Digging into the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Public Archaeologies

What does the ‘Dark Ages’ mean in contemporary society? Tackling public engagements through archaeological fieldwork, heritage sites and museums, fictional portrayals and art, and increasingly via a broad range of digital media, this is the first-ever dedicated collection exploring the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages (5th–11th centuries AD).
Digging into the Dark Ages builds on debates which took place at the 3rd University of Chester Archaeology Student Conference hosted by the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 13 December 2017. It comprises original perspectives from students integrated with fresh research by heritage practitioners and academics. The book also includes four interviews offering perspectives on key dimensions of early medieval archaeology’s public intersections. By critically ‘digging into’ the ‘Dark Ages’, this book provides an introduction to key concepts and debates, a rich range of case studies, and a solid platform for future research.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Foreword - Chiara Bonacchi
Public Archaeology for the Dark Ages - Howard Williams with Pauline Clarke, Victoria Bounds, Sarah Bratton, Amy Dunn, James Fish, Ioan Griffiths, Megan Hall, Joseph Keelan, Matthew Kelly, David Jackson, Stephanie Matthews, Max Moran, Niamh Moreton, Robert Neeson, Victoria Nicholls, Sacha O’Connor, Jessica Penaluna, Peter Rose, Abigail Salt, Amelia Studholme and Matthew Thomas
Part 1: Dark Age Debates
Keep the Dark Ages Weird: Engaging the Many Publics of Early Medieval Archaeology - An Interview with Adrián Maldonado
Colouring the Dark Ages: Perceptions of Early Medieval Colour in Popular Culture - Anne Sassin
Why do Horned Helmets still Matter? - Sacha O’Connor
Public Archaeology of Early Medieval Assembly Places and Practices: Þingvellir - Matthew Kelly
Dressing for Ragnarök? Commodifying, Appropriating and Fetishising the Vikings - Madeline Walsh
Part 2: The Public Dark Ages
The Vikings of JORVIK: 40 Years of Reconstruction and Re-enactment - Chris Tuckley
Displaying the Dark Ages in Museums - Howard Williams, Pauline Clarke and Sarah Bratton
Where History Meets Legend: Presenting the Early Medieval Archaeology of Tintagel Castle, Cornwall - Susan Greaney
Digging up the Dark Ages in Cornwall: The Tintagel Challenge and St Piran’s Oratory Experience - Jacqueline A Nowakowski and James Gossip
Death and Memory in Fragments: Project Eliseg’s Public Archaeology - Howard Williams and Suzanne Evans
Reading the Gosforth Cross: Enriching Learning through Film and Photogrammetry - Roger Lang and Dominic Powlesland
Crafting the Early Middle Ages: Creating Synergies between Re-enactors and Archaeologists - An interview with Adam Parsons and Stuart Strong
Part 3: Dark Age Media
Archaeology in Alfred the Great (1969) and The Last Kingdom (2015-) - Victoria Nicholls and Howard Williams
‘It’s the End of the World as we Know it …’: Reforging Ragnarök through Popular Culture - Mark A. Hall
The #GreatHeathenHunt: Repton’s Public Early Medieval Archaeology - An interview with Cat Jarman
Vikings and Virality - Matthew Thomas
Old Norse in the Wild West: Digital Public Engagement on YouTube - An interview with Jackson Crawford
The Image Hoard: Using the Past as a Palette in Discussing the Politics of the Present - Wulfgar the Bard
Afterword: Whose ‘Dark Ages’? - Bonnie Effros