Heinrich Härke
Biographic Data
| ID | 160018 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Heinrich Härke |
| GIVEN NAMES | Heinrich |
| FAMILY NAME | Härke |
| SIGNATURE | HÄRKE H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Reading |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2226-618X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 125 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Provisioning a Silk Road City: Herd Management Strategies at the Urban Site of Dzhankent, Kazakhstan
This study presents evidence for herd management at the early medieval city of Dzhankent in southern Kazakhstan. Located along the Northern Silk Road, Dzhankent was a key trading node linking northern and southern areas between the 9th and 10th centuries ce . To investigate livestock management strategies within this urban center, we conducted incremental carbon (δ 13 C) and oxygen (δ 18 O) isotope analysis on second molars from 16 sheep. Results…
First Millennium Urbanism in Central Asia: Typology and Evolution of Dzhety-asar Settlements
Despite its apparent size and length of its existence, the Dzhety-asar culture of Kazakhstan remains one of the great unknowns of Central Asian archaeology, comprising, as it did, several dozen now-ruined settlements with an almost thousand-year long occupational history. First settled around the 1st century BC and gradually abandoned in the second half of the 1st millennium AD , the Dzhety-asar towns and manors were located to the east of the Ar…
Roundtable studying the Anthropocene in Central Asia: The challenge of sources and scales in human–environment relations
The emerging and vibrant field of environmental humanities to date has not received considerable attention in Central Asia. In light of the Anthropocene crises, there is a real urgency for maturing this field and investigating the methodological and epistemological challenges that environmental topics demand, often working across disciplinary habits and time scales. This roundtable brings together Central Asianists from a range of backgrounds to …
Interfaces and Crossroads, Contexts and Communications: Early Medieval Towns in the Syr-Darya Delta (Kazakhstan)
In the late first millennium ad, the Aral Sea region comprised two broad cultural zones: in the south the civilizations of Central Asia, in the north the steppe nomads. On their interface, in the delta of the Syr-Darya, there is an isolated cluster of urban sites, including Dzhankent. Fieldwork results show that in the ninth to eleventh centuries ad this site was a fortified urban settlement, but it had a predecessor from the sixth/seventh centur…
Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the prehistoric Koban culture of the North Caucasus
Through a Black Hole into Parallel Universes: Multiple Monocultures and Dual Contact Zones in the British Isles, 5th-8th Centuries AD
The Anglo-Saxon immigration of the 5th-6th centuries AD led to a dual contact situation in the British Isles: with the native inhabitants of the settlement areas in south-eastern England (internal contact zone), and with the Celtic polities outside the Anglo-Saxon areas (external contact zone). In the internal contact zone, social and ethnogenetic processes resulted in a complete acculturation of the natives by the 9th century. By contrast, the e…
Grave goods in early medieval burials: Messages and Meanings
Objects in graves have been a traditional focus of burial archaeology. Conventional interpretations of their meanings revolved around religion (equipment for the hereafter, Charon's Penny), legal concepts (inalienable possessions) and social structure (status display, ostentatious destruction of wealth). An interdisciplinary perspective drawing on archaeological literature, anthropological evidence and sociological theory widens the range of poss…
Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethnogenesis
It is now widely accepted that the Anglo-Saxons were not just transplanted Germanic invaders and settlers from the Continent, but the outcome of insular interactions and changes. But we are still lacking explicit models that suggest how this ethnogenetic process might have worked in concrete terms. This article is an attempt to present such a model from an archaeological perspective, but with an interdisciplinary approach. The focus is on the rol…
Archaeologists and Migrations: A problem of attitude?
