Life in Early Medieval Wales. By NancyEdwards. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 2023. xv + 511 pp. ISBN 978 0 19 873321 8.

Synthesizing the archaeology of late Roman and early medieval Wales from c. ad 300–1050, Nancy Edwards has crafted a triumphant ‘first’ for early medieval scholarship. Life in Early Medieval Wales is a detailed integration and evaluation deploying clear and concise prose drawing and building upon a life-long career teaching and researching early medieval archaeology for Britain and Ireland. The result is comprehensive, balanced, up to date and appears at an important juncture for early medieval archaeology during a resurgence of new investigations and analyses in Wales. Charting the story of Wales from the decline and collapse of the Roman province of Britannia to the end of the Viking Age, the book is of benefit to students and scholars and deserving of a wide readership. The text opens with Edwards surveying the history of past research and early medieval written evidence (Chapter 1), while a second introductory chapter explains the landscape of Wales as well as how early medieval societies marked and conceptualized time and valued social memories (Chapter 2). A detailed and careful handling of the fate of settlements and society in the late Roman period balances evidence for both significant socio-economic collapse, but also strands of continuity across Wales during the fourth and fifth centuries (Chapter 3). A second ‘sub-Roman’ chapter (Chapter 4) provides insights into the legacy of Roman rule and Irish settlement and influence (helpfully not confining this discussion to the fifth and sixth centuries but extending it up to the Viking Age). The second part of the book comprises three chapters that provide something previously not attempted because of the relative paucity of artefacts and other dating evidence. Edwards charts daily life and landscapes in early medieval Wales via evidence for fortified hilltops and promontories, including the later reuse of prehistoric hillforts, as well as tantalizing glimpses of lowland high-status settlements (notably Llanbedrgoch, Llangorse crannog and Rhuddlan). Rural farmsteads are also considered, drawing on many recently published and grey literature reports and showing the enduring influence of roundhouses (Chapter 5). The ever-increasing evidence for the agricultural economy and diet is put presented in a fashion not possible even a decade ago (Chapter 6) and Edwards also evaluates afresh the evidence for craft and trade, outlining a range of material from imported Mediterranean pottery to coins, balances and weights (Chapter 7). The consideration of costume and display in this last chapter is particularly welcome, incorporating data-strands from stone sculpture to fragments of an embroidered garment from Llangorse. Part three of the book (Chapters 8–11) is a cautious and careful evaluation of the evidence for belief and ritual. Here, we receive a discussion of the scant and ambiguous evidence of pre-Christian religious beliefs and practices, the protracted process of Christian origins and conversion in Wales, evidence from burials and commemorative practices, ecclesiastical centres, lesser churches and chapels, and the broader landscape including holy wells and trees as well as relics and reliquaries. The penultimate chapter tackles the interconnected themes of power and authority in the landscape, setting the foundation for future work on the hitherto under-investigated topic of assembly places and practices. Edwards also deftly synthesizes recent research on the short dykes of early medieval Wales and the longer linear earthworks of Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dyke. She concludes with an evaluation of the ‘Viking’ impact (Chapter 12). At the book’s end, an extensive conclusion pulls together key arguments and presents avenues for future research. Edwards notes the need for more excavations of settlements and their landscape contexts (allied to good environmental preservation), as well as the exploration of ecclesiastical sites and assembly places (Chapter 13). Throughout this rich study, suitable illustrations and maps help depict the often constrained and fragmentary evidence drawn upon, and suitable parallels are made with evidence and themes from other parts of Britain and Ireland. Historical and place-name evidence is effectively used to bolster the narrative. In short, Nancy Edwards has achieved a publication that summarizes archaeological interpretations based on the data gathered so far and provides a gateway for many into this field of investigation; it also sets the foundation and priorities for research in decades to come. I have four areas of more critical commentary. Burial and stone monuments are an expertise of the author and receive detailed attention. However, the structure of the book means that discussions of mortuary practices are stinted, under-theorized and fractured across multiple chapters. They are neglected in discussions of time and memory in Chapter 2 (pp. 53–63), only mentioned briefly in addressing the Roman legacy and changing identities (Chapter 4), and receive a pair of disconnected if dedicated sections on ‘burials and cemeteries’ in Chapter 8 (pp. 278–82) and ‘burials’ in Chapter 9 (pp. 302–10). Equally, while burial and commemoration are addressed in regard to ecclesiastical sites, their absence from the discussion of the settled landscape in Chapters 5 through 7 means such practices and artefacts remain somewhat disconnected from a holistic sense of landscape structure and change. A second point relates to the discussion of linear monuments and must reflect the inevitable result of the composition process. Edwards reviews recent fieldwork and evaluations of Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dyke via an excellent survey, but it only takes us up to c.2019. Thus, references are made to articles within the first volume of the new open-access Offa’s Dyke Journal (2019) but Edwards was unable to evaluate work published subsequently, appearing in volumes 2 to 5 (2020 to 2023). A third point relates to the least satisfactory dimension of the book’s coverage. While there is ample attention to the fourth to seventh centuries, and the eighth to tenth centuries are tackled where data allows, there is limited discussion of the last period, the eleventh century. Unfortunately, this means the changes in native Welsh society, the later Viking Age, and the impact of Norman invasion and influence receive scant attention, and only in relation to the evidence of ritual and belief. This throws into sharp relief the need for a further synthesis of the transition to later medieval Wales that tackles the archaeological evidence and focuses on landscape and life, not just the usual topics of castles and religious houses. Finally, while I contend that this book is indeed a true ‘first’ of archaeological synthesis, it is an expensive, in-depth, hardback academic study. It remains something of a collective shame on early medieval studies that there is no accompanying up-to-date popular synthesis at an affordable price and pitched at a broader audience, building on Edwards’ rigorous and detailed scholarly work to bring its insights to a wider readership.