Dear Richard
Indeed not a straightforward answer, and HERs will have adopted different terminology and period divisions according to local practice and standards that were available at the time.
Many will have used the RCHME thesaurus as a starting point for their period divisions, and some will adhere to that closely http://www.fish-forum.info/i_apl_e.htm, which you will see makes the divisions Early Medieval and Medieval. Indeed this is generally implemented for the Heritage Gateway (although with more subdivisions for the period).
HERs using HBSMR software (approx 70% of HERs) will have usually been set up with these period terms as a default, but will have been able to made subdivisions/relabelled as they felt fit and appropriate to their needs (e.g. Early, Mid and Late Saxon will be a common one, although I have not see High Medieval used). In fact HBSMR records the numeric dates rather than the period label per se (e.g. medieval site will be indexed as 410 to 1065 AD, so it is slightly academic as to what label is attached in terms of indexing and retrieval.
Hope that helps, I am sure others will have lots to say on the matter!
Best wishes
Sarah
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Sarah Poppy
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-----Original Message-----
From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Buckley, Richard J.
Sent: 12 March 2010 10:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Early/High/Late medieval
As a matter of interest, do most HER/SMRs follow the general period divisions used in the journal 'Medieval Archaeology'?
i.e.
Medieval period = c.400-1550
Divided into:
Early medieval period (400-1066) i.e, up to Norman Conquest
High medieval period (1066-1350) i.e. up to Black Death
Late medieval period (1350-1550) i.e. up to Reformation
The reason for asking is that specialists often use medieval as a generic term for 1066-c.1500 and 'early medieval' to mean c. 1100-1200 - incorrect in the eyes of the Society for Medieval Archaeology. We are anxious to get this right in some forthcoming publications, but there is much resistance to the term 'high medieval' in particular and also the danger that we might be out of step with the majority of UK HER/SMRs.
I suspect there won't be a simple answer!
Thanks
Richard
Richard Buckley
Director
University of Leicester
Archaeological Services
Tel: 0116 2522848
Fax: 0116 2522614
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