Absorbed lipid residues from 24 seventh-to ninth-century coarseware potsherds from the major Anglo-Saxon trading centre of Hamwic (Southampton, UK) were analysed by gas chromatography -mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in order to reconstruct the dietary habits of its population. The results show that the vessels were used for preparing ruminant fats and leafy vegetables. In addition, evidence was found for a minor contribution of aquatic foods. Beeswax was found once and most probably relates to a sealing function or to honey. Remarkable features were: (i) the isomeric mixture of octadecenoic acid (C 18:1 D 7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 ) and 8-to 16-hydroxyoctadecanoic acid, and (ii) the co-occurrence of C 17:1 , C 19:1 and isoprenoid fatty acids. These features were proposed as biomarkers for ruminant and aquatic food sources, respectively. Furthermore, the carbonyl position distribution in midchain ketones was used to identify mixtures of animal-and plant-derived ketones. The paper highlights the difficulty in interpreting complex lipid signatures that show a mixture of various foods, as observed in the majority of the samples. This was linked to the preparation of stews or the recycling of vessels. The results are considered alongside ceramic usewear data and existing data relating to environmental remains recovered from the Hamwic excavations.
This study investigates how engagements with objects are active in the construction of a 'social assemblage', drawing on in¯uences from work on 'symmetrical archaeology' and Actor-Network Theory. This interpretive perspective is explored through a case study, investigating the pottery consumed in Anglo-Saxon Southampton, demonstrating how engagements through exchange, use and deposition were active in creating a patchwork of connections which came together to create a distinct social assemblage. In particular the paper considers the multitude of ways that pottery and people were categorized through material engagements and the interpretive and methodological challenges that this presents to archaeology as a whole. Biographical Note:Ben Jervis has recently completed his doctoral research, which investigated the use and perception of pottery in the medieval period, at the University of Southampton. He is a specialist in the post-Roman pottery of southern England and currently works as a freelance consultant. He sits on the council of the Medieval Pottery Research Group and is a member of the Institute for Archaeologists. De®ning the ApproachRecent 'biographical' studies of objects have demonstrated that they are perceived, or categorised, in a ¯uid manner, depending upon their relationships to people, other objects and the environment (e.g. Kopytoff, 1986; Morris forthcoming) Studies of categorisation in disciplines such as psychology have demonstrated categories to be relational and for the boundaries between them to be 'fuzzy' (e.g.Kempton 1978), with people's ideas of different types being conditioned by their previous engagements with similar objects. Rosch (1978) argued that at the centre of such a 'fuzzy set' is a mental prototype, against which objects are categorised and which is determined by people's past experiences. This is an idea we shall return to later in considering both how people thought about pottery in the past and how prototypes change through time. This contrasts with the way that categories of artefact are typically formed in archaeological analysis, for example the creation of typologies, which imply that objects were classi®ed and understood in a static and universal way, which re¯ects an overlying social structure By acknowledging the ¯uidity of categories and
It is proposed that our understanding of medieval town foundation is limited by a failure to appreciate that ‘town’ is a relational category. It is argued that urban character emerges from social relations, with some sets of social relationship revealing urbanity and others not, as places develop along distinctive, but related, trajectories. This argument is developed through the application of assemblage theory to the development of towns in thirteenth-century southern England. The outcome is a proposal that, by focusing on the social relations through which towns are revealed as a distinctive category of place, we can better comprehend why and how towns mattered in medieval society and develop a greater understanding of the relationship of urbanization to other social processes such as commercialization and associated changes in the countryside.
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