This certificate course addresses the hotly-debated question of continuity (or lack of continuity) between Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon culture, the emergence and character of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and the expression of these changes in archaeology, art and architecture. It explores the impact of the Vikings on established Anglo-Saxon culture and it discusses the expression of cultural innovation in archaeological evidence, secular and religious buildings, and in the art of the period. Key contextualising debates will be those around the changing character of Anglo-Saxon society, the role of migration and conquest in cultural dynamics, the development of political and religious institutions, and the shifting balance between subsistence and market economies.
The Certificate in the Study of Early Medieval England is offered over linked weekends at Madingley Hall, the headquarters of the Institute of Continuing Education, enabling students from all over the UK and beyond to study for these awards.
What will I be studying?
Unit 1: Tradition and transformation in the Anglo-Saxon landscape, c 400 -1100AD (Dr Susan Oosthuizen and Dr Caitlin Green )
Teaching sessions take place on the weekends of 13 - 15 October 2017 and 24 - 26 November 2017
This unit explores two questions central to understanding the medieval and modern English landscape: how local peasants and their lords coped with calamitous climatic, economic and political changes and significant immigration in the centuries between AD400 and 650; and how agricultural, administrative and social innovations were scored into fields and settlements between 650 and 1100. The principal source for the unit is the landscape itself - fields and pastures, woods and marshes, villages and hamlets – supported by some sparse archaeological and documentary evidence.
Unit 2: The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England (Prof Stephen Upex)
Teaching sessions take place on the weekends of 26 - 28 January 2018 and 16 - 18 March 2018
Roman administration was withdrawn from Britain in about AD400; by 700 the inhabitants of England were calling themselves ‘English’ and by AD950 the kingdom of England had been established. This unit explores surviving British and evolving Anglo-Saxon identities through the rich and often enigmatic archaeology of the period. Roman towns and villas gradually disappeared and the landscape evolved in a very different way as new Anglo-Saxon influences took hold. The development of Anglo-Saxon kingship, trade and other economic links, changes in religious belief and practices, Viking raids, new settlements, the development of estates and manors, and the Norman conquest all left their mark. A field visit and some practical handling of archaeological material is included.
Unit 3: Anglo-Saxon Art and Architecture (Dr Francis Woodman and Dr Miriam Gill)
Teaching sessions take place on the weekends of 27 - 29 April 2018 and 1 - 3 June 2018
The art and architecture of Anglo-Saxon England is numinous and intriguing and from the period after cAD600, dominated by the Church, whose buildings will form a major part of this study. It is investigated further through a wide range of objects - iconic jewellery like the gold and garnet shoulder-clasps discovered at Sutton Hoo; magnificent illuminated manuscripts of the seventh to the eleventh centuries; reliquaries of carved ivory and precious metals; brass, glass and other high status objects; some imported from Europe and Byzantium; as well as carved stones and monumental sculpture. A field visit is included.
The weekends run from Friday evenings (preceded by dinner) to Sunday morning (followed by lunch), thus giving time for discussion both within and without classtime.
Applications are welcomed both from those living within travelling distance of Cambridge and those from further afield, including overseas. Although this is a non-residential course, students requiring residential accommodation may be able to book B&B at Madingley Hall, as availability permits. If you would like to book accommodation please contact Liz Deacon: liz.deacon@ice.cam.ac.uk or +44 (0)1223 746227.
What can I go on to do?
Credit awarded by the Institute may also be transferred into the degree programmes of other higher education providers. However the volume of credit and the curriculum which can be transferred into degree programmes varies from institution to institution and is always at the discretion of the receiving institution.
