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Digging into the Dark Ages
Early Medieval Public Archaeologies
edited by
Howard Williams and Pauline Clarke
Access Archaeology
eop
A
cha r
ess
olog Ar
y
Acces
s Archae
About Access Archaeology
Access Archaeology offers a different publishing model for specialist academic material that might
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This model may well evolve over time, but its ambition will always remain to publish archaeological
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expense on to the academic (author or reader).
eop
A
cha r
ess
olog Ar
y
Acces
s Archae
Early Medieval Public Archaeologies
edited by
Howard Williams and Pauline Clarke
Access Archaeology
eop
A
cha r
ess
olog Ar
y
Acces
s Archae
Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Summertown Pavilion
18-24 Middle Way
Summertown
Oxford OX2 7LG
www.archaeopress.com
ISBN 978-1-78969-527-4
ISBN 978-1-78969-528-1 (e-Pdf)
© The individual authors and Archaeopress 2020
Cover images:
Top-left: Donaeld the Unready’s Casket (posted to Twitter on 15 September 2018), based on the Franks Casket
(Wulgar the Bard, 2018)
Top-right: ‘Gallos’ sculpture by Rubin Eynon on the cliffs at Tintagel (Photograph: Susan Greaney)
Bottom-left: View of the 2012 third season of excavations on the western side of the mound beneath the Pillar of
Eliseg (Photograph: Howard Williams, 2012)
Bottom-right: Viðarr and Fenrir scanned from the Gosforth Cross, east side (C) (Scan by D. Powlesland with overlay
by R.Lang from Parker and Collingwood 1917: 101)
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the copyright owners.
This book is available direct from Archaeopress or from our website www.archaeopress.com
Contents
Contributors��iii
Acknowledgements�� vi
Foreword�� vii
Chiara Bonacchi
Public Archaeology for the Dark Ages�� 1

Howard Williams
with Pauline Clarke, Victoria Bounds, Sarah Bratton, Amy Dunn, James Fish, Ioan Griffiths, Megan
Hall, Joseph Keelan, Matthew Kelly, David Jackson, Stephanie Matthews, Max Moran, Niamh Moreton,
Robert Neeson, Victoria Nicholls, Sacha O’Connor, Jessica Penaluna, Peter Rose, Abigail Salt, Amelia
Studholme and Matthew Thomas
Part 1: Dark Age Debates

Keep the Dark Ages Weird: Engaging the Many Publics of Early Medieval Archaeology��20
An Interview with Adrián Maldonado
Colouring the Dark Ages: Perceptions of Early Medieval Colour in Popular Culture��31
Anne Sassin
Why do Horned Helmets still Matter?��53

Sacha O’Connor
Public Archaeology of Early Medieval Assembly Places and Practices: Þingvellir��59

Matthew Kelly
Dressing for Ragnarök? Commodifying, Appropriating and Fetishising the Vikings��65

Madeline Walsh
Part 2: The Public Dark Ages

The Vikings of JORVIK: 40 Years of Reconstruction and Re-enactment��76
Chris Tuckley
Displaying the Dark Ages in Museums��101

Howard Williams, Pauline Clarke and Sarah Bratton
Where History Meets Legend: Presenting the Early Medieval Archaeology of Tintagel Castle,
Cornwall��114
Susan Greaney
Digging up the Dark Ages in Cornwall: The Tintagel Challenge and St Piran’s Oratory
Experience��139
Jacqueline A Nowakowski and James Gossip
i
Death and Memory in Fragments: Project Eliseg’s Public Archaeology��172
Howard Williams and Suzanne Evans
Reading the Gosforth Cross: Enriching Learning through Film and Photogrammetry��193
Roger Lang and Dominic Powlesland
Crafting the Early Middle Ages: Creating Synergies between Re-enactors and Archaeologists215
An interview with Adam Parsons and Stuart Strong
Part 3: Dark Age Media

Archaeology in Alfred the Great (1969) and The Last Kingdom (2015-)��246
Victoria Nicholls and Howard Williams
‘It’s the End of the World as we Know it …’: Reforging Ragnarök through Popular Culture��252
Mark A. Hall
The #GreatHeathenHunt: Repton’s Public Early Medieval Archaeology ��268

An interview with Cat Jarman
Vikings and Virality��286

Matthew Thomas
Old Norse in the Wild West: Digital Public Engagement on YouTube��300

An interview with Jackson Crawford
The Image Hoard: Using the Past as a Palette in Discussing the Politics of the Present��320
Wulfgar the Bard
Afterword: Whose ‘Dark Ages’?��347

Bonnie Effros
ii
Contributors
Dr Chiara Bonacchi is Lecturer in Heritage at the University of Stirling, Division of History, Heritage
and Politics. She is an archaeologist with expertise in digital heritage, heritage and identity politics and
post-classical archaeology. At Stirling, she leads on research and teaching in these areas. She is CI of the
AHRC-funded Ancient Identities in Modern Britain project and the PI of the JPICH Curating Sustainable
Urban Transformation Through Heritage. Email: [email protected]
Sarah Bratton presented at the Digging into the Dark Ages conference in 2017 as a final-year student
and subsequently completed her BA (Hons) Archaeology degree at the University of Chester in 2018.
Pauline Magdalene Clarke graduated with a BA (Hons) degree in Archaeology with History in 2018,
and an MA Past Landscapes and Environments in 2019, both from the University of Chester. Her MA
dissertation focussed on the taphonomy of plant macrofossils. Email: [email protected]
Dr Jackson Crawford is Instructor of Nordic Studies and Coordinator of the Nordic Program, University
of Colorado Boulder. He has published translations of several important Norse mythical texts with
Hackett Publishing Company, including The Poetic Edda (2015), The Saga of the Volsungs (2017), and a
dual-language edition with commentary, The Wanderer’s Hávamál (2019). A pioneer in the use of digital
technology as a platform for educational outreach, he shares his expertise on Old Norse mythology and
language at jacksonwcrawford.com
Professor Bonnie Effros has held the Chaddock Chair of Economic and Social History at the University
of Liverpool since 2017. She publishes on late antique and early medieval burial in Gaul and the history
of archaeology in modern France and its colonial possessions. Her most recent monograph, Incidental
Archaeologists: French Officers and the Rediscovery of Roman North Africa (Cornell), was awarded the French
Colonial Historical Society’s 2018 Alf Andrew Heggoy Book Prize. Email: [email protected]
Suzanne Evans graduated from Bangor University before starting on a career as the History and
Archaeology lecturer at Llandrillo college. After 8 years in this role she recently left teaching to embark
on doctoral research in Archaeology at the University of Chester. Her main focus is on the later medieval
funerary monuments in Flintshire and is in the process of learning about how digital technologies can
further our understanding of archaeological monuments. Email: [email protected]
James Gossip is a Senior Archaeologist with Cornwall Archaeological Unit and has been working on a wide
variety of excavation and survey projects in Cornwall for the past 20 years. James has considerable experience
working with volunteers and is Project director of the St Piran’s Oratory project for the St Piran’s Trust.
James won a commendation for a Community Archaeologist Award from the Council of British Archaeology
in 2014 for his work on the Carwynnen Quoit project for The Sustainable Trust. He is co-excavation director
on TCARP. The work at St Piran’s Oratory continues. Email: [email protected]
Susan Greaney is a Senior Properties Historian with English Heritage, with specific research interests
in heritage interpretation and the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland. She is currently a PhD candidate at
Cardiff University and was a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker in 2019. Email: greaneyse@cardiff.
ac.uk
Dr Mark A. Hall is an archaeologist and museum curator based at Perth Museum & Art Gallery, Perth
& Kinross, Scotland, currently focused on the new museum redevelopment project for Perth. He is an
active member on several professional bodies and policy initiatives and has long-standing research
iii
interests in medieval material culture including board games and play, the cult of saints and supernatural
interactions, Pictish sculpture, cultural biography and cinematic re-imaginings of the past, on which he
has published internationally. Email: [email protected]
Dr Cat Jarman recently completed her PhD in Archaeology at the University of Bristol, specialising
in isotope analysis, the Viking Age, and Rapa Nui. She directs ongoing excavations of Viking camps at
Repton and Foremark in Derbyshire and a Rus site in Ukraine. Alongside her academic research, Cat
actively pursued numerous public engagement roles including consultancy and contributions to TV
documentaries. E-mail: [email protected]
Roger Lang is a freelance creator of 3d modelling and film-based online learning resources. His current
work is primarily for the CultureStreet.org website, supporting their delivery of a Heritage Lottery-
funded commission from ArtUk. He graduated in 1978 with a B Ed (Hons) degree from the University
of Lancaster and has recently completed an MRes in Archaeology at the University of Chester. He is a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Email: [email protected]
Dr Adrián Maldonado is Glenmorangie Research Fellow at National Museums Scotland. He previously

lectured in archaeology at the University of Glasgow and the University of Chester, where he specialised
in early Christianity in Scotland and the archaeology of death and burial. He is currently working on the
fourth phase of the Glenmorangie Research Project, entitled: Creating Scotland: Making a Nation 800-
1200 AD. Email: [email protected]
Jacqueline A Nowakowski is a freelance archaeologist and Project Director of the Tintagel Castle
Archaeological Research Project (TCARP). Formerly Principal Archaeologist at Cornwall Archaeological
Unit with over 40 years field experience on sites of all periods across the UK and abroad, Jacky has
lectured and published widely on the Bronze and Iron Ages particularly in south-west Britain. Jacky
is a passionate advocate for community archaeology and has directed many successful community
archaeology projects in Cornwall. She has a longstanding association with Tintagel and directed
excavations with the late Professor Charles Thomas in Tintagel churchyard in the 1990s. Currently,
Jacky is working with James Gossip on writing up the TCARP results for publication. Email: jackynowak@
aol.com
Matthew Kelly graduated with BA (Hons) Archaeology degree in 2018 from the University of Chester
having contributed to the Digging into the Dark Ages conference in December 2017. He is competing in the
2020 Mongol Ralley equipped with a 1989 Fiat Panda @Pandabarians Email: [email protected]
Victoria Nicholls participated in the Digging into the Dark Ages conference and subsequently completed
her single honours BA (Hons) Archaeology degree at the University of Chester in 2018.
Sacha O’Connor graduated with a BA (Hons) Archaeology degree from the University of Chester in
2018 having presented at the Digging into the Dark Ages conference as a final-year student.
Adam Parsons is an experienced professional archaeologist who has worked at Oxford Archaeology
North since 2002. He was a main author of two academic monographs: Shadows in the Sand: Excavation
of a Viking-Age Cemetery at Cumwhitton and St Michael’s Church, Workington: Excavation of an Early Medieval
Cemetery. He is a keen living-historian and runs his own small business – Blueaxe Productions –
making historical reproductions for museums, individuals, and television productions. Email:
[email protected]
Professor Dominic Powlesland is a landscape archaeologist who has been engaged in pioneering
fieldwork and landscape research in the Vale of Pickering for more than 40 years. In 2019, he was
iv
awarded the British Academy Landscape Archaeology medal for his contributions to landscape research
and digital techniques to field archaeology. He introduced the use of hand-held computers in the field
for excavation recording in 1984, has pioneered the use of large scale geophysical surveys and continues
to engage with new techniques such as digital photogrammetry for excavation and object recording. He
holds a number of honorary chairs and continues to lecture widely to audiences ranging from primary
school children to international academic conferences. Email: [email protected]
Dr Anne Sassin completed her PhD at the University of Nottingham and currently continues to lecture
in medieval archaeology, including for Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education.
Her research interests span the Roman to later medieval periods, with a particular focus on public
archaeology and heritage outreach. She currently works as a community archaeologist and has led
on several fieldwork projects in the South East of England, including the Darent Valley Landscape
Partnership Scheme in Kent. Email: [email protected]
Stuart Strong is a founding member of Cumbraland Living History. After working in Management
and Training for many years he decided to turn his passion for the early medieval period into a
full-time occupation. His business, Gear & Graith, specialises in reproducing the material culture of
Northern Britain and bringing the Viking Age alive for school children across Scotland. For more on
Cumbraland, visit www.cumbraland.com, or email [email protected], for Gear & Graith visit
www.gearandgraith.com, or email [email protected]
Matthew Thomas graduated at the University of Chester in 2018 with a BA (Hons) Archaeology degree.
He has co-authored two of an ongoing series of papers relating to the lost medieval castles of Cheshire,
as well as co-authoring the forthcoming publication of the excavations of the Iron Age settlement at
Poulton, Cheshire. His current interests include the use of emergent AI technology within archaeological
research. Through his company Archaeology3D he provides photogrammetric recording services to the
commercial archaeology and heritage sector. Email: [email protected]
Dr Chris Tuckley received his PhD at the Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds, in 2009. He
has worked for York Archaeological Trust since 2004, and is currently YAT’s Head of Interpretation and
Engagement, based at the JORVIK Viking Centre. Email: [email protected]
Madeline Walsh graduated with a BA (Hons) Archaeoogy degree in 2016 from the University of Chester
and completed a MA in Medieval Archaeology from the University of York in 2017, focusing on portable
art and gaming pieces within Medieval Northern Europe. She has also carried out fieldwork on various
multi-period sites as a commercial archaeologist and previously worked on research project Sicily in
Transition and excavations at Star Carr. Email: [email protected]
Wulfgar the Bard of University of Grantebrycge, Vinland was born in Dumnonia and was stolen away
as a small child to the islands of Insi Catt. Taken to Bryggen, in the lands of the Northmen, in his early
teens he returned to the mouth of the river Don, in Pictland, to finish his formative education. As a
young scribe he continued his studies near the mission of Saint Mungo, on the banks of the river Clut,
and then travelled, as a bard for hire, briefly in the lands of the East Angles and then, for many years, in
the Kingdom of the Franks. He has now returned to Pictland and lives in a small hovel in the Kingdom of
Fif, not far from the chapel of Saint Andrew with his wīf and four apprentices. Twitter: @wulfgarthebard
Professor Howard Williams is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Chester and researches
mortuary archaeology, archaeology and memory, the history of archaeology and public archaeology.
He regularly writes an academic blog: Archaeodeath. Email: [email protected]
v
Acknowledgements
The 2020s are set to be a testing yet crucial juncture for the study of early medieval archaeology. Never
before has the field which investigates the material cultures, monuments and landscapes of the ‘Dark
Ages’ been more integral and pivotal in contemporary popular culture and political discourse. Likewise,
the field’s intersections and dialogues with a range of other disciplines, from genomic research to
literary studies, are more complex and conflicted than ever. Spanning from the decline and fall of
the Western Roman Empire in Late Antiquity to the closing of the Viking Age (the 5th to the 11th
centuries AD), the Early Middle Ages has been long perceived as central to understanding the origins
of the peoples, religions and nations of Europe today and their emerging global context. Moreover, the
origins, history and current state of both archaeology as a whole, and the broader interdisciplinary
study of early medieval societies, owe far more to the theories, methods and discoveries of early
medieval archaeologists than is commonly admitted.
Yet, the critical investigation of early medieval archaeology’s public engagements and interactions has
rarely received sustained and serious investigation. Therefore, having previously tackled the public
archaeology of death (Williams et al. 2019a) and art/archaeology intersections in public engagement
(Williams et al. 2019b), the public archaeology of the ‘Dark Ages’ seemed an essential topic for the 3rd
University of Chester Archaeology Student Conference. This public event was organised by final-year
Archaeology students and was open to all, free of charge. Aimed at tackling a key dimension of public
archaeology in the contemporary world, the conference was hosted by Cheshire West and Cheshire’s
Grosvenor Museum on 13 December 2017.
Titled ‘Digging into the Dark Ages’, the conference comprised of two guest speakers and 20 student
contributions. It served as an academic and public engagement event for the Department of History and
Archaeology and the University. It also operated as a formative exercise for students who subsequently
produced summative written assignments based on their findings. The conference equally afforded
students with transferable skills in public speaking and event organisation. Furthermore, the research
conducted on topics of the students’ own choosing gave an opportunity for those willing and able to
pursue their investigations further towards publication. Contributions from, and interviews with,
heritage professionals and academics were commissioned, peer-reviewed, collated and edited during
2018 and 2019, creating a book which combines the work of experts and student voices, tackling early
medieval public archaeologies from varied and fresh perspectives.
The editors wish to extend thanks to colleagues in the Department of History and Archaeology at the
University of Chester, especially, Dr Caroline Pudney, Dr Kara Critchell and Professor Meggen Gondek.
The conference was only possible because of its hosts, and we extend heartfelt thanks to all the staff of
Cheshire West and Cheshire’s Grosvenor Museum, notably the late Dr Peter Boughton. Thanks also to
then-University of Chester postgraduate researcher Ben Wills-Eve for guiding the students in preparing
for the event. We also thank the guest speakers, Dr Chiara Bonacchi and Dr Adrián Maldonado, who
enhanced the conference by exploring key dimensions of the issues at play, drawing on their respective
expertise. We are grateful to Chiara for agreeing to compose the Foreword and to Professor Bonnie
Effros for crafting a broad-ranging Afterword. Finally, we appreciate the unflinching support of our
publishers: Archaeopress.
Williams, H., B. Wills-Eve, J. Osborne (eds) 2019a. The Public Archaeology of Death. Sheffield: Equinox.
Williams, H., C. Pudney and A. Ezzeldin (eds) 2019b. Public Archaeology: Arts of Engagement. Oxford: Archaeopress.
vi
Foreword
Chiara Bonacchi
From early engagements with history in the classroom to family visits of the JORVIK Viking Centre,
from teenager discoveries of Tolkien’s epic novels to TV viewings of The Last Kingdom in later adulthood,
our everyday experiences have impressed upon our minds and hearts powerful but personalised imag-
es of what Nick Merriman called the ‘official’ past (Merriman 1991). These realms are constructions of
knowing and feeling that may be more or less persistent. These images not only shape our understand-
ing of the world as we see it, but stay attached to some of our deepest emotions; they are intermingled
with our fears, hopes and dreams of safety, self-worth and acceptance. Endeavouring to understand the
processes through which the past is presenced is one of the most important facets of our profession as
archaeologists and historians (Bonacchi 2014, 2018; Brophy 2018).
This volume reveals a range of ‘images’ of the early medieval past in contemporary society. It compris-
es an anthology of essays and interview-based chapters authored by researchers working in an array of
different institutions as well contributions by former student who participated in the 2017 conference.
Together, they provide a rich variety of perspectives into the contemporary framing of the ‘Dark Ages’.
‘Darkness’ still remains, within British and European society, one of the properties that are most frequent-
ly associated with the mid–late first millennium AD. I remember reading through substantive reports
of evaluations made by large London-based museums on the public perceptions of the medieval period
for my doctoral research. They were filled with focus group participants’ descriptions of this epoch as a
‘foreign country’ (Lowenthal 1985) that is poorly lit, and mostly dull, cold, dump and technologically ret-
rograde. Several years have passed since then and, building on previous studies, my latest investigations
into the present-day use of the Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman periods1 have showed how these ideas
can be tied to exclusive narratives of ‘self’ and ‘otherness’ that bear dire social and political implications.
This book is, however, particularly effective in complicating the picture I have just portrayed and in
bringing to light counter-narratives that reflect on the ‘dark’ sides of the Dark Ages in ways that go
beyond the shadow cast in the early modern period and crystallised via the transformational writings
of Edward Gibbon (1776). The idea of the ‘Fall’ of the Roman Empire and its intermittent and variously
contested fortune in historiography (e.g. Brown 1971; Ward-Perkins 2005; ) is alive in – amongst others
– TV series, videos shared on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook conversations about the ‘destiny’ of poli-
ties such as the United States or supra-national ones like the European Union (Bonacchi et al. 2018). Yet,
being ‘dark’ can also carry elements of fascination, and those elements, whether accurate or inaccurate,
may serve as compelling forces leading visitors to sites like Tintagel, or to participate in Viking re-en-
actment, to name just two of the examples provided in the chapters that follow.
Navigating issues relating to authority, interpretation, accuracy, appeal and value, this collection is the
first focused attempt to shed light on the public lives of the ‘Dark Ages’ as both ‘retrotopias’ (Bauman
2017) and ‘retrophobias’, and as personally appropriated histories that are performed across online and
offline fields of human activity and heritage crafting.
1
This has been undertaken in the context of the AHRC-funded project Ancient Identities in Modern Britain, which is a
collaboration between Durham University and the University of Stirling (grant n. AH/N006151/1; https://www.dur.ac.uk/
research/directory/view/?mode=project&id=944).
vii
Bibliography
Bauman, Z. 2017. Retrotopia. Malden: Polity.

