The Archaeology of Migrants in Viking-Age and Anglo-Norman England: Process, Practice, and Performance

This chapter discusses the manner in which early medieval archaeologists have attempted, with varying degrees of confidence, to trace migration. It argues that we need to do more than rely on scientific approaches, such as stable isotope analysis, not least because evidence for where a person spent their childhood addresses only one element of their experiences of migration. Through analysis of evidence of craftworking, settlements, diet and cuisine, and burials, the chapter demonstrates that there is ample archaeological evidence for early medieval migration on a variety of scales. It is argued that movement of people is best traced not by study of style and constructed identity, but through socially embedded traits, such as craftworking, animal husbandry, and culinary practices, which reflect a range of social identities, not simply, if at all, the ethnic identities with which debates about migration have routinely, and unsatisfactorily, become entangled.