Helena Hamerow
Biographic Data
| ID | 286068 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helena Hamerow |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helena |
| FAMILY NAME | Hamerow |
| SIGNATURE | HAMEROW H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5643-5888 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 45 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 128 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 4 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Medieval Settlement Chronologies
Women of the Conversion Period
Exogamous marriage alliances involving royal women played a prominent role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to Christianity in the seventh century AD. Yet the large number of well-furnished female burials from this period suggests a broader change in the role of women. The authors present the results of isotopic analysis of seventh-century burials, comparing male and female mobility and the mobility of females from well-furnished ver…
The Global Dynamics of Inequality (Gini) project
The GINI project investigates the dynamics of inequality among populations over the long term by synthesising global archaeological housing data. This project brings archaeologists together from around the world to assess hypotheses concerning the causes and consequences of inequality that are of relevance to contemporary societies globally
Roman to early medieval cereal farming in the Rhineland
A new model for gauging levels of soil disturbance (i.e.tillage) by analysing arable weed assemblages from archaeological contexts is applied to an extensive Roman-to-early medieval archaeobotanical sequence from the region west of Cologne.It tests the hypothesis that increasing use of the mouldboard plough, especially in a three-field system, would result in increased levels of soil disturbance which would be reflected in the kinds of weeds that…
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England
The FeedSax project combined bioarchaeological data with evidence from settlement archaeology to investigate how, when and why the expansion of arable farming occurred between the 8th-13th centuries in England. It has generated and released a vast, multi-faceted archaeological dataset both to underpin its own published findings and to support further research
Referee statement
Referee statement in McKerracher, M. et al. 2023 Feeding Anglo-Saxon England: a bioarchaeological dataset for the study of early medieval agriculture (Data paper)
Turning up the heat
The stable isotopic values of charred crops are now frequently analysed in archaeology. While previous research has highlighted how grain morphology and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values change with grain charring temperature, such research has been limited to temperature ranges under 260 °C and using predominately Mediterranean cereals and pulses. For the first time, this study provides experimental data on the impact of charring on two …
The Human Remains from Early Medieval Domburg (Netherlands) and Other Coastal Communities in International Perspective
THIS PAPER ADDRESSES THE QUESTION, who were the people who were buried at the early medievalNorth Sea emporia? Conclusions about the mercantile character of the North Sea emporia are often based on portablematerial culture. In recognition of the fact that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the identities of people basedon finds assemblages, two pilot projects have been completed that involved bioarchaeological analyses of cemetery pop-ulat…
New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’
Archaeology and History
Archaeology was, once upon a time, referred to as “the handmaiden of history.” Images of artifacts served primarily to adorn the pages of historical accounts regarded by publishers as needing enlivening. How times have changed. Material culture—uncovered for the most part by archaeological excavation—is increasingly playing a central role in the writings of early medieval historians. Notable examples include Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Midd…
Periodontal disease in sheep and cattle
OBJECTIVE: To provide a comparative baseline for future studies of oral pathology in domestic livestock and to better understand connections between lesion prevalence and biological context in past animal populations. MATERIALS: Over 1600 sheep and cattle mandibles recovered from archaeological sites in England between 500 and 1300 CE. METHODS: A comprehensive investigation of periodontal disease was conducted based on four characteristics: denta…
Identifying draught cattle in the past
PURPOSE: Improve understanding of the links between biological variables (sex, body size and anatomical position) and adaptive remodelling of autopodia, and the identification of traction use in the archaeological record. METHODS: A modified version of the recording system for identifying draught cattle in the archaeological record (Bartosiewicz et al., 1997) was applied to a sample of 1509 bones from six sites from medieval England. Analysis foc…
