Review by John Blair
On the whole, classics are better left unrevised. New material unbalances a familiar format, and the less it feels like the same book the less one sees the point. But there are exceptions, of which this is certainly one. David Hinton’s memorable overview of English medieval archaeology was published in 1990. Here, he has rewritten it totally, in a way that is up-to-date (to 2021!), immensely thorough, yet keeps the structure and strengths of the original.
I first met David Hinton in 1973, when I was a new undergraduate. He seemed dauntingly learned then, and he has spent the last half-century expanding his learning. The depth and thoroughness of his reading on such a range of topics is extraordinary, and indeed it has made this book a miniature encyclopaedia, where you can be confident of finding reference to significant work; it almost constitutes an index to relevant material in the standard journals.
The book’s format is very straightforward, with a chapter for each century running through the archaeology of: socio-economic relations; rural and urban settlement; religion; buildings; industry; and material culture. The chronological scope – 11 centuries from AD 400 to 1500 – is unusual nowadays. It certainly has the great merit of avoiding an artificial break at the Norman Conquest, and of allowing long-term developments to be followed through. That applies especially to some major themes: for instance, domestic buildings, on which this book is notably strong. There are wise comments on the hiatus in perceptible vernacular houses during the 12th century (pp.159-160): solid-construction walls that leave little trace (beyond occasional stake-holes for reinforcements, often misinterpreted as flimsy shacks) can be both tall and sturdy. In fact, that point potentially applies across the whole period and to other parts of Britain: we could be over-privileging the forms of construction that happen to be visible archaeologically.