Bonacchi, C. 2014. Understanding the public experience of archaeology in the UK and Italy: a call for a
‘sociological’ movement in public archaeology. European Journal of Post-Classical Archaeologies 4: 377–440,
http://www.postclassical.it/PCA_vol.4_files/PCA%204_Bonacchi.pdf.
Bonacchi, C. 2018. Public archaeology cannot just ‘fly at dusk’: the reality and complexities of generat-
ing public impact. Antiquity 92(366): 1659–1661.
Bonacchi, C., M. Altaweel and M. Krzyzanska 2018 The Heritage of Brexit: roles of the past in the con-
struction of political identities through social media. Journal of Social Archaeology 18(2): 174–192.
Brophy, K. 2018. The Brexit hypothesis and prehistory. Antiquity 92(366): 1650–1658.
Brown, P. 1971. The World of Late Antiquity: from Marcus Aurelius to Muhammad. London: Thames and Hud-
son.
Gibbon, E. 1776. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell.
Lowenthal, D. 1985. The Past is a Foreign Country. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Merriman, N. 1991. Beyond the Glass Case: the Past, the Heritage and the public in Britain. Leicester: Leicester
University Press.
Ward-Perkins, B. 2005. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
viii
Public Archaeology for the Dark Ages
Howard Williams
with Pauline Clarke, Victoria Bounds, Sarah Bratton, Amy Dunn, James Fish, Ioan Griffiths,
Megan Hall, Joseph Keelan, Matthew Kelly, David Jackson, Stephanie Matthews, Max Moran,
Niamh Moreton, Robert Neeson, Victoria Nicholls, Sacha O’Connor, Jessica Penaluna, Peter Rose,
Abigail Salt, Amelia Studholme and Matthew Thomas
This introductory chapter identifies the principal issues and themes in the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages,
exploring the specific and compelling challenges of investigating and evaluating the early medieval past in contemporary
society mediated by archaeology. In doing so, we review and contextualise the contributions to the 3rd University of Chester
Archaeology Student conference: ‘Digging into the Dark Ages’, which took place at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 13
December 2017. The resulting book comprises a selection of the student contributions and a range of additional chapters by
heritage professionals and academics. The book’s structure and contents are then outlined: the first-ever collection dedicated
to ‘Dark Age’ public archaeology. It is argued that for future research, critical public archaeologies are essential for ethical and
engaging early medieval archaeology in both theory and practice.
Introduction1
Professor Broom (played by actor Ian McShane) narrates the opening sequence of 2019 film Hellboy
(starring David Harbour and Milla Jovovich). King Arthur and Merlin ride to Pendle Hill to confront
Nimue, the Queen of Blood, and her creatures of darkness. Broom sets the scene: ‘The year is 517 AD,
known as the Dark Ages, and for f**king good reason’ (Hellboy 2019).
Two years before, in 2017, the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu returned after 23 years of retirement from the
music industry with a three-day socially critical art event in Liverpool called ‘Welcome to the Dark Ages’.
With multiple striking funerary archaeological undertones, they launched the ‘Toxteth Day of the Dead’
and announced their plan to build a ‘People’s Pyramid’ comprised of bricks containing human cremated
remains.2
A year earlier still, to distinguish the traces of 5th–7th-century buildings revealed by excavation and on
display to visitors from the nearby ruins of the 13th-century castle on, English Heritage’s indoor displays
and on-site interpretation boards were updated at Tintagel (Cornwall), calling its early medieval phase
a ‘Dark Age’ (Williams 2016a). The term’s widespread deployment on site was part of the redesign of
this premier heritage destination involving new art and installations. The Arthurian allusions ‘Tintagel:
where history meets legend’) and ‘Dark Age’ label together prompted a storm of protest in 2016. Some
academics supported a social media campaign to convince English Heritage to ‘#stopthedarkages’.
Meanwhile some locals and Cornish nationalists were furious at the ‘disneyfication’ of the site as well as
the derogatory ‘Dark Age’ epithet (Williams 2016b; Greaney this volume).
From Hollywood films to the KLF to English Heritage: the ‘Dark Ages’ remain an eclectic, mutable,
contentious but unquestionably widespread frame of reference in contemporary society. There seem
1
The chapter was authored by Howard Williams with input from Pauline Clarke. The entire student group are credited for
their ideas and arguments which were presented at the student conference, adapted for their assignments, and a selection
are published in this collection. Their choices and endeavours have shaped this Introduction and the book project.
2
https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/weird-events-klf-welcome-dark-ages-2132941
1
to be many different intersecting ‘Dark Ages’, bearing complex, contradictory and controversial
social, religious, economic and political associations. They also harbour varying degrees of negative
and positive, real-world and fantastical bearings, and embody both educational and performative
political dimensions (see also Elliot 2017: 55–77). Only some of these ‘Dark Ages’ relate directly to
how contemporary society engages with and judges the material evidence of the centuries following
the decline and collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Others relate to the popular perception of
later medieval societies and materialities. Further ‘Dark Ages’ are fixated more with our anxieties and
imaginings about the future of our ‘civilization’, its communities, built environments and late-modern
consumerism.
In this context, how do the material cultures of the early medieval period (defined here as the 5th–
11th centuries AD, and including graves, settlements, artefacts, art, inscriptions, architectures and
landscapes), manifest themselves and acquire meanings and significance in our contemporary world?
Within the complex entanglement of archaeology with contemporary culture and politics, what
specific issues are faced for the public engagement and politics of ‘Dark Age’ societies mediated by
their material traces? How do we promote some narratives and discourage and counter misleading and
dangerous stories? What are archaeologists’ ethicial considerations and responsibilities to improve the
ways in which we engage and educate global publics, involve new audiences, attract new participants
and practitioners, and tackle misconceptions of, the middle and later first millennium AD?
A starting point is to recognise that ‘public archaeology’, as identified and explored cogently by
Gabriel Moshenska (2017), incorporates not only the practice and critical evaluation of public outreach
(archaeologists working with the public) and community archaeology (archaeology by the public),
but also the practice and investigation of public-sector archaeology, including heritage conservation,
management and interpretation of artefacts, monuments, sites, architectures and landscapes. The
field of public archaeology also extends to archaeology deployed in educational environments, and to
strategies and approaches in digital and open archaeology that seek to bring archaeological knowledge
to wider and diverse audiences. Furthermore, public archaeology incorporates the practice and appraisal
of the communication and dissemination of archaeological knowledge via the media and throughout
popular culture, including intersections between real and imagined past times and a range of present-
day landscapes, monuments and material cultures, including archaeologists’ investigations of the early
medieval past as a ‘brand’ within our contemporary ‘experience’ society (Morrison 2000; Holtorf 2007).
Public archaeology also endeavours to evaluate and critique the politics of archaeology, including
how archaeologists might operate as public intellectuals and political voices in contemporary society
(Tarlow and Nilsson Stutz 2013; Nilsson Stutz 2018). Thus, in tackling ‘public archaeology’ for the ‘Dark
Ages’ in this broad and multi-faceted way, we situate public archaeology, following both Grima (2016:
54) and Moshenska (2017), as a disciplinary practice and theoretical orientation that investigates both
archaeologists’ voices and practices in the contemporary world. Indeed, arguably of all periods of the
human past, the Early Middle Ages faces some of the most enduring challenges: the cocktail of immense
popularity but also widespread ethnic, religious and racial stereotypes, and thus enduring popular
appeal and political uses and appropriations.
Yet this is not all, following Almansa (2018), we must consider public archaeology as itself a critical
theory of archaeology, one which opens new trajectories for research and public engagement. For a
robust public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages, we must tackle head-on the popular culture of
archaeological narratives, critiquing not only the presence of words, symbols and ideas of medieval origin,
but also evaluations of the complex uses and reuses of early medieval artefacts, buildings, monuments
and landscapes, and considering their reproduction and replication, life-histories and popular cultural
resonances down to, and in, contemporary communities and environments as well as printed and digital
2
Williams: Public Archaeology for the Dark Ages
spaces (Jones 2004; Foster and Jones 2019). Central to this is a greater investigation of who is doing what,
and for whom, in the study of the early medieval past: revaluating its creators, participants and audiences.
Having set the scene, let us now consider some specific dimensions to public early medieval archaeologies.
While we recognise the broader European and global contexts, our attention here focuses on the UK.
The politics and popular culture of the ‘Dark Ages’

How are archaeologists investigating the ‘Dark Ages’ in contemporary society? In the UK, and indeed in
much of northern and western Europe, ‘public archaeology’ debates and practices strongly feature the
early medieval period, from television documentaries to museum displays. The 5th–11th centuries AD
is frequently perceived as the ‘Dark Ages’ in popular discussions: characterised in terms of ‘barbarian’
invasions, Christian conversion, and kingdom formation. Present-day concepts of identity, faith
and origin myths are seemingly indelibly linked and revitalised through nationalist, colonialist and
imperialist discourses which appropriate and mobilise the early medieval period in complex interleaving
fashions (e.g. Effros 2003: 1–70; Geary 2001; Sommer 2017).
Yet increasingly, and particularly over the last half-century, archaeological discoveries, analyses and
syntheses are contributing towards fundamental revaluations of traditional historical narratives and
their racial and religious underpinnings, as well as the many legendary and mythological elements that
have sometimes been treated as historical and archaeological events and processes (e.g. Carver 2019;
Halsall 2013; Higham and Ryan 2013; Hills 2003; Harland 2019; Oosthuizen 2019). Archaeologists can offer
new discoveries, but also distinctive stories and fresh paradigms, operating on a range of scales, media
and contexts, in which the social, political, economic and religious histories of early medieval Europe
can be told. Having said this, how can archaeologists do this while popular culture retains static and
out-moded narratives for the era (see Content and Williams 2010). Moreover, are we hampered by still-
popular accounts of the period, including James Campbell’s (1982) The Anglo-Saxons and Michael Wood’s
(1981) In Search of the Dark Ages, which whilst engaging are now decades old and no longer represent the
latest archaeological research and thinking?
While there have been numerous prominent community archaeology and public engagement projects
with an early medieval focus, including notably the Sedgeford project (Faulkner 2000) and the ongoing
Dig Ventures/Durham University dig at Lindisfarne,3 the explicit and extended investigation of the
‘public archaeology’ for early medieval Europe, including the many sub-dimensions Moshenska (2017)
identifies, has to date escaped detailed academic attention. While academics themselves explore the
period in relation to nuanced perspectives and are critical of out-moded racial and culture-historic
narratives, fantastical and simplistic narratives persist in popular culture without detailed exploration
or rebuke. For Anglo-Saxon archaeology, to take one region by way of example, to date there have been
very few studies attempting to evaluate some of the principal educational and popular interactions with
archaeological evidence, sites and narratives (see Lucy and Herring 1999; Marzinzik 2011; Walsh and
Williams 2019; Williams 2009) and fewer still that situate these in relation to prevalent pseudo-historical
narratives for early medieval Britain more broadly, from ‘Arthur’ to ‘Alfred’ (see Halsall 2013). There
are, to date, only a small number of studies which have tackled further material ‘early medievalisms’,
including music and intangible heritages of the early medieval past (Ashby and Schofield 2015); the
biographies and replications of early medieval stone sculpture (e.g. Jones 2004; Foster and Jones 2019);
re-enactment societies and festivals (Kobiałka 2013); the early medieval period as represented in films
and television programmes (e.g. Hall 2004, 2009; Sanmark and Williams 2019); heritage experiences
of ‘time travel’ to the late prehistoric/early historic past (e.g. Holtorf 2013); and finally, the broader
popular culture consumption of the early medieval past (see now Dale 2019).
3
https://digventures.com/lindisfarne/
3
In this context, there is a pressing need to extend and develop critical historiographies of early
medieval archaeology, such as the research conducted on the nineteenth-century origins of Anglo-
Saxon archaeology and how its definitions and interpretations, inspired by theories of race, religion
and class, have continued to shape both specialist and popular attitudes towards the Adventus Saxonum
and the origins of England (Lucy 1998; McCombe 2011; Williams 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2008, 2013;
see also Effros 2003; 2012). Furthermore, public archaeological research must build upon evaluations
of how we envision and display early medieval archaeological contexts for both academic and popular
audiences (Gardeła 2016; Watson and Williams 2019; Williams 2009; Williams 2016c). Additional key
dimensions of public archaeology relating to the Early Middle Ages includes digital public archaeology,
such as blogging (e.g. Meyers and Williams 2014; Williams and Atkin 2015; Williams 2019a) and video-
blogging (Tong et al. 2015) as both media for public engagement and academic critique.
To do this we can take inspiration from the growing number of literary and interdisciplinary studies of
medievalism (e.g. Albin et al. 2019; Alexander 2007; Elliott 2017; Harty 2011; Sturtevant 2017; Wollenberg
2018). However, to date, such studies of ‘medievalism’ remain literary and historical in focus. To extend
their evaluations to archaeological and heritage dimensions and stakeholder communities, as well as
to digital environments, archaeology must be front and centre as theory, method, practice and data.
Why is this project particularly timely?
There are a series of more specific contexts that justify why this book is not only timely but essential.
The last decade has seen an upsurge in early medieval academic research operating in a complex and
evolving digital media (Williams et al. 2019b). Particularly in the last few years, academic discoveries
and publications have benefitted from open-access digital publication, with the peer-reviewed articles
disseminated via stories composed on online news media platforms, facilitating ‘viral’ coverage. A notable
and ‘viral’ early medieval global news story was the osteological and genomic reinterpretation of the
Birka Bj581 chamber grave dating to the 10th century AD as a female-sexed individual and thus perhaps a
‘warrior-woman’: the real-world equivalent to Lagertha from the popular TV series Vikings (Hedenstierna
Jonson et al. 2017; Price et al. 2019). Another example is the re-dating of the mass-graves and furnished
inhumation burials from Repton, Derbyshire to confirm an association with the Great Heathen Army’s
over-wintering in 873–874 (Jarman et al. 2018). During 2019, the publication and media stories of the
‘Prittlewell Prince’ offers a further prominent instance of a carefully strategised launch of a new museum
exhibition, academic and popular publications, and press releases to the media (Hirst and Scull 2019).
These examples provoke us to reconsider how digital media are affecting how we disseminate and debate
early medieval scholarship, with many scholars engaging with social media, via blogs and for digital
platforms like The Conversation alongside journals and books. Through dialogues with journalists, as well
as more direct means of engagement such as academic open-access digital publication and a range of new
media, including podcasts and video blogging, early medieval enthusiasts subsequently engage with new
audiences and debate evolve rapidly online regarding archaeological discoveries and analyses (see also
Williams 2018; 2019b). Yet this also prompts many new challenges, and genomic research and popular
consumption is fostering a host of new challenges, including the popular uncritical dissemination of race
science through both ancient and modern DNA research (see Booth 2018; see Maldonado this volume).
The Early Middle Ages is more than just in the news and online: it can be a prominent part of immersive
mass-entertainment too. In recent years it has exponentially enhanced its profile in Western popular
culture through television documentaries, but particularly via a revitalised craze of the Victorian fantasy
and popular historic renditions. The ‘Dark Ages’ are thus commercialised and manifest through the arts
and entertainment industries (see also Ashby and Schofield 2015; Trafford and Pluskowski 2007; Dale 2019).
Fictional versions inspired by the early medieval past have a long history, but they are now proliferating
like never before and via a host of media: via printed fiction, video games, television dramas and films. Over
4
the last two decades, versions of imaginary

