Love and hope: emotions, dress accessories and a plough in later medieval Britain, c. AD 1250–1500

Abstract

Abstract

New Perspectives on the Medieval ‘Agricultural Revolution’

“…At Buckden, the coulter was surrounded by grain-rich fills (charred rye, barley and wheat), which further emphasizes the relationship between plough and life. At Alnhamsheles, although later than much of the evidence discussed here, the deposition of a coulter beneath a building in the fifteenth century coincided with a period of poor harvests, and it is suggested that it was offered in response to events that would have devastated a community (Standley, 2020). Further evidence of the importance of the plough within a community comes from the use of plough-irons in trials, where they were used as a tool to provide fair justice (Standley, 2020, 753;Thomas et al, 2016, 754).…”

“…Nonetheless, finds of medieval coulters likely to come from mouldboard ploughs have been found in England. The earliest is a seventh-century find from Lyminge, Kent, but others come from Buckden, Cambridgeshire (eighth-to ninth-century), Scraptoft, Leicestershire (tenth-century) and Alnhamsheles, Northumberland (fifteenth-century) (Connor and Billington, 2021;Leahy, 2013;Standley, 2020;Thomas et al, 2016).…”

“…Therefore, when plough-irons (shares and coulters) are recovered on archaeological sites, their survival suggests that they had assumed a symbolic value beyond the price of base metal. Some are associated with the abandonment of a building, as at Lyminge (Thomas et al, 2016) and Buckden (Connor and Billington, 2021), while others are associated with the foundation of new buildings, as at Alnhamsheles (Standley, 2020). Some plough-irons have been recovered alongside other metal objects in hoards, symbolic deposits related to the abandonment of structures or to sacred places (Leahy, 2013, 754;Thomas et al, 2016).…”

Close Companions? A Zooarchaeological Study of the Human–Cattle Relationship in Medieval England

“…The social value of early heavy plough technology that enabled increased production of previously uncultivated heavy, clay soils, is implied by the ritual deposition of implements such as coulters throughout Northwest Europe in the medieval period [ 79 , 80 ]. Some recognition of the importance of cattle within a community may also be evident in the deliberate burial of the lower legs of an animal in a mid-tenth to mid-eleventh century boundary ditch at Ketton, Northamptonshire [ 81 ].…”

Eternal love locked in an embrace and sealed with a ring: A Xianbei couple's joint burial in North Wei era, China (386–534 CE)

“…Emotion can be materialized through words on the scripts, textiles, or ornaments, which could be defined as evidence of communication and intensification of emotion. Thus, in archaeological settings, the emotional interpretation has to use material evidence to reconstruct emotions through reading the emotional meaning of objects and practices, such as artifacts and specific patterns (Standley, 2020;Tarlow, 2000Tarlow, , 2012. In human behavior, the love and the desire for love often embody the whole spectrum of human emotions.…”