Books by Toby Martin
While traditional studies of dress and jewellery have tended to focus purely on reconstruction or... more While traditional studies of dress and jewellery have tended to focus purely on reconstruction or descriptions of style, chronology and typology, the social context of costume is now a major research area in archaeology. This refocusing is largely a result of the close relationship between dress and three currently popular topics: identity, bodies and material culture. Not only does dress constitute an important means by which people integrate and segregate to form group identities, but interactions between objects and bodies, quintessentially illustrated by dress, can also form the basis of much wider symbolic systems. Consequently, archaeological understandings of clothing shed light on some of the fundamental aspects of society, hence our intentionally unconditional title.
Dress and Society illustrates the range of current archaeological approaches to dress using a number of case studies drawn from prehistoric to post-medieval Europe. Individually, each chapter makes a strong contribution in its own field whether through the discussion of new evidence or new approaches to classic material. Presenting the eight papers together creates a strong argument for a theoretically informed and integrated approach to dress as a specific category of archaeological evidence, emphasising that the study of dress not only draws openly on other disciplines, but is also a sub-discipline in its own right. However, rather than delimiting dress to a specialist area of research we seek to promote it as fundamental to any holistic archaeological understanding of past societies.
Cruciform brooches were large and decorative items of jewellery, frequently used to pin together ... more Cruciform brooches were large and decorative items of jewellery, frequently used to pin together women's garments in pre-Christian northwest Europe. Characterised by the strange bestial visages that project from the feet of these dress and cloak fasteners, cruciform brooches were especially common in eastern England during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. For this reason, archaeologists have long associated them with those shadowy tribal originators of the English: the Angles of the Migration period.
This book provides a multifaceted, holistic and contextual analysis of more than 2,000 Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooches. It offers a critical examination of identity in Early Medieval society, suggesting that the idea of being Anglian in post-Roman Britain was not a primordial, tribal identity transplanted from northern Germany, but was at least partly forged through the repeated, prevalent use of dress and material culture. Additionally, the particular women that were buried with cruciform brooches, and indeed their very funerals, played an important role in the process. These ideas are explored through a new typology and an updated chronology for cruciform brooches, alongside considerations of their production, exchange and use. The author also examines their geographical distribution through time and their most common archaeological contexts: the inhumation and cremation cemeteries of early Anglo-Saxon England.
Papers by Toby Martin
Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 2020
This paper explores the stylistic variability of fifth-and sixth-century brooches in Europe using... more This paper explores the stylistic variability of fifth-and sixth-century brooches in Europe using network visualisations, suggesting an alternative means of study, which for more than a century has been dominated by typology. It is suggested that network methods and related theories offer alternative conceptual models that encourage original ways of exploring material that has otherwise become canonical. Foremost is the proposal that objects of personal adornment like brooches were a means of competitive display through which individuals mediated social relationships within and beyond their immediate communities, and in so doing formed surprisingly far-flung networks. The potential sizes of these networks varied according to their location in Europe, with particularly large distances of up to 1000 km achieved in Scandinavia and continental Europe. In addition, an overall tendency toward the serial reproduction of particular forms in the mid-sixth century has broader consequences for how we understand the changing nature of social networks in post-Roman Europe.
Martin, T.F. 2016. ‘The lives and deaths of people and things: biographical approaches to dress i... more Martin, T.F. 2016. ‘The lives and deaths of people and things: biographical approaches to dress in early Anglo-Saxon England’, in Smith, R. and Watson, G. (eds.) Writing the Lives of People and Things AD 500–1700 (Farnham: Ashgate Press).
