IMC 2017: Sessions
Session 1008: Seals and Social Strata in Northern Europe
Wednesday 5 July 2017, 09.00-10.30
| Sponsor: | SIGILLVM: International Network for the Study of Seals & Sealing Practices |
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| Organiser: | Matthew Sillence, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, University of East Anglia |
| Moderator/Chair: | Elizabeth New, Department of History & Welsh History, Aberystwyth University |
| Paper 1008-a | English 'Peasant' Seals, c. 1300 (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archives and Sources, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Social History |
| Paper 1008-b | Friends and Neighbours: Using Digisig to Investigate Regional Affinities in the British Isles in the 13th Century (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Archives and Sources, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Social History |
| Paper 1008-c | Norman Peasant Seals: A Sign Universe (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Art History - General |
| Abstract | Quite exceptionally, in medieval Normandy (and some neighbouring areas) and in England and Wales, seals were used not only by well-to-do or well-placed members of society, but by humbler persons - peasant landholders and others - who conveyed property by means of written documents. Interestingly, these seals from northern France are very similar to those from England and Wales in their designs and legends, and this is a theme to be explored in this session. Beyond the seals themselves, it has implications for, inter alia, methods of conveyancing, peasants' freedom to buy and sell property, and the influence of those estates - lay and ecclesiastical - that lay on both sides of the Channel. |