The subtle knife: using domestic objects to access the middle Anglo-Saxon worldview

Knox, A. (2016) The subtle knife: using domestic objects to access the middle Anglo-Saxon worldview. Archaeological Journal, 173 (2). pp. 245-263. ISSN 0066-5983 doi: 10.1080/00665983.2016.1175858

Abstract/Summary

The seventh to ninth centuries AD are understood as a period of changing worldviews with the introduction and embedding of Christianity across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In contrast to the attention afforded to the ‘ritual’ or sacred transformations of this period, relatively little has beenmade of the changing archaeological record of ‘ordinary’ or secular spaces and material cultures in order to understand this historical change in worldview. The use and significance of the domestic Anglo-Saxon knife spans both settlement and cemetery contexts. It is argued that the study of knife use and deposition reveals beliefs and worldviews expressed in everyday activities as well as in those deposits that appear ‘special’