Blinkhorn, P and Cumberbatch C. (eds.) 2014. The Chiming of Crack’d Bells: Recent Approaches to the Study of Artefacts in Archaeology. British Archaeological Reports (International Series) 2677). Oxford: Archaeopress., 2014
Early Anglo-Saxon dress, particularly that of women, could be an elaborate affair, often comprisi... more Early Anglo-Saxon dress, particularly that of women, could be an elaborate affair, often comprising several layers of undergarments, dresses, cloaks, mantles and headdresses, all held in place with elaborate brooches, girdles and belts, complemented by various pendants, purses and other accessories, and festooned with strings of beads. For all the many typological, chronological and technical studies of Anglo-Saxon dress objects, there has been almost no work looking at their use in structuring perceptions of feminine and masculine bodies. In this paper, I consider how different styles of dress current in the fifth and sixth centuries AD created different bodies, and how these manners of dressing guided movement, posture, gesture as well as emphasised different anatomical aspects of the male and female bodies differentiated by age and perhaps even ethnic identity. The core idea of this paper is that by bringing the body into the framework of artefactual analysis, we gain a more holistic comprehension of how objects and people work together to create identity.
Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 18, 2013
This paper provides a comprehensive descriptive and interpretative account of cruciform brooch ic... more This paper provides a comprehensive descriptive and interpretative account of cruciform brooch iconography based on a new corpus of more than 1,500 cruciform brooches from eastern early Anglo-Saxon England. The sum iconography of cruciform brooches is found to be limited to a very small number of motifs, copied and repeated with varying degrees of abbreviation, elaboration and invention. The iconography is interpreted within its social context as an important part of the mortuary dress of a particular demographic group of elite, older women. The motifs are seen to be indicative of a particular kind of restricted knowledge and hence an important aspect of gendered power relationships in 5th and 6th century Europe.
Jervis, B. and A. Kyle (eds.). Make-do and Mend: Archaeologies of Compromise, Repair and Reuse (Oxford: BAR, International Series, 2408), 2012
"The repair, customisation and use-adaptation of early Anglo-Saxon brooches are frequently observ... more "The repair, customisation and use-adaptation of early Anglo-Saxon brooches are frequently observed practices and, crucially, they embody object biography. This paper provides a quantitative assessment and descriptive survey of the procedures involved, and concludes that together they demonstrate that some types of brooch were not readily replaceable. It is suggested here that this behaviour is better explained by the inalienable nature of some of these objects than by their economic value. Early Anglo-Saxon society’s social reproduction was based on gift-exchange as opposed to economic transaction, and the value of brooches must be viewed in this context. Brooches were integral to the construction of age-related feminine identities in the everyday performances of dressing and display, as well as to the preparation of the cadaver for the funeral, and were also possibly exchanged or bestowed during rites of passage. It is from such cumulative performances that some brooches gained a value that was specific and perhaps inseparable from the context of their owners."
Datasets by Toby Martin
This dataset represents a digital companion to the book The Cruciform Brooch and Anglo-Saxon Engl... more This dataset represents a digital companion to the book The Cruciform Brooch and Anglo-Saxon England published by Boydell and Brewer in 2015. This book establishes not only a new typology and chronology for these items, but also investigates their social context in some detail, considering aspects such as production, exchange and repair; social identity and social structure; and dress and burial. This digital dataset provides considerably more detail on each of the 2,075 brooches that formed the basis of the research. Additionally, it offers summary details on the 305 grave contexts from which many of these brooches were excavated, their 1,115 sites or find-spots, as well as a list of all relevant collections and a full bibliography of published illustrations.
PhD Thesis by Toby Martin
Identity and the Cruciform Brooch in Early Anglo-Saxon England: An Investigation of Style, Mortuary Context, and Use, Jul 3, 2012
This thesis uses a new corpus of more than 1,600 Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooches as an entry point... more This thesis uses a new corpus of more than 1,600 Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooches as an entry point for looking at the construction of identity in the early Anglo-Saxon period. A new typology and updated chronology are presented, but the focus of the examination of this artefact is its social context, including the topics of migration, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, the body, iconography and knowledge. These threads come together to provide an understanding of why and how the cruciform brooch evolved as it did, how it was used in life and death (and by whom), and the complex social identity the artefact was used to construct and display.