Radiocarbon Dating, Stable Isotope Analysis, and Diet-Derived Offsets in 14 C Ages from the Klin-Yar Site, Russian North Caucasus
The influence of geothermally derived carbon on the radiocarbon dating of human bone from archaeological sites is poorly understood and has rarely been rigorously examined. This study identifies a previously unknown reservoir effect at the archaeological site of Klin-Yar in the Russian North Caucasus. AMS-dated human bones yielded results that were older than expected when compared with dates of coins found in the same grave contexts. We investig…
Britons in Anglo-Saxon England
Ethnicity, ‘Race’ and Migration in Mortuary Archaeology: An Attempt at a Short Answer
The debate on migration and identity in Europe - Christopher A. Snyder The Britons. xvii+330 pages, 35 figures, 9 tables. 2003. Malden (MA) & Oxford: Blackwell; 0-631-22260-X hardback £20 & $26.95. - …
The debate on migration and identity in Europe - Christopher A. Snyder The Britons. xvii+330 pages, 35 figures, 9 tables. 2003. Malden (MA) & Oxford: Blackwell; 0-631-22260-X hardback £20 & $26.95. - Catherine Hills. Origins of the English. 128 pages, 1 figure. 2003. London: Duckworth; 0-7156-3191-8 paperback £10.99. - Pierre-Roland Giot, Philippe Guigon & Bernard Merdrignac. The British settlement of Brittany: the first Bretons in Armorica. 320 …
The myth of the Khazars and intellectual antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s: By Victor Shnirelman
The myth of the Khazars and intellectual antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s: By Victor Shnirelman
(2004). The myth of the Khazars and intellectual antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s: By Victor Shnirelman. Public Archaeology: Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 189-191
Interdisciplinarity and the archaeological study of death
Over the past two decades, archaeological approaches to the study of burial evidence (or, in American terminology, mortuary evidence) have undergone a marked, almost dramatic shift. This may be illustrated with my own shift of perspectives which, although it started later, highlights some elements of the wider trend. In 1998 I joined several colleagues at the University of Reading to set up an interdisciplinary Master’s course in ‘Death and Socie…
Social Analysis of Mortuary Evidence in German Protohistoric Archaeology
The Ipatovo kurgan on the North Caucasian Steppe (Russia)
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Archaeologists and Migrations: A Problem of Attitude
A close look at the attitudes of Anglophone and German archaeologists towards the question of migrations suggests that they have been shaped by factors which have more to do with the present than with the archaeological past. The changes in British attitudes are perhaps most clearly linked to the political, social, and intellectual context. By contrast, German archaeologists' views on this subject have changed much less, and there is still a stro…
Maritime Celts, Frisians and Saxons
Lowbury Hill, Oxon: A Re-Assessment of the Probable Romano-Celtic Temple and the Anglo-Saxon Barrow
Following earthwork, geophysical andfield-walking survey, a limited evaluation was carried out by excavation of the enclosure and Anglo-Saxon barrow on Lowbury Hill, Oxon. in 1992. Evidence for prehistoric activity on the hilltop is provided by a few sherds of beaker/collared urn, and a more substantial quantity of late bronze age/early iron age pottery. The combination of the new field evidence and a reappraisal of the excavation and finds made …
Stereotypes and Big Brothers. An Anglo-German Perspective on Dutch Archaeology
Dutch archaeology has been a strange omission in the recent bout of introspection of various national traditions of archaeology in Europe. Jan Slofstra's paper is, therefore, a welcome and important addition to the critical self-reflection of our subject. Writing the social history of one's own discipline in one's own lifetime implies comments, and perhaps even judgements, on the work of one's colleagues, teachers and students, most of whom are s…
The Power of the Past
V. The Shield in the Burial Rite
Shields are among the more common grave goods in Early Anglo-Saxon burials. In the investigated sample of forty-seven cemeteries with a total of 3,814 inhumations, 317 burials (8·3 per cent) in forty-three cemeteries contained a shield ( Appendix 3). The frequency of shields becomes even more apparent if it is translated into percentages of weapon burials: in England, just under half (45 per cent) of all inhumations with weapons had a shield. Thi…
Appendix 5: Technical data of shields from selected cemeteries
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Archaeologists and Migrations: A Problem of Attitude
A close look at the attitudes of Anglophone and German archaeologists towards the question of migrations suggests that they have been shaped by factors which have more to do with the present than with the archaeological past. The changes in British attitudes are perhaps most clearly linked to the political, social, and intellectual context. By contrast, German archaeologists' views on this subject have changed much less, and there is still a stro…
"Warrior Graves"? The Background of the Anglo-Saxon Weapon Burial Rite
"Warrior Graves"? The Background of the Anglo-Saxon Weapon Burial Rite Get access Heinrich Härke Heinrich Härke University of Reading Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Past & Present, Volume 126, Issue 1, February 1990, Pages 22–43, https://doi.org/10.1093/past/126.1.22 Published: 01 February 1990
