Dr John Moreland
Telephone: 0114 222 2909
E-Mail: J.Moreland@Sheffield.ac.uk
Dr John Moreland, BA, PhD
Reader in Medieval Archaeology
Research Interests
My research interests are directed towards understanding the humanity and the historical process in late Antiquity and the middle ages. My current research is focused on
- the use of writing in past societies – both as a technology of oppression and as a means of empowerment
- the role of images (particularly the Cross) in medieval and early modern societies
- the transition from late Antiquity to the middle ages in Europe (particularly in the Britain and the Mediterranean)
Writing
My interest in the ways in which writing transforms the societies in which it is used is long-standing, and stems from a more general concern for the relationship between the disciplines of Archaeology and History. In some early papers I argued that if we persisted in treated these sources of evidence separately we could never come to understand the historical past – since people in the past constructed their identities through both texts and objects. I took this argument to its logical conclusion in my book on Archaeology and Text (2001). Here I developed Jack Goody´s `literacy thesis´ to argue that historical archaeologists had to take account of the fact that texts were technologies of oppression that entangled even the illiterate – archaeologists should move form seeing texts simply as evidence about to the past and consider their efficacy in the past.
Archaeology and Text has been very well received by students and by academics. One reviewer described it as `´exciting and provocative" and as "the final nail in the coffin of the history-plus-artefacts approach to the archaeology of historic periods. It is also an exciting, inspiring pointer to a range of new debates and approaches for archaeologists of the medieval and other periods" (Medieval Archaeology 46, 266-67). Professor Andrew Augenti, University of Venice, in a paper on `medieval archaeology in Italy´, said that in it I had `brilliantly demonstrated´ the way in which subordinates are captured by the texts of the elite.
Nevertheless, I now concede that the thesis presented in the book is a little one-sided. While it is true that writing was indeed a `technology of oppression´, it is also true that many peoples/peoples have found in it a vehicle for empowerment, liberation and enjoyment. I am currently developing this argument in a paper for the Annual Review of Anthropology (2007), and I hope to explore it in more detail in a book on the `textual communities´ in Britain from late Antiquity to the middle ages.
Images
My interest in the power of images in the middle ages was inspired both by my work on texts and by fieldwork carried out in the beautiful Derbyshire village of Bradbourne. Here early curiosity about the 9th-century cross in the graveyard turned into what some have called an obsession with the `biography´ of this monument. Extensive research allowed me to demonstrate that the cross was almost certainly destroyed in the Reformations of the 16th- and early 17th-century. It was probably at the same time, and as part of the same process, that almost all the trappings of medieval Catholicism in Bradbourne church were destroyed and replaced, significantly, with paintings of Biblical texts – a very fine example from Ecclesiastes survives. In Archaeology and Text I argued that this destruction of a material world and its replacement with the written word was part of the process which also saw the emergence of the written texts as the preferred means of accessing the past.
This research has developed into a cross-cultural interest in the relationship between texts and images – from Sumeria to the early modern period.
(see also below - Fieldwork, Bradbourne)
Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages [Farfa]
I have used both fieldwork and library based research to address some of the issues central to the study of late Antiquity and the early middle ages - on identity, on social and demographic transformations, on the nature of production and exchange etc. The aim is to undermine some of the myths that permeate the study of the period and prevent us from approaching this past as it really was.
Fieldwork
I have been involved in 3 main fieldwork projects over the last few years – each focussed on increasing our knowledge of late Antiquity and the middle ages and designed to enhance our understanding of the historical processes that animated the age.
From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Central Italy
- From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages in Central Italy - based on my field survey in the Sabine hills, on my excavations at Casale San Donato, Lazio, Italy and an analysis of the eighth and ninth century documents from the monastery of Farfa in Sabina, Italy.
- This research has broken new ground in our understanding of the Italian early Middle Ages. Before this work, very few sites of the period were known and the era was characterised as one of depopulation, decay and degeneration. As a result of my archaeological and historical research, many new sites have been discovered, undermining notions of dramatic population decline. In addition, the material from my excavations at Casale San Donato has transformed our perception of the social and economic conditions of the period. Continuity through transformation has replaced degeneration as the key to understanding the early Middle Ages in central Italy.
- One of the aims of the project is to communicate the results of this very important research to the people of central Italy. To that end I have collaborated closely with the mayor of the commune of Castelnuovo di Farfa in the construction of a museum on the site. The museum was completed and opened in June 1997.
- This research has been externally funded by The British Academy, The Royal Archaeological Institute, The British School at Rome, and also by the University of Sheffield.
Butrint Project, Albania
As a result of my research in Italy I was invited to become co-director of the Butrint Project, Albania, investigating the transformation of this major Roman city and its hinterland from late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The project is genuinely multi-disciplinary, and enabled me to develop research links not only with Albanian colleagues, but also with British academics in the other fields — classical studies, architecture, art history, history etc. I presented several papers and published two articles (with others) as a result of this research.
- This project was funded by The Butrint Foundation.
- Commitments elsewhere prevented me from continuing my involvement with the project, but see the Butrint Foundation’s website for details of the many exciting new developments.
Bradbourne Project
Like the rest of the Department of Archaeology at Sheffield, I am committed to uncovering the historical processes operating in the immediate region – and to providing field training for undergraduate students. To this end I have, for some time now, been involved in the Bradbourne Project. Using this beautiful Derbyshire village as a base, we aim to introduce students to the techniques used in landscape archaeology (archives, maps, photographs, oral history, land surveying, geophysical surveying, tests-pits, and excavations) through practical experience, and to use the results to construct an understanding of how people have worked and reworked the landscape from prehistory to the present day.
The research project seeks to situate the lived experience of the inhabitants of the parish of Bradbourne within regional and national contexts, focusing in particular on the impact of the transformations of the Roman world, and on the construction of modernity. Through detailed archaeological and historical research we are attempting to explore how changes in broader social, political and economic structures were manifest `on the ground´ — in the lives of communities in this region.
My work on images – and in particular on the Cross (see above) – was inspired by my encounter with the early medieval cross in the grounds of Bradbourne Church. I have encouraged students to share my enthusiasm for this monument and, as part of an attempt to re-construct the conditions of the medieval village, Matthew Lord (undergraduate 2000-2003) produced these images of the cross.
The project is funded by the University of Sheffield and Derbyshire County Council and benefits hugely from the support of the people of the village – especially Eddie and Jean Castledine.
Current research students
- Cheryl Clay – Germanic presence in late Roman Britain
- Kirsten Jarrett – Ethnic identities in south west Britain in late Antiquity
- Jeffry Oliver - Making Maps in British Columbia
- Helen Ullathorne - The Kinder Scout Tresspass
I am happy to supervise research on the following in the period between late Antiquity and the middle ages – identities, production and exchange, theory, archaeology and history. I am particularly interested in projects that explore the ways in which writing in used in past societies (prehistoric and historic).
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