Presentations by Toby Martin
65th International Sachsensymposion, Warsaw, Sep 14, 2014
For much of the 20th century archaeologists used early medieval brooches to compare directions of... more For much of the 20th century archaeologists used early medieval brooches to compare directions of cultural influence in Roman and post-Roman Europe. In doing so, they explained the broadest social developments of the period. While their panoptic ambition was laudable, the simplicity of its culture-historical basis has been justly critiqued. Yet, ongoing criticism has motivated a tendency toward increasingly localised studies. Although such enterprises produce highly valuable information, they rarely engage with the long-recognised fundamental role this jewellery played in wider European post-Roman society. Changes in the regional distribution of stylistic traits provide a rich source for identifying contact and networks over a colossal geographical area, in which not just people but also objects participated. Chronological and chorological variations in style therefore do not just speak of the passive ebb and flow of cultural influence, but active ways of negotiating individual personhood, group identity, and the human-object interactions from which these things are built, on both a local and inter-regional level. This paper represents a preliminary introduction to a project currently underway seeking to understand European brooches of the 4th to 7th centuries AD in this manner.
University of Winchester Seminars in Comparative Medieval Cultures, Feb 27, 2014
The dress of early Anglo-Saxon women could be an elaborate affair, often comprising several layer... more The dress of early Anglo-Saxon women could be an elaborate affair, often comprising several layers of undergarments, dresses, cloaks, mantles and headdresses, all held in place with elaborate brooches, girdles and belts, complemented by various pendants, purses and other accessories, and festooned with strings of beads. For all the many typological, chronological and technical studies of Anglo-Saxon dress objects, there has been very little work looking at their use in structuring perceptions of the feminine body. In this paper, I consider how different styles of dress current in the fifth and sixth centuries AD created different bodies, and how these manners of dressing guided bodily movement. High status women in especially elaborate costumes created their bodies as distinctly different in shape and size to other members of society, often distinguished by age, gender, and perhaps even ethnic identity. Specific jewellery combinations also acted to highlight and emphasise certain loci on the body, which varied according to age and status. Crucially, some components of these dress ensembles would have delimited the movement of the body in terms of posture, gesture, and the kinds of activities in which these women could partake. In addition to restricting particular movements, other components of the costume amplified gesture, and were intentionally designed to shine and rattle upon movement. In this exploratory paper, I will look at the role of dress in the archaeology of gesture, and how these women, using material culture, created themselves as members of an authoritative social group not just through the visual spectacle of elaborate costumes, but also through the way in which they moved.
The cruciform brooch was a decorative dress fastener worn and deposited in graves during the fift... more The cruciform brooch was a decorative dress fastener worn and deposited in graves during the fifth and sixth centuries AD in eastern England. It has long been associated with the Angles, one of the Germanic groups who supposedly migrated to England in the immediately post-Roman period. However, due to the critical revision of such simplistic interpretations of the historical record, and the rejection of culture-historical approaches to early medieval material culture, the relationship between cruciform brooches and supposed Anglians has become contentious and has even been rejected wholesale. Yet, the problem refuses to go away. This paper is a presentation of some of the results of my doctoral research that provide insight into the nature of early medieval ethnicity, and how it was constructed through everyday dress and the mortuary ritual.
The regional distribution of the cruciform brooch over time is shown to represent the waxing and waning of the utility of wearing this elaborate item to construct and display an empowering identity. An analysis of grave context and osteology defines a particular group of older women who were buried with this item, and a closer look at the garments the cruciform brooch fastened reveals a particular costume, and one that was gained gradually over the course of these women’s lives. These brooches and the costumes they fastened helped inform perceptions of a particular female body, from which such items ultimately became inalienable. Brooches and dress therefore acted to naturalise the socially constructed perception of an age- and gender-related ethnic identity. Finally, the iconography of the cruciform brooch is considered. Particular attention is focussed on its dual imagery and restricted range of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs, which are examined in the context of myth and cosmology, and these women’s potential roles in the communication of social memory and knowledge. In sum, this research represents the breadth of social interpretation that can be drawn out from an integration of archaeological burial studies and a contentious historical literature.