Grave goods in early medieval burials: Messages and Meanings
Objects in graves have been a traditional focus of burial archaeology. Conventional interpretations of their meanings revolved around religion (equipment for the hereafter, Charon's Penny), legal concepts (inalienable possessions) and social structure (status display, ostentatious destruction of wealth). An interdisciplinary perspective drawing on archaeological literature, anthropological evidence and sociological theory widens the range of poss…
Radiocarbon Dating, Stable Isotope Analysis, and Diet-Derived Offsets in 14 C Ages from the Klin-Yar Site, Russian North Caucasus
The influence of geothermally derived carbon on the radiocarbon dating of human bone from archaeological sites is poorly understood and has rarely been rigorously examined. This study identifies a previously unknown reservoir effect at the archaeological site of Klin-Yar in the Russian North Caucasus. AMS-dated human bones yielded results that were older than expected when compared with dates of coins found in the same grave contexts. We investig…
Lowbury Hill, Oxon: A Re-Assessment of the Probable Romano-Celtic Temple and the Anglo-Saxon Barrow
Following earthwork, geophysical andfield-walking survey, a limited evaluation was carried out by excavation of the enclosure and Anglo-Saxon barrow on Lowbury Hill, Oxon. in 1992. Evidence for prehistoric activity on the hilltop is provided by a few sherds of beaker/collared urn, and a more substantial quantity of late bronze age/early iron age pottery. The combination of the new field evidence and a reappraisal of the excavation and finds made …
Anglo-Saxon Immigration and Ethnogenesis
It is now widely accepted that the Anglo-Saxons were not just transplanted Germanic invaders and settlers from the Continent, but the outcome of insular interactions and changes. But we are still lacking explicit models that suggest how this ethnogenetic process might have worked in concrete terms. This article is an attempt to present such a model from an archaeological perspective, but with an interdisciplinary approach. The focus is on the rol…
Probleme der optischen Emissionsspektralanalyse in der Urgeschichtsforschung. Technische Möglichkeiten und methodische Fragestellungen
Article Probleme der optischen Emissionsspektralanalyse in der Urgeschichtsforschung. Technische Möglichkeiten und methodische Fragestellungen was published on January 1, 1978 in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift (volume 53, issue 1)
Roundtable studying the Anthropocene in Central Asia: The challenge of sources and scales in human–environment relations
The emerging and vibrant field of environmental humanities to date has not received considerable attention in Central Asia. In light of the Anthropocene crises, there is a real urgency for maturing this field and investigating the methodological and epistemological challenges that environmental topics demand, often working across disciplinary habits and time scales. This roundtable brings together Central Asianists from a range of backgrounds to …
Mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the prehistoric Koban culture of the North Caucasus
The Power of the Past
Early Iron Age Hill Settlement in West Central Europe: Patterns and Developments
Interfaces and Crossroads, Contexts and Communications: Early Medieval Towns in the Syr-Darya Delta (Kazakhstan)
In the late first millennium ad, the Aral Sea region comprised two broad cultural zones: in the south the civilizations of Central Asia, in the north the steppe nomads. On their interface, in the delta of the Syr-Darya, there is an isolated cluster of urban sites, including Dzhankent. Fieldwork results show that in the ninth to eleventh centuries ad this site was a fortified urban settlement, but it had a predecessor from the sixth/seventh centur…
Probleme der optischen Emissionsspektralanalyse in der Urgeschichtsforschung. Technische Möglichkeiten und methodische Fragestellungen
Article Probleme der optischen Emissionsspektralanalyse in der Urgeschichtsforschung. Technische Möglichkeiten und methodische Fragestellungen was published on January 1, 1978 in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift (volume 53, issue 1)
Early Iron Age Hill Settlement in West Central Europe: Patterns and Developments
"Warrior Graves"? The Background of the Anglo-Saxon Weapon Burial Rite
"Warrior Graves"? The Background of the Anglo-Saxon Weapon Burial Rite Get access Heinrich Härke Heinrich Härke University of Reading Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Past & Present, Volume 126, Issue 1, February 1990, Pages 22–43, https://doi.org/10.1093/past/126.1.22 Published: 01 February 1990
V. The Shield in the Burial Rite
Shields are among the more common grave goods in Early Anglo-Saxon burials. In the investigated sample of forty-seven cemeteries with a total of 3,814 inhumations, 317 burials (8·3 per cent) in forty-three cemeteries contained a shield ( Appendix 3). The frequency of shields becomes even more apparent if it is translated into percentages of weapon burials: in England, just under half (45 per cent) of all inhumations with weapons had a shield. Thi…
Appendix 5: Technical data of shields from selected cemeteries
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
IV. The Use of the Shield: Combat and Display