Lesions in sheep elbows
OBJECTIVES: Enthesophytes on sheep elbow joints are commonly reported in archaeological material. Although these lesions are often described as 'penning elbow', little is known of their aetiology. In this study, a new method for recording these lesions is presented, and the effect of age, sex and body size is explored to understand their potential for informing upon past human-animal interactions. MATERIALS: 1133 distal humerii and proximal radii…
Early Medieval Garnet-Inlaid Metalwork
Garnet-inlaid metalwork was an emblem of elite culture in the early medieval North Sea world. This study compares three Anglo-Saxon garnet-inlaid brooches that are exceptionally similar in design and appearance. All three date to the seventh century, a period that saw the emergence of leading families that used such deluxe dress items to enhance their political position. The central hypothesis explored here is that the brooches were produced by t…
An Integrated Bioarchaeological Approach to the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution
In much of Europe, the advent of low-input cereal farming regimes between c. ad 800 and 1200 enabled landowners—lords—to amass wealth by greatly expanding the amount of land under cultivation and exploiting the labour of others. Scientific analysis of plant remains and animal bones from archaeological contexts is generating the first direct evidence for the development of such low-input regimes. This article outlines the methods used by the FeedS…
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England
Furnished female burial in seventh‐century England
A new, refined chronology for graves and grave‐goods in Anglo‐Saxon England has revealed a marked increase in well‐furnished female burials beginning in the second quarter of the seventh century. The present study considers what gave rise to this phenomenon and concludes that the small number of royal nuns and abbesses who figure so prominently in written accounts of the Conversion were part of a wider, undocumented change in the role of women th…
An Anglo-Saxon Great Hall Complex at Sutton Courtenay/Drayton, Oxfordshire
An archaeological evaluation at the site of an Anglo-Saxon ‘great hall complex’ at Sutton Courtenay/Drayton, Oxfordshire (NGR 448733 193671), previously known primarily from aerial photographs and metal-detector finds, included the partial excavation of two large timber buildings. One of these had been cut into a prehistoric mound or bank and proved to be the largest Anglo-Saxon ‘great hall’ yet identified. The smaller building overlay an earlier…
A High-Status Seventh-Century Female Burial From West Hanney, Oxfordshire
In 2009, a metal-detector find of a rare garnet-inlaid composite disc brooch at West Hanney, Oxfordshire, led to the excavation of an apparently isolated female burial sited in a prominent position overlooking the Ock valley. The burial dates to the middle decades of the seventh century, a period of rapid socio-political development in the region, which formed the early heartland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The de luxe brooch links the …
Characterising copper-based metals in Britain in the first millennium AD
Jess Tipper. Experimental archaeology and fire
Jess Tipper. Experimental archaeology and fire: the investigation of a burnt reconstruction at West Stow Anglo-Saxon village (East Anglian Archaeology 146). xii + 184 pages, 96 colour and 51 b&w illustrations, 19 tables. 2012. Bury St Edmunds: Suffolk County Council; 978-0-9568747-3-3 paperback. - Volume 87 Issue 338
Production, exchange, and the shape of rural communities
The concluding chapter examines the changing relationship between production and exchange and how this affected the ‘archaeological signature’ of Anglo-Saxon settlements. The growing investment by Anglo-Saxon communities in enclosures, new technologies such as watermills, and future productivity (e.g. planting vines and orchards) and the possible relationship of these developments and the introduction of ‘bookland’ is considered. The possibility …
Anglo‐Saxon Timber Buildings and their Social Context
Despite the great progress made in the fifty years since Radford described the study of timber buildings as ‘one of the most intractable problems in the whole range of early medieval studies’, key issues remain unresolved regarding their origins, construction, and function, and consideration of the relationship between buildings and the social life of Anglo-Saxon communities has scarcely begun. Apart from churches and a handful of high-status lat…
Rural Settlements and Society in Anglo-Saxon England
The Study of Anglo-Saxon Rural Settlements 2. Anglo-Saxon Buildings: Form, Function, and Social Space 3. Settlement Forms and Community Structures 4. Ritual and Domestic Life 5. Farming Systems and Settlement Forms 6. Production, Exchange, and the Shape of Rural Communities References Index
The Oxford handbook of Anglo-Saxon archaeology
An Integrated Bioarchaeological Approach to the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution
