Who’s Who in Medieval Southern Italy

Last May, I gave a short cameo paper on the theme of identities in 11th century southern Italy.  It revoles around two examples, one of the description of Duke Melo or Melus in William of Apulia’s poem in praise of Robert Guiscard (Book 1) and the second on the depiction of the Earth (tellus) in one of the Bari exultet rolls.

Read Who’s Who in Medieval Southern Italy.

Fragmentation in the Middle Ages: Call for Papers

While the ‘Medieval Exchanges in southern Italy’ project has now ended, the work it has started has not!  I will be co-organising a session at the forthcoming Theoretical Archaeology Conference 2008 at the University of Southampton entitled:

Putting Humpty Together Again: Overcoming the Fragmentation of the Middle Ages

The conference will be held at the Avenue Campus (School of Humanities) on 15-17 December 2008 (Monday to Wednesday).

This session is co-organised with Ben Jervis, also of the University of Southampton (Archaeology) and is supported by the Society for Medieval Archaeology.

To submit an abstract, please use TAG 2008’s submission page on the website as well as emailing a copy to both myself (tehm@soton.ac.uk) and Ben Jervis (bpj106@soton.ac.uk).

The deadline is 1 September 2008

Final scambi medievali papers at Leeds

This year’s International Medieval Congress will host our final conference papers for the Leverhulme Trust-funded project. I will be organising a session on the construction of family relationships in Norman Europe in which my paper will highlight the importance of objects on the occasion of marriage in 12th-century southern Italy. Patricia Skinner will be participating again in the Medieval Italy strand of the congress giving a paper on the rhythms of trade in Amalfi. Full details to session abstracts are linked below.

Patricia Skinner: Seasonal Business Patterns: Solving the Amalfitan ‘Enigma’?  in:

Session 621: Cities in Medieval Italy and Italians in Medieval Cities, I: New Approaches to Old Problems in Local and Long-Distance Trade, 10 July, 11.15-12.45

Tehmina Goskar: A Bed, a Mattress and a Pillow Full of Feathers: Practical Provisions upon Marriage in 12th-Century Southern Italy (download paper abstract) in:

Session 1627: Nearest and Dearest: The Construction of Family Relationships in Norman Europe, 12 July, 11-15-12.45

www.scambimedievali.org.uk has now been moved

I am in the middle of transferring the scambimedievali.org.uk research blog to its own wordpress blog. Most of this transfer is complete. There will be a flurry of new posts documenting our activity over the last year in the coming months.
Please note that the research blog will cease to be available at www.scambimedievali.org.uk in a few days time.

Workshop programme finalised

The free workshop, funded by our Leverhulme Trust project grant, Labels that Stick: early medieval peoples and objects and the problem of description has been finalised and details can be found below.

The workshop is hosted by the Centre for Antiquity and the Middle Ages

Date: 22 January 2007
Venue: Lecture Theatre C, Avenue Campus, University of Southampton. How to get here.

Full programme

Labels That Stick Workshop

On 22 January 2007, our research project will be hosting a free workshop for the Centre for Antiquity and the Middle Ages, University of Southampton on: ‘Labels that Stick: early medieval people and objects and the problem of description’ with keynote speaker, Professor Bonnie Effros (SUNY, Binghamton).

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPANTS

Medieval Material Culture session at TAG 2006

The Theoretical Archaeology Conference 2006 is shortly to be upon us. The session I have organised to debate a future for medieval material culture studies, across disciplines and professions, ‘The spade cannot lie: fresh perspectives on medieval material culture’ will take place on Satuday 16 December at 2pm in room Newman D. I am delighted with the response to the session, both from the speakers and chair who have contributed their papers and ideas, and those who wish to know more about the MMCCn (Medieval Material Culture Communication Network). The session is supported by the Centre for Antiquity and the Middle Ages, University of Southampton. Session details…

Call for Papers: The Spade Cannot Lie*

This year the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) is holding its annual conference in Exeter (X-TAG) on 15-17 December 2006. I am organising a session called ‘ ‘The spade cannot lie’ – fresh perspectives on medieval material culture’. The session abstract is reproduced below. Please email me if you would like to give a paper, participate in the discussion afterwards or are interested in the creation of a Medieval Material Culture Communication Network.

The deadline for paper proposals is 30 September 2006 (no more than 300 words).

Construction of identity network

A group of postgraduates from the Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Southampton (which includes the School of Humanities) has established a network for research into the Construction of Identity as it relates to our various disciplines. I have been involved in the early stages of this group and we have set up a community weblog on the academically based ‘elgg.net‘ site. As a group we aim to compare our various experiences of understanding how identities are constructed and what problems we have in common when trying examine issues of identity in our fields of study. The community weblog will be on trial during the month of June and then formally launched to the world. The second most immediate aim is to compile a cross-disciplinary bibliography of titles we have used in our various fields and make this available via our community weblog. There has already been significant interest in this network from academics and postgraduates from within and outside the faculty. Please add a comment below if you are interested in find out more.

Olio e vino nell’alto medioevo

The 54th Settimana di studio (study week conference), hosted by the Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo (CISAM) was themed ‘Oil and Wine in the High Middle Ages‘ and took place in the beautiful medieval town of Spoleto, Umbria (20-26 April 2006). I was fortunate to have won one of the borsa di studio awarded to ‘foreign’ students. The majority of the Settimana took place in the Palazzo Ancaiani where CISAM are based. The conference itself was highly varied with papers ranging from the theraputic use of oil and wine (Jacquart), to oil and and wine in Byzantine liturgy (Parenti).