Early Medieval Stone Monuments

Materiality, Biography, Landscape

Howard Williams editor Joanne Kirton editor Meggen Gondek editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published:17th Sep '15

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Early Medieval Stone Monuments cover

New insights into inscribed and stone monuments from across Europe in the early middle ages. Often fragmented and without context, early medieval inscribed and sculpted stone monuments of the fifth to eleventh centuries AD have been mainly studied via their shape, their decoration and the texts a fraction of them bear. This book, investigating stone monuments from Ireland, Britain and Scandinavia (including the important memorials at Iniscealtra, County Clare), advocates three relatively new, distinctive and interconnected approaches to the lithicheritage of the early Middle Ages. Building on recent theoretical trends in archaeology and material culture studies in particular, it uses the themes of materiality, biography and landscape to reveal how carved stones created senses of identity and history for early medieval communities and kingdom. An extensive introduction and eight chapters span the disciplines of history, art-history and archaeology, exploring how shaping stone in turn shaped and re-shaped early medieval societies. Howard Williams is Professor of Archaeology, University of Chester; Joanne Kirton is Project Manager, Big Heritage, Chester; Meggen Gondek is Reader in Archaeology, University of Chester. Contributors: Ing-Marie Back Danielsson, Iris Crouwers, Meggen Gondek, Mark A. Hall, Joanne Kirton, Jenifer Ní Ghrádaigh, Clíodhna O'Leary, Howard Williams.

This collection of essays, which belongs to the excellent series Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture, directed by Julian Luxford and Asa Simon Mittman, brings contemporary ideas to bear on early medieval sculpture in a way that opens a dialogue about the monuments' agency and postmedieval afterlives. * SPECULUM *
As we have come to expect from Boydell, the general quality of the volume is high, with many black and white illustrations.[For] for those interested in new interpretations and theoretical perspectives this will be a worthwhile read. * TIME & MIND: THE JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, CONSCIOUSNESS AND CULTURE *
A stimulating read. * CHURCH MONUMENTS *
This high-quality volume is well supported by its numerous illustrations....By approaching stone monuments in a thematic way, this volume provides fresh understanding of their multiple uses, functions and impacts on the societies which interacted - and still interact - with them. * MEDIEVAL ARCHAEOLOGY *

ISBN: 9781783270743

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 1g

293 pages