An Oxford Historian Jun 27, 2021 4 min read Updated: Jun 29, 2021 Although Sutton Hoo dominates the popular imagination of Anglo-Saxon ship burials, there is another prime example excavated substantially earlier – The Snape Ship Burial. Less rich in grave-goods, it still provides a fascinating look into Middle Anglo-Saxon burial practices. Here’s a very […]
Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford. The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]
An Oxford Historian May 30, 2021 3 min read Updated: Apr 23, 2022 Wolvercote Cemetery in Oxford holds the grave of J.R..R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, along with a broad number of other fantasy and academic texts. This week, as the sun came out in the UK, I […]
An Oxford Historian Jun 5, 2021 2 min read Updated: Jun 12, 2021 In a new weekly series Nickname of the Week, focusing on historic nicknames and their origins, we take a look at the Second World War and the Finnish Sniper Simo ‘White Death’ Häyhä. Simo ‘White Death’ Häyhä is not a particularly well-known […]
Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford. The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]
One of the most commonly acknowledged forms of historical nicknames are those applied to monarchs – Charles the Bald, Bloody Mary, Robert the Bruce etc. The Anglo-Saxons are no exception, and we find some impressive examples in the written sources. A question of terminology: Royal ‘Nicknames’ are traditionally referred to as ‘Epithets’ – descriptive or […]
Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford. The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]
Today I thought I’d talk a little about the Oxford college that has been my home for two years now – St Cross. If you’d like to learn more about how Oxford colleges work, and which is ‘best’ for you, check out this handy guide here. Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Cross_College,_Oxford#/media/File:St_cross_blackwell_quad.jpg St Cross is one of Oxford’s newer colleges, […]
Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford. The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]
Hello, my name is Tristan and I’m a first-year history PhD researcher at Oxford. The aim of this blog is to share my research and wider history on the early medieval world, help give any advice on applying to university and explaining about Oxford, and generally expanding engagement with the Humanities. So if you fall […]
An Oxford Historian May 2, 2021 10 min read Updated: May 29, 2021 Did the ‘Vikings’ leave an archaeologically identifiable footprint in England when they settled? Can we excavate those remains and find the presence of the raiders and settlers? Richard and Haldenby’s exceptional 2018 article suggests yes, we can. This week I thought I’d […]
An Oxford Historian Nov 24, 2021 22 min read Updated: Apr 24, 2022 Contrasting views of the Scandinavian settlement of the Northumbrian ‘Danelaw’ have emerged in the historiography of the period. Archaeologically speaking, can we easily identify the presence of these ‘Vikings’, through culturally distinctive material culture? Or, alternatively, is the narrative of invasion and […]
A brief introduction to Experimental Archaeology – what it includes, how it’s theoretically useful, and its major drawbacks. #ComissionsEarned (This post includes Amazon Affiliate links) – As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Every historian of the early medieval period should have at least a basic grasp of archaeology. One area of archaeology […]
An Oxford Historian May 8, 2021 4 min read Updated: May 23, 2021 How did the elite in Anglo-Saxon England use textiles and clothes to express their status and power? As an archaeologist, can we ever find evidence of this material culture, or is it all hypothetical? We looked briefly before at how the thegnly […]