New Light on a Dark Age - introducing our Dark Age collections.

Submitted by Thorgrim on Sunday, 06 November 2005 Page Views: 38448

**Saffron Walden Museum** submitted by Thorgrim : Saxon weaver and child in Saffron Walden museum See main entry (Vote or comment on this photo)

Although it is more sensitively known in academic circles as the Early Medieval Period, most people still think of the period between the collapse of the Roman occupation and the beginning of the Norman oppression as 'The Dark Ages'. Why are we so much in the dark about a period in our history that saw a great flowering of art, architecture, literature and language as well as the emergence of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales? Despite our name and our prime purpose of attempting a truly comprehensive illustrated database of prehistoric sites, the Megalithic Portal does include certain types of Dark Age material. We have long included Dark Age Pictish stones and ogham carvings. More recently, we have extended that coverage to include ancient crosses and other early carved Christian stones.

To see our collection of crosses, for example, go to the Megalithic Map and select Ancient Crosses. Those shown in red have been photographed and those in green haven't yet. You will find not just the so-called Celtic crosses of Cornwall, Wales and Ireland, but also Anglo-Saxon and Viking crosses. We also include some exciting Viking stones from Scandinavia. Churches and other buildings can be seen in the gallery of Dark Age Buildings.

At this point, it might be helpful to describe our collecting policy and to explore some less well-known features of the Portal. The Megalithic Portal attempts to collect photographs and information on all of the prehistoric sites in Britain and Ireland. That work is not complete and to date we have something in excess of 17,000 photographs. We now collect material on international prehistory and members have made and are making major contributions to our understanding and appreciation of the prehistory of places like France, Germany, Scandinavia, Jordan, Malta and Gozo etc. Each site is named with its own page containing information and location with links to maps and even local weather forecasts! This is true also for sites such as Holy Wells and Dark Age crosses and carvings of one sort or another. We also show important Dark Age barrows like Sutton Hoo and earthworks such as the Wansdyke. Other important places yet to be included are the Anglo-Saxon village of West Stow and the home in Jarrow of that most important chronicler – the Venerable Bede.

The items contained in gallery of Dark Age Buildings are not linked to specific site pages and are intended to be miscellaneous photographs showing aspects of Dark Age architecture. This gallery is under construction and may change radically before long. At present in consists largely of Anglo-Saxon churches and other buildings. At the moment, all of our Roman photographs are in the Roman Gallery and a further article explaining our intentions towards Roman material is in preparation. It is not our intention to attempt a comprehensive collection of Dark Age and Roman sites. Instead we shall concentrate on the most important ones. Everyday life did not change overnight when the Neolithic became the Bronze Age or the Iron Age became the Roman occupation that then became the Dark Ages. These divisions are artificial and for our convenience. In reality, ordinary people carried on ploughing the fields, managing livestock, feeding their families, worshipping their gods and burying their dead. Few of us can tell the difference between a Bronze Age round barrow, a Saxon one and a Roman one.

The Portal has to stop somewhere and 1066 seems to be a convenient place to halt. Frequently, we are asked why we don’t include sheela-na-gigs and the simple answer is because they are medieval and there are other websites that cover them very thoroughly. We are often told that they are carvings of pagan goddesses, but we do not believe that to be so. They (and green men) are medieval sermons in stone illustrating aspects of Christian religion to an illiterate population. Because we are asked about then frequently, some may appear in the History Gallery. That gallery is a miscellaneous collection of photographs from all periods and is arranged by regions as is the Landscape Gallery. No attempt will be made to give full information about the places shown in these two galleries.

Controlled expansion to include important Roman and Dark Age sites may be deplored by the megalithic purist, but it does open up new opportunities for those of us who live in stone-less places. Those of you who live in south-east England have very little local megalithic archaeology to find and photograph. Hopefully, you will now enjoy the challenge of searching for later mounds and monuments.

Contributor Bio for Thorgrim: Contributing since 2003.

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