Over the course of the sixth century in Anglo-Saxon England, the costume of some women became an ... more Over the course of the sixth century in Anglo-Saxon England, the costume of some women became an important signifier of age, gender, and ethnic identity. Such personal and group statuses were fundamental to the creation and maintenance of power structures in this period before the rise of kingdoms and the coming of Christianity. This paper focuses on the “Anglian” region of what was to become England, and examines the objects (brooches and garments) that were active in the identification of these people as “Anglians”. These objects have their primary significance in signalling and constructing the identity of this primeval English people. However, a large part of their value is seen to stem from the way in which they were obtained at specific stages during the life courses of particular women. They can also be seen as objects whose value and authenticity lay in their own biographies: they were treasured by their owners to the point of disrepair, and were recognised in the social memory of the wider community. An examination of a small number of these brooches and dress ensembles reveals them to be objects with biographies, as well as objects that created biographies.
My doctoral research has focused on the cruciform brooch: a distinctive dress fastener worn durin... more My doctoral research has focused on the cruciform brooch: a distinctive dress fastener worn during the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. in eastern England. This paper provides a summary of my research findings. Firstly, the distribution of the cruciform brooch over time is shown to represent the evolving, crystallising and finally fragmenting utility of (Anglian) ethnicity as an empowering identity. An analysis of grave context and osteology defines a particular group of women who displayed and possessed this identity, and who may be seen as the bearers of the Anglian tradition. A closer look at the garments the cruciform brooch fastened reveals a particular costume, and one that was gained gradually over the course of these women’s lives. These brooches and the costumes they fastened helped inform perceptions of a particular female body, from which they ultimately became inseparable and inalienable. Finally, the iconography of the cruciform brooch is considered. Particular attention is focussed on its dual imagery and restricted range of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs, which are examined in the context of myth and cosmology, and these women’s potential roles in the communication of social memory and knowledge. In sum, it is hoped that this research represents the breadth of social interpretation that can be drawn out from just one object type by the application of both traditional and contemporary methodology and theory.
The Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooch was among the most abundant of female grave goods during the pag... more The Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooch was among the most abundant of female grave goods during the pagan period, with a corpus size estimated to be over 1000. While this brooch form has an extensive history of research, it has all been in terms of its typology, chronology and technical properties. It is my contention that the cruciform has an unexplored potential to reveal more about early Anglo-Saxon social structure from a contextual analysis of its use in the mortuary ritual.
My research initially involves a consolidation of the existing corpus, from both excavated examples, as well as data from the Portable Antiquities Scheme. I will then proceed with a multivariate analysis of the emergent types and contextual archaeological data. This analysis will locate and define demographic groups that were utilising specific forms of the brooch as a grave good. The final part of my analysis will involve the interpretation of these results, in terms of social identity. Within a post-processual theoretical framework, I will consider various formal and stylistic aspects of the brooch and their implications for its meaning to those who were wearing and interred with it. My major focus is the construction of gender identity through burial practice.
Repair and modification among early Anglo-Saxon grave goods is a frequent phenomenon. This paper... more Repair and modification among early Anglo-Saxon grave goods is a frequent phenomenon. This paper suggests that such practices embody the interaction between individuals and material culture, and emphasises the fluid nature of objects and the agency of accidental breakages in determining their use. Such instances also indicate the importance of such items to their owners, in both economic and symbolic terms. The cruciform brooch is analysed specifically in terms of repairs that both restore and adapt function, as well as other examples of modification such as the attachment of other items to them (beads and ‘spangles’) and runic inscription.
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Books by Toby Martin
Dress and Society illustrates the range of current archaeological approaches to dress using a number of case studies drawn from prehistoric to post-medieval Europe. Individually, each chapter makes a strong contribution in its own field whether through the discussion of new evidence or new approaches to classic material. Presenting the eight papers together creates a strong argument for a theoretically informed and integrated approach to dress as a specific category of archaeological evidence, emphasising that the study of dress not only draws openly on other disciplines, but is also a sub-discipline in its own right. However, rather than delimiting dress to a specialist area of research we seek to promote it as fundamental to any holistic archaeological understanding of past societies.