‘Dark Ages’ can be experienced via Skyrim
to Vikings and The Last Kingdom, inspirations
from Norse mythology including American
Gods and the Marvel Thor comics and
movies, and fantasy genres heavily inspired
by medieval mythology, history and
archaeology, including Game of Thrones, The
Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (Larrington
2016; Ford Burley 2019; Hall 2004; 2009;
Tveskov and Erlandson 2007; Williams
2019a). It is increasingly apparent that the
‘Dark Ages’ is alive and well in our popular
culture via many guises, sometimes directly
inspired by archaeological interpretations
and narratives, often wholly disconnected Figure 1: the student-designed logo for the ‘Digging into
from academic discourse. Moreover, this the Dark Ages’ conference
panoply of renditions require detailed
investigations by those trained as archaeologists and familiar with early medieval material culture. Indeed,
lead researchers are increasingly aware that we cannot ignore these detailed and rich entanglements
with archaeological evidence and interpretations, but explore them and their implications for our own
storytelling (e.g. Dale 2019; Price 2015).
The Dark Ages is darker still than popular science news and entertainment, however. Indeed, the
aesthetics and stories of the Early Middle Ages have long fostered extremist fantasies about the past
but these have expanded and intensified in recent years (e.g. Ford Burley 2019). Notably, the global
popularist and far-right’s appropriations of Germanic and Norse material culture, myths and symbols
has garnered scholarly attention, including how we evaluate it, and how we position ourselves and our
scholarship in response to it (Bonacchi
et al. 2018; Niklasson and Hølleland
2018; Richardson and Booth 2017).
In particular, following the ‘Unite
the Right’ rally of 13 May 2017
in Charlottesville, Virginia, and
subsequently with citations to the
early medieval past in the message
left behind by the shooter who
massacred worshippers in a mosque
in Christchurch (New Zealand)
in March 2019, medievalists have
witnessed further instances of the
longer-term close proximity of toxic
extremism with fantasies of racial
purity and national origins within
white supremacist and Islamophobic
discourses (see also Elliott 2017;
Figure 2: Final-year archaeology students participating in Wollenberg 2018). In addition to
the student conference in December 2017 at the Grosvenor
these global concerns, for the UK,
Museum
the early medieval past is contested
on multiple scales simultaneously
5
between different religious, ethnic and socio-

political groups, as witnessed, for example, in the
mobilisation of the end of Rome and the ‘Dark
Ages’ in defining positions and arguments in
both the 2014 IndyRef and 2016 Brexit referenda
debates (Bonacchi et al. 2018: Brophy 2018;
Gardner 2017; Gardner and Harrison 2017).
Building on this intense and divisive political
environment, there had been multiple
controversies regarding the uses and abuses of
the Early Middle Ages in academia, the heritage
sector and museums. A good example of this is
the aforementioned #stopthedarkages reaction
to the use of the term ‘Dark Ages’ on heritage
boards at Tintagel, Cornwall and in English
Heritage’s broader educational and public-facing
literature (Hicks 2017; see also Williams 2016a
and b). Likewise, the debate surrounding the
re-display of the Viking gallery in the National
Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen has led to
public disagreements between scholars and the
public over the involvement of non-specialists
in the creation of the display, notably its more
anachronistic and speculative representations of
Figure 3: Dr Chiara Bonacchi (left), Prof. Howard Wil-
Viking people (Pentz et al. 2019; Sindbæk 2019).
liams (centre) and Dr Adrián Maldonado (right) at the
Other pertinent strands of debate have emerged conference, December 2017
since the conference, prompted by a growing
awareness of the early medieval past’s use by
the far-right. Notably, the merits of using the term ‘Anglo-Saxon’ for scholars and scholarship when
investigating the Early Middle Ages has been challenged afresh (Pitts 2020). These debates demand robust
correctives and critique from archaeologists, for whom ethnic terms have long been widely deployed for
both specialist and public-facing media to communicate the material cultures of the Early Middle Ages.
Given this background, when tasking the final-year single honours Archaeology students at the
University of Chester in the 2017–2018 academic year to tackle a theme in public archaeology as part of
the module ‘HI6001 Archaeology and Contemporary Society’, a focus on the Early Middle Ages seemed
potentially rich and rewarding as well as timely. The previous two student conferences had already
incorporated distinctive critiques of early medieval monuments and material culture in heritage and
museum environments as well as the Early Middle Ages in digital media (Evans and Williams 2019;
Gardeła 2019; Walsh and Williams 2019; Watson and Williams 2019; Williams and Alexander 2019;
Williams and Evans 2019; Williams 2019a; 2019b; Williams et al. 2019). Consequently, the third University
of Chester Archaeology Student Conference, which took place on 13 December 2017, was thus called
‘Digging into the Dark Ages’. This title consciously encapsulated the stereotype of ‘Dark Ages’ as
a popular, but non-ethnically specific term for the period: one readily understood yet fraught with
problems. Meanwhile, the title also deployed a double entendre for ‘digging’, evoking both the practical
discoveries and insights into the period afforded by archaeology, and the intellectual ‘digging’ of the
past through critical evaluation of archaeology’s narratives and public engagements.
Having identified why this book is timely, let us now sketch the conference proceedings.
6
The ‘Digging into the Dark Ages’ conference
The 3rd University of Chester Archaeology Student Conference was a public and free day conference,
organised by final-year archaeology students and hosted by the Grosvenor Museum, Chester. It was a
formative exercise leading to a summative assignment for the students involved, but it equally served
as a public forum for debating a distinctive theme in public archaeological research. Simultaneously,
through the event, and its digital presence in the form of a Wordpress blog site, it served as an example
of public outreach in itself.4 Note: while the first and second student conferences had been recorded
for video, the sensitive nature of some of the topics presented by students was such that we felt it best
not to share via social media to uphold our duty of care within the context of a University educational
activity (cf. Morgan 2018) (Figures 1 and 2).
The conference followed the format of previous conferences (see Williams et al. 2019c). In total, 20
students presented their work across six themed sessions addressing: (i) debates; (ii) entertainment; (iii)
heritage displays; (iv) digital themes; (v) commercial and consumerism dimensions; and (vi) heritage
management and political contestations of the Early Middle Ages. The conference thus explored both
analogue and digital mechanisms for public engagement and participation in archaeological research
into the Early Middle Ages, as well as popular, economic and political appropriations of the Early Middle
Ages through its archaeology. The student talks were augmented by question-and-answer sessions.
The Guest Lectures
The conference was enriched considerably through the contributions of two keynote speakers. Chiara
Bonacchi (University of Stirling) presented a case study in digital archaeology, evaluating how the end of
the Western Roman Empire was mobilised in debates surrounding the Brexit referendum (subsequently
published: Bonacchi et al. 2018). Meanwhile, Adrián Maldonado (National Museum of Scotland) explored the
misuse of palaeogenetics and modern DNA in narratives surrounding the early medieval past (addressed in
Maldonado, this volume; see also Booth 2018). Both guest lectures afforded the students and other delegates
superb present-day case studies in the investigation of the uses and abuses of archaeological evidence and
narratives in personal and political contexts (Figure 3).
Dark Age Debates
The first session comprised three presentations which tackled broad contemporary issues in the public
perception and engagement with the early medieval past. Ioan Griffiths reviewed the use of the term
‘Dark Ages’ and found its use rife outside of academic literature, including in newspaper articles and
media debates as a derogatory term applied to people, institutions and situations typified by ignorant,
prejudiced, superstitious and old-fashioned attitudes and ideas (see also Elliott 2017). He identified its
mixed response among historians and archaeologists when applied to the Early Middle Ages itself (e.g.
see Halsall 2013; Hicks 2017) and found it rarely used by heritage organisations, with many clearly
avoiding the term, with the exception of Tintagel where the term ‘Dark Ages’ was common (see also
Williams 2017; Greaney this volume). Griffiths had further distinctive points to make, speculating
that the term specifically maximised associations with ‘mystery’ and the Arthurian allusions of this
prominent heritage attraction. Griffiths’s second point was that it is not merely in political discourses
in which ‘Dark Age’ is deployed in a derogatory fashion (Elliott 2017): it is actually widely deployed
rhetorically in medical and biological literature as a term implying backward and ignorant methods
and remedies. In short, scientists and academics are evidently as guilty as politicians and the media in
perpetuating the widespread use of ‘Dark Ages’ to allude to a myth of progress.
4
https://diggingintothedarkages.wordpress.com/
7
Next, Sacha O’Connor tackled the

topic of the iconic significance of
horned helmets in contemporary
society in ‘Why do horned helmets
still matter?’ (see O’Connor this
volume). This was followed by
Matthew Kelly who considered
the Icelandic althing site of
Thingvellir in relation to heritage
interpretation and extremist
appropriations (see Kelly this
volume).
Together these three presentations

served to identify the complex
ways in which archaeological ideas
interact with fiction, fantasy and
politics in popular culture. Yet
Figure 4: Skyrim archaeology explored by Stephanie Matthews
while the iconic horned helmet
might be regarded as floating free
of real-world moorings in heritage sites, monuments and landscapes (see also Ward 2000), the term
‘Dark Ages’ persists in relation to particular heritage sites (see Greaney this volume), while nationalist
myths of origin are very much alive and well in the presentation of Þingvellir.
Dark Age Entertainment
The second conference session explored the reception of the Dark Ages in the arts, focusing on video
games, film and television (see also Hall 2004, 2009, this volume; Harmes 2017; Harty 2011; Tveskov and
Erlandson 2007; Williams 2019a).
In ‘Dark Age video games: authenticity and arms in Skyrim’, Stephanie Matthews evaluated the action
role-playing video game The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim (Figure 4). This virtual gaming world is populated by
fantastical ruins, architectures and material cultures: an epic adventuring environment inspired by
Old Norse legends and myths through the lens of 20th/early 21st-century fantasy literature, Matthews
focused on the authenticity of the martial gear as a playful engagement with an imagined ‘early
medieval’ universe (for context, see Copplestone 2017; Reinhard 2018). The weapons, body armour,
shields and helmets were shown to be starkly fantastical, with little relationship to known early medieval
equivalents. Matthews insightfully recognised a relatively close similarity between the Skyrim war
hammer and the axe-hammer from the early seventh-century ship-burial beneath Mound 1 at Sutton
Hoo, Suffolk, whether by coincidence or not. Following Meyers Emery and Reinhard (2015), she argued
that the game creates an aura of pastness (see also Copplestone 2017), but also that many of the detailed
misconceptions might provide the basis for constructive public discussions and debates about the ‘real’
early medieval past. Moreover, there is both the technology to enable, and the appetite among gamers,
for more authentic early medieval pasts to be portrayed in future immersive experiences in virtual
worlds provided by this popular medium.
Next, in the presentation ‘Archaeology in Alfred the Great (1969) and The Last Kingdom (2015–)’, Victoria
Nicholls compared the representations of the late 9th-century West Saxon landscape, including its
worked landscapes, buildings and costumes in the film starring David Hemmings and the first season
of the recent television adaption of Bernard Cornwell’s The Saxon Stories starring Alexander Dreymon.
8
She was able to show anachronisms and issues of authenticity abound in each production, focusing
on dress accessories, weapons, ships, halls, fortresses and battlefields. She concluded that the decades
that divide them do not readily see an improved attention to detail or plausibility in recreating a ‘Dark
Age’ world. This talk has been developed further in the context of this book (Nicholls and Williams this
volume).
James Fish then tackled the significance of the great hall in the television drama Vikings: ‘The great
hall in Vikings: fact and fiction’. He presented the evidence for early medieval halls before considering
the centrality of the hall, its external features, internal fittings, and its varied functions for feasting,
ceremony, and many other activities. Fish also explored the personalisation of halls for different
characters, seeing that while many details are speculative, attention has been afforded to creating
a sense of poorly lit but lavishly adorned dwellings that were at the heart of social, political, legal,
cultic and economic life in mid–late first millennium AD Scandinavia and in the legends and myths that
stemmed from this world.
The fourth and final contribution to the Dark Age Entertainment session, by Peter Rose, considered the
representations of the Early Middle Ages in the time-travel science fiction series Stargate SG-1 (1997–
2007). As well as portraying a fictional archaeologist as a scientific detective and adventurer (see Holtorf
2007 for context), in the Season 1 episode ‘Thor’s Hammer’ the Norse god Thor is revealed to be an
alien being. The plot incorporates an encounter with a stone monumental version of a Viking-period
Thor’s hammer pendant set atop of free-standing early medieval cross-shaft. In crude terms, therefore,
despite the fantastical plot, the show reveals a degree of attention to ‘Viking’ artefacts and carved stone
monuments. Moreover, tellingly, Thor himself wears headgear clearly inspired by the Gjermundbu
helmet, and thus without the stereotypical horns.
In combination, the four presentations in this session afforded a sense of the wide range of fashions
by which early medieval archaeology permeates Western popular culture. While the ‘Vikings’ are
preeminent, fantasy worlds draw their inspirations far wider, and through multiple generations of
epic adaptions via Tolkien and other writers, before they are rendered in video games. Archaeological
engagement with these genres need not focus on criticism and denouncement, but upon using
both stereotypes and misunderstandings as platforms with which to tackle new approaches and
interpretations of the archaeological record (see also Williams 2019a).
Displaying the Dark Ages
The third conference session comprised a triad of papers exploring how the early medieval past is
curated and displayed in museum contexts, a topic that has received sparse published discussion to
date (Lucy and Herring 1999; Walsh and Williams 2019; Williams 2009). The expectation for displays to
go beyond, and challenge, our stereotypes, is a pressing need for current and future heritage sites and
museums (e.g. Ashby 2014).
Sarah Bratton’s talk – ‘So ‘dark’ you can hardly see it: the Early Middle Ages in the museums of Chester
and Liverpool’ – identified the relatively limited attention afforded to the early medieval past in
museums in the North West of England. Her contribution has been adapted and developed for inclusion
in this book (Williams et al. this volume).
In ‘Jorvik’s re-opening explored’, Robert Neeson considered the 2017 re-launch of JORVIK Viking Centre
having been closed to undergo a significant overhaul following the damage caused by the 2015 flooding
of York city. The contribution to this volume by Tuckley takes up and contextualises the re-launch, but
Neeson in particular emphasised the Centre’s use of the axe as an icon of York’s Viking past. This was
9
not only because of the axe as a Norse weapon and tool, but specifically through the association with
the name of the tenth-century king of Northumbria: the Norwegian Eric Bloodaxe.
Amelia Studholme then evaluated the distinctive open-air museum of West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village,
near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in her talk ‘Re-enacting the Early Middle Ages’. She reflected on her
experiences of visiting the museum and witnessing a re-enactment display (see also Holtorf 2013). The talk
also considered West Stow’s biannual RingQuest: drawing on the popularity of The Lord of the Rings to have
an orc in residence! Studholme drew on Johnson’s (2015) discussion of the theatrics and somatic power of
historical re-enactment to engage children with the early medieval past and experimental archaeology.
The Digital Dark Ages
The fourth session explored digital archaeology, for which there is a burgeoning literature but there
remains scant published literature addressing and evaluating the specific interdisciplinary and
archaeology themes and challenges associated with engaging publics in the Early Middle Ages (but see
Richardson and Booth 2017).
Amy Dunn considered ‘The digital public archaeology of early medieval stone monuments’, making
a case that many churches do not appreciate, conserve or interpret the unique carved stone
monuments in their custody for visitors, in part due to limited funds and the lack of expertise
guidance. Meanwhile, information and images available online are of variable detail and quality.
Using churches in Cheshire, Lancashire and the Isle of Man as case studies, she identified the effective
uses of Wikipedia and websites for some churches. Dunn highlighted the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon
Stone Sculpture and lauded their extensive online digital corpus, and suggested online information
and resources could be created to further public engagement. The chapter by Lang and Powlesland in
this volume takes up this challenge.
Next, Matthew Thomas’s ‘Vikings and virality’ explored how we must more effectively target our digital
engagement to target questions asked via the search engine Google (see Thomas this volume). Focusing
on the story of Viking warrior women promulgated virally via online news outlets and social media
provides a valuable case study to reflect on the rich potentials and challenges of appealing to popular
public interests in the early medieval past (Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. 2017; Price et al. 2019).
Finally, Joseph Keelan tackled the digital media explosion that surrounded the 2017 American Journal of
Physical Anthropology open-access publication on Birka Bj581 (Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. 2017). ‘Viking
warrior women? The Birka chamber grave and its impact on the media’ considered the huge scale and
conflicting views expressed in the media regarding the identity of the individual in grave Bj581 and why
it was such a controversial and appealing story.
Selling the Dark Ages
This significant theme was tackled by four talks in the fifth session, each identifying and critiquing
ways in which early medieval material cultures are commodified by the heritage industry and other
businesses. In ‘Dark Age artefacts in museum advertising’ Victoria Bounds discussed how two early
medieval artefacts were widely used in the promotional materials of Ludlow Museum (Shropshire).
She argued that this constituted a misrepresentation of the scale and character of the early medieval
collections on display where there are no wider narratives regarding the 5th–11th centuries AD. This
has broader implications for how other early medieval artefacts are turned into icons for museums, and
thus potentially treated as de-contextualised ‘treasures’, from the Staffordshire Hoard and the Sutton
Hoo helmet to the Book of Kells and the Alfred Jewel.
10
Jessica Penaluna explored neo-Pagan commodification of runic texts and their purported magical
qualities, through a review of shops, festivals and online outlets. She identified how the scholarship
linking runic inscriptions to archaeological contexts and past societies is deemed largely irrelevant, and
how ‘Celtic’ healing magic is seemingly conflated with Germanic and Norse runes in some contemporary
Paganisms. Her talk foregrounded the challenge of negotiating between neo-Pagan narratives and its
commercial dimensions, and academic scholarship regarding runes and their occurrence on early
medieval monuments and material culture.
Next, Abigail Salt evaluated ‘Selling the Vikings via online museum shops’, exploring the commodification
of the early medieval period by comparing national Scandinavian museums and the British Museum. She
was able to identify how museum shops deploy a complex range of items, from ‘serious’ reproduction
items (including pendants and glassware) to more playful items including ‘Viking’ rubber ducks for
bath time (see also Ward 2000).
Finally, in ‘1066: nationhood, memorials and car insurance’, David Jackson considered how the Battle of
Hastings is commemorated and commodified in contemporary British society, from Battle Abbey and
public sculpture to its use as a marketing tool (see also Hicks 2006: 282–302).
Imagining the Dark Ages

