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IoA/BM Seminar Letty ten Harkel

12 December 2017, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm

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UCL Inst Archaeology, Room 612

Dr. Letty ten Harkel (University of Oxford): Kings, Vikings, distant monks or local peasants: who was who in the early medieval trading site and ringforts in the Domburg area, island of Walcheren (Netherlands)?

The small coastal island of Walcheren in the SW Netherlands, situated in the estuary of the river Scheldt, is extremely rich archaeologically. In addition to the probable site of an early medieval emporium, comparable in wealth to Dorestad, the island housed no less than 3 closely spaced early medieval ringforts. Yet many questions surround the nature and significance of this archaeological heritage, not least because much has been destroyed by coastal erosion since remains were first studied by Antiquarians in the 19th century. Who were the inhabitants of the island? Who built the ringforts? This talk aims to answer some of these questions, combining a critical revaluation of older interpretative frameworks with new scientific results from the 'Investigating the Dead in Early Medieval Domburg' project.