Medieval Archaeology 47

The paper looks at the interpretation of scattered burials in early-medieval settlements; the re-use of barrows and Roman buildings for burial; the doctrinal elaboration of the churchyard as a bounded sacred place; the process of the reduction of burial-grounds; and the relationship between burials and parish boundaries. The author argues that the archaeological evidence for the topographical evolution of burial-grounds mirrors the shifting boundaries between the living and the dead and between sacred and profane spaces.

Investigations revealed a deep sequence of medieval land-reclamation deposits overlying Middle to Late Saxon alluvium and basal sand and gravel. The site lies within the area of the medieval Abbey precinct, and the foundations of the present building were found to incorporate re-used stonework. A partial donkey skeleton from an alluvial deposit is highly significant, being the first Late Saxon example of the species found in the country to date. Fourteenth-century gothic stone mouldings were found in an early post-medieval demolition deposit.

Presidential address, surveying the results of numerous archaeological interventions in England and Wales and focussing on work published since an overview that appeared in 1985. The author's purpose is to show the value of research on sites which are sometimes seen as unrewarding. The cumulative results of sixteen years of investigation have thrown important new light on urban origins; characteristics and definitions; functions and diversity; and long-term development.

Analyses of the transformations in form and layout of castles and palaces, in tandem with historical studies of court life, have highlighted their growing complexity from the twelfth to the sixteenth century and the extent to which royal apartments, particularly those of kings, were affected by the development of administrative departments and court ceremonial. The paper focuses on the apartments of queens consort and undertakes an examination of these trends by analysing routes through buildings and their decorative treatment. It reveals that queens' apartments were isolated from public buildings and from ceremonial routes through palace complexes. Alongside the paucity of female imagery, particularly in halls, such patterns appear to be the architectural manifestation of restricted access to power.

An attempt to identify the meeting-place of Augustine and the British church leaders in AD 602/603, as described by Bede, using recent research on Early Anglo-Saxon culture in Wiltshire plus a re-examination of Brittonic place-names to establish a possible boundary between the Britons and the Saxons.

Short report of a watching brief on groundworks on the hillside below the Norman castle during 2001. A large V-shaped ditch was uncovered, running roughly in line with the ridge and producing a small assemblage of medieval cooking pottery dating from the twelfth century. This and evidence from other sites indicate that Abergavenny was an early Norman defended settlement.