In much of Europe, the advent of low-input cereal farming regimes between c. ad 800 and 1200 enabled landowners—lords—to amass wealth by greatly expanding the amount of land under cultivation and exploiting the labour of others. Scientific analysis of plant remains and animal bones from archaeological contexts is generating the first direct evidence for the development of such low-input regimes. This article outlines the methods used by the FeedS…
Characterising copper-based metals in Britain in the first millennium AD
Special Deposits' in Anglo-Saxon Settlements
WHILE THE archaeological evidence for ritual activity in Later Prehistoric and Romano-British settlements is reasonably plentiful, there has been little discussion of such evidence from Anglo-Saxon settlements. This paper presents a preliminary survey of 'special' deposits, primarily of humans and animals, within Anglo-Saxon settlements and considers what the composition, context and placement of such — presumably votive — deposits tells us about…
Turning up the heat
The stable isotopic values of charred crops are now frequently analysed in archaeology. While previous research has highlighted how grain morphology and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values change with grain charring temperature, such research has been limited to temperature ranges under 260 °C and using predominately Mediterranean cereals and pulses. For the first time, this study provides experimental data on the impact of charring on two …
Furnished female burial in seventh‐century England
A new, refined chronology for graves and grave‐goods in Anglo‐Saxon England has revealed a marked increase in well‐furnished female burials beginning in the second quarter of the seventh century. The present study considers what gave rise to this phenomenon and concludes that the small number of royal nuns and abbesses who figure so prominently in written accounts of the Conversion were part of a wider, undocumented change in the role of women th…
A High-Status Seventh-Century Female Burial From West Hanney, Oxfordshire
In 2009, a metal-detector find of a rare garnet-inlaid composite disc brooch at West Hanney, Oxfordshire, led to the excavation of an apparently isolated female burial sited in a prominent position overlooking the Ock valley. The burial dates to the middle decades of the seventh century, a period of rapid socio-political development in the region, which formed the early heartland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The de luxe brooch links the …
Anglo-Saxon and Earlier Settlement near Drayton Road, Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire
Since E. T. Leeds' excavations of the Anglo-Saxon settlement at Sutton Courtenay in the 1920s and 1930s, aerial photographs revealing large timber buildings, as well as finds of metalwork and coins have suggested that the settlement was more extensive and of higher status than Leeds had imagined. This report reviews this evidence and describes the results of fieldwalking, geophysical survey and small-scale excavation which have provided further d…
Women of the Conversion Period
Exogamous marriage alliances involving royal women played a prominent role in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to Christianity in the seventh century AD. Yet the large number of well-furnished female burials from this period suggests a broader change in the role of women. The authors present the results of isotopic analysis of seventh-century burials, comparing male and female mobility and the mobility of females from well-furnished ver…
An Anglo-Saxon Great Hall Complex at Sutton Courtenay/Drayton, Oxfordshire
An archaeological evaluation at the site of an Anglo-Saxon ‘great hall complex’ at Sutton Courtenay/Drayton, Oxfordshire (NGR 448733 193671), previously known primarily from aerial photographs and metal-detector finds, included the partial excavation of two large timber buildings. One of these had been cut into a prehistoric mound or bank and proved to be the largest Anglo-Saxon ‘great hall’ yet identified. The smaller building overlay an earlier…
Migration Period Settlements and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Pottery from Flanders
THIS PAPER presents a brief overview of recent excavations of Migration Period settlements in Flanders, a region from which few settlements of this period have previously been investigated. A discussion of the pottery from these sites follows, with special reference to chaff-tempered pottery which appears to be identical to that found in Anglo-Saxon England both in technique and petrology. The paper concludes with a review of the evidence for the…
Settlement mobility and the ‘Middle Saxon Shift’
The traditional image of the stable Anglo-Saxon village as the direct ancestor of the medieval village is no longer tenable in view of growing evidence for settlement mobility in the early and middle Saxon periods. Indeed, it now appears that most ‘nucleated’ medieval villages are not the direct successors of early, or even middle Saxon settlements, and that nucleation itself appears to be a remarkably late phenomenon