The final session explored some of the more controversial fantasies about the ‘Dark Ages’, some merely
misguided, some dangerous and violent. Niamh Moreton considered the persistent heritage connections
between prehistoric and early historic archaeological sites, including Glastonbury, South Cadbury and
Tintagel, with Arthurian legends in ‘The potentials and pitfalls of an Arthurian Early Middle Ages’ (see also
Halsall 2013). She recognised the many problems with the Arthurian connection but also the benefits in
sparking interest in a broader public who might not normally engage with the early medieval past.
This theme was taken up by Max Moran in ‘Exploring the public archaeology of Tintagel: Arthur and
archaeology’ in relation to the recent re-branding of Tintagel by English Heritage. Moran reviewed the
archaeological evidence for the site and its long biography from prehistory to the present, and discussed
the effective dimensions of the new narratives, emphasising the inseparable connections of history and
legend at the site, despite the widespread public backlash. Like Salt’s paper, however, Moran notes the
problematic Arthurian gifts that English Heritage are still willing to sell through their online shop as
part of an ongoing problem of Arthurian commodification and misrepresentation linking the English
Heritage property to Tintagel’s many businesses more broadly (see also Greaney this volume).
Finally, Megan Hall considered ‘Analysing the appropriation of early medieval runes by contemporary
far-right groups’, suggesting that there might not be an easy and straightforward method of combatting
such misuses by extremist groups. In particular, she considered the potential threats of violence and abuse
targeting those who challenge the misuse of the past by the far-right, particularly among younger and female
scholars. She did point out positive steps, such as the Facebook group ‘Vikingar Mot Racism’ to combat the
appropriation of the early medieval past by the far-right among re-enactors and enthusiasts.5 One can also
add the need for academics to not simply signal their distance from white supremacism, but to adapt their
curricula and public engagements to counter extremist narratives (e.g. Downham 2017; Sayer 2017).
Welcome to the Dark Ages: From Conference to Book

As with the previous two conferences, students were given the opportunity to participate as authors
and/or editors in publishing their research. In total 6 students of the 20 took up this opportunity,
5
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vikingarmotrasism/
11
although one unfortunately subsequently withdrew. Pauline Clarke was in the same year-group, but as
a combined honours student she did not take the module HI6001; she attended but had not presented at
the conference. She volunteered to co-edit the book.
These student pieces were joined by especially commissioned additional studies with contributions
spanning a wide range of themes, plus one former student. This has resulted to the first-ever edited
collection dedicated to the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages or ‘Dark Ages’.
The structure of the book has inevitably shifted, and the six conference sessions described above have
been re-arranged into three sections. In ‘Dark Age Debates’, Maldonado, Sassin, O’Connor, Kelly and
Walsh explore a range of fringe, popular, educational, political and commercial appropriations of the
Early Middle Ages. The second section, ‘The Public Dark Ages’, includes prominent case studies in the
heritage interpretation, community engagement and the creation of new strategies for real-world and
digital engagement in the early medieval past by Tuckley, Williams et al., Greaney, Nowakowski and
Gossip, Williams and Evans, Lang and Powlesland, and Parsons and Strong. The third and concluding
section, called ‘Dark Age Media’ contains evaluations by Nicholls and Williams, Hall, Jarman, Thomas,
Crawford and Wulgar the Bard, tackling the Early Middle Ages in film, television and the use of digital
media, from simple Google searches and open-access resources and publications to Twitter and
YouTube, as outreach strategies and platforms of dialogue with non-specialist publics.
Inevitably there remain gaps and unexpected emphases, relating to which students wished to take
their work forward to publication, and those heritage professionals and archaeologists who agreed to
contribute. However, these have been reduced to a minimum by inviting digital public archaeologist
Dr Chiara Bonacchi to compose a Foreword. Equally important in providing a wider perspective,
Professor Bonnie Effros has composed a far-reaching Afterword tackling the development of
medievalisms’ investigation from multiple perspectives. A further distinctive way by which further
voices and perspectives were included was by interviewing key practitioners and researchers.
Hence, the aforementioned chapters by Maldonado, Parsons and Strong, Crawford and Jarman were
commissioned from those innovativing in different dimensions of public engagement in the early
medieval past.
Discussion
We hope this book will foster further critical investigations in the public archaeology of the Early Middle
Ages which evaluate our practices and engagements in a rigorous and systematic fashion (cf. Almansa
2018). While early medieval archaeologists have long engaged in the historiography and theoretical
frameworks of their study, we contend that they have neglected public archaeology as integral to their
work. We should be long past regarding public engagement and its evaluation as ‘extras’ to our research
(see Flatman 2012), let alone regarding ‘outreach’ simply as an avenue for funding (Almansa 2018).
Instead, a critical and robust public archaeology should be seen as central to all our research endeavours,
whether we are engaging with fieldwork involving community participation, discussing early medieval
archaeology in schools, evaluating the Dark Age dimensions of video games and other entertainment
venues, or engaging on social media about medieval matters. Spanning different scales and contrasting
communities, scholarship and practice, we would contend that there is no more pressing need to tackle
head-on the importance and hybridity of public archaeology than when dealing with the early medieval
period: a time of intersecting prehistories and histories, complex and fluctuating peoples, practices and
institutions. This, of course, involves understanding how the early medieval past fits into broader multi-
period discourses on past and place, but also a specialist understanding of the particular interdisciplinary
and geographical and chronologically complex ways in which early medieval archaeology has special
and distinctive, powerful and problematic, relationships with contemporary society.
12
Furthermore, whether the dialogue with the Early Middle Ages involves touchstones of faith, political
debates, or senses of community, place or identity, or challenging myths and fantasies about the past and
the present, the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages should be more inclusive of traditionally
excluded groups. Thus, rather than about serving pre-existing needs, public archaeologies of the early
medieval past must construct new relationships between past and present (see Belford 2014). To do
this, we must operate as public intellectuals, straying outside our niche disciplinary expertise to debate
how the past is presented and discussed in contemporary society, and themes linking past, present and
future (cf. Tarlow and Nilsson Stutz 2013). Moreover, we must take up the challenge (recently sketched
by González-Ruibal et al. 2018) of ensuring our archaeological research and practice provokes rather
than simply flatters people, teaches them rather than indulges their fantasies, and an archaeology that
escapes the ‘heritage crusade’ to explore the many intersections and meanings of archaeology in the
contemporary world. In this regard, the public archaeology of the ‘Dark Ages’ should be disturbing
and challenging of stereotypes and the status quo, not comforting and assuring. It should involve a
variety of methods to provide ‘thick’ and rich engagement with archaeological interpretations using
new methods and techniques. Finally, it should extend its focus from the preservation and management
of fixed and valued resources, to consider the constantly evolving material worlds of imagined Dark
Ages, thus robustly evaluate their significance in contemporary society.
Conclusion
Both in its inception as a student conference, and in its scope and character, this book might be indeed
considered an example of such an approach. It is therefore striking and concerning that this is the first
book dedicated to debating the reception and appropriation of early medieval material cultures and
monuments in the present. In taking forward this avenue of research, we can promote and enhance the
ways in which early medieval archaeologists and interdisciplinary researchers can engage with various
publics and evaluate these engagements. We can all endeavour to become ‘public intellectuals’ (Tarlow
and Nilson Stutz 2013; Nilson Stutz 2018) if not as polymath thinkers, but as passionate advocates for the
responsible and data-rich engagement with early medieval pasts revealed by archaeological research.
In doing so, we should seek not only to enhance how we tell our stories, but to develop new narratives
as well as deploying fresh media. Whether we call it the ‘Early Middle Ages’, the ‘Anglo-Saxon period’,
the ‘Dark Ages’ or any other spatio-temporal or ethnic label, the ongoing task of denouncing ‘false’
and pseudoarchaeology remains critical at this time. Yet equally important, archaeologists must work
collectively to create exciting and engaging narratives that challenge existing audiences and reach out to
new publics. Rather than conceding terms and territories to extremists, re-energised stories, from grand
narratives down to local histories, can be mobilised by archaeologists to combat misrepresentations
and appropriations of the early medieval past in robust and sensitive and sustainable fashions.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Kara Critchell, Bonnie Effros, Suzanne Evans, Cat Jarman, Jacky Nowakowski, Adrián Maldonado
and Ethan Doyle White for constructive comments on an earlier draft of this chapter. We wish to thank
the Department of History and Archaeology, University of Chester, the Grosvenor Museum, Cheshire
West and Chester Council and Ben Wills-Eve for helping make the conference a success.
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Part 1
Dark Age Debates
19
Keep the Dark Ages Weird:
Engaging the Many Publics of Early Medieval Archaeology
An Interview with Adrián Maldonado
As a versatile archaeological researcher exploring burial practice, stone sculpture and material culture focusing especially
on early medieval Scotland as well as innovating in public engagement through his scholarship, Dr Adrián Maldonado (AM)
was invited to give one of the two special guest lectures at the ‘Digging into the Dark Ages’ conference in December 2017.
Interviewed via Skype on 5 July 2019 by Howard Williams (HW), the interview explores Dr Maldonado’s career to date and
his experiences of public engagement. In particular, the interview examined the challenges and potential of communicating
public-facing early medieval research, the current state of public archaeology for the Early Middle Ages in Scotland, and his
vision for the future of public engagement for the ‘Dark Ages’. In doing so, Dr Maldonado draws on his experience and expertise
in university archaeology teaching and research and in museum archaeology.
Introduction
AM: When I was invited to give one of the guest lectures at the Digging into the Dark Ages conference,
I thought the most important thing I could tell students interested in early medieval archaeology
was to take control of the narrative. An urgent issue of our time is the misappropriation of medieval
themes and imagery by far-right groups, something I had recently spoken about in a 6-minute pecha
kucha paper delivered to the Medieval European Research Community (MERC) meeting at the European
Association of Archaeologists conference in Maastricht in September 2017 (Maldonado 2018). I jumped
at the chance to expand the points made in that initial short talk into a guest lecture for students. And
not only was it great fun, the conference was truly inspirational, and my hat is off to the organizers for
making this a reality.
Career and research background
HW: How did you get interested in early medieval archaeology?
AM: Some people are born archaeologists and some are just terminal nerds who fall into it. Growing up
in Puerto Rico, I had no real business being interested in medieval things; I was simply exposed to J.R.R.
Tolkien’s writing at too young of an age and it sort of ruined me. In college I chose medieval history as a
degree but for some reason it didn’t click with me the way I had hoped. So I did a semester abroad at St
Andrews, a medieval institution in a beautiful medieval town with a ruined castle and cathedral. That
experience of being among the ruins changed it from an interest in the Middle Ages in general terms to
one specifically rooted in place and with time-depth. As soon as I could, I returned to Scotland in 2004 to
get trained in archaeology, and entered what was then the MPhil programme in Medieval Archaeology
at the University of Glasgow. I soon became a convert to early medieval everything through the dream
team of lecturers including Stephen Driscoll, Colleen Batey, Ewan Campbell and Jeremy Huggett. I am
still working with them today.
I came back for a PhD in 2006 to keep working through some questions one year couldn’t resolve.
The PhD ended up being about early medieval burial, which had never been properly synthesised for
Scotland, as a way of challenging narratives of conversion as the action of a few charismatic missionaries
(Maldonado 2011a). Since then I’ve been interested in bringing in other proxies for mortuary practice
including ecclesiastical architecture and early Christian sculpture.
20
Maldonado: Keep the Dark Ages Weird
I’ve been lucky enough to find continuous work teaching or researching early medieval archaeology
since completing my PhD, but it has all been on short-term postdoctoral projects, teaching cover
positions, and freelance consultancy work (Figure 1). While I am approaching a decade since the PhD,
I do sometimes feel like a permanently ‘early career’ researcher given the episodic nature of the work
I’ve had.
Early medieval archaeology and popular culture
HW: You began with Tolkien so you were always

aware of a pop culture dimension to the Early
Middle Ages. When did you start to explore the
intersections between early medieval archaeology
and contemporary society in greater depth?
AM: I think appropriately enough it really begins with

pop culture again. There was a movement around
2010/2011 called ‘Love Archaeology’ at the University
of Glasgow. I was there when it happened, and often
call myself a co-founder, though in my memory, Dr
Morgana McCabe and Dr Jennifer Novotny were the
instigators. The Department of Archaeology at the
university was about to get merged with History;
this was after the recession and it became clear that
the merger was going to reduce capacity in a variety
of ways for archaeology, so the Department fought
it. The PhD students were all in the same room back
then, regardless of what they were studying, which
made us an unlikely but enthusiastic community. We
decided that what we could do together should not
be a ‘save the department’ campaign that sounded
too much of a panic narrative, too negative. Instead
we decided to show what archaeology does for Figure 1: demonstrating the body-sized early
the university and for the public. It was a range of medieval recumbent crosses of Iona, Argyll in the
activities, including reaching out to alumni, putting Infirmary Museum in preparations for redisplay
on a public event, social media activities, and by Historic Scotland in 2012 (Photo by Katherine
coming up with new ways to get people interested Forsyth)
in archaeology.
One of my early contributions was a fun movie review of two action thrillers which had recently
come out on ‘the Picts’: The Centurion (2010) and The Eagle (2011), for our Facebook page (Maldonado
2011b). Before long we had started a free online magazine to host more content like this: fun, aimed
at the general public, but produced by scholars. Love Archaeology Magazine only lived for three issues
of which I edited the final one, appropriately with the archaeology of Middle-earth as the cover story
(Love Archaeology 2012). LoveArch continues as a social media phenomenon and remains part of the
archaeology infrastructure on various platforms.
Back in those early days, I was very aware that I had to make archaeology relevant outside of academia
in order to make a living. After the PhD I also developed evening and weekend courses in what was then
the Department of Adult and Continuing Education (now the Centre for Open Studies) at the University
of Glasgow. My favourite was a one-day course called ‘Churchspotting: How to Read a Medieval Church
21
in the Field’. I also ran longer modules on ‘Celtic Christianity’ and ‘Early Medieval Scotland’, which gave
me critical extra teaching experience for the CV, aside from being great fun.
In 2014, when I was teaching at the University of Chester, I started the Almost Archaeology blog,1 named
after my favourite section of the old magazine, which I thought I would use to keep writing about pop
culture. At the time I was running the HI6001 Archaeology and Contemporary Society module, which
forced me to read much wider than I ever had, especially about contemporary archaeology and public
archaeology. I like to think I was radicalised by this, and the blog soon grew into what it is now, covering
archaeology in, of and as pop culture as commentary on contemporary society.
It has since bled into my ‘day job’ and I’ve now lectured and published on topics I first wrote about on
the blog or debated on Twitter, like the archaeology of videogames and the abuse of archaeology by
online journalism (Maldonado 2015a; 2016). The blog remains a sporadic outlet for me, especially as I’m
now blogging for my current job,2 so I am painfully conscious that just having a blog doesn’t make you
a public archaeologist. However, I find that I’m rarely writing for other archaeologists on AlmostArch,
and I’m always gratified to see posts being circulated by ‘civilians’. Having that pop culture hook is
important and under-appreciated. It is a way to draw people in and talk about real issues and even
sneak in real archaeological theory by speaking through things people recognise.
HW: Having a social media presence is now commonplace in the archaeological community, but does
this mean that you consider yourself a ‘public intellectual’ or ‘public-facing’ academic?
AM: I love the article in Archaeological Dialogues addressing what constitutes a ‘public intellectual’ (Tarlow
and Stutz 2013) and it is the killer aspiration, but when I see the amazing work colleagues are doing, I
am well aware of my shortcomings here. For me, to be a ‘public intellectual’, you have to reach the level
where you can be approached for comment on things that are not in your narrow specialism. How many
archaeologists have been quoted in articles about Brexit (cf Brophy 2018)? Very few archaeologists have
reached that level of trust for the public; we aren’t often seen as public intellectuals even if we have
the capacity to do so. I’m not sure whether we need to position archaeology differently in the public
consciousness, or whether perhaps archaeologists just need more confidence. I’ve seen you, Howard,
cross over into that realm when posts on Archaeodeath go viral – meaning they are being shared by those
who wouldn’t usually know about Archaeodeath: when you’ve addressed issues beyond archaeology, like
when discussing Trump’s wall (Williams 2016) and the exhumation of Richard III (Williams 2013). For
my own experience, while researching perceptions of the Roman Antonine Wall (Maldonado 2015b), I
blogged about Hadrian’s Wall and the Picts in the context of the Scottish Independence Referendum in
2014 (Maldonado 2014). This has led to a few other public lectures since then, a tongue-in-cheek piece
on BBC News (Allison 2017), and even a gloriously fun event for the Merchant City Festival in 2017
(Figure 2). We can continue to do that kind of thing more: comment on things that touch a nerve in a
way which stands up to public scrutiny – the trust comes back onto you and your discipline. We can
only benefit when we engage with things that may be rooted in archaeology but resonate with current
affairs and debates, and if at all possible, allow ourselves to have fun doing it instead of always being in
Serious Professor mode.
But equally, social media gives me a lot of stress. It can be very empowering in some ways, but as
an academic, the race for likes and retweets can quickly come to stand in (wrongly) for ‘impact’. As
if academia wasn’t competitive enough already, you always feel like you’re coming up short, and
comparing yourself to others. There is also the panic of raising your head above the parapet on a
political issue, acutely for early career researchers, especially those in precarious employment to begin
1
almostarchaeology.com
2
blog.nms.ac.uk/author/amaldonado/
22
with. This is to say nothing of the ethical

quandary of even participating on certain
social media platforms, addressed with
regard to archaeology educators by Colleen
Morgan (2018, 2019).
HW: Let’s turn to the broader situation

we find ourselves in: what are the major
misunderstandings of early medieval
northern Britain?
AM: The Early Middle Ages couldn’t be

