anglo-Saxon England (5th - 7th centuries AD)
Review of a book on a chronology project (C14) involving Anglo-Saxon graves of the 6th - 7th centuries AD in England
Detailed analysis and interpretation of the archaeological and physical-anthropological data from 1500 early medieval burials of the 5th - 7th centuries AD in England, together with a discussion of the relevant written sources (heroic poems, legal texts, chronicles) relating to weapons and warfare in early Anglo-Saxon England (with extensive English-language summary).