Life in Early Medieval Wales. By NancyEdwards. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 2023. xv + 511 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 873321 8.
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: Synthesizing the archaeology of late Roman and early medieval Wales from c. AD 300-1050, Nancy Edwards has crafted a triumphant 'first' for early medieval scholarship.Life in Early Medieval Wales is a detailed integration and evaluation deploying clear and concise prose drawing and building upon a life-long career teaching and researching early medieval archaeology for Britain and Ireland.The result is comprehensive, balanced, up to date and appears at an important juncture for early medieval archaeology during a resurgence of new investigations and analyses in Wales.Charting the story of Wales from the decline and collapse of the Roman province of Britannia to the end of the Viking Age, the book is of benefit to students and scholars and deserving of a wide readership.The text opens with Edwards surveying the history of past research and early medieval written evidence (Chapter 1), while a second introductory chapter explains the landscape of Wales as well as how early medieval societies marked and conceptualized time and valued social memories (Chapter 2).A detailed and careful handling of the fate of settlements and society in the late Roman period balances evidence for both significant socio-economic collapse, but also strands of continuity across Wales during the fourth and fifth centuries (Chapter 3).A second 'sub-Roman' chapter (Chapter 4) provides insights into the legacy of Roman rule and Irish settlement and influence (helpfully not confining this discussion to the fifth and sixth centuries but extending it up to the Viking Age).The second part of the book comprises three chapters that provide something previously not attempted because of the relative paucity of artefacts and other dating evidence.Edwards charts daily life and landscapes in early medieval Wales via evidence for fortified hilltops and promontories, including the later reuse of prehistoric hillforts, as well as tantalizing glimpses of lowland high-status settlements (notably Llanbedrgoch, Llangorse crannog and Rhuddlan).Rural farmsteads are also considered, drawing on many recently published and grey literature reports and showing the enduring influence of roundhouses
Source: Early Medieval Europe
DOI: 10.1111/emed.12744
Author: Howard Williams
Institution: University of Chester
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,760
OpenAlex ID: W4403379754