This book provides a multifaceted, holistic and contextual analysis of more than 2,000 Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooches. It offers a critical examination of identity in Early Medieval society, suggesting that the idea of being Anglian in post-Roman Britain was not a primordial, tribal identity transplanted from northern Germany, but was at least partly forged through the repeated, prevalent use of dress and material culture. Additionally, the particular women that were buried with cruciform brooches, and indeed their very funerals, played an important role in the process. These ideas are explored through a new typology and an updated chronology for cruciform brooches, alongside considerations of their production, exchange and use. The author also examines their geographical distribution through time and their most common archaeological contexts: the inhumation and cremation cemeteries of early Anglo-Saxon England.
Papers by Toby Martin
Datasets by Toby Martin
PhD Thesis by Toby Martin
Presentations by Toby Martin
The regional distribution of the cruciform brooch over time is shown to represent the waxing and waning of the utility of wearing this elaborate item to construct and display an empowering identity. An analysis of grave context and osteology defines a particular group of older women who were buried with this item, and a closer look at the garments the cruciform brooch fastened reveals a particular costume, and one that was gained gradually over the course of these women’s lives. These brooches and the costumes they fastened helped inform perceptions of a particular female body, from which such items ultimately became inalienable. Brooches and dress therefore acted to naturalise the socially constructed perception of an age- and gender-related ethnic identity. Finally, the iconography of the cruciform brooch is considered. Particular attention is focussed on its dual imagery and restricted range of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs, which are examined in the context of myth and cosmology, and these women’s potential roles in the communication of social memory and knowledge. In sum, this research represents the breadth of social interpretation that can be drawn out from an integration of archaeological burial studies and a contentious historical literature.
My research initially involves a consolidation of the existing corpus, from both excavated examples, as well as data from the Portable Antiquities Scheme. I will then proceed with a multivariate analysis of the emergent types and contextual archaeological data. This analysis will locate and define demographic groups that were utilising specific forms of the brooch as a grave good. The final part of my analysis will involve the interpretation of these results, in terms of social identity. Within a post-processual theoretical framework, I will consider various formal and stylistic aspects of the brooch and their implications for its meaning to those who were wearing and interred with it. My major focus is the construction of gender identity through burial practice.
Dress and Society illustrates the range of current archaeological approaches to dress using a number of case studies drawn from prehistoric to post-medieval Europe. Individually, each chapter makes a strong contribution in its own field whether through the discussion of new evidence or new approaches to classic material. Presenting the eight papers together creates a strong argument for a theoretically informed and integrated approach to dress as a specific category of archaeological evidence, emphasising that the study of dress not only draws openly on other disciplines, but is also a sub-discipline in its own right. However, rather than delimiting dress to a specialist area of research we seek to promote it as fundamental to any holistic archaeological understanding of past societies.
This book provides a multifaceted, holistic and contextual analysis of more than 2,000 Anglo-Saxon cruciform brooches. It offers a critical examination of identity in Early Medieval society, suggesting that the idea of being Anglian in post-Roman Britain was not a primordial, tribal identity transplanted from northern Germany, but was at least partly forged through the repeated, prevalent use of dress and material culture. Additionally, the particular women that were buried with cruciform brooches, and indeed their very funerals, played an important role in the process. These ideas are explored through a new typology and an updated chronology for cruciform brooches, alongside considerations of their production, exchange and use. The author also examines their geographical distribution through time and their most common archaeological contexts: the inhumation and cremation cemeteries of early Anglo-Saxon England.
