Digging into the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Public Archaeologies

What do the ‘Dark Ages’ mean outside specialist scholarship? Digging into the Dark Ages is devoted to the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages, examining how the fifth to eleventh centuries are encountered through excavations, museums, heritage sites, art, fiction and digital media. Howard Williams and Pauline Magdalene Clarke bring together academics, practitioners and student researchers to consider those different forms of engagement.

The examples are strikingly varied: Viking horned helmets, reconstructions at JORVIK, the presentation of Tintagel and the early medieval world imagined in The Last Kingdom. Four interviews add the perspectives of people who interpret archaeology for the public. The contributors ask not only where popular images of the period depart from the evidence, but how those images take hold and why they prove so difficult to dislodge.