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Imogen Tompsett
Research Student, Faculty of Arts
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Research Summary
My research focuses on the development of Early Medieval identities in Cornwall, Devon and the Scilly Isles for the period AD350 to 1150. This will incorporate the influences and introduction of new… read more
Current Research
My research focuses on the development of Early Medieval identities in Cornwall, Devon and the Scilly Isles for the period AD350 to 1150. This will incorporate the influences and introduction of new forms of identity and social traditions, such as the Anglo-Saxons and Normans, alongside aspects of continuity of past traditions dating from the Iron Age and Romano-British periods. The project discusses various aspects of these identities, using theoretical approaches to past perceptions of the landscape and how the development of these identities is reflected in the use of the material culture across the landscape and seascapes. It also uses themes consisting of settlement hierachies and the development of central places in conjunction with exchange systems; identity and ethnicity and how these are reflected through the material culture; and perceptions of the landscape and seascapes and their relationship with identities, and in particular the proposed maritime identities of the South West and their development from specific functions of coastal sites and settlements. These themes are framed by specific cycles of change consisting of long and short-term transformation and the long duree, which were influenced by Braudel's concept of different interlocking cycles of change, ranging from the everyday changes caused by individual action, to the gradual imperceptable changes that take place over centuries. This research uses these cycles of change in the study of the development of social identities in the South West, and applies them through both a macro-scale and micro-scale analysis of the material culture and settlement and cemetery remains within the study region.
Future Research
Future research may consist of the development of the ideas outlined above, in conjunction with a detailed analysis of specific case studies and the further archaeological investigation of these case studies.
A further area of research I would be interested in developing is my MA topic on the evidence for the Anglo-Saxon influences on settlement and social traditions in Hampshire and Dorset and how these impacted on settlement hierarchies and the material culture of the region. These ideas could also be developed to study the movement of these ideas westwards into Cornwall and Devon.