The regional distribution of the cruciform brooch over time is shown to represent the waxing and waning of the utility of wearing this elaborate item to construct and display an empowering identity. An analysis of grave context and osteology defines a particular group of older women who were buried with this item, and a closer look at the garments the cruciform brooch fastened reveals a particular costume, and one that was gained gradually over the course of these women’s lives. These brooches and the costumes they fastened helped inform perceptions of a particular female body, from which such items ultimately became inalienable. Brooches and dress therefore acted to naturalise the socially constructed perception of an age- and gender-related ethnic identity. Finally, the iconography of the cruciform brooch is considered. Particular attention is focussed on its dual imagery and restricted range of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic motifs, which are examined in the context of myth and cosmology, and these women’s potential roles in the communication of social memory and knowledge. In sum, this research represents the breadth of social interpretation that can be drawn out from an integration of archaeological burial studies and a contentious historical literature.
My research initially involves a consolidation of the existing corpus, from both excavated examples, as well as data from the Portable Antiquities Scheme. I will then proceed with a multivariate analysis of the emergent types and contextual archaeological data. This analysis will locate and define demographic groups that were utilising specific forms of the brooch as a grave good. The final part of my analysis will involve the interpretation of these results, in terms of social identity. Within a post-processual theoretical framework, I will consider various formal and stylistic aspects of the brooch and their implications for its meaning to those who were wearing and interred with it. My major focus is the construction of gender identity through burial practice.
There is such a high variety of physical modification that generalisation obscures the subtler meanings. Thus a typology of physical transformations is constructed that demonstrates how the purpose of these modifications oscillates between practical function and symbolic meaning. This typology may also help to locate where and when these modifications are taking place, be it in a workshop immediately after a casting error, or a simple repair presumably performed in the home.
This has theoretical implications forAnglo-Saxon mortuary archaeology as well as the study of dress accessories in general. Specific types of brooches are suggested to be highly personal and inalieanable objects whose only proper place of disposal after their initial casting is physically attached to the owner's corpse.
The influence of the Roman world on the art and iconography of the rest of Europe was profound, yet in the centuries before the establishment of Empire, the barbarian world had developed complex uses of decoration and image generally considered by prehistorians under the label ‘Celtic Art’. Correspondingly, at the other end of the phase of Roman dominance in Europe, Early Medieval images on portable objects, often referred to as ‘Germanic’, display a comparable complexity and character in terms of their mixed human and animal subjects. In both periods, these images have generally been discussed in terms of their production, style, alongside their relevance to barbaric belief systems and power structures.
Barbaric Splendour will bring together international experts in the fields of both Celtic and Early Medieval Art. Whilst undoubtedly there is some room for discussion of stylistic continuities between these two periods, our purpose is not so much to compare the forms of the images themselves, but to exchange ideas between the our period-specific approaches about how best to interrogate these artefacts in terms of their material meanings and social context.
This will be a two-day event: one day of invited papers given to a wide audience of attendees, followed by an invite-only workshop for the speakers to build upon the previous day’s discussions in an informal setting. This second day of round-table discussion will be chaired by the organisers and structured around four key interdisciplinary themes (‘Obscurance and Fragmentation’; ‘Dispersal and Networks’; ‘Resistance and Dominance’; and ‘Boundaries and Definitions’). The workshop will provide a focused forum for creative and critical thinking across period-specific expertise.
never comes to fruition but flows from one state to another, re-purposed, re-envisioned and revalued. Further, an object’s biography does not end when it is put into the ground. Some objects are buried with a view to their retrieval; others are seized from their resting places by archaeologists or looters, past or present. Realisations such as these have disrupted our belief in a neat, terminal and unidirectional ‘biography’ and complicate our understandings of value.
The field of economic anthropology has long directed archaeological approaches to value, with concepts of alienable/inalienable possessions in particular being widely applied in archaeological interpretation. This borrowing often lacks contextual grounding, and is recently part of an overwhelming focus on elite prestige valuables. Now that the commodity/gift division is understood to be varied and mutable, can we move on to develop more nuanced understandings of the fungibility of different forms of possessions in past societies, and relationships between the values of different forms of property? This session will explore where the archaeology of value might take us in the context of contemporary material culture theory and welcomes papers from all periods exploring ideas of value and worth from the material record.