The Name as an Artefact: Or, the Perils of Jumping to Conclusions

Gregory, R. (2015) The Name as an Artefact: Or, the Perils of Jumping to Conclusions. Society for Medieval Archaeology Student Colloquium, Sheffield, UK, 12-13 Nov 2015. (Unpublished)

Abstract

The study of place-names is an invaluable tool in researching medieval history, and this paper will examine the relationship between onomastics and archaeology, and how place-names can be used as historical artefacts. Every record of a name marks a moment in time, and the development of a name demonstrates a progression which reflects cultural, sociological and linguistic change both in the geographical area to which it is tied, and across society as a whole. When using one kind of evidence in isolation, however, it is easy to make mistakes and misrepresentations which could so easily be remedied by interdisciplinary research: the paper will use examples of the way archaeology has fundamentally changed our understanding of some of the earliest English place-names (Dodgson 1966), of the role name-studies can play in an archaeological excavation (Gelling 1976, 1993), and demonstration of how my PhD research into Nottinghamshire field-names was shaped by archaeology.

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Unpublished
• Refereed: No
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Gregory, Dr Rebecca
• Authors: Gregory, R.
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain; D History General and Old World > DL Northern Europe. Scandinavia; P Language and Literature > PE English
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics