Interest in Early Medieval Britain from the end of the Roman Period to the time of the Norman Conquest has increased among both scholars and the general public in recent years. Exciting discoveries such as the Staffordshire Hoard and the 2020 release of the film, “The Dig,” based on the original excavations at Sutton Hoo, have certainly played a role in the increased interest in the archaeology of the early medieval English era. Mirrington’s volume on changes in identity and society in early medieval Essex makes a valuable contribution to the archaeological study of this period.
Mirrington’s volume is based on his 2013 PhD thesis. In this volume he examines the evidence for three classes of material culture--dress ornaments, pottery, and coinage from early medieval Essex--as a way of exploring changes in identity and society. One of Mirrington’s reasons for focusing on Essex is that it is a region that has been relatively understudied by both archaeologists and historians. He divides early medieval Essex into three successive periods--c. 400-650, c. 650 to 800, and c. 800-1066. These chronological divisions are similar to the Early, Middle, and Late Anglo-Saxon Periods that have traditionally been used by early medieval insular archaeologists and historians. One of the problems that Mirrington faces is that the archaeological evidence for these three classes of data is very unevenly spread across the three chronological phases. For example, the vast majority of the dress ornaments that Mirrington presents are from the earliest period, while coins of this period are rare, especially before the seventh century, and many appear to have been used as pendants rather than as currency.
The conclusions that Mirrington draws from his analyses are very reasonable. Like most contemporary scholars he rejects the simple ‘Angles, Saxons, and Jutes’ model of identity that dominated archaeology up until the 1970s. He suggests instead that identities were fluid and were being constructed and reconstructed in Early Saxon Essex. He concludes that dress styles in Essex reflect a “mixture of cultures and regional styles” (216). In addition, he rejects the notion that 6th-century dress styles reflect the regional polities known from 7th-century historical sources.
Mirrington uses coinage and ceramic evidence to identify a number of small trading places that were active during the Middle Saxon period. His work builds on the pioneering work of Loveluck and Tys (2006) that identified a large number of smaller trading places on both sides of the North Sea that were in use between 600 and 1000 CE. [1] An important conclusion of Mirrington’s research is that the emporia or ‘wics’ did not control regional and international trade. Mirrington argues instead that elite control of trade was more visible in his final period when the role of these smaller trading sited declined and control of trade shifted to the fortified ‘burhs.’
One reason that this volume is appropriate for a series on the Early Medieval North Atlantic is that Mirrington focuses on trade and exchange of both material items and ideas between early medieval England and the European mainland. Despite the evidence for some degree of migration from the continent in the Early Saxon period, early medieval England has often been viewed from a relatively insular perspective. Mirrington highlights contact with Francia, mostly via Kent, in the earliest period, as well as trade and exchange with many parts of the North Atlantic region during the later periods.
There is much to recommend in this volume. The 44 maps showing the distributions of dress ornaments, pottery types, and coinage are very useful and represent a significant contribution to the archaeology of Essex. The book is well organized and clearly written, and Mirrington’s conclusions are well supported by the archaeological evidence that he presents.
I do have some minor concerns with the volume. Mirrington is writing for both a specialist and a generalist audience. Non-specialist readers would benefit from illustrations of the different types of dress ornaments that were used in Essex in the 5th and 6th centuries. In addition, the book reads a bit like a PhD thesis. The introductory chapter includes some aspects of the literature review that are required for a PhD thesis, but may not be necessary for the generalist or the specialist reader. I would probably have left out the theoretical debates that were current in later 20th-century archaeology, such as formalism vs. substantivism and processualism vs. post-processualism. Mirrington does not revisit these issues in the remainder of the text. Finally, I think that the book needs a bit of updating from the 2013 PhD thesis. I would have included the newest version of Dark Age Economics (Hodges 2012) and Blinkhorn’s (2012) volume on Ipswich Ware pottery, since these ceramics played a major role in the Middle Saxon economy. [2] In addition, Mirrington’s argument that the site of Wicken Bonhunt in northwest Essex is a high status and possibly royal estate center is supported by the analysis of the animal bone remains from the site that show that Wicken Bonhunt was engaged in specialized pork production in both the late Early Saxon and Middle Saxon periods (see, for example, Crabtree 2012). [3] These, however, are relatively minor quibbles. Mirrington’s volume is an important contribution to the archaeology of early medieval Essex and its place in the North Atlantic community. I recommend it to readers who are interested in how material culture can be used to reconstruct changes in identity and society during this period in England.
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Notes:
1. Chris Loveluck and Dries Tys, ‘Coastal societies, exchange, and identity along the Channel and southern North Sea shores of Europe,’ Journal of Maritime Archaeology 1 (2006): 140-69.
2. Richard Hodges, Dark Age Economics: A New Audit. Duckworth Debates in Archaeology(London: Duckworth, 2012); Paul Blinkhorn, The Ipswich Ware Project: Ceramics, Trade and Society in Middle Saxon England, Medieval Pottery Research Group, Occasional Paper 7 (London: Medieval Pottery Research Group, 2012).
3. Pam J. Crabtree, Middle Saxon Animal Husbandry in East Anglia, East Anglian Archaeology, Report 143 (Bury St Edmunds: East Anglian Archaeology, 2012).