AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award Leicestershire & Rutland
This job is no longer available, it expired on the Friday 28th May 2010
Salary: £ Stipend
School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of Leicester, and the British Museum
Fully funded PhD with enhanced support
A new study of the penannular brooch in Britain
Applications are sought for an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award, to be held at the University of Leicester from October 2010, supervised by Professor Colin Haselgrove (School of Archaeology & Ancient History), with joint supervision and training from Dr Roger Bland (Department of Portable Antiquities & Treasure, British Museum). Dr John Naylor and Sally Worrell will act as advisors for the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS).
Penannular brooches were widely used in Britain as a form of dress fastener and a symbol of identity for over a millennium, but despite their potential for insight into topics like ethnicity, regionality and contact, no general overview has been undertaken since the 1950s. This AHRC award is for a new study of the origins, elaboration and significance of the penannular brooch form in Britain from its Iron Age origins to the early post-Roman centuries, through fresh analysis of their typological development in an insular and continental setting, and of the site and landscape context of individual finds and different brooch types. The project will draw on data recorded by the PAS and from published and grey literature sites and will make full use of the extensive British Museum collections.
The successful applicant will have a relevant first degree and/or postgraduate qualification. He/she will receive training in the handling, analysis and interpretation of material culture, and in Iron Age to early medieval archaeology. The outcome, after 3 years, will be a PhD from the University of Leicester. The start date is October 2010.
The AHRC maintenance award will be enhanced by an additional £1000 per year and the British Museum will provide up to £500 a year towards the costs and expenses (such as travel and subsistence) incurred by the student as a direct result of working at the Museum for their studies. The University of Leicester will provide desk space in a dedicated postgraduate room, normal IT facilities and a library with good coverage of British and European archaeology. The British Museum will offer the student office and working space with access to other research resources as required. The post-holder will be a temporary member of the British Museum staff and will receive a staff pass and full access to facilities available to British Museum staff, including its excellent libraries.
Further particulars are attached. Informal enquiries may be made to Professor Colin Haselgrove (cch7@le.ac.uk). The closing date for applications is Friday 28 May. It is anticipated that interviews will be held in Leicester on Friday 11 June 2010.
AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award
Fully funded PhD with enhanced support
A new study of the penannular brooch in Britain
FURTHER PARTICULARS
The project
The aim of this collaboration between the University of Leicester and the British Museum is a new study of penannular brooches in Britain. These simple objects, consisting of a hoop of metal with confronted terminals, that were shaped, moulded or decorated in various ways, and a pin, were adopted in Britain by the fourth century BC, whilst their more highly decorated descendants were still in use over a millennium later in the Viking period. Earlier penannular brooches are generally made in bronze, but with time iron was used more extensively and also precious metal. Their primary function was to fasten loose-weave garments, but they also conveyed information about the identity of the wearer.
Simple penannular brooches are regular finds on later Iron Age sites. In the early Roman period, the range of forms increased, but they became less common relative to bow brooches, In the late and post-Roman period, penannular brooches again increased in popularity, not only becoming the commonest or only form present in much of western and northern Britain, but experiencing a resurgence in the core areas of Anglo-Saxon settlement, despite the repertoire of new continental types in use there. Many penannular brooches in early medieval graves appear to be curated, whilst others copy earlier types current in the same region.
Like other types of personal items, study of penannular brooches has the potential to generate insights into areas of behaviour such as individual status, the formation of regional identities, the movement of people or ideas, and the organisation of craft production, and unlike many other types of object, to do so across key period divides. For areas that lack diagnostic ceramics, penannular brooches also provide a useful means of dating, particularly where the opportunities for radiocarbon dating are restricted. Many penannular brooches appear to have ended their lives as deposits at ‘special places’ in the landscape, opening up possibilities for the study of symbolic and ritual dimensions of behaviour.
Despite their relative abundance and evident research potential, there has been no general study of penannular brooches in Britain since that of Elizabeth Fowler (1960; 1963), who devised a typology for nearly 600 examples spanning the Iron Age to the sixth century AD. The specific objectives of the new project are:
o to create a database of penannular brooch finds, recording their form and contextual attributes in a way that allows their deposition to be examined at different spatial scales from the very local to broad landscape patterning
o to construct a new typology of British penannular brooches through first hand study of the objects and analysis of the temporal and spatial context in which different types have been found, whilst also taking account of the European setting
o to identify patterns in the archaeological contexts in which specific brooch types were made, used and deposited and to synthesise this data to construct more nuanced chronologies and a better understanding of the changing social roles of these objects
o to train a suitably qualified individual in specialist analysis and interpretation of Iron Age–early medieval material culture.