more relevant right now. A lot of nation
states across Europe see their origins in the
early medieval period and even take their
names from early medieval ethnic groups.
But I think people kind of forget the early
medieval period. Many see the Middle Ages
as ‘castles’ and ‘knights’, and if they see the
‘Dark Ages’ at all, it is in terms of the fall of
empire or narrow stories of one or other
ethnic group, Picts, Vikings and Anglo-
Saxons. This is the greatest red herring of
the discipline: how we create these people
in our minds and then learn everything
we can but only about this group. This has
been the biggest failing of early medieval Figure 2: On stage at the Merchant City Festival pre-
archaeology and in the current political senting ‘The Past is Pop Culture! Films about the Picts
and the modern image of Scotland’, Glasgow, 27 July,
climate when the future of these nation
2017 (Photograph: Mark Mitchell)
states is being debated, often calling back to
immemorial origins, the real potential for
early medieval archaeology is to show the reality of diversity in the period (Hammond 2006). Diversity
might sound like a modern buzzword, but every region of early medieval Britain and Ireland was multi-
lingual, multi-faith, and highly mobile. Writing textbooks about one ethnic group at a time isn’t helping
anybody. Equally, teaching the Dark Ages as a simple ‘fall of Rome’ narrative with ethnic groups as
the actors has exacerbated exceptionalism and the worst kinds of nationalism (Bonacchi et al. 2018;
Gardner 2017).
HW: Does our anachronistic use of modern geographical/national frameworks hold us back in this
regard?
AM: Since coming to the National Museum of Scotland as Glenmorangie Research Fellow in 2018, I’ve
had to think a lot more urgently about these kinds of issues. We are always thinking about ways in
which Scotland’s collections relate to the wider world. Most of our visitors are tourists and they want to
learn about Scotland; but we also need to tell stories they can relate to their own experience. Likewise,
people from Scotland want to know why their story is relevant outside Scotland, and that means we
also have a responsibility to educate about local stories, and specific groups like the Picts. The power of
a ‘national’ museum is the ability to put these local stories in their larger context, and avoid seeing the
early medieval period as a constant battle between ethnic groups for ‘supremacy’.
23
Luckily, there are many things about the early medieval period that are relevant globally now. The most
urgent example might be climate change and its demographic effects: in the Middle Ages we have many
significant climatic shifts, and we can tell stories about adaptation and failure to adapt alike. There are
lessons and stories about sustainability and living in tune with your environment. Likewise, all museums
have a lot of work to do to decolonise interpretation, embrace inclusivity and improve access. In my
current project, studying Scotland AD 800–1200, I have taken lots of inspiration from works which de-
centralise the ‘Vikings’ from the ‘Viking Age’ and focus on wider socio-political changes, highlighting
monetisation and the slave trade as signals of bigger shifts in the nature of personhood and value around
the turn of the millennium (Raffield 2019; Samson 1991; Svanberg 2003). Archaeology can lead the way
in these areas. How do we decolonise the traditional language of early medieval warlords, invasion and,
worst of all, ‘population replacement’?
HW: What do you think are the most politicised dimensions in early medieval archaeology?
AM: This brings us back to the subject of my guest lecture. The mainstreaming of far-right ideologies,
especially white supremacy, is the most urgent issue of our time, and future textbooks will judge us by
how we dealt with it. In the last few years, the refinement of genomic sequencing and big-data techniques
to carry out population-level DNA studies has spilled into archaeology, and this has quickly become
the most politicised area of our discipline for a generation (Callaway 2018; Furholt 2018; Heyd 2017;
Horsburgh 2015). For me this raises a variety of issues far beyond methodology; it reveals how easily we,
as experts of the past, can allow ourselves to slide back into very old and increasingly dangerous tropes
about population replacement as the driver of social change (Brather 2016). The notion that those in
the majority or in power today are there because their ancestors were racially or culturally superior is
what we must fight against.
This is the most pernicious problem because not everyone who interprets the past this way is
doing it consciously. The notion of ‘progress’ of people from a primitive past was ingrained in the
nineteenth-century roots of the disciplines of history and archaeology, and in Britain as elsewhere,
we spent much of the twentieth century trying to get free of these conceptual barriers. Sadly, DNA
almost requires the reintroduction of ugly language around ‘blood’ and ‘mixing’, with its unspoken
implications about ‘purity’ and ‘dilution’ (Nash 2013). The sequencing of the human genome has led
to what has been called the ‘rebiologization’ or ‘molecular reinscription’ of race (Duster 2015; Omi
2010). Science had disproven race and has now unwittingly brought it back, with supporting data
so mind-bogglingly complex it makes it harder to challenge. The anxieties archaeologists have with
such studies stem partly from the fact that we did not successfully kill race as a social construct, and
this is proof played out in public.
It’s been a while since things have really kicked off in an archaeological conference, so the current
debate is kind of invigorating, however depressing it can be at times. There are two related controversies
playing out at the same time at different ends of the circles I roll in: prehistorians are battling over how
best to incorporate ancient DNA (aDNA for short) in archaeology; and medievalists are up in arms over
the far-right misappropriation of medieval themes. Oddly, neither debate has taken much account of
the reams of work on ethnicity and ‘race’ in early medieval archaeology which would be useful here
(Brather 2016; Effros 2003; Halsall 2011; Williams 2008).
My go-to early medieval example of how easily we revert to old tropes about the ‘Dark Ages’ is not from
the kinds of aDNA studies which are consuming prehistorians, but the ‘People of the British Isles’ (PoBI)
project, a large-scale genomic study of the modern population of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
One widely publicised output claimed the current genetic profile of the UK was a direct result of early
medieval migrations specifically (Leslie et al. 2015). A follow-up paper modelled the current population
of Ireland, this time with no archaeologists involved, and came to similar conclusions but with added
24
problematic language around the appearance of ‘Irish’ and ‘British’ DNA in Northern Ireland (Gilbert et
al. 2017).
More than any archaeological study of DNA, the recreational (and mainly for-profit) industry of
personal genetic ancestry testing has long defaulted to medieval terminology in reporting their
results (Booth 2018; Nash 2013). This is not a product of the science itself, which cannot identify any
specific ‘Anglo-Saxon’ or ‘Viking’ gene, as there is no such thing as a ‘pure’, isolated population. It is
a distinct interpretative leap which actively ignores all the myriad population movements we know
took place since the Middle Ages which more plausibly explain contemporary genetic clustering (Geary
and Veeramah 2016). The truth is that since the 1990s several waves of DNA studies have claimed to
be able to identify Pictish, Anglo-Saxon or Viking genes, and each in their turn has been challenged,
only to return with the next technological advance (Brather 2016; Burmeister 2016). The general public
(geneticists included!) seems fascinated with early medieval stories of migration and invasion, so it is
our responsibility to tell them the complicated, less headline-grabbing, but more accurate story that
culture and customs change for lots of reasons, not because one population outbred another.
And so it was depressing, if not

surprising, that the main takeaway of
PoBI (Leslie et al. 2015) – parroted by
numerous newspapers – was ‘there is no
Celtic gene’ (as if this was a reasonable
expectation to begin with). More
troublingly, this was demonstrated with
a map of genetic clusters which strongly
implied that there was an ‘Anglo-Saxon
gene’ (Figure 3). Never mind this was
achieved with a wonky sampling strategy
in which, to take just two examples, the
Highlands of Scotland were represented
by four individuals, and the reference
population of ‘Denmark’ by patients of a
single hospital in Copenhagen (Kershaw
and Royrvik 2016; Nash 2013).3
It felt distinctly like the old debate

over the term ‘Celts’ which consumed
anglophone archaeologists in the
1990s (Sims-Williams 1998), but now
‘enhanced’ with science. Those who
sought to remove ‘Celts’ from the lexicon
had different reasons for doing so,
Figure 3: colour-coded clusters of relatedness according to mod- some more justifiable than others, but
ern DNA samples; note the patchy coverage across Scotland com- in hindsight it is difficult to dissociate
pared to other parts of the UK. Reprinted by permission from the ferocity of the debate from the
Springer Nature Customer Service Centre GmbH: © Nature 2015
political arguments over the legitimacy
(Leslie et al. 2015: 310, figure 1)
of modern Celts and devolution of
parliamentary powers in 1997. The
3
An update with a larger Scottish dataset was published as this book went to publication (Gilbert et al. 2019). I shared a capsule
review, touching on themes relevant to this discussion, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/amaldon/status/1169537407726817280
25
resurfacing of these tropes in the aftermath of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 makes
them extremely problematic. Deconstructing ethnicity is a global project, not a selective one, but it
seems we are quicker to problematise Celts than the identities they are so often defined against, be they
Anglo-Saxons, Romans or Vikings.
HW: What do you consider important the relationship between the identity of the practitioner and the
identity of past people: diversity present and past?
The biggest advantage of studying the Dark Ages is a sort of ‘brand recognition’. People in the anglophone
world instinctually know what you mean when you say Dark Ages, Anglo-Saxons, Picts, Scots, Vikings,
Christians – all are part of a shared foundation mythology. This is great: we have an in-built hook that
other periods would kill for – no such luck for the Chalcolithic! Outreach is to a certain extent already
baked into the cake for what we do.
At the same time, this exact advantage is the biggest risk. The problem is that people still live in places
called ‘Scotland’ and ‘England’ or claim kinship with ‘Vikings’ or ‘Celts’, and so preconceived notions
and historical baggage all need to be unpacked before we even start talking. Changing the foundational
narratives of a society does not always go down well. There can be a confusion between then and now
– Christianity is a particularly tricky example I have to deal with regularly. We have to establish the
connection between past and present, but we have a responsibility to show dissonance and otherness;
and the relevance comes from this difference, not as much from the ‘they were like us’ approach. The
jarring realization of time passing is the only way to actually learn anything from the past.
Public archaeology in early medieval Scotland
HW: What would you say are the current strengths of public archaeological research and community
archaeology projects, specifically related to early medieval northern Britain?
AM: Because I deal with early medieval church archaeology, there’s a series of case studies where
communities around churches have activated their heritage well beyond the ‘Christian story’. The
Whithorn excavations (Hill 1997) were carried out by the Whithorn Trust, formed to fund and care for
the archaeology of the site. They continue to do so today, and are responsible for one of the most fun
public-facing projects I’ve ever worked on, Cold Case Whithorn, applying new scientific techniques to
the human remains from the early medieval cemetery.4
Likewise, Martin Carver’s work at Portmahomack is another example: the excavations at this early
monastery involved the local stakeholders from the start, partially funding the excavation with the
express purpose of transforming their redundant church into a museum to benefit the local economy
(Carver et al. 2016). The Tarbat Discovery Centre still displays the results today.5
But while both these ventures are still active, they have weathered near-fatal financial hardships in the
intervening years, especially since the recession, as they are dependent on visitor numbers. Both have
survived through the tireless work of unpaid and underpaid community heroes who run them.
To take a third early Christian example, the remarkable collection of Viking-age carved stones housed
at Govan Old Parish Church in Glasgow have required a different response. Small-scale excavations
were undertaken in the 1990s by Stephen Driscoll, which resulted in remarkable evidence for an early
church and ditched enclosure (Driscoll 2004). His research also highlighted the lost Moot Hill, an
4
https://www.facebook.com/coldcasewhithorn/
5
http://tarbat-discovery.co.uk/
26
outdoor assembly site which was long ago obliterated by modern development. The recognition of the
great loss of that monument through Driscoll’s research and outreach has been strangely galvanising,
and the project has gone from preserving local heritage to full-blown urban regeneration in a severely
deprived former shipyard (Butler et al. 2013). Driscoll’s sustained relationship with the church and
the community since then extended well beyond the excavations, impacting on major planning
developments, influencing urban infrastructure including the reinstatement of the historic ferry across
the Clyde. ‘The Govan Stones’ has latterly become a ticketed tourist attraction, but the community was
and remains the focus.6
Reflections on the future of the public archaeology of the Early Middle Ages
HW: Is there anything we need to do more or less of in the future as public archaeologists of the Early
Middle Ages? We can’t do everything with limited funds, so do we need to tone down some strategies
to invest in others?
AM: I have railed here against the fragmentation of the discipline down ethnic lines. But this is not
the case for dissolving all specialisms. We will always need experts, including specialists in artefact
type and local heritage, and no one should apologise for being one. The funding regimes and academic
Research Excellence Framework (REF) assessments we’re subject to in Britain stress the need for ‘world
class’ research and international impact which can seem difficult to square with this kind of knowledge.
But we need the particular and the local now more than ever in the age of big data (Burmeister 2016;
Furholt 2018). I will come back here to problematic aDNA studies. As noted with the large-scale projects
based on contemporary populations, there are always biases in coverage, because there is no (and can
never be) ‘pure’ representative population, now or in the past. Even if we sampled every early medieval
skeleton ever excavated in Britain, it would still not give us a representative sample of ‘Britain’s DNA’
because there are always differences in the timing and tempo of burial as recoverable by archaeologists.
Some regions of western and northern Britain never have more than a handful of known burial sites
throughout the early medieval period. When the data analysts in these projects filter and flatten out
‘noise’ to come up with tighter clusters or more coherent differences between people, what they are
doing is deleting the humanity they are purporting to have the truth about.
So my argument to the students was not to shy away from headline-grabbing developments like the
genomic revolution, but rather the opposite. The best recent writers on this all agree that the answer is
not less engagement with geneticists, but more. Archaeologists need to start thinking of biologists and
geneticists as equal partners, and find better ways to work together at formulating the right questions
(Booth 2019; Burmeister 2016; Furholt 2018; Geary and Veeramah 2016; Heyd 2017; Samida and Feuchter
2016).
There are now models of how to do this kind of work in partnership with biologists, using aDNA in
combination with stable isotope analysis, anthropological research on kinship, and, critically, sensitivity
to the historiography of the field (Amorim et al. 2018; Schiffels et al. 2016). I’ve come to realize that
this latter area might be the most crucial. Knowing how the field has come to be the way it is today is
crucial to knowing where to go next, and where we have gone wrong in the past, so we don’t repeat the
same fallacies. Where haven’t we looked? Why haven’t we asked certain questions? And for the early
medieval period specifically – why, with every new technological advance, do we keep reverting back
to population replacement as a model for cultural change?
Another critical thing to invest in is what you might call ‘media training’ or just explaining oneself
succinctly without sacrificing accuracy. Teachers, get your students to practice writing press-release-
6
http://www.thegovanstones.org.uk/
27
length summaries of archaeological research (Killgrove 2014: 39; Maldonado 2016). Practice explaining
complexity, don’t try to smooth it over. Archaeologists are often portrayed in the media as ‘stumbling’
onto something unexpected, when the reality is that to get to the stage of carrying out an excavation,
teams of people with years of experience need to collaborate. Bring people into the progress – rather
than turning people off, you’ll find that the public (including scientists in other disciplines!) appreciate
the work that has gone into the latest ‘discovery’, and this all builds trust. Double-down on DNA, and
bend it to our will. We can test the DNA not just of humans but of livestock, of food items, of tree species
used for tools and architecture. We can combine genetic analysis with post-human approaches to help
us decouple ‘blood’ and identity.
Conclusion
AM: Finally, reflecting back on what drew me personally into this strange corner of the discipline, I
think it was the feeling I got reading Tolkien as a child, of a world strangely recognizable and realistic
for all its dragons and elves. It is a world that was problematic but which rewards revisiting and constant
critique. Learn from its flaws. We must not try to remake it in our image. My advice for the future, for
both our research and our public engagement: keep the Dark Ages weird.
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30
Colouring the Dark Ages: Perceptions of Early Medieval Colour in
Popular Culture
Anne Sassin
Representations of the Early Middle Ages, still commonly perceived of as the ‘Dark Ages’, have been traditionally hampered
by pre-conceptions tied to its very name. This chapter aims to elucidate the uses of colour and light in the material and
visual culture of the early medieval period before identifying trends in its perception in recent and current popular culture.
Focusing on heritage displays, images deployed in children’s literature and educational resources, and filmic and televisual
representations, the chapter argues that, despite recent academic research and innovative developments in public archaeology,
the Early Middle Ages still remains largely bland in terms of colour in popular perception.
Introduction: popular perceptions of a colourless ‘Dark Ages’
Despite the rich evidence available from early medieval archaeological and historical evidence, there is a
persistent trend in the 21st-century reception of the Early Middle Ages to trivialise and understate early
medieval palettes and their impact on their contemporary worlds. This impulse not only strives to mute and
devalue the tones of the ‘Dark Ages’, but has attempted a relegation of colour to the cosmetic or supplemental
levels, and at times endeavoured to openly purge its presence (see Batchelor 2000; Duckworth and Sassin
2017: 1–8). These prejudices are also commonly reflected in responses to brightly coloured (or even ‘garish’,
in the words of some critics) reconstructions of famous ancient monuments, whether the Parthenon temple
or various classical statues (Reed 2007), or those of the medieval era, e.g. the wall paintings of St Teilo’s,
Llandeilo Tal-y-bont (Organ 2011). Although token appreciation might be made of the more accurate nature
of the brightly painted surfaces, versus the bare and natural masonry, approval is often reserved, if not
lacking entirely. One almost wishes to read a sarcastic tone in statements, such as Richard Bailey’s, in relation
to pre-Conquest sculpture, that ‘their original appearance relied little on the tasteful reticence of natural
stone; these were once hideously polychrome monuments’ (Bailey 1996: 33). The barbarian otherness of the
Early Middle Ages, as well as perhaps the default presumption of the ubiquitous ‘whiteness’ of its people,
are perpetuated by this derogatory attitude towards its material and visual cultures: both a tendency to
portraying a drab Dark Ages, or else dismissing its vibrant and diverse colour schemes.
In this context, the challenge for our research and public engagement is how we critique these embedded
contemporary perceptions, beyond the ‘lighting the Dark Ages’ media cliché for our new discoveries and
insights. Certainly, studies of colour itself – at least for the medieval period – have striven to overcome
such biases in recent years and disentangle modern assumptions from the evidence actually presented
in the material culture (Huxtable and O’Donnell 2017), but difficulties in trying to define contemporary
perceptions and subsequent expressions of colour are apparent for most cultures and periods, let alone
a ‘Dark Age’ named so for its very lack of sources. Naturally, ideas developed over the first millennium,
particularly in the field of optics (for instance the tenth-century Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) who advanced
the notion that vision was the result of the light rays entering the eye (Duckworth and Sassin 2017: 2).
Yet, it is clear that we need to advance both our appreciation of colour in early medieval societies, as
well as critical evaluations of their popular receptions.
Colour in the Early Middle Ages