Very little work has been done on the use of the shield, and it is the aim of this chapter to demonstrate how this aspect may be approached using archaeological evidence. Although the use of the shield is easier to infer from written and pictorial sources, written evidence on this aspect is few and far between, and pictorial evidence is generally later than the period dealt with here. Archaeological evidence that can be adduced includes sizes and…
Appendix 3: Cemeteries with shield burials in the national sample
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
III. Shield Technology
The following discussion takes account of recent work, published and unpublished, but is largely based on personal inspection of the remains of some 150 shields from Early Saxon burials ( Appendix 5). Comparative evidence includes the well studied Sutton Hoo shield, essentially a Scandinavian shield in an Anglo-Saxon context (Bruce-Mitford 1978, 91), the Swedish parallels from Vendel Period burials at Valsgärde (seventh/eighth century AD), and th…
Appendix 4: Shield board fittings (other than studs) in the national sample, with additions
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Ii: Typology of Metal Shield Fittings
The classification presented here is based on a multivariate analysis of the shield bosses from the Upper Thames region, carried out in 1975 (Dickinson 1976, 274–90, figs. 25–9). Intuitive methods had failed to work, just as they had probably failed for previous scholars, because shield bosses seem to lack strikingly obvious diagnostic features. By contrast, the adoption of an explicit and more broadly-based approach not only took advantage of th…
Appendix 6: Notes on the shield reconstruction
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Power of the Past
Maritime Celts, Frisians and Saxons
Lowbury Hill, Oxon: A Re-Assessment of the Probable Romano-Celtic Temple and the Anglo-Saxon Barrow
Following earthwork, geophysical andfield-walking survey, a limited evaluation was carried out by excavation of the enclosure and Anglo-Saxon barrow on Lowbury Hill, Oxon. in 1992. Evidence for prehistoric activity on the hilltop is provided by a few sherds of beaker/collared urn, and a more substantial quantity of late bronze age/early iron age pottery. The combination of the new field evidence and a reappraisal of the excavation and finds made …
Stereotypes and Big Brothers. An Anglo-German Perspective on Dutch Archaeology
Dutch archaeology has been a strange omission in the recent bout of introspection of various national traditions of archaeology in Europe. Jan Slofstra's paper is, therefore, a welcome and important addition to the critical self-reflection of our subject. Writing the social history of one's own discipline in one's own lifetime implies comments, and perhaps even judgements, on the work of one's colleagues, teachers and students, most of whom are s…
Archaeologists and Migrations: A Problem of Attitude
A close look at the attitudes of Anglophone and German archaeologists towards the question of migrations suggests that they have been shaped by factors which have more to do with the present than with the archaeological past. The changes in British attitudes are perhaps most clearly linked to the political, social, and intellectual context. By contrast, German archaeologists' views on this subject have changed much less, and there is still a stro…
Social Analysis of Mortuary Evidence in German Protohistoric Archaeology
The Ipatovo kurgan on the North Caucasian Steppe (Russia)
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Interdisciplinarity and the archaeological study of death
Over the past two decades, archaeological approaches to the study of burial evidence (or, in American terminology, mortuary evidence) have undergone a marked, almost dramatic shift. This may be illustrated with my own shift of perspectives which, although it started later, highlights some elements of the wider trend. In 1998 I joined several colleagues at the University of Reading to set up an interdisciplinary Master’s course in ‘Death and Socie…
The debate on migration and identity in Europe - Christopher A. Snyder The Britons. xvii+330 pages, 35 figures, 9 tables. 2003. Malden (MA) & Oxford: Blackwell; 0-631-22260-X hardback £20 & $26.95. - …
The debate on migration and identity in Europe - Christopher A. Snyder The Britons. xvii+330 pages, 35 figures, 9 tables. 2003. Malden (MA) & Oxford: Blackwell; 0-631-22260-X hardback £20 & $26.95. - Catherine Hills. Origins of the English. 128 pages, 1 figure. 2003. London: Duckworth; 0-7156-3191-8 paperback £10.99. - Pierre-Roland Giot, Philippe Guigon & Bernard Merdrignac. The British settlement of Brittany: the first Bretons in Armorica. 320 …
The myth of the Khazars and intellectual antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s: By Victor Shnirelman
The myth of the Khazars and intellectual antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s: By Victor Shnirelman
(2004). The myth of the Khazars and intellectual antisemitism in Russia, 1970s–1990s: By Victor Shnirelman. Public Archaeology: Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 189-191
Ethnicity, ‘Race’ and Migration in Mortuary Archaeology: An Attempt at a Short Answer
Britons in Anglo-Saxon England
Archaeologists and Migrations: A problem of attitude?
History (27 works) · Archaeology (23 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (14 works) · Ancient history (13 works) · Geography (13 works) · History (13 works) · Political science (10 works) · Geology (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Shield (8 works)