Conquests and continuity: portable metalwork in Late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England, c. AD 1000-1200

This thesis analyses non-ferrous metalwork in England from the 11th and 12th centuries AD to elucidate patterns of social change and changing identities. A dataset approaching 12,000 artefacts was gathered, contextualised by a significant number of objects from Continental Europe. This sheer quantity of material challenges previous claims for a paucity of non-ferrous metalwork at the time. It is these claims that have arguably led to a lack of scholarly engagement in the period’s portable material culture. Data was drawn from excavated examples of the objects pursued and from metal-detected material, the latter primarily recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS). Effectively a novel dataset, it allows for a new synthesis of knowledge regarding metal objects at the turn of the medieval period. Such work is also previously lacking for structural reasons concerning the constraining effects on academic enquiry by period divisions relating to the Norman Conquest of 1066. Using object types from three main case study categories – dress accessories, equestrian equipment, and a wide-ranging group of ‘elite’ objects – patterns could be brought together and traced across the period and across Europe. Ultimately, socio-cultural comment with a focus on identity may now be offered on the evidence of metalwork, one that emphasises continuities in the period following the Norman Conquest, and acknowledges the notable impact of the Danish conquest of 1016 and changes in the early and mid-12th century linked to assertive self-definition of elites.