Terminology represents a significant barrier to investigating early medieval colour. A linguistic theory
on basic colour terms, published in 1969 (Berlin and Kay), proposed the various stages of development
31
for colour terms, but its focus on hue and limitations in considering other qualities such as luminosity
and brightness have since led to alternative proposals (Conklin 1973; Jameson and D’Andrade 1997). The
model did, however, highlight a persistent focus on the more ‘extreme’ and most basic colours of black,
white and red, particularly for the more ‘primitive’ or prehistoric societies (Jones and Bradley 1999),
and stands as a useful starting point for qualifying (and quantifying) contemporary terms.
Specific attempts at colour classification for Anglo-Saxon England have also recognised the dangers
of over-reliance on the hues of the Munsell system alone, rather than brightness and the light-dark
opposition which the Old English system mainly stressed (Barley 1974: 16-17). The sources have long
been subject to critical and cautious evaluation (e.g. Lapidge and Dumville 1984), yet challenges remain
in reading too literally into terminology employed by writers of the time, and the absence of a colour
term should of course not be taken as evidence for the lack of either the creation or perception of the
colour itself. For example, writing in the early 8th century (c. 731), the Venerable Bede records shellfish
containing pearls of ‘several colours, red, purple, violet, and green, but mainly white’, while whelks
were common from which ‘beautiful scarlet dye’ was extracted which was ‘…unfaded by sunshine or
rain; indeed, the older the cloth, the more beautiful its colour’ (HE I.1). Many writers, such as Eddius
Stephanus in his eighth-century account of the founding of Ripon, emphasised the golden sheen and
brilliance of precious metals and the material connection to the décor of early churches and the temples
of the Old Testament (Dodwell 1982: 33). We struggle, however, to discern how colour and reflectivity,
as well as the symbolic associations with particular materials, were perceived in the Early Middle Ages,
let alone in ancient times (see e.g. Aulsebrook 2017; Saunders 2002).
As pointed out by Nigel Barley (1974: 21) in his work on Old English colour classification, in some
instances ‘appearance’ was a better translation than ‘colour’ for some terms, as colours were often
attributes whose terms originated as comparative referrants, e.g. ‘blood-red’. Often in Bede’s writings,
the stated hue of an object is left vague (‘magnificent’ or ‘bright’ robes, HE I.17, HE IV.2; even a valuable
jewel whose only description is the ‘brilliant light’ emitted, HE IV.23), rather than providing more
thorough narratives of the colours portrayed. This may of course be due to the second (or more)-
hand nature of the account, as more detailed descriptions belong to others whom Bede references, e.g.
Adamnan’s writing on Jerusalem, where ‘the colour of the Tomb of the Sepulchre is a mingled white
and red’ (HE V.16), or the epitaph for Wilfred at Ripon, which lists ‘fair gold and purple vestments’ and
Gospels ‘cased in covers of red gold’ (HE V.19). Yet the detail of the latter could also reflect the esteem
and liturgical importance these colours all held (Dodwell 1982: 36–37), noteworthy for their prestige as
well as their hue.
Often, colour references were restricted in Bede to necessary distinctions, for instance his remark that
an Ethiopian in a wall painting at Wearmouth should not be portrayed with white skin, nor conversely
should an Anglo-Saxon be with black (Gem 1990: 1–6), rather than providing enhancing descriptions to
the imagery. They are also known for being derivative of earlier sources, including Gildas (DEB), making
it possible that some of the colour references are borrowed. However, the higher occurrence of the
brighter hues in the texts – namely white, red and purple – which would stand out for their comparative
uncommonness, or status in the case of some garments or garnishings, is notable. The natural tones of
the rivers, fields and woodlands and everyday structures and objects of domestic life do not warrant
mention, as they lack the same allure and standing.
In Old English poetry, the most common colour by far is black – a frequency that is expressed through
a multitude of terms, e.g. blæc, deorc, dun, sweart, wann, etc – followed by white, emphasising a light and
dark contrast which defined the colour system, rather than the hues which we focus on today (Barley
1974: 17). This follows a similar trend in Latin, with the basic terms for black and white coming in
doublets, possibly indicating differing levels of luminosity or shine, e.g. niger and candidus as the shiny
terms versus the matte ater and albus (Gering 2014: 6; also see Bradley 2011). Clearly, light and dark
32
Sassin: Colouring the Dark Ages
contrasts – and any allegorical meanings hidden within – feature prominently in the written works and
reflect a fascination with brightness which is echoed in the material culture.
While no direct and simple comparison can be afforded, there is no clear evidence that early medieval
writers were less attentive to colour than classical ones. For instance, The Agricola by Tacitus, the first
of the detailed accounts of the British Isles and written at the end of the 1st century AD, is limited in
its relevant references, with physical and character traits such as green old age (Agr. Book XXX) and
blood-red countenance (XLV) making up the majority of the limited colour allusions, a trend towards
connotative rather than purely colour terms that might be seen in earlier Classical texts (e.g. viridis for
‘ripe’ or ‘fresh’ in Cato’s De Agri Cultura; see Gering 2014: 11).
In the late 12th-century writings of Gerald of Wales, references to ‘gold’ and ‘golden’ are more prominent
than other colour descriptions. However, Gerald is the first to express and even celebrate the natural
beauty of the landscape and its greenness, with five mentions overall: the bright-green of Brecknock
Mere (Itin. I.2) or the greenness of fields (Itin. II.2; Desc. I.10), with even the pitch-black bark of the soils
(Itin. I.13) or the ‘golden sheen’ of cliffs (Itin. I.5) alluded to. This attentiveness to the natural world may
be credited as much to the first-hand nature of his narrative, as any changing ethos by this time, but the
shift away from the polemic tone of the earlier writings is noted.
It is clear that, in addition to the many challenges of inference, there is no a priori assumption, based on
the written sources, to presume that ‘Dark Age’ writers were less attentive to colour in their daily lives,
even if their accounts were often led by agendas beyond mere detailed accounts of their surroundings.
Materials with particular value – whether fabric, precious metals or minerals – were clearly prized,
as were the hues associated with them, and the powerful contrast of light and dark which figured
prominently was steeped in metaphor and went far beyond basic black and white distinction and
classification. The power and influence of the church cannot be understated in this thinking, and to this
we must focus further discussion where material and visual evidence, while inevitably fragmentary,
gives us many additional clues.
Colour in early medieval churches
Even with local guidebooks (e.g. Bott 2000) and church websites (Llanilltud 2019) it is now commonly
recognised that many medieval churches, in addition to having once had timber predecessors, were not
the largely naked stone walls of today, but may have once been ornately adorned with richly decorated
furnishings. The scale of this opulence obviously differed within the various classes of church, as well as
regionally, and the few accounts of this wealth and splendour, such as Cogitosus’ likely mid-7th-century
description of the linen curtains and tapestries, painted tablets and (possible) frescoes, gold and silver
chandeliers and overall ‘variety of carvings and colours’ at Kildare in Ireland (VB XXXII.i) are often
assumed to be a departure from the normal wooden structures of the time (Harbison 1999: 192–193).
However, the requirement set down at the Council of Chelsea in 816 which stated that a consecrating
bishop should ensure the dedicatee of the church is depictum on the wall, tabula or altars (Higgitt 1990:
38; Cather et al. 1990b: ix) might indicate that, certainly by the middle Anglo-Saxon period, wall painting
and other depictions might not have been exceptional.
It is now recognised that, in the early years of the study of wall painting, Anglo-Saxon/pre-Conquest
material was significantly overlooked during investigations (Mitchell 1990: 126–127; for more about
problems surrounding recognition of early medieval paint, see Cather et al. 1990a). The use of colour
for early medieval church walls is now assumed to have been common, even if the more costly colours
such as lapis lazuli were limited to the conspicuous display of the cathedrals (Cather et al.1990b: iii–iv,
ix). For instance, C.R. Dodwell (1982: 92–93, 226–227) has stressed the sumptuousness of Anglo-Saxon
33
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
—Mabrouka, passant près de chez Mouley Abdallah, questionna des
gens... Dada Fatouma, qui allait faire une commission à Lella Meryem,
aperçut la nouvelle esclave.
—Elle a coûté trois cents réaux. L’intendant de Mouley Hassan fut à Fès,
l’acheter.
—Elle ne passa point dans la maison du Chérif, c’est pour cela qu’elle
était vierge... affirme Rabha.
Malgré les détours que prit cette nouvelle pour me parvenir, je ne doute
point qu’elle ne soit exacte. Mouley Hassan jugeait insensé l’engagement
pris par son fils avec Lella Meryem.
—Il faut quatre femmes à l’homme, disait-il un jour à mon mari, de
même qu’il faut quatre jambes au cheval. C’est pourquoi le Coran nous a
fixé ce nombre.
Son libertinage a dû trouver fort plaisant de donner au mari trop fidèle
une esclave aussi belle et blanche que l’épouse légitime.
J’ai négligé ma charmante amie depuis quelque temps. Ainsi, j’ignorais
le malheur écrit sur son destin.
Les petites filles disent qu’elle se dessèche et jaunit... Mais que peut
craindre Lella Meryem d’une autre femme, elle qui réunit toutes les
séductions et les grâces?... D’ailleurs elle n’a pas d’amour, ou si peu.
Je la trouve, en effet, riante et parée selon sa coutume. Le carmin de ses
joues m’empêche de vérifier les allégations de Rabha quant à son teint. Son
corps svelte est plus pliant qu’une branche de saule, mince et pendante. Ses
yeux, ô ses yeux ensorceleurs, où l’on croit saisir les reflets du ciel!...
Elle se plaint de ma longue absence, m’offre le thé, rit, bavarde,
caquetage vide et charmant de petit oiseau qui ne pense à rien qu’à chanter.
La sombre maison garde son habituelle et somptueuse mélancolie. Une
esclave pile du cumin dans un mortier en cuivre, la cadence des coups
accompagne notre insignifiant entretien. Des femmes sont assemblées, près
de la fontaine, mais je n’y découvre pas d’inconnue. Le négrillon Miloud
renifle et pleure derrière une colonne.
Il vole tout ce qu’il trouve, malgré les châtiments, explique Lella
Meryem. Frappe l’esclave, ce pécheur, ton bras sera usé bien avant sa
malice...
Nous disons encore de petites choses, sans intérêt, et je me lève pour
partir. Alors, Lella Meryem me retient, et, son délicieux visage soudain
bouleversé,—vraiment elle est jaune de teint! la petite Cherifa m’interroge:
—Tu le sais? Les gens te l’ont raconté?
—Quoi donc?
—Que Mouley Abdallah reçut de son père une esclave blanche.
Ses lèvres frémissent, son regard se noie, elle pleure...
—Que t’importe?... Une esclave et c’est tout... Ton époux en a bien
d’autres...
—Oui, mais ce sont des négresses. Celle-là est blanche.
—Elle l’est sans doute moins que toi.
—Tu vas voir, dit Lella Meryem, après avoir séché ses larmes. Qu’Aoud
el Ouard apporte des parfums, commande-t-elle au négrillon.
Aoud el Ouard! tige de rose, le joli nom! bien fait pour cette adolescente
au visage enchanteur, aux seins fermes et glorieux, aux yeux de nuit, aux
hanches souveraines.
Elle entre, et, malgré qu’elle soit une esclave, elle a toute l’assurance et
l’allure d’une maîtresse des choses.
N’est-ce point d’elle que le poète a dit:
Une pleine lune marche avec fierté

En se balançant comme un roseau.
—Cette maudite! s’exclame Lella Meryem après son départ. Elle me

regarde avec insolence, on dirait qu’elle est cherifa et non esclave, fille
d’esclaves... Que ferai-je maintenant, je suis exilée de ma propre demeure...
Je ne veux plus quitter ma chambre; dès que je sors dans la cour, elle me
nargue... Au lieu de la mettre avec les négresses (la plus noire vaut mieux
qu’elle dix fois et plus!), Mouley Abdallah lui a donné la petite mesria[74]!
—Ta chambre est beaucoup plus belle.
—Assurément... Mais, si Mouley Abdallah monte à la mesria?... O cette
calamité!
—Par le Prophète! Lella Meryem, ne crois pas que ton époux te préfère
cette esclave.
—Tu penses ainsi. Tu ne connais pas les Musulmans. Les femmes sont
comme les grains du chapelet entre les mains d’un Derkaoui... Ils passent de
l’une à l’autre... J’ai supplié Mouley Abdallah de renvoyer cette affligeante,
de la revendre tout de suite. Il n’a pas voulu... Il dit qu’il craint de déplaire à
son père. C’est elle, la rusée, la fille de diable, qui l’enchaîne... Elle saura se
faire frapper la dot[75]. O jour de malheur où cette Aoud el Ouard entra
dans la maison!
Je voudrais consoler la pauvre petite épouse, lui dire... Mais nos paroles
à nous, elle ne les comprendra pas... J’essaye cependant.
—S’il plaît à Dieu, Lella Meryem, ton mari te reviendra. Tu peux tâcher
de le reprendre...
—O Puissant! j’ai tout essayé... J’ai fait écrire sur une feuille de laurier:
«Je lie tes yeux, ta bouche et ta force virile pour toute autre que moi. O
serviteurs du grand nom, rendez ce qui est illégitime, plus amer à Mouley
Abdallah que ne l’est cette feuille de laurier!» Je l’ai cousue dans son
caftan... et cela ne l’empêcha pas de retourner auprès d’Aoud el Ouard... On
m’a dit, ajoute Lella Meryem, qu’une sorcière possède les secrets pour
ranimer l’amour. Elle habite à Berrima[76]... O ma sœur! je connais ton
affection. Va pour moi chez cette sorcière!
Je ne m’attendais pas à cette demande et j’y réponds d’abord par des
objections.
—Envoie plutôt une de tes négresses. La sorcière ne révélera rien à une
Nazaréenne...
—Non, je t’en prie! Mes négresses, je n’ai pas confiance, elles sont
bêtes... Tu mettras un haïk, la sorcière ne se doutera de rien car tu sais
toutes nos coutumes... Je suis réfugiée en toi! ajoute Lella Meryem en
m’embrassant.
L’imploration consacrée me lie... et puis, ne serait-ce point, que déjà
l’aventure tente ma curiosité.
—Sur ma tête et sur mes yeux, ô délicieuse! répondis-je à la Chérifa.
12 mars.
Une nuit bleue, limpide et tendre, une nuit où le sommeil devrait nous
entraîner comme une barque glissant légèrement sur l’eau calme... Les
patios éclairés, qui semaient la cité de reflets orange, redescendent peu à
peu au fond de l’ombre.
—Allons! me dit Kaddour, il est temps... Les braves gens sont tous
rentrés...
Pour l’amour de Lella Meryem, je revêts encore une fois l’accablant
haïk, et nous partons à travers les ruelles, si désertes et noires que je puis
tenir mes voiles écartés, quitte à les ramener bien vite sur mon visage
lorsque la petite lueur d’une lanterne dénonce, au loin, un passant attardé.
Après avoir franchi la porte de quartier, massive et grinçante, qu’un
gardien ouvre devant nous et referme aussitôt, nous entrons dans Berrima.
Kaddour a préparé ma venue; la sorcière nous attend. Elle croit que, sous
ces voiles de laine rude, se cache une tremblante Cherifa, échappée cette
nuit, par quelles ruses! aux murailles qui l’emprisonnent. Aussi ne
s’étonnera-telle pas de la rigueur avec laquelle je les tiens baissés, clos,
masquant obstinément mes yeux.
Je distingue à peine la pièce où elle nous a introduits: une chaise longue,
garnie de modestes sofas, tout à fait honnête et rassurante, qu’éclairent deux
cierges, verts et jaunes, en de hauts chandeliers.
La sorcière est une lourde matrone à l’air équivoque. Souvent, dans les
harems, j’en ai rencontré de ces vieilles, complaisantes et détestables,
habiles à insinuer la tentation.
Elles présentent des étoffes, achètent aux recluses les vêtements et les
bijoux dont elles veulent se défaire, colportent les nouvelles, indiquent des
remèdes, et s’entremettent surtout dans les aventures où leur malice
l’emporte sur la défiance des maris.
—Nous sommes venus, dit Kaddour, comme des malfaiteurs, avec
l’épouvante...
—Ne craignez rien, répond la sorcière. Par le pouvoir de ceux qui
m’obéissent, nul ne s’apercevra de votre absence.
Elle s’accroupit devant un brûle-parfums, y jette quelques grains de
benjoin, et se met à égrener un chapelet.
—Nous désirons, reprend Kaddour, que tu fasses venir pour nous ceux
que tu as promis d’appeler.
—Ah! dit-elle avec lassitude. Aujourd’hui l’heure presse et je ne suis
point disposée... Je prierai pour vous, cela suffit.
—Puisse Allah te le rendre, ô ma mère! Certes la prière est excellente!
Mais nous voulons aussi que tu évoques le roi des djinns, afin d’apprendre
ce qui nous importe... insiste Kaddour en faisant tomber sur le sol un réal
d’argent.
La vieille s’approche de moi, pose ses mains sur ma tête. Son haleine
forte m’incommode à travers le haïk:
—Au nom du Dieu Clément et Miséricordieux, implore-t-elle,
Qui n’a point enfanté et n’a point été enfanté,
Qui n’a point d’égal en qui que ce soit,
Qui connaît les secrets enfermés dans les mystères de son nom?
Sur toi un rayon de sa lumière.
J’aperçois ton cœur refroidi et ton corps qui n’a plus d’attraits pour
l’époux.
Celui qui s’éloigne de toi, fut enchaîné par le recours et le charme de
Chenharouch le sultan[77].
Comme elle prononçait ce nom, la porte fut ébranlée d’un coup violent.
—Qui est là? cria la vieille.
—Quelqu’un est venu, répondit une voix aiguë.
—Quelqu’un est venu, Quelqu’un reviendra,
Et le destin s’ensuivra...
Au bout d’un instant, la sorcière ouvrit la porte. Il n’y avait personne; la
lune éclairait un pan ruiné de muraille, et projetait sur le sol bossué l’ombre
d’une treille...
—Puisque le sort t’est fâcheux, dit la vieille, j’interviendrai.
Elle disparut au bout de la chambre, derrière une boiserie, et en rapporta
un plateau gravé de signes bizarres, au milieu duquel fumait un canoun
plein de braises. Tout autour, bien rangées en cercle, sept petites coupes
contenant des poudres, des grains et des pâtes.
La vieille déplia un haïk écarlate dont elle s’enveloppa tout entière. Elle
s’accroupit, attira le plateau magique sous ses voiles, et elle ne fut plus
qu’une masse flamboyante, à travers laquelle s’échappait quelque fumée...
Immobiles et silencieux, nous attendons... Les cierges crépitent, l’air
s’alourdit de benjoin, une souris apparaît et file...
Est-ce un djinn?
Tout à coup, des sons rauques, insensés et caverneux semblent gonfler la
draperie rouge.
Lutte, halètements, protestations... auxquels, de temps à autre, se mêle
une faible plainte...
Puis une voix s’élève, qui n’est pas celle de la sorcière, ni d’un être
humain, une voix qui vient des profondeurs mystérieuses:
«J’en jure par le soleil et sa clarté!

