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Dr Sarah Semple, BA (hons), MSt Hist. Res., DPhil

Telephone: +44 (0) 191 33 41115

(email at s.j.semple@durham.ac.uk)

Biography

My DPhil. completed at Oxford University in 2002, examined the uses of prehistoric remains in England in the fifth to eleventh centuries AD and presented evidence of a dramatic change across the Conversion Period in how communities perceived and utilised ancient monuments. In 2002 I was awarded a Career Development Fellowship in Archaeology at St. Cross College, Oxford, to undertake research on evidence for votive deposition in early medieval Britain and this gave me an opportunity to develop my interests in religion, popular beliefs and practices. In 2003-4 I temporarily replaced the Lecturer in European Archaeology at Oxford University and in 2004 took up a full-time lectureship in archaeology at the new University of Chester; a post that allowed me to expanded my research interests to include the post-Roman archaeology of the North West, and the Irish sea-basin. Since my first degree at University College London, I have participated on, supervised and directed field projects in Britain and abroad and worked for two years in contract archaeology with a range of professional units before starting my postgraduate studies.

My research has continued to focus on the early medieval period in Britain and abroad, and remains landscape centred. My doctoral and post-doctoral research led to a wider interest in understanding early medieval interaction with the natural and man-made environment with particular reference to the role of landscape in religion and cult practice and the ideological and political uses of natural topography and ancient remains. This led to the organisation of two conferences at Oxford, in 2000 and 2005. The first examined assembly sites and practices in Britain and Europe and led to the publication of an edited volume in 2004. The next centred on aspects of Anglo-Saxon paganism and the proceedings will be published as a joint-edited volume in 2008. Since arriving in Durham in 2006 I have continued to initiate and develop research within these areas, moving beyond Anglo-Saxon England and taking a north-west European perspective. My recent research on shrines and temples seeks to re-address the question of pre-Christian cult sites in terms of their chronology and origins, their topography and their functions, seeking to characterise the early medieval English evidence in the wider context of late prehistoric traditions and the wider comparative evidence from Scandinavia and Northern Europe. The political uses of landscape are intimately related to these pre-Christian traditions, with a duality between kingship and cult argued in Scandinavian scholarship. My current research seeks by means of fieldwork in England and Scandinavia, to establish the validity of this link and to understand the potential long-lived nature of such meeting places and how they are adopted within the early medieval administrative frameworks.

Developing out of my past and current work on landscape, politics, identity and religion my current projects in England and Sweden explore related themes: power of place or the long-term importance of natural and man-made features as sacred or politically important foci, changing perceptions and perspectives of landscape and monumentality across the conversion and pre-Christian and Christian popular beliefs and practices in a landscape context.

Since arriving in Durham I have involved myself in a range of regional research committees and projects that include the on-going geophysical survey at the early medieval site of Yeavering, Northumberland and a combined survey and building recording project at the Saxon church of Seaham, Co. Durham. Both fit within my research interests in assembly, political centres, religious places and structures and landscape.

Research Interests

• Death and burial in early medieval Britain
• Religion, belief and popular practices in pre-Christian and Conversion Period Europe
• The archaeology of governance and administration in North West Europe
• Landscape archaeology
• Interdisciplinary approaches to early medieval research

Research Groups

Research Projects

Indicators of Esteem

Selected Publications

Articles: magazine

  • Sanmark, A. & Semple, S. J. 2009. tingsplatsen vid anundshog. Popular Arkeologi 4: 13-14.

Books: edited

  • Semple, S. J. & Williams, H. M. R. 2007. Early Medieval Mortuary Practices. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 14. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
  • Pantos, A. & Semple, S. J. 2004. Assembly Places and Practices in Medieval Europe. Dublin: Four Courts Press. (Additional information)
  • Griffiths, D., Reynolds, A. & Semple, S. J. 2003. Boundaries in Early Medieval Britain. Anglo-Saxon Studies in History and Archaeology, 12. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Edited works: contributions

  • Semple, S. J. 1997. Font Fragment. in G. Milne (ed.). In St.Bride’s Church, London: Archaeological Research 1952-60 and 1992-95. Milne, G. & St.Bride’s Church, London: Archaeological Research 1952-60 and 1992-95. English Heritage Archaeological Report 11, 82. 82.

Edited works: journals

  • Semple, S.J. 2006. Anglo-Studies in Archaeology and History, 13. Oxbow.

Essays in edited volumes

  • Pantos, A. & Semple, S. J. 2004. Introduction. In Assembly Places and Practices in Medieval Europe. Pantos, A. & Semple, S. J. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 11-23.
  • Semple, S.J. 2004. Locations of Assembly in Early Anglo-Saxon England. In Assembly Places and Practices in Medieval Europe. Pantos, A. & Semple, S.J. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 135-154. (Additional information) (View publication online)

Journal papers: academic

  • Published.
  • Sanmark, A. & Semple, S. J. 2008. Places of Assembly: New Discoveries in Sweden and England. Fornvännen 103(4): 245-259. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Semple, S.J. 2008. Princes and Polities in the South Saxon Kingdom AD 400-900. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 24(4): 407–429
  • Semple, S 2007. Defining the OE Hearg: a preliminary archaeological and topographic examination of hearg place names and their hinterlands. Early Medieval Europe 15(4): 364-385. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Semple, S. J 2003. Burials and Political Boundaries in the Avebury region, North Wiltshire. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 12: 72-91. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Semple, S.J. 2003. Illustrations of Damnation in Late Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Anglo-Saxon England 32: 31-45. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Pitts, M., Bayliss, A., McKinley, J., Bylston, A., Budd, P., Evans, J., Chenery, C., Reynolds, A. & Semple, S. J. 2002. An Anglo-Saxon Decapitation and Burial at Stonehenge. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 95: 131-146. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Semple, S.J. & Williams, H.W., 2001. Excavation on Roundway Down. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 94: 236-239. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Semple, S. J. & Langlands, A., 2001. Swanborough Tump. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 94: 239-242. (Additional information) (View publication online)
  • Semple, S.J. 1998. A fear of the past: the place of the prehistoric burial mound in the ideology of middle and later Anglo-Saxon England. World Archaeology 30(1): 109-126.

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