Territoriality and the Early Medieval Landscape

The Countryside of the East Saxon Kingdom

Stephen Rippon author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Boydell & Brewer Ltd

Published:5th Apr '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Territoriality and the Early Medieval Landscape cover

An exploration of small early folk communities prior to the eleventh century, showing their development and sophistication. All communities have a strong sense of identity with the area in which they live, which for England in the early medieval period manifested itself in a series of territorial entities, ranging from large kingdoms down to small districts known as pagi or regiones. This book investigates these small early folk territories, and the way that they evolved into the administrative units recorded in Domesday, across an entire kingdom - that of the East Saxons (broadly speaking, what is now Essex, Middlesex, most of Hertfordshire, and south Suffolk). A wide range of evidence is drawn upon, including archaeology, written documents, place-names and the early cartographic sources. The book looks in particular at the relationship between Saxon immigrants and the native British population, and argues that initially these ethnic groups occupied different parts of the landscape, until a dynasty which assumed an Anglo-Saxon identity achieved political ascendency (its members included the so-called "Prittlewell Prince", buried with spectacular grave-good in Prittlewell, near Southend-on- Sea in southern Essex). Other significant places discussed include London, the seat of the first East Saxon bishopric, the possible royal vills at Wicken Bonhunt near Saffron Walden and Maldon, and St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea, one of the most important surviving churches from the early Christian period.

Stephen Rippon must be congratulated on a handsome, well-illustrated book that is a new must-read [...]. -- Current Archaeology
This is a carefully argued, well-documented, and beautifully illustrated study that represents a major advance in our understanding of the early settlement period in southeastern England during the centuries that followed the Roman withdrawal from their diocese of Britannia. It is a model for further investigations into the formation of the early medieval English kingdoms. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *
In his mosaic-like reconstruction of the ancient East Saxon countryside, Rippon has given us an exemplary and engrossing study that is to historiography what the Ordnance Survey map itself is to cartography. * SPECULUM *

ISBN: 9781783276806

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 2g

408 pages