Par la lune quand elle le suit de près.
Par le jour quand il le laisse apparaître dans tout son éclat,
Par le ciel et celui qui l’a bâti,
Par la terre et celui qui l’a étendue comme un tapis,
Par l’âme et celui qui l’a formée[78]!»
J’en jure par cette invocation sublime et toujours exaucée.

O Mouley Idriss! Il n’y a de Dieu que Dieu!
O Mouley Abd el Kader qui voles à travers l’espace!
O Mouley Thami, maître des lieux brûlants!
Écoute-moi, ô sultan rouge! qui commandes les génies effrayants!
O Sidi Moussa, gardien des eaux!
O Sidi Mimoun er Rahmani, le Soudanais!
O Moulay Ibrahim, oiseau de la montagne!
O Sidi Saïd Derkaoui!
O Sidi Ahmed Derwich!
O les maîtres noirs de la forêt!
O les pèlerins, seigneurs des djinns!
O Lella Myrra, l’inspirée!
O Lella Aïcha, la négresse!
O Lella Rkia, fille du rouge!
O Bousou, le marin!
O Sidi Larbi, le boucher!
O le serpent des pèlerins!
O toi qu’on ne peut nommer, souverain de l’épouvante[79].
Accourez avec les nuées et le vent, avec les éclairs et le tonnerre!
O vous qui avez la connaissance des choses secrètes!
Que je voie, de vos yeux, que votre langue parle en ma bouche!
Je vous conjure et vous adjure d’écarter tous les voiles,
De me pénétrer de la science que le Seigneur mit en vous.
Je vous conjure et vous adjure par Lui, Seul, Unique,
Hors duquel il n’y a pas d’autre Dieu!
L’Ét l l Vi l P i t
L’Éternel, le Vainqueur, le Puissant,
Roi de tous les temps et de tous les mondes,
Celui qui mettra debout les os rongés par les siècles.
Celui à qui nul n’échappe, que nul ne peut atteindre et ne peut égaler!
Éclairez mon esprit. Je vous le demande et vous l’ordonne!
Sinon vous serez contraints au moyen des flammes et de l’ébullition,
Dont aucun pouvoir ne vous protégera!
«N’as-tu jamais entendu parler du Jour qui enveloppera tout?

Du jour où les visages seront baissés,
Travaillant et accablés de fatigue,
Brûlés au feu ardent[80]?»
Quiconque ne répond point à mon appel,

Dieu lui fera subir le châtiment
Par la vertu du grand nom, invoqué, craint et révéré,
Qu’il assure l’accomplissement de mes desseins!
La voix peu à peu s’est enflée, elle n’implore plus, elle commande,
impérieuse, et menace.
Les draperies rouges frissonnent. Entre la vieille et les génies accourus,
un combat s’engage dont nous ne distinguons que les soubresauts et les cris.
Rauques aboiements, clameurs de souffrance, d’épouvante et de mort...
Une louve hurle dans la nuit... Ce vagissement misérable qui répond est le
dernier râle de sa victime...
... Quand la sorcière écarta ses voiles, elle avait un visage congestionné,
hagard et tout à fait terrifiant.
L’incantation semblait l’avoir épuisée,—on ne converse point en vain
avec les démons.—Elle resta quelques moments inerte sur le sofa, puis se
redressa, prit sept pincées de poudre dans les coupelles, en fit un petit
paquet et me le tendit. Elle parlait avec effort, d’une voix naturelle mais
toute dolente:
—Mets ceci dans l’eau de rose et enduis-en ton corps. Et ensuite tu
jeûneras et tu réciteras la prière, au moghreb, prosternée sur une natte
neuve, que ton ennemie n’a jamais foulée. Invoque trois fois Mouley Abd el
Kader, l’oiseau blanc, et ne crains pas... Alors les choses qui te contristent
cesseront, et ton époux retrouvera sa juste raison. La jeune fille disparaîtra
de ses yeux, ainsi que le soleil derrière l’ombre, un jour d’éclipse. Elle sera
pour lui comme si elle n’était pas, ou sans plus d’attrait qu’une chamelle
pelée...
Cet oracle a complètement brisé la sorcière; sa masse retombe sur le
divan, son teint est jaune, ses joues bouffies et malsaines tremblotent...
Pourtant elle retrouve quelque vigueur pour saisir le nouveau réal que lui
tend Kaddour.
—Chose étonnante! s’exclame-t-il aussitôt dehors. Ces vieilles! Tout ce
qu’elles font! Tout ce qu’elles savent!... Quand les djinns sont entrés dans le
chambre, j’ai vu danser des flammes rouges... Et cette voix! tu l’as
entendue!...
—Certes! répondis-je, cette sorcière connaît les choses mystérieuses et
j’accorde que les démons l’inspirent... Cependant, ô Kaddour! explique-moi
comment elle n’a point découvert que j’étais une Nazaréenne?
14 mars.
La beauté bien cachée qui surpasse toutes les autres beautés, certes je la
connais! Et les fleurs de son teint, et les grenades parfumées de ses lèvres,
et l’éclat de ses yeux fascinateurs... Pourquoi donc Lella Meryem,
aujourd’hui, m’apparaît-elle plus éblouissante, d’un charme inattendu,
étincelant, renouvelé, d’une gaîté sans égale? Serait-ce déjà l’effet du
sortilège que j’apporte?
Dès les premiers mots elle m’arrête.
—Qu’Allah te rende le bien, ô ma sœur! le remède, je n’en ai plus
besoin, Aoud el Ouard est partie...
—O Seigneur! la nouvelle bénie!... Qu’est-elle devenue?
—Cette chienne! Puisse le malheur l’accompagner! Mouley Hassan l’a
reprise.
—Louange à Dieu! Comment se fait-il que le Chérif ait retiré le présent
offert à son fils?
—Qui le sait? Peut-être avait-il entendu vanter son attrait... Il aura voulu
s’en assurer... Cela n’importe guère! dans quelques mois, elle ne sera plus
qu’une esclave d’entre ses esclaves...
Lella Meryem triomphe avec insolence et naïveté... Je devine les petites
ruses qu’elle mit en œuvre pour éloigner sa rivale, les louanges perfidement
colportées sur Aoud El Ouard, afin d’éveiller la concupiscence du Chérif, la
requête qu’elle-même fit parvenir à son beau-père...
Mouley Hassan, changeant et sensuel, regrettait sans doute de n’avoir
pas cueilli cette tige de rose. Il dut être facile à convaincre.
—Sais-tu, poursuit Lella Meryem, que les noces de Lella Oum Keltoum
seront bientôt célébrées?
—C’est une honte! Elle n’a pas donné son consentement.
—Lella Oum Keltoum est folle, affirma Lella Meryem, ses refus font
parler tous les gens.
—O mon étonnement de t’entendre! Ne m’as-tu pas dit mille fois que
Lella Oum Keltoum avait raison?...
Cette contradiction n’émeut pas la Cherifa.
—Je t’ai dit cela, dans le temps! A présent, il est clair qu’elle est folle.
Puisque le Sultan a fait savoir au Cadi, par son chambellan, qu’il désire ce
mariage, Lella Oum Keltoum n’a qu’à se soumettre. Les unions entre
parents sont bénies d’Allah, à cause de leur ressemblance avec celle de
Lella Fatima, fille du Prophète, et de son cousin, notre seigneur Ali. Les
noces de Lella Oum Keltoum et de Mouley Hassan seront un bonheur dont
il faut se réjouir.
—O chérie! O celle dont la langue est experte! répondis-je en souriant,
Mouley Hassan t’a donc achetée toi aussi?
Le petit visage de la Cherifa rosit, lumineux, ainsi que la lune surgissant
à l’horizon.
—Seulement, ajoutai-je, il ne t’a rien donné. C’est toi qui lui rendis
Aoud El Ouard...
27 mars.
Turbulent et leste, Kaddour remplit la maison de son agitation. Les
petites filles, radieuses, se bousculent, tout affairées; Hadj Messaoud piaffe
devant ses fourneaux; Saïda, la négresse, affuble son minuscule négrillon
d’un superbe burnous émeraude.
Notre expédition émeut tout le quartier; on entend dans la rue le
braiement désespéré des bourricots et les querelles des âniers. Mohammed
le vannier, accroupi sur le pas de sa porte, cesse de tresser des corbeilles
pour observer notre cortège, et des têtes de voisines s’avancent furtivement
au bord des terrasses... Après beaucoup de bruit, de cris, d’allées et venues,
de faux départs et de retours imprévus, Kaddour ferme enfin nos portes
avec les énormes clés qui grincent.
La caravane s’ébranle.
Certes! elle est digne d’un hakem qui va fêter le soleil dans une arsa, et
les gens ne manqueront point d’en approuver le déploiement fastueux.
Kaddour prend la tête, fier, important comme un chef d’armée, une cage
en chaque main. Dans l’une gazouille un chardonneret, dans l’autre, un
canari.
Ensuite viennent les ânes chargés de couffas d’où sortent les plus
hétéroclites choses: le manche d’un gumbri, un coussin de cuir, un bout de
tapis, une théière... Ahmed le négrillon, à califourchon sur un bât,
ressemble, avec son burnous émeraude, à une grenouille écartelée. Rabha
chevauche, très digne, le second bourricot.
Puis s’avancent les femmes, la troupe craintive, pudique, trébuchante des
femmes qui s’empêtrent dans les plis de leurs voiles: Kenza, Yasmine, déjà
lasses; Saïda et son haïk rayé de larges bandes écarlates; Fathma la cheikha
que nous n’eûmes garde d’oublier, car une partie de campagne s’agrémente
toujours de musique et de chants.
Les hommes ferment la marche: Hadj Messaoud, tenant précieusement
un pot plein de sauce qu’il n’a voulu confier à personne, et les trois porteurs
nègres sur la tête desquels s’érigent, en équilibre, les plats gigantesques
coiffés de cônes en paille.
Nous n’avons pas «rétréci»! Kaddour en conçoit un juste orgueil.
Au sortir des remparts, le soleil, le bled déployé, la route fauve déjà
poussiéreuse, éblouissent et accablent... Mais nous n’allons pas loin,
seulement à la Guebbassia, qui appartint à un vizir, et s’incline dans la
vallée. Le chemin descend entre les grands roseaux bruissants, émus par la
moindre brise, et nous entrons dans l’arsa toute neuve, toute fraîche, toute
pimpante, dont les jeunes feuillées ne font point d’ombre.
Elle tient à la fois du verger, du paradis terrestre et de la forêt vierge,
avec ses arbres fruitiers roses et blancs, ses herbages épais, ses ruisselets,
ses oliviers, ses rosiers grimpants épanouis au sommet des citronniers, ses
vignes qui s’enlacent et retombent comme des lianes. Les sentiers
disparaissent sous l’envahissement des plantes sauvages... La ville est très
loin, inexistante. On ne voit que l’ondulation de la vallée, de vertes
profondeurs mystérieuses, et parfois, entre les branches, la chaîne du
Zerhoun toute bleue sur l’horizon.
Kaddour a choisi, pour notre installation, un bois de grenadiers au menu
feuillage de corail. Il étend les tapis, les sofas, une multitude de coussins.
Au-dessus de nous il suspend les cages et les oiseaux se mettent à vocaliser
follement, éperdument, en un délire.
Un peu plus loin s’organise le campement de nos gens. Des nattes, des
couvertures berbères et tous les accessoires sortis des couffas. Hadj
Messaoud s’ingénie à allumer un feu, qu’il souffle au bout d’un long
roseau; les nègres s’agitent, apportent du bois mort. Kenza, Yasmine, Saïda,
ont rejeté leurs haïks et folâtrent dans la verdure; Fathma essaye sa voix.
Le déjeuner est un festin: des poulets aux citrons, des pigeons tendres et
gras, des saucisses de mouton percées d’une brochette en fer forgé, un
couscous impressionnant, dont tous nos appétits ne pourront venir à bout.
Les plats passent de nous à nos voisins, et c’est amusant de les voir
manger, engouffrer avec un tel entrain!... leurs dents brillent comme celles
des carnassiers, leurs mains huileuses, dégouttantes de sauces, ont des
gestes crochus pour dépecer les volailles. Il n’en reste bientôt plus que les
carcasses. Pourtant la montagne de couscous, quoique fort ébréchée, a
raison de tous les assauts.
Ensuite chacun s’étend avec satisfaction et rend grâce à Dieu très
bruyamment.
Kaddour prépare le thé.
Rien ne fut oublié, ni le plateau, ni les verres, ni même les mrechs niellés
pour nous asperger d’eau de rose.
Il fait chaud, les grenadiers ménagent leur ombre, des moucherons
voltigent dans le soleil, les cigales grincent très haut... Tout vibre! l’air
tiède, les feuillages, les impondérables remous de l’azur. Le parfum des
orangers s’impose, plus oppressant, plus voluptueux.
Le printemps d’Afrique est une ivresse formidable. Il ne ressemble en
rien à nos printemps délicats, gris et bleutés, dont l’haleine fraîche, les
sourires mouillés font éclore des pervenches dans les mousses. Ici la nature
expansive, affolée, se dilate. Les bourgeons éclatent subitement, gonflés de
sève, pressés d’étaler leurs feuilles; un bourdonnement sourd et brûlant
monte des herbes; les juments hennissent au passage des étalons; les
oiseaux s’accouplent avec fureur.
Le ciel, les arbres, les fleurs, ont des couleurs excessives, un éclat brutal
qui déconcerte. La terre disparaît sous les orties, les ombelles plus hautes
qu’un homme, les ronces traînantes et ces orchidées qui jaillissent du sol
comme de monstrueuses fleurs du mal.
J’aperçois le ciel si bleu, à travers le papillotement d’un olivier, dont les
petites feuilles se détachent en ombres grêles et en reflets d’argent. Le
canari, exténué de roulades, ne pousse plus que de faibles cris. Saïda, la
négresse, vautrée dans l’herbe, s’étire, telle une bête lascive; ses bras
musclés brillent en reflets violets, ses yeux luisent, à la fois languides et
durs; elle mâchonne de petites branches.
Saïda ne m’apparaît pas simiesque ainsi qu’à l’habitude. Elle est belle,
d’une beauté sauvage, toute proche de cette ardente nature en liesse.
Soudain elle bondit et disparaît dans les lointains verts de l’arsa. On dirait la
fuite d’un animal apeuré.
Fathma la cheikha continue ses chansons, mais sa voix s’adoucit et
parfois se brise:
O nuit!—gémit-elle,—ô nuit!
Combien es-tu longue, ô nuit!
A celui qui passe les heures
En l’attente de sa gazelle
Et veille la nuit en son entier!
O Belles! ô chanteuses! ô celles

Vers qui s’envole mon esprit!
Si vous êtes filles de Fès et nobles,
Je me réjouirai parmi vous.
Je ne vous quitterai pas.
Qu’est la vie sans amour?...
La mort me convient mieux.
O jeune fille étendue, es-tu malade?

T’a-t-on frappée, chère colombe?...
Tes joues sont des pommes musquées,
Tes lèvres ont la pulpe juteuse
Des raisins roses du Zerhoun
Quand l’automne dore les vergers;
La chair des pastèques est moins fraîche
Que la tienne où je veux mordre...
O nuit! ô nuit! Combien es-tu courte, ô nuit!

