In response to John Wood and Andrew Millard.

MED/POST-MED TRANSITION:

Surely the Reformation started in 1517 - with the publication of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses - rather than 1550?

BIAB does indeed use 1547, the year of death of Henry VIII, to mark the end of the medieval period. Anglo-centric, perhaps, but Henry was undoubtedly a major player in European politics - not least for his (pragmatic?) legitimisation the Reformist cause. He attempted to invade Scotland and was the first English monarch formally to assume the title ‘King of Ireland'. While almost any date during the latter part of Henry's reign would be suitable, his death marked a point of no return to the status quo of the Middle Ages and it precipitated a period of political and religious conflict that eventually led to James VI of Scotland becoming King of England.

Could the medieval period be stretched out to the Stuart's accession to the throne of England? Probably not, as the end of Henry's reign is parallelled by obvious archaeological phenomena - like the breakup of monastic sites and the introduction of revolutionary military technology.

1066 AND ALL THAT:

I can accept that you Highlanders were half-naked savages living in Iron Age until the early nineteenth century, but in lowland Britain there was clearly a significant change in the nature of the archaeological record about a thousand years ago. (By the way, I'm a Kiwi of German extraction, so I've no nationalist axe to grind here!). While many of the processes of change were already underway by the time of the Battle of Hastings, it must be agreed that the advent of the Norman political machine had a major influence on the course of the history of these islands - I can't believe that the eleventh-century Scots were oblivious to the fact that their neighbours were under new management from 1066. Or was Malcolm Canmore really that ingenuous when he married Margaret, the exiled heir of the Anglo-Saxon dynasty?

(Pre-1066 is still medieval - albeit `Early Medieval' - as far as BIAB is concerned.)

THE START OF THE ‘MEDIEVAL' PERIOD:

If you want to define the Middle Ages in religious terms, why not begin with the Edict of Milan in AD313? The Edict marked the formal acceptance of Christianity by the Roman state, and this is the point that is used by The British Museum to define the start of the medieval period  - see http://www.british-museum.ac.uk/medieval. 


Anyway, these are yet more illustrations of the need to tolerate wide variations in period classifications. And, as Isabel Holroyd says: the best way to handle disparate regional period definitions is to use a numerical date-based core that is flexible enough to allow relative chronologies to be linked. This would also be more transparent - actually highlighting regional variations - and, thus, much less likely to mislead or confuse.


Jeremy


At 12:06 28/02/2000 -0000, John Wood wrote:
>I thought 'medieval' was supposed to describe the period broadly from the
>end of the Roman Empire to the Reformation. Broadly 400 - 1550.  Why choose
>1066 and 1540?
>
>Why should BIAB start the Postmedieval in 1547?
>
>Good heavens there couldn't be a connection here could there with the dates
>of English kings? Doesn't this serve to mislead and confuse people?
>
>
>John Wood 
>Inverness
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Andrew Millard [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: 28 February 2000 10:45
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Period terms
>
>
>> Medieval       1066          1540            RCHME
>> Post Medieval  1547          present         BIAB
>
>So what happens between 1540 and 1547?
>
>Andrew
>
>==========================================================================
> Dr. Andrew Millard                              [log in to unmask]
> Department of Archaeology, University of Durham,   Tel: +44 191 374 4757
> South Road, Durham. DH1 3LE. United Kingdom.       Fax: +44 191 374 3619
>                      http://www.dur.ac.uk/~drk0arm/                  
>==========================================================================
>
___________________________________________________

Jeremy Oetgen (Mr)

British and Irish Archaeological Bibliography

c/o The British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH, England.
Tel: +(44)(0)20 7969 5444
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
E-mail (personal only): [log in to unmask]
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