Back in 2010, Dr Meggen Gondek and I organised a double session at the Leeds International Medieval Congress on the topic of early medieval stone monuments and memory. Since then, we have been working on a book project with our PhD student Joanne Kirton, exploring a triad of themes in the study of early medieval stone monuments from the British Isles and Scandinavia.
Our edited book was provisionally entitled Memories in the Making but is now called:
Early Medieval Stone Monuments: Materiality, Biography, Landscape
The book presents new research the materialities, biographies and landscape contexts of early medieval inscribed and sculpted stone monuments.
You can explore some of the ideas and approaches in my keynote lecture to the Runes, Monuments and Memorial Carvings Network colloquium held at the University of Chester earlier this year and organised by Jo and Meggen.
This book will be the first of its kind. For while there has been a growing body of research on each of these themes, particularly the theme of the cultural biography of monuments, applied to the early medieval period (c. AD 400-1100), this book brings detailed case studies and original research on these three interleaving themes together in a series of exciting new studies.
The book is now contracted with Boydell and Brewer and is due to appear in late 2015 or early 2016.
Stones in Space and Time: The Materialities, Biographies and Landscapes of Early Medieval Stone Monuments
Howard Williams, Joanne Kirton and Meggen Gondek
Locating the Cleulow Cross: Materiality, Place and Landscape
Joanne Kirton
Walking Down Memory Lane: Rune-Stones as Mnemonic Agents in the Landscapes of Late Viking-Age Scandinavia
Ing-Marie Back Danielsson
Building Blocks: Structural Contexts and Carved Stones in Early Medieval Northern Britain
Meggen Gondek
Memory, Belief and Identity: Remembering the Dead on Iniscealtra, Co. Clare
ClĂodhna O’Leary
The Biographies and Audiences of Late Viking-Age and Medieval Stone Crosses and Cross-Decorated Stones in Western Norway
Iris Crouwers
Lifeways in Stone: Memories and Matter-Reality in Early Medieval Sculpture from Scotland
Mark A. Hall
A Stone in Time: Saving Lost Medieval Memories of Irish Stone Monuments
Jenifer Nà Ghrádaigh
Hogbacks: the Materiality of Solid Spaces
Howard Williams
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