LANDSCAPES OF DEFENCE IN THE VIKING AGE:
Anglo-Saxon England and comparative perspectives

Friday 9th – Saturday 10th November 2007

INDEX OF SPEAKERS

Abels, Richard United States Naval Academy
Baker, John The University of Nottingham
Brooks, Nicholas University of Birmingham
Brookes, Stuart UCL Institute of Archaeology
Brink, Stefan University of Aberdeen
De Meulemeester, Johnny Ghent University
Escalona, Julio CSIC, Madrid
Ettel, Peter Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Hedenstierna-Jonson, Charlotte Universitet Stockholms
Hill, David University of Manchester
Holmquist-Olausson, Lena Universitet Stockholms
Parsons, David The University of Nottingham
Quiros Castillo, Juan Antonio Universidad del Pais Vasco
Reynolds, Andrew UCL Institute of Archaeology
Tys, Dries Free University of Brussels
van Dommelen, Dorn University of Alaska Anchorage
Williams, Gareth The British Museum
Yorke, Barbara The University of Winchester

CONFERENCE SUMMARY

The conference Landscapes of Defence in the Viking Age: Anglo-Saxon England and Comparative Perspectives was held at the UCL Institute of Archaeology on Nov 9-10th 2007, and was attended by some 80 international delegates. It was made possible by the generous support of:

UCL Institute of Archaeology
The British Academy
The Leverhulme Trust

The conference took a multidisciplinary approach to consider ninth- and tenth-century responses to external military aggression within a landscape context, exploring issues of fortress-construction, military communication and logistics, as well as the social impact of, and response to, civil defence requirements. New ideas were put forward, concerning different types of defensive strongholds and networks, and regarding the questions of top-down imposition of systems of defence and the local realities of military organisation. Questions of the role of defensive networks within society and the relationship between military organisation and royal power were also explored. Contributions from scholars both of Anglo-Saxon England and of continental Europe, provided crucial comparative viewpoints, highlighting differences, but also important similarities in the way different polities and different localities responded to military threats.

The conference covered a wide number of themes relating to Viking Age civil defence and its landscape context. A new methodology for identifying systems of defence, and classifying them both typologically and chronologically, was set out by Dr Brookes, while Dr Parsons and Dr Baker outlined some of the difficulties and opportunities afforded by a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the organisation of historical landscapes. Prof Yorke discussed the terminology of late Anglo-Saxon defence, as revealed in passages of contemporary documents. Dr Williams looked more closely at the socio-political importance of the burghal system, suggesting that all its functions – military and non-military – can be seen as having a close relationship with the extension of royal power in the late ninth and tenth centuries. He argued that, in this regard, the development of burhs was as important in the reign of Edgar as it had been in the reign of Alfred. Dr Van Dommelen provided an important assessment of the same system using a geographer’s approach to the social effects of settlement change, such as were caused by the creation of burhs. He stressed the innovative nature of the burghal system, not just militarily, but at societal level, proposing that it represented the application of social and institutional change, creating new social relationships within Anglo-Saxon England.

The conference benefited greatly from the input of overseas scholars, whose archaeological and historical work provided parallels to the situation in late Anglo-Saxon England, as well as suggesting new ways of looking at existing problems. In this respect, contributions from Dr Ettel and Dr Tys were particularly apposite. Prof Dr De Meulemeester traced the development of medieval defences in the Low Countries, from Merovingian times to the end of the ninth century. The earliest strongholds of this period seem to consist of the reuse of earlier, abandoned fortifications, a situation not dissimilar to England, and it is clear that the dating of the secondary use of these sites poses the same kind of difficulties as it does in Wessex, except where archaeological work has been carried out. Fortifications are frequently mentioned in texts, but not easily identified on the ground. Nevertheless, clear patterns can be discerned, showing the influence of topography on the selection of defensive sites, with raised sites (often prehistoric forts) preferred, when available, but new forts constructed in flatter regions. These newly built strongholds are typologically similar to the Trelleborg group of forts in Scandinavia, but predate them by about a hundred years. Dr Hedenstierna-Jonson drew from her extensive work on the project Strongholds and Fortifications in Central Sweden AD 400-1100, to provide a detailed picture of defensive preoccupations in part of the Viking homelands. The central importance of landscape, its use to the advantage of defenders and attackers, and ways of minimising its potential for opponents, has significant implications for other regions, including England, and the impact of and correlation between military developments and the evolution of political power also provide useful parallels.

Dr Castillo outlined the changing types of fortification in early medieval Spain, and pointed to evidence for a state-encouraged network of fortifications, with considerable implications for the social and political organisation of new administrative territories. Also considering issues of territorial organisation in the face of a sustained, external military threat, Dr Escalona demonstrated the important advances that a multidisciplinary approach has made in our understanding of the military organisation and expansion of early Castile. The dominance of documentary sources has led to an assumption of centrally instigated defensive structures, imposed from above, underlining the huge governmental achievement represented by massive territorial expansion. In fact, new military organisation may have been achieved by ‘bottom-up’ processes, with local communities and notables able to adapt to changing socio-political requirements.

Prof Abels’ paper was an excellent consideration of the importance of civil defence organisation in state formation. The military reforms of the late ninth and tenth centuries transformed not only the structures of local settlement and society, but the wider landscape of royal administration, placing on the population greater demands, in terms of money and service, which would be retained after the system’s useful life had come to an end. Once established, these new systems of organising royal power were invaluable in maintaining law and order and regulating commerce and currency.

The organisers hope to publish the conference proceedings in 2008.

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