3.3 Archaeology of Early Medieval Europe: Metal Smiths, Kingship, and Gender.

Dr. Duncan W. Wright, Newcastle University.

 

Publication:

Duncan W Wright (2019) Crafters of Kingship: Smiths, Elite Power, and Gender in Early Medieval Europe, Medieval Archaeology, 63:2, 271-297, DOI: 10.1080/00766097.2019.1670922

IN THE EARLIEST CENTURIES of the Middle Ages, skilled metalsmiths were greatly valued by

cult leaders who required impressive objects to maintain social links and the loyalty of their retainers.

Despite their clear importance, smiths were peripheral characters operating on the fringes of elite communities.

Such treatment may reflect an attempt to limit the influence of metalworkers, whose craft was seen

as supernatural and who themselves were probably spiritual figureheads; archaeological evidence associates

smiths and their tools in symbolic processes of creation and destruction, not only of objects but also

of buildings and monuments. The Church clearly appropriated these indigenous practices, although conversion

eventually saw the pre-eminence of the sacred smith and their practice wane. Anthropological

study provides numerous comparators for skilled crafters acting as supernatural leaders, and also suggests

that as part of their marginal identity, smiths may have been perceived as a distinct gender.

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