An archaeology of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (review)

118 Reviews mosdy is persuasive but is less wide-ranging and sometimes frustrates by not considering related issues from other chapters. Masculine love codes in a courtly community are brilliantly described within an eclectic, feminist, sociopsychological framework; however, it might also be relevant to observe that they offer a different model of exchange and value than, and in conflict with, the world of the market. Similarly, Gawain's Marian piety could have been explored, I suspect, along the lines of Aers's discussion of Margery's 'reinfantilization of Jesus' (p. 105), and it would have been interesting to hear Aers's views on how this sort of devotion assimilates with masculine courdy virtue. In this chapter on Gawain Aers seems perhaps over-anxious to resolve conflicts in discourse, rather than to 'reconstruct' them. The chapter on Piers will be valuable reading for students wanting to understand the poem's economic immediacy. But they should take care also to read Wendy Scase's new book 'Piers Plowman and the New Anti-clericalism (Cambridge, 1989), where they will find that there is a lot more yet going on than, and different from, a yearning for the traditional or cultivation of a 'neoFranciscan ' ethos. O n the evidence of Scase's book, the account given by Aers is actually insufficiendy contextualised or historicised. Indeed, I am struck by the near-silence here about all the copious records of Lollardy unlocked by Dr Anne Hudson. This may be a valid general criticism. For all the historical knowledge and sweep, the major value of this book is in the consistent justice and seriousness of its focus. David Lawton Department of English University of Sydney Arnold, C. J., An archaeology of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, London and N e w York, Roudedge, 1988; cloth; pp. xv, 224; 14 tables, 34 figures; R. R. P. AUSS95.95 This is the second book by C. J. Arnold that I have reviewed. It is somewhat more reader-friendly than Roman Britain to Saxon England, although there are still some strange sentences. There are also some slips in this book that not only the author but the publisher should have caught. Both are the same kind of book, very archaeological, and one takes up where the other leaves off: in the early sixth century A.D. Of England over the next two centuries the author offers an archaeology, expressing dissatisfaction with approaches taken in D. M . Wdson, ed., The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England (1976). Arnold's first chapter, 'A History of Early Anglo-Saxon Archaeology', is well worth a read even if one goes no further. H e has an open agenda. He sees great potential for the application of analytical techniques recently developed in the study of Reviews 119 prehistory to Anglo-Saxon archaeology and is impatient with the typological and art-historical preoccupations which have characterised the latter so far. He fears that archaeologists are not asking therightquestions of their sites and evidence. Therefore, he proceeds to ask about wealth of land and exchange, technology, belief, kin and political structures, always seeking to relate material objects to social functions. The results certainly show up the shortcomings of the evidence as recovered and interpreted, some of it a long time ago. The book may contribute more to the schooling of archaeologists in what to look for than to a synthesis of the early Anglo-Saxon past but some interesting observations are made; for instance, about competition between emerging Anglo-Saxon societies: 'The nature of the aggression was not so regular and institutionalised as to have encouraged the construction of defensive structures which do not appear until the ninth century' (p. 169). A good deal of the evidence discussed is grave-goods. While the author allows that the relationship between the archaeological recoverable practice and Christian belief is ambiguous, he still refers to 'rich pagan graves' and 'Christian burial'. In the Anglo-Saxon and Frankish kingdoms the overlap between nominal Christian conversion and burial with grave-goods was considerable, with the latter practice dying out in the early eighth century in both regions. Gregory of Tours in his History (VII.21) reports a theft of grave-goods from...