David A. Hinton. Gold and gilt, pots and pins: possessions and people in Medieval Britain.

David A. Hinton. Gold and gilt, pots and pins: possessions and people in Medieval Britain. DAVID David, in the BibleDavid,d. c.970 B.C., king of ancient Israel (c.1010–970 B.C.), successor of Saul. The Book of First Samuel introduces him as the youngest of eight sons who is anointed king by Samuel to replace Saul, who had been deemed a failure. A. HINTON. Gold and gilt, pots and pins: possessions andpeople in Medieval Britain. xii+ 439 pages, 108 illustrations, 34 colourplates. 2005. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 0-19-926453-8 hardback 30[pounds sterling]. That material culture constructs, and is itself a construct of,social relationships and behaviours has become a basic archaeologicaltenet in recent years, and a central focus for research. In this book,David Hinton (whose career has spanned positions in major Britishmuseums and in a university archaeology department) demonstrates howmedieval portable artefacts from England, Scotland and Wales Wales,Welsh Cymru, western peninsula and political division (principality) of Great Britain (1991 pop. 2,798,200), 8,016 sq mi (20,761 sq km), west of England; politically united with England since 1536. The capital is Cardiff. were forcesfor economic and social change, from the end of Roman imperial controlin the late fourth century to the centralised Tudor state of the earliersixteenth century. He is primarily concerned with how and why individualartefacts, or artefact-categories, were acquired, displayed, curated,bequeathed or thrown away, and hence with the changing personal, classand regional identities which these behaviours negotiated. Such lines ofinterpretation are particularly fruitful for the medieval period, whenarchaeological evidence can increasingly be combined with pictorial andtextual sources, and Hinton exploits this potential to great effect. Heconcentrates on decorated and/or precious material--jewellery, coins, toa lesser extent weaponry, riding gear and ecclesiastical objects, andtableware, including pottery--at the expense of supposedly more mundaneor functional material. While the validity of the distinctions might bequestioned, the chosen material both plays to Hinton's own researchspecialities and allows him to address a broad social span, includingcritical tensions between inclusion/adherence and exclusion/resistance(all of which are captured in the book's title, with the word-playon 'gilt' spelt speltSubspecies (Triticum aestivum spelta) of wheat that has lax spikes and spikelets containing two light-red kernels. Triticum dicoccon was cultivated by the ancient Babylonians and the ancient Swiss lake dwellers; it is now grown for livestock forage and used in baked out on p. 264, note 17, one of Hinton'smany characteristically wry interjections which enliven en��liv��en?tr.v. en��liv��ened, en��liv��en��ing, en��liv��ensTo make lively or spirited; animate.en��liven��er n. the volume). Themeat of the book is organised chronologically into eight chapters."Adapting to life without the legions' takes the reader to themid-sixth century; 'Expressions of the elites' spans the latersixth to later seventh centuries, overlapping somewhat with 'Kingsand Christianity' from the late seventh to the early ninthcenturies; 'Alfred et al.' covers the period of Scandinavianinvasion and settlement; 'An epoch of new dynasties' embracesthe establishment of an urbanising Late Saxon nation-state, and itstakeover by Danish and Norman kings between the later tenth and eleventhcenturies; 'Feudal modes' (the twelfth to mid thirteenthcenturies) and 'Material culture and social display' (to thebeginning of the fifteenth century) chart the contexts of the relativedecline and resurgence in importance of small artefacts; 'The warsand the poesies' completes the survey. A brief introduction,outlining themes and sources, and an even briefer summary of the salientattributes of each period top and tail the book. This is a hugely ambitious canvas, and the result is both deft deft?adj. deft��er, deft��estQuick and skillful; adroit. See Synonyms at dexterous.[Middle English, gentle, humble, variant of dafte, foolish; see daft. andscholarly, though it does raise queries about who will read thevolume--students, interested laymen or other scholars--and how. Hintonwrites in an easy, unpretentious style, discursively rather thananalytically (there are no tables or diagrams and only two sets ofdistribution maps, Hines's great square-headed brooches, andIpswich-ware pottery compared with two types of sceatta). The text iswell supported by thoughtfully scaled photographs and line drawings,including many finds from the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Hinton offersan exceptionally accessible, broad and up-to-date introduction tomedieval artefacts and their meanings. With the index, it should becomea first port-of-call for initial enquiries about any one of these,though, being selective of its material rather than typologicallysystematic, it is not a modern equivalent to Baldwin Brown's 1915Arts of Early England vols. III-IV (which anyway tackled only the earlyAnglo-Saxon period). The volume is not a straightforward read, however. The structurallogic within each chapter can be elusive, as Hinton weaves a way fromobject to object, or category to category, that expounds his main agendabut might also trigger comments on, for example, manufacturingtechniques, art styles and contexts (sites and buildings), and on biginterpretative in��ter��pre��ta��tive?adj.Variant of interpretive.in��terpre��ta issues and themes. Double-line breaks are mainly usedonly to mark shifts from one major geographical region to another.Further, over a third of the book is devoted to the endnotes, containingadditional information and impressively extensive source-references, andto the bibliography: shifting back and forth to check whether endnotesare worth consulting--they nearly always are--makes for a rather haltingread. Scholars, especially those working slightly outside their ownspecialist field, however, will greatly value this aspect for thepossibilities which it offers for looking up and pursuing particularinformation. In the context of a short review, the range and rich detail of thisbook precludes further summary, and to engage in debate on any onesection would be invidious in��vid��i��ous?adj.1. Tending to rouse ill will, animosity, or resentment: invidious accusations.2. . Suffice to say that it is useful, amusingand provocative--an education for both medievalists and prehistorians. TANIA Hayd��e Tamara Bunke Bider, communist revolutionary Tania (queen) Tania was an alias of Patricia Hearst Tania Borealis and Tania Australis, stars in the constellation Ursa Major Tania Emery, actress Tania Lacy, comedian Tania Libertad, singer M. DICKINSON Department of Archaeology, University of York This article is about the British university. For the Canadian university, see York University. The University of York is a campus university in York, England. , York, UK