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IMC 2017: Sessions

Session 1513: Interaction, Identity, and Space in the Irish Sea, 700-1100, I: Interactions and Identities

Thursday 6 July 2017, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Irish Sea in the Middle Ages Research Network (ISMARN)
Organiser:Charles Insley, School of Arts, Languages & Cultures, University of Manchester
Moderator/Chair:Laura Gathagan, Department of History, State University of New York, Cortland
Paper 1513-aImages of Sigurd on Crosses and Carvings from the Isle of Man, Northern Britain, and Sweden: A Scandinavian / Benedictine Connection
(Language: English)
Tracey-Anne Cooper, Department of History, St John's University, Queens, New York
Index terms: Archaeology - Artefacts, Ecclesiastical History, Epigraphy, Geography and Settlement Studies
Paper 1513-b11th-Century Dublin in the Irish Sea and Beyond: Hybrid Identities and Competing Connections
(Language: English)
Caitlin Ellis, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Economics - Trade, Geography and Settlement Studies, Language and Literature - Scandinavian
Paper 1513-cA Viking Thalassocracy?: Raid, Trade, and Lordship
(Language: English)
Andrew Sargent, Department of History, Keele University
Index terms: Archaeology - General, Geography and Settlement Studies, Maritime and Naval Studies
Abstract

These two sessions seek to show case new work on interaction in the Irish Sea during what might be termed the 'Viking Age'; this research identifies the Irish Sea itself as a central place and as a space for a range of interactions cross the period 700-1100, but also a space which was connected to a much wider world. This first session focusses on questions around identity and the transcultural connections fostered in the Irish Sea zone, with papers that look at: cultural syncretism as represented by the image of Sigurd deployed in sculpture across the Irish Sea, northern Britain and Scandinavia; an examination of Dublin’s mercantile community and the deliberate fostering of hybrid identities in the 11th century; and the extent to which we might conceive of the lordships that emerge in the Irish sea as genuinely maritime polities - thalassocracies - or as extensions of primarily land-based lordships