Assembly in North West Europe: Collective Concerns for Early Societies?

Abstract

The archaeological study of assembly practices in the medieval west is often met with scepticism. The reliance on late documentary records and place-names, and the difficulties inherent in defining what actually constituted an ‘assembly’, are just some of the issues that face researchers. This paper brings together some of the first collated and excavated evidence by the HERA TAP project, and offers a cross-European perspective, drawing attention to the great variety of systems and types of structure created for the purpose of assembly in the late prehistoric and medieval eras. Selected case studies emphasize the chronological variations in the inception and life-span of assembly places and underline the diverse relationships of designated assembly sites to pre-existing landscapes, resource patterns, and social structures. Connections between the ‘architecture’ and location of these sites, and their role in the creation, maintenance, and signalling of collective identities are suggested.

Les recherches archéologiques sur les pratiques de rassemblement dans l'Ouest médiéval sont souvent accueillies avec scepticisme. La dépendance de vieux archives documentaires et noms de lieux, et les difficultés inhérentes à définir ce qui constitue en réalité un ‘rassemblement’ ne sont que quelques-uns des problèmes auxquels sont confrontés les chercheurs qui tentent de cartographier et décrire les assemblées en Europe médiévale.

Cet article rassemble quelques-unes des premières preuves collectées et mises au jour lors de fouilles par le projet HERA TAP, et offre une perspective intereuropéenne en attirant l'attention sur la grande variété de systèmes et de types de structure créées pour les assemblements pendant les époques préhistoriques récentes et médiévales. Des études de cas choisies soulignent les variations chronologiques dans la création et durée de vie des lieux d'assemblée et mettent en évidence les relations diverses entre les endroits de rassemblement désignés et les paysages préexistants, l’évolution des ressources et les structures sociales. On suggère qu'il existe des connexions entre l’’architecture’ et l'emplacement de ces sites et leur rôle dans la création, l'entretien et la signalisation d'identités collectives. Translation by Isabelle Gerges.

Der archäologischen Untersuchung von Versammlungspraktiken im mittelalterlichen Westeuropa wird oft mit Skepsis begegnet. Das Vertrauen auf späte Schriftquellen und Ortsnamen sowie die Schwierigkeiten der grundsätzlichen Definition, was eine ‘Versammlung’ überhaupt ausmacht, sind nur einige der Aspekte, denen sich Forscher, die Versammlungen im mittelalterlichen Europa aufzeichnen und charakterisieren möchten, stellen müssen.

Dieser Beitrag bringt einige der ersten zusammengestellten und ausgegrabenen Belege des HERA TAP-Projektes zusammen und bietet eine Perspektive für ganz Europa, indem der Vielzahl von Systemen und Typen für Strukturen aus der späten Vorgeschichte sowie dem Mittelalter, die dem Zweck der Versammlung dienten, besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet wird. Ausgewählte Fallstudien heben die chronologischen Unterschiede in der Einrichtung und Lebensdauer von Versammlungsplätzen hervor und betonen die verschiedenen Beziehungen von vorgesehenen Versammlungsorten zu vorher existierenden Landschaften, Ressourcemustern und sozialen Strukturen. Verbindungen zwischen der ‘Architektur’ und Örtlichkeit dieser Plätze und ihre Rolle in der Schaffung, Aufrechterhaltung und Anzeige von kollektiven Identitäten werden nahegelegt. Translation by Heiner Schwarzberg.

Keywords:

• Northern Europe
• assembly sites
• landscape
• architecture
• collective identities

Mots-clés:

• Europe du Nord
• sites de rassemblement
• paysage
• architecture
• identités collectives

Stichworte:

• Nordeuropa
• Versammlungsplätze
• Landschaft
• Architektur
• kollektive Identitäten

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the TAP team for sharing their results and for commenting on earlier drafts of this paper: Frode Iversen, Natascha Mehler, Halldis Hobæk, Marie Ødegaard, and Tudor Skinner. The fieldwork and research underlying this publication has been undertaken by The Assembly Project, and funded by an award from Humanities in the European Research Area, but some results from earlier field projects in England and Sweden were supported by the British Academy, Västerås stad and Helge Ax:son Johnsons stiftelse. The field investigation at Tjølling in Vestfold, Norway has been undertaken by Marie Ødegaard as part of her ongoing PhD research at Bergen and we thank her for allowing us to include it here. The authors are also grateful to Professor Chris Gerrard and Dr Natascha Mehler for valuable comments on the paper in its final stages and to the reviewers and the editor for their additional input.

Notes

1 The Assembly Project is managed by Dr Frode Iversen (Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway), Dr Natascha Mehler (Department of Archaeology, Vienna, Austria), Dr Alexandra Sanmark (Centre for Nordic Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands, UK), and Dr Sarah Semple (Department of Archaeology, Durham University, UK). In addition, it hosts three PhD projects being undertaken by Halldis Hobæk (Department of Archaeology, Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway), Marie Ødegaard (Department of Archaeology, University of Bergen), and Tudor Skinner (Department of Archaeology, Durham University). This paper draws on the collective results of the project thus far.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Semple

Sarah Semple is a lecturer at Durham University in the UK and specializes in the archaeology of early medieval Britain and Europe. Her research interests include power and place in early medieval society, the material culture of pre-Christian belief and religious change, death and burial and landscape and monumentality. She has recently published Signals of Belief. Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited (2010) and Sense of Place in Anglo-Saxon England (2012).

Address: Department of Archaeology, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE. UK. [email: [email protected]]

Alexandra Sanmark

Alexandra Sanmark is a lecturer at the Centre for Nordic Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands. Her research interests range from Viking-age law and society, Norse settlement in the west, to pagan religion and Christianization in north-west Europe. She has recently published Signals of Belief. Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited (2010). She is currently researching the archaeology of Norse assemblies in Scandinvia and the North Atlantic area, as part of The Assembly Project, funded by HERA http://www.khm.uio.no/english/research/projects/assembly-project/.

Address: Centre for Nordic Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands, Kiln Corner, Kirkwall, Orkney. KW15 1QZ. UK. [email: [email protected]]