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England
The Global Dynamics of Inequality (Gini) project
The GINI project investigates the dynamics of inequality among populations over the long term by synthesising global archaeological housing data. This project brings archaeologists together from around the world to assess hypotheses concerning the causes and consequences of inequality that are of relevance to contemporary societies globally
Feeding Anglo-Saxon England
The FeedSax project combined bioarchaeological data with evidence from settlement archaeology to investigate how, when and why the expansion of arable farming occurred between the 8th-13th centuries in England. It has generated and released a vast, multi-faceted archaeological dataset both to underpin its own published findings and to support further research
The Human Remains from Early Medieval Domburg (Netherlands) and Other Coastal Communities in International Perspective
THIS PAPER ADDRESSES THE QUESTION, who were the people who were buried at the early medievalNorth Sea emporia? Conclusions about the mercantile character of the North Sea emporia are often based on portablematerial culture. In recognition of the fact that it is difficult to draw conclusions about the identities of people basedon finds assemblages, two pilot projects have been completed that involved bioarchaeological analyses of cemetery pop-ulat…
Early Medieval Garnet-Inlaid Metalwork
Garnet-inlaid metalwork was an emblem of elite culture in the early medieval North Sea world. This study compares three Anglo-Saxon garnet-inlaid brooches that are exceptionally similar in design and appearance. All three date to the seventh century, a period that saw the emergence of leading families that used such deluxe dress items to enhance their political position. The central hypothesis explored here is that the brooches were produced by t…
Jess Tipper. Experimental archaeology and fire
Jess Tipper. Experimental archaeology and fire: the investigation of a burnt reconstruction at West Stow Anglo-Saxon village (East Anglian Archaeology 146). xii + 184 pages, 96 colour and 51 b&w illustrations, 19 tables. 2012. Bury St Edmunds: Suffolk County Council; 978-0-9568747-3-3 paperback. - Volume 87 Issue 338
Excavations at Radley Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire. Volume 2
Chichester Excavations 7
Settlement mobility and the ‘Middle Saxon Shift’
The traditional image of the stable Anglo-Saxon village as the direct ancestor of the medieval village is no longer tenable in view of growing evidence for settlement mobility in the early and middle Saxon periods. Indeed, it now appears that most ‘nucleated’ medieval villages are not the direct successors of early, or even middle Saxon settlements, and that nucleation itself appears to be a remarkably late phenomenon
Britain 400-600
Short Reviews
Shorter Notices
Journal Article SHORTER NOTICES Get access HELENA HAMEROW HELENA HAMEROW University of DurbamLondon Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume CIX, Issue 432, June 1994, Pages 678–679, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/CIX.432.678 Published: 01 June 1994
Angelsächsische Waffengräber Des 5. Bis 7. Jahrhunderts (Zeitschrift Für Archäologie Des Mittelalters
Migration Period Settlements and ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Pottery from Flanders
THIS PAPER presents a brief overview of recent excavations of Migration Period settlements in Flanders, a region from which few settlements of this period have previously been investigated. A discussion of the pottery from these sites follows, with special reference to chaff-tempered pottery which appears to be identical to that found in Anglo-Saxon England both in technique and petrology. The paper concludes with a review of the evidence for the…
Short Reviews
Migrations and Invasions in Archaeological Explanation
The contributors to this volume seek to understand migrations and invasion on their own terms, the strengths and weaknesses of migration and invasion models as explanatory models of cultural change. Papers are written by David Anthony, John Chapman, Sally Crawford, Helena Hamerow, James Milroy and Lesley Milroy
Short Reviews
Picts, Gaels and Scots
(1997). Picts, Gaels and Scots: Early Historic Scotland. By Sally Foster. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 154, No. 1, pp. 320-320
Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England Sally Crawford
Journal Article Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England Sally Crawford Get access Helena Hamerow Helena Hamerow Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume 115, Issue 464, November 2000, Pages 1258–1259, https://doi.org/10.1093/ehr/115.464.1258-a Published: 01 November 2000
Early Deira