In recent decades, the number of penannular brooch finds has increased significantly, due on the one hand to the increase in developer-funded excavations, and on the other to the growth of metal detecting. The former has seen Iron Age, Roman and early Medieval sites explored in unprecedented numbers and on an unparalleled scale, whilst the PAS already has records of c 160 new finds reported by the public. PAS data hint at regional and temporal patterning in the forms adopted and in the type of landscape location where such objects were most often deposited. Among the research questions that the project will explore are:
1. When and where were different types of penannular brooch types adopted in Britain between c 400 BC and c AD 600, and for how long were they current?
2. What does the occurrence and associations of penannular brooches at different settlement types and in burials signify about the identity and status of their wearers?
3. What does the distribution of specific brooch types tell us about regional identities in Iron Age–early Medieval Britain? Was the diversification of forms in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD linked to the formation of distinctive sub-cultures in Roman Britain?
4. What can brooch manufacture tell us about craft production, exchange and inter-regional knowledge transfer in Iron Age–early Medieval Britain?
5. What kinds of depositional practices were penannular brooches incorporated into? How do these vary regionally and temporally and what might they signify socially?
6. What does the presence of curated brooches and/or copies of earlier types in Anglo-Saxon burials tell us about the appropriation of the past in early Medieval Britain?
The British Museum houses an extensive reference collection of c. 280 penannular brooches, enabling the student to familiarise him/herself rapidly with the specific technical and stylistic features of particular types, which will be essential to the detailed recording of the material.
The results will be disseminated through papers in leading journals and other publications co-authored by the student and supervisors or single-authored by the student, as appropriate.
The partners
The University of Leicester is a leading research-led university. The School of Archaeology and Ancient History has a large group of staff and PhD students specializing in Iron Age and Roman settlement, landscape and material culture in Britain and Europe. Further information about the School may be found at: http://www.le.ac.uk/archaeology. The British Museum is a world museum of human culture and history. The purpose of the Museum is to present to the public in this country and internationally human history in its broadest sense through material culture and to support those researching human history and cultures through its collection and to carry out research on aspects of those histories and cultures itself. Further information about the British Museum may be found at http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk.
The student's work at the Museum will be with two different Departments: Portable Antiquities & Treasure; and Prehistory & Europe. In the Portable Antiquities & Treasure, the student will be able to access records in the PAS database, which is housed at the Museum. He/she will be able to access through GIS information on e.g. land use and physical
geography in GIS systems maintained by other national bodies such as English Heritage. In Prehistory & Europe, the student will be able to access and examine material in the extensive collections and contextual information provided in the accessions registers. As part of this project, the student will significantly improve the online information about these brooches for the British Museum's online catalogue. This work will also include the possibility of creating online essays and other supporting information.
The principal supervisor will be Colin Haselgrove, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Leicester. He has published extensively on Iron Age Britain and France and on the impact of Roman expansion on indigenous societies and has supervised over 20 PhD students to successful completion. Dr Roger Bland is Keeper of the Department of Portable Antiquities & Treasure, with particular expertise on the coinage and economy of Roman Britain and the western provinces. Additional advice and support will be provided by Dr John Naylor and Sally Worrell (PAS), Deirdre O’Sullivan (Leicester University), Dr Jody Joy (Department of Prehistory & Europe) and Dr J D Hill (Research Manager, British Museum).
PhD students at Leicester are initially registered as Advanced Postgraduates and upgrade to full PhD status within 12 months full-time study, submitting a chapter, contents list, account of training undertaken, and timetable for completion, prior to a panel interview. A detailed Training Needs Analysis will be undertaken at the start of the project and the student will be directed to appropriate training courses in the University. These will vary with the selected candidate, but are likely to include some or all of (1) acquiring further knowledge of the archaeology of Iron Age to early Medieval Britain and western Europe; (2) developing enhanced database, statistical and GIS skills; (3) developing illustration and web presentation skills; and (4) training to teach and assess other students. At the British Museum, the student will be trained in the handling, analysis and interpretation of material culture and in accessing the Museums Collections and Registers and the use of the PAS database. He/she will be given an induction at the British Museum similar to that provided to new staff and other CDA students, including training in research ethics, confidentiality issues and IPR.
Applications
Applicants should possess a good BA and Masters degree in a relevant subject area, and good research and computing skills. Experience of post-excavation analysis, working with artefacts and using GIS would be an advantage. The award is subject to normal AHRC eligibility criteria; for full details, applicants are advised to consult the ARHC Doctoral Guide 2010.
Applicants are asked to submit a full CV and covering letter outlining their reasons for applying and suitability for the award and other relevant information, together with two sealed references using the form available from the School. NB. Referees may, if preferred, send their references directly to the School. Copies of the referee form are available from Rachel Marriott (rem17@leicester.ac.uk). If you are applying for this award as professional development from a current employer, one of your referees should be from your current professional organization. Please note that this studentship must be held full-time and cannot be deferred.
Applications should be made in writing by Friday 28 May 2010 to:
The Postgraduate Secretary, School of Archaeology & Ancient History, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH.
Advert went live on: Wednesday 28th April 2010
Advert archived on: Friday 28th May 2010
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