Life in Early Medieval Wales

REVIEW BY HOWARD WILLIAMS

A truly stupendous achievement of synthesis and evaluation, Life in Early Medieval Wales is a first for Welsh archaeology. Nancy Edwards’ concise prose draws on the experience of a lifetime spent teaching and researching early medieval archaeology to produce a comprehensive, in-depth, well-structured, balanced, and timely review of the archaeology of Wales from the decline and collapse of the Roman province of Britannia to the end of the Viking Age.

Setting the scene, Edwards begins by producing a useful survey of the history of research and the fragmentary written sources (Chapter 1), as well as a consideration of the Welsh landscape and how early medieval people reckoned time and social memory (Chapter 2). Next, she deftly handles the fate of late Roman Wales (Chapter 3) before assessing the legacy of both Roman rule and Irish settlement (Chapter 4).

The three chapters that make up the second part review the settlements and material culture of the 5th-11th centuries AD. We are introduced to evidence for hillforts and promontory forts, lowland high-status settlements, and rural farmsteads (Chapter 5). Next is a synthesis of evidence for farming, health, and diet (Chapter 6), before an evaluation of the evidence for making, trading, using, and wearing things (Chapter 7).

The third section comprises a quartet of chapters exploring the evidence of Christian churches, inscribed stones, and stone sculpture, as well as burials and cemeteries, holy wells and trees, and relics and reliquaries (Chapter 8); the evidence for pre-Christian and Christian burial and commemoration (Chapter 9); Christian sites and landscapes (Chapter 10); and ritual and belief (Chapter 11).

In the penultimate chapter (Chapter 12), Edwards tackles themes that interconnect the preceding chapters by considering power and authority in the Welsh landscape, as well as incorporating an evaluation of the ‘Viking’ impact. An extensive conclusion draws together key arguments and presents avenues for future research (Chapter 13).

Edwards has achieved a publication that evaluates the story so far in which academic, commercial, governmental, and museum archaeology, but also community archaeology, are providing an ever-growing body of knowledge. This book thus sets the foundation for research on the archaeology of early medieval Wales for decades to come.

Life in Early Medieval Wales
Nancy Edwards
Oxford University Press, £100
ISBN 978-0198733218