A celui qui passe les heures auprès de sa gazelle!
Enamouré il ne peut dormir.
Il avait espéré tant de jours!
Le chant me berce... Une torpeur tombe du ciel avec le soleil qui

s’égrène sur nous en mille taches d’or, mobiles et brûlantes. La voix de
Fathma se mêle à toutes les voix amoureuses de la terre, des herbes et des
branches; je n’en distingue plus que l’harmonie...
Quand je m’éveille, le soleil décline vers l’occident, de longues ombres
s’étendent sous les arbres. Fathma s’est tue, elle mange... Autour du
couscous un cercle s’est reformé: Hadj Messaoud, Yasmine, Kenza, le petit
Ahmed et les âniers. Quelques heures de digestion calmèrent la résistance
de leurs estomacs. Certes ils auraient honte de revenir avec un seul grain de
semoule! Cependant Rabha déclare que «son ventre est plein. Louange à
Dieu!» et Saïda, la négresse, n’a pas reparu.
Kaddour n’est pas là non plus.
J’avais entendu les notes de son gumbri jusqu’au moment où le sommeil
m’enveloppa... Kaddour ne s’attarde jamais en nonchalance, il lui faut du
mouvement, de la vie... Rien d’étonnant à ce qu’il vagabonde à travers le
verger... Pourtant cette double absence m’inquiète, et j’arrête Kenza qui
veut aller à leur recherche. Il y a tant d’allégresse, tant de senteurs dans ce
jardin, une telle provocation de la nature capiteuse!...
Saïda reparaît la première, l’air calme, les mains pleines de gros
champignons blancs trouvés au bord de l’oued. Elle gronde le négrillon qui
a taché son burnous, puis elle s’accroupit et se jette sur le couscous.
Le plat est nettoyé quand Kaddour revient, d’un tout autre côté; il parle
beaucoup, il nous donne mille détails sur les particularités de sa promenade.
Malgré tout, je ne me sens pas convaincue... Et puis, cela paraît presque
naturel, s’ils se sont aimés par un tel jour de printemps.
Saïda est jeune, vigoureuse et saine, libre aussi puisque ses deux maris la
répudièrent. C’est une bonne et simple brute, toute d’instinct. Kaddour doit
plaire aux femmes par sa violence, son impérieuse volonté... il ne
s’embarrasse point de scrupules.
Maintenant ils cheminent avec notre petite caravane, apaisés,
indifférents. Las surtout, comme les fillettes, Hadj Messaoud, la cheikha et
le gosse au burnous émeraude, soudain épuisés après la grande excitation de
l’arsa.
Les remparts se détachent sur un ciel rouge, et nous franchissons Bab
Berdaine dans le tumulte des troupeaux, qui regagnent leurs étables à
l’heure du moghreb.
31 mars.
Kaddour passe du rire à la fureur sans s’arrêter jamais aux états
intermédiaires.
Hors de lui ce matin, il vocifère dans la cuisine. De ma chambre
j’entends ses éclats, mais je ne perçois point les réponses du Hadj
Messaoud, l’homme paisible.
—Oui! oui! J’ai répudié ma femme! Elle ne m’est plus rien! Où se
cache-t-elle, cette chienne fille du chien cet autre?...
»Elle a quitté ma maison pendant que j’étais ici.
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
—C’est vrai, je l’avais battue. Que pouvais-je faire?... O Allah! le
croirais-tu! Elle a mis ma sacoche en gage chez le marchand d’épices pour
s’acheter du henné!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
—Je n’ai plus qu’à partir de la ville! Les gens ont pu voir ma sacoche
pendue chez ce marchand d’épices!—Allah le confonde!—Il l’avait
accrochée à la face de sa boutique!... Honte sur moi!... Quand je suis passé,
j’ai dit: Ha!
. . . . . . . . . . . . .
»Je l’ai répudiée devant notaires. Elle ira chez son oncle voler tout ce
qu’elle trouvera de sacoches!...
La chose paraît grave. J’appelle Kaddour. Il a sa figure sauvage des
mauvais jours. Son nez frémit, sa petite barbe se hérisse et son regard a
noirci...
—Qu’as-tu raconté au Hadj Messaoud? Tu as répudié Zeïneb devant
notaires?
—Oui, c’est une voleuse sans vergogne, une impudente, une...
—Doucement! Par combien de fois l’as-tu répudiée?
—Deux fois, pas davantage. Les notaires m’ont demandé d’attendre un
peu avant la troisième répudiation, mais je veux le faire tout de suite, et ce
sera fini.
—Voyons, Kaddour! à cause d’une sacoche, tu oublies tout son bien.
—Tout son bien! Elle ne m’apporta que le malheur et la honte.
—Tu ne sais te passer d’elle, et tu connais votre loi musulmane: quand tu
l’auras répudiée trois fois, tu ne pourras plus la reprendre que si elle a
épousé, entre temps, un autre homme... Voudrais-tu la savoir dans la maison
d’un autre? Et que diraient les gens?
A cette idée Kaddour est devenu très jaune de teint. Il fronce les sourcils,
halète un peu.
—Pour ton visage! finit-il par répondre, je vais chercher Zeïneb. C’est
une fille de gens honorables. Elle s’est évidemment réfugiée chez sa mère...
Il lui fallait du henné, car elle doit aller à des noces demain, et j’avais oublié
de lui laisser de l’argent... Avant de prononcer la troisième répudiation,
j’écouterai ce qu’elle dira de ma sacoche...
5 avril.
Pour échapper aux raisonnements, à l’anxiété, au vertige d’horreur où
nous sommes entraînés, il faut de vastes paysages joyeux, et des spectacles
apaisants.
Allons au cimetière oublier la mort, et toutes les choses tragiques de ce
temps.
Le cimetière est un lieu plaisant où l’on peut s’étendre à l’ombre des
oliviers, les yeux éblouis par l’azur du ciel et par le vert intense de la terre.
Une vie bourdonnante monte des herbes et descend des branches; les
cigognes planent, très haut; les moucherons tournoient en brouillard léger;
l’âpre odeur des soucis relève l’arôme miellé des liserons et des mauves.
Il fait chaud, il fait clair, il fait calme... L’âme se détend, se mêle aux
chansons, aux parfums, aux frémissements de l’air tiède, à tout ce qui
tourbillonne, impalpable et enivré dans le soleil.
Un ruisseau coule au milieu des roseaux où le vent chante; de jeunes
hommes, à demi nus, y lavent leur linge. Ils le piétinent avec des gestes de
danseurs antiques. Leurs jambes s’agitent en cadence, et, soudain,
s’allongent, horizontales, minces, le pied tendu, un moment arrêtées en l’air,
comme s’ils faisaient exprès d’être beaux en leurs singulières attitudes
rythmiques. Des vêtements sèchent autour d’eux, sur les plantes, étalant des
nuances imprécises, exténuées par l’âge.
A quelques pas de moi, un adolescent, très absorbé, s’épouille.
—En as-tu trouvé beaucoup?
—Une vingtaine seulement. Je n’enlève que les plus gros, ceux qui
mordent trop fort... les poux ont été créés par Allah en même temps que
l’homme... Qui n’en a pas? Ils complètent le fils d’Adam.
—Sans doute, tu parles juste et d’expérience.
Le jeune garçon ne s’attarde pas à ce travail. Il est venu au cimetière
pour jouir, pour fêter le soleil. Une cage, suspendue au-dessus de lui dans
les branches, lance des roulades frénétiques. On ne voit pas l’oiseau, les
barreaux de jonc ne semblent contenir qu’une harmonie, une exaltation qui
s’évade.
Couché sur sa djellaba, une pipe de kif entre les lèvres, un verre de thé à
portée de sa main, le regard bienheureux et vague, cet adolescent participe à
l’universelle félicité d’un matin au printemps. Parfois, il s’arrache à sa
béatitude pour vérifier quelques cordes tendues entre deux arbres, comme
d’immenses fils de la Vierge.
—Ce sont, m’explique-t-il, des cordes pour mon gumbri[81]. Si elles
sèchent vite, elles auront de beaux sons... Je suis Driss le boucher.
Complaisamment il soupèse un paquet blême et mou d’intestins encore
frais. Il en attache les bouts à une branche et les dévide en s’éloignant, pour
atteindre un micocoulier aux ramures basses.
Plus loin, un groupe de burnous, dont je n’aperçois que les capuchons
émergeant des herbes, se penche au-dessus du sol en religieuses attitudes.
Mais ce n’est point une tombe qu’ils entourent. Ils jouent aux échecs... et ils
poussent les pions avec de subites inspirations, après avoir longuement
médité chaque coup.
Quelques bourricots, chargés de bois, trottinent à la file dans le sentier,
entre les plantes sauvages et hautes, qu’ils écartent sur leur passage, en
frissonnant de la peau et des oreilles. L’ânier invective contre eux sans
relâche.
—Allons! Pécheurs! Calamités! Fils d’adultère! Allons! Pourceaux
d’entre les pourceaux!
Parfois il arrête ses injures pour baiser la porte d’un marabout, marmotte
quelque oraison, puis il rejoint ses ânons en courant et vociférant de plus
belle...
Des femmes voilées psalmodient autour d’un tombeau, et leurs chants
me rappellent que ce lieu n’est point une arsa, malgré les arbres, le sol
couvert de fleurs, les cactus rigides et bleus et le bel horizon de montagnes
mollement déployées; que ces frustes pierres éparses dans la verdure ne
sont point les accidents d’un terrain rocailleux... Mais lorsque je passe, elles
me saluent et rient et elles m’interrogent sur les noces de Rhadia où je fus
l’autre semaine.
O croyants! Vous avez raison. Il faut vivre sereinement, sans autre souci
que les douces frivolités de l’existence. Il faut vivre sans réfléchir, sans
prévoir. Il faut vivre d’une vie simple, paisible, familière—et se distraire et
chanter, et jouir des bonnes choses—en regardant le ciel très bleu, en
écoutant les oiseaux—avec insouciance, avec ivresse.
Le monde est un cimetière délicieux.
13 avril.
—La mariée pleure! la mariée pleure!
Vierge pudique et bien gardée, dont aucun homme ne connaît le visage, ô
petite gazelle farouche tremblant à l’approche du chasseur, combien tes
larmes réjouiront l’époux!... Puisse Allah, qui les compte, te les rendre en
félicités! Puissent tes filles, au jour de leurs noces, verser autant de larmes
que toi et t’honorer de leur douleur ainsi que tu honores ta mère!
O mariée, tes pleurs disent ta pureté parfaite.
Les invitées louangent entre elles cette «aroussa» dont l’affliction peut
servir d’enseignement aux fillettes qui l’entourent. Et elles félicitent
Marzaka d’avoir mis tant de honte au cœur de Lella Oum Keltoum, de
l’avoir si bien élevée, si merveilleusement préparée au mariage, car jamais
fiancée n’a répandu plus de larmes!
Nulle n’ignore sa résistance, ni la contrainte qui la brise, mais une jeune
fille dont l’hymen est célébré avec un si surprenant éclat ne doit-elle pas
s’en réjouir secrètement, mesurer l’envie élogieuse des gens, jouir en son
cœur des récits émerveillés qui se répéteront de génération en génération?
Le mariage enfin, qu’il convient d’atteindre dans la tristesse, n’est-il pas
le but unique d’une Musulmane, l’inconnu qui vient briser tout à coup la
monotonie du temps, le moment suprême d’orgueil et de joie?
Depuis sept jours, tant de femmes, les plus riches, les plus nobles de la
ville, n’ont eu d’yeux et d’attention que pour Lella Oum Keltoum. Toutes
les parures se sont étalées autour d’elle; tous les flambeaux se sont allumés;
tous les parfums se sont épandus; toutes les chanteuses ont détaillé sa
beauté, sa pudeur et son émoi; toutes les fillettes, réunies dans le Ktaa, ont
frémi de désir en la contemplant.
Soudain, à cause d’elle, la vie uniforme et lente est devenue un
enchantement de plaisirs, de festins, de musique et de splendeurs.
Docile entre les mains de la neggafa, pliée par la tradition, Lella Oum
Keltoum a pris l’attitude rituelle des jeunes épouses. Ses pieds ne touchent
plus le sol, ses lèvres ne prononcent plus une parole, ses yeux ne s’ouvrent
pas sur les somptuosités environnantes.
Maintes fois, elle fut exposée à l’admiration de l’assemblée, en des
atours différents. Et chacune de ses toilettes était plus splendide que la
précédente, et chacun de ses bijoux dépassait la richesse des autres, et
chacune de ses larmes excitait davantage l’admiration et la louange...
Qui donc n’envierait Lella Oum Keltoum?
Il faut avoir un cœur de Nazaréenne, sous les caftans de brocart, pour
songer avec angoisse au destin qui s’accomplit, pour démêler la révolte et le
désespoir à travers les pleurs traditionnels d’une mariée...
Dans le palais de Mouley Hassan où l’on se prépare à recevoir l’aroussa,
la magnificence dépassera, dit-on, celle des fêtes qui se déroulent ici.
Lella Fatima-Zohra, très dignement retirée dans ses appartements, ne
saurait y assister, mais elle a donné ses ordres et prévu toutes choses afin
que les noces de Mouley Hassan soient dignes de leur maison.
Tout est prêt.
L’époux s’impatiente.
Amenez la mule harnachée de velours et d’argent!
Allumez les cierges aux mains des jouvenceaux!
Frappez les instruments!
Voici que la vierge paraît! Autour d’elle, les danseurs bondissent, les
tambourins s’agitent éperdus, les torches répandent leur lumière vacillante
et dorée.
Et les gens, attardés dans la nuit, s’émerveillent au passage fantastique
du cortège nuptial, tandis que, droite, rigide, sous ses voiles de pourpre et
d’or, mystérieuse amazone éblouissante, la mariée pleure.
16 juin.
Au retour de Marrakech, où nous allâmes après les noces de Lella Oum
Keltoum, Meknès m’apparaît plus intime, plus familière et plus aimable.
Tous les visages nous sont connus et accueillants, toutes les portes nous
sont ouvertes.
J’ai hâte de revoir mes amies abandonnées depuis deux mois,
d’apprendre les petits événements très importants de leur existence, et
surtout de savoir ce qu’il advint de la révoltée entre les mains du vieillard...
—Comment le jugerions-nous, m’a répondu Yasmine. Peut-on se fier
aux propos des esclaves, mères du mensonge? Et pour ce qui est de Lella
Oum Keltoum, elle ne monte plus jamais à la terrasse, car elle est Chérifa,
et son temps de fillette a passé. Aussi n’avons-nous point revu la couleur de
son visage, bien qu’elle soit de nouveau notre voisine. Mouley Hassan l’a
gardée chez lui pendant les premières semaines, puis il l’a réinstallée dans
sa propre demeure et il y passe lui-même presque toutes les nuits... Hier
soir, nous avons appris ton retour aux négresses, et certes Lella Oum
Keltoum en doit être informée et t’attendre dans l’impatience.
J’avais cueilli, pour la petite épouse, toutes les roses de notre riadh.
Cependant je parvins chez elle les mains vides, car chaque enfant, rencontré
dans la rue, me priait gentiment de lui donner une fleur, et, lorsque
j’atteignis la demeure de nos voisines, je fus sollicitée par une vieille
mendiante accroupie dans la poussière. C’était une pauvre femme hideuse
et décharnée; des haillons cachaient à peine son corps, laissant apercevoir la
peau flétrie, la misère des seins et les jambes osseuses. A mon approche,
elle arrêta sa complainte:
—O Lella, me dit-elle, accorde-moi une petite rose!
Cette demande inattendue fut aussitôt exaucée, et la pauvresse, m’ayant
couverte de bénédictions, plongea son visage de spectre dans les fleurs dont
ses mains étaient pleines.
On n’entre plus chez Lella Oum Keltoum ainsi qu’autrefois. Un portier

garde le seuil, soupçonneux et digne sur sa peau de mouton. Il ne laisse
pénétrer les gens qu’à bon escient.
Dans l’ombre du vestibule, se cachant derrière les portes, il n’y a plus de
curieuses négresses à épier les passants.
Le demeure m’apparut toute différente et cent fois plus belle que je ne
pensais, car, aussitôt après les noces, Mouley Hassan mit à la réparer les
meilleurs artisans de la ville. En sorte que le palais de Sidi M’hammed
Lifrani a retrouvé son ancienne splendeur.
Dans les salles, tous les sofas étaient neufs, bien rembourrés et chargés
de coussins. Des haïtis, en velours éclatant, garnissaient les murailles, des
tapis d’Angleterre couvraient les miroitantes mosaïques, et de grands
miroirs, venus d’Europe, reflétaient la transformation des choses, au milieu
de cadres très dorés.
Lella Oum Keltoum s’avance vers moi, le visage plein, avenant et
reposé. Des caftans de drap alourdissent mollement ses gestes et lui donnent

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Digging into the Dark Ages:Early

Medieval Public Archaeologies 1st

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Howard Williams and Pauline Clarke

Howard Williams and Pauline Clarke

© The individual authors and Archaeopress 2020

Part 1: Dark Age Debates

Public Archaeology of Early Medieval Assembly Places and Practices: Þingvellir�����������������������59

Dressing for Ragnarök? Commodifying, Appropriating and Fetishising the Vikings������������������65

Part 2: The Public Dark Ages

Part 3: Dark Age Media

The #GreatHeathenHunt: Repton’s Public Early Medieval Archaeology ������������������������������������268

Old Norse in the Wild West: Digital Public Engagement on YouTube�����������������������������������������300

Dr Adrián Maldonado is Glenmorangie Research Fellow at National Museums Scotland. He previously

Bauman, Z. 2017. Retrotopia. Malden: Polity.

The politics and popular culture of the ‘Dark Ages’

Why is this project particularly timely?

the last two decades, versions of imaginary

between different religious, ethnic and socio-

The ‘Digging into the Dark Ages’ conference

The Guest Lectures

Dark Age Debates

Next, Sacha O’Connor tackled the

Together these three presentations

Dark Age Entertainment

Displaying the Dark Ages

The Digital Dark Ages

Selling the Dark Ages

Imagining the Dark Ages

Welcome to the Dark Ages: From Conference to Book

Dark Age Debates

An Interview with Adrián Maldonado

Career and research background

HW: How did you get interested in early medieval archaeology?

Early medieval archaeology and popular culture

HW: You began with Tolkien so you were always

AM: I think appropriately enough it really begins with

with. This is to say nothing of the ethical

HW: Let’s turn to the broader situation

AM: The Early Middle Ages couldn’t be

And so it was depressing, if not

It felt distinctly like the old debate

Public archaeology in early medieval Scotland

Introduction: popular perceptions of a colourless ‘Dark Ages’

Colour in the Early Middle Ages

Colour in early medieval churches

Une pleine lune marche avec fierté

—Cette maudite! s’exclame Lella Meryem après son départ. Elle me

«J’en jure par le soleil et sa clarté!

J’en jure par cette invocation sublime et toujours exaucée.

«N’as-tu jamais entendu parler du Jour qui enveloppera tout?

Quiconque ne répond point à mon appel,

O Belles! ô chanteuses! ô celles

Public Archaeology of Early Medieval Assembly Places and Practices: Þingvellir��59

Dressing for Ragnarök? Commodifying, Appropriating and Fetishising the Vikings��65

The #GreatHeathenHunt: Repton’s Public Early Medieval Archaeology ��268

Old Norse in the Wild West: Digital Public Engagement on YouTube��300