Journal Article Early Deira: Archaeological Studies of the East Riding in the Fourth to Ninth Centuries AD, ed. Helen Geake and Jonathan Kenny (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2000; pp. 140. £28) Get access Helena Hamerow Helena Hamerow Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The English Historical Review, Volume 116, Issue 469, November 2001, Pages 1245–1246, https://doi.org/10…
Early Medieval Settlements
The excavation of settlements has in recent years transformed our understanding of north-west Europe in the early Middle Ages. We can for the first time begin to answer fundamental questions such as: what did houses look like and how were they furnished? how did villages and individual farmsteads develop? how and when did agrarian production become intensified and how did this affect village communities? what role did craft production and trade p…
The earliest Anglo-Saxon kingdoms
Central to the re-evaluation of the Germanic migration and its impact on post-Roman Britain is the relationship between Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and settlements. The Romano-British cemetery at Queenford Farm, for instance, lay outside the Roman small town of Dorchester-on-Thames in an area with an early fifth-century Anglo-Saxon presence, yet radiocarbon dates indicate that it continued in use into the sixth century. The cemeteri…
Special Deposits' in Anglo-Saxon Settlements
WHILE THE archaeological evidence for ritual activity in Later Prehistoric and Romano-British settlements is reasonably plentiful, there has been little discussion of such evidence from Anglo-Saxon settlements. This paper presents a preliminary survey of 'special' deposits, primarily of humans and animals, within Anglo-Saxon settlements and considers what the composition, context and placement of such — presumably votive — deposits tells us about…
Anglo-Saxon and Earlier Settlement near Drayton Road, Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire
Since E. T. Leeds' excavations of the Anglo-Saxon settlement at Sutton Courtenay in the 1920s and 1930s, aerial photographs revealing large timber buildings, as well as finds of metalwork and coins have suggested that the settlement was more extensive and of higher status than Leeds had imagined. This report reviews this evidence and describes the results of fieldwalking, geophysical survey and small-scale excavation which have provided further d…
Communities and connections
A collection of essays by many of the leading specialist in the archaeology of the Iron Age and early Roman periods in Britain and western Europe, paying tribute to Professor Sir Barry Cunliffe
Excavations at Radley Barrow Hills, Radley, Oxfordshire. Volume 2
The development of Anglo-Saxon rural settlement forms
A new generation of large-scale, mostly developer-funded excavations of Anglo-Saxon settlements are revolutionising our understanding of the socio-economic development of rural communities in the mid- to late Saxon periods. After characterising the settlement forms seen during the fifth to seventh centuries, this paper traces the diversification in the structure and layout of settlements from the later seventh century onwards and considers its ca…
The Oxford handbook of Anglo-Saxon archaeology
Production, exchange, and the shape of rural communities
The concluding chapter examines the changing relationship between production and exchange and how this affected the ‘archaeological signature’ of Anglo-Saxon settlements. The growing investment by Anglo-Saxon communities in enclosures, new technologies such as watermills, and future productivity (e.g. planting vines and orchards) and the possible relationship of these developments and the introduction of ‘bookland’ is considered. The possibility …
Anglo‐Saxon Timber Buildings and their Social Context
Despite the great progress made in the fifty years since Radford described the study of timber buildings as ‘one of the most intractable problems in the whole range of early medieval studies’, key issues remain unresolved regarding their origins, construction, and function, and consideration of the relationship between buildings and the social life of Anglo-Saxon communities has scarcely begun. Apart from churches and a handful of high-status lat…
Rural Settlements and Society in Anglo-Saxon England
The Study of Anglo-Saxon Rural Settlements 2. Anglo-Saxon Buildings: Form, Function, and Social Space 3. Settlement Forms and Community Structures 4. Ritual and Domestic Life 5. Farming Systems and Settlement Forms 6. Production, Exchange, and the Shape of Rural Communities References Index
Jess Tipper. Experimental archaeology and fire
Jess Tipper. Experimental archaeology and fire: the investigation of a burnt reconstruction at West Stow Anglo-Saxon village (East Anglian Archaeology 146). xii + 184 pages, 96 colour and 51 b&w illustrations, 19 tables. 2012. Bury St Edmunds: Suffolk County Council; 978-0-9568747-3-3 paperback. - Volume 87 Issue 338
History (34 works) · Archaeology (30 works) · Geography (21 works) · History (21 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (20 works) · Ancient history (18 works) · Historical and Archaeological Studies (14 works) · Anglo saxon (13 works) · Human settlement (11 works) · Art (10 works)