Overview

Medieval kings and kingship, and the rituals that define them, continue to captivate both scholars and the wider public. This interdisciplinary volume offers a Europe-wide perspective on early medieval kingship, with a particular focus on Scotland. What types of royal sites existed in the early medieval period in Scotland, and how did they vary regionally? Can we trace these sites in placenames? What rituals and other activities were associated with these sites, and what purposes did they serve? These and other questions are explored in the papers gathered together in this interdisciplinary volume. Drawing together experts in archaeology, history, placenames, folklore, poetry, and art history, the volume unpacks the story of early medieval kingship in Scotland against a European backdrop and across multiple scales, from multi-site regions and the mobile exercise of kingship, to single-site landscapes, analysis of significant objects, and the memorialisation of stories through tradition. Framed by recent archaeological excavations in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, England, and Scandinavia, this book presents a rich and innovative approach to the study of kingship in the early medieval period.

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9789464271539

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Alexandra Sanmark is Professor of Medieval Archaeology at the Institute for Northern Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands. Her research interests include Iron Age Scandinavia, in particular the Viking Age and the expansion into the North Atlantic. She also has a strong interest in Viking Age religion, law and assembly as well as the Christianisation of northwest Europe. She has recently led a number of research projects, such as the AHRC/DFG-funded The Norse and the Sea, which focuses on Viking Age settlement and maritime connections in Scotland and the Royal Society funded Communications in Norse Orkney. Publications include Power and Conversion. A Comparative Study of Christianization in Scandinavia (2004) and Viking Law and Order. Places and Rituals of Assembly in the Medieval North (2017). Dr Mark A Hall is an archaeologist and museum curator based at Perth Museum (Culture Perth & Kinross), Perth, Scotland. He has recently been the lead researcher for the new Perth Museum project, which opened in March 2024. His research interests principally span the medieval centuries from the Late Antique to the 16th century, with a focus on medieval material culture, including board and dice games, the cult of saints and supernatural engagement, cultural biography and re-imagining the Middle Ages. He has published widely and internationally in journals and books. He is co-editor of and contributing author to: The Lewis Chessmen Unmasked (2010), Pictish Progress (2011), Perth High Street Archaeological Excavations 1975-77 (2012), The Lewis Chessmen: New Perspectives (2014) and Royal Forteviot: Excavations at a Pictish Power Centre in Eastern Scotland – SERF Mon 2 (2020). Jane Geddes is emerita Professor of Art History from the University of Aberdeen. She specialises in medieval art of all media, and architectural history. Publications include Medieval Decorative Ironwork in England; King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen, 1500-2000; The St Albans Psalter: a book for Christina of Markyate; Hunting Picts: early medieval sculpture at Sy Vigeans, Angus; The Buildings of Scotland: Lothian. On the web, she curated the St Albans Psalter https://www.albani-psalter.de and the Aberdeen Bestiary https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bestiary/. She is President of the Pictish Arts Society. Oisín Plumb is a lecturer at the Institute for Northern Studies, University of the Highlands and Islands. His research focuses on Early medieval Northern Britain and Ireland. Particular issues of interest include the formation of local and national identities in the early medieval period as well as maps and the understanding of the earth’s lands in the Early Middle Ages. Key publications include Picts and Britons in the Early Medieval Irish Church: Travels west over the storm-swelled sea (Brepols 2020) and ‘Where were the Orcades? Early medieval engagement with the islands at the edge of the Earth in texts and maps’, Innes Review (2024).

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