Jennifer Foster

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Jennifer Foster is an English scholar of prehistoric and medieval archaeology, who specializes in the study of artifacts, particularly metalwork.

Contents

Career

Foster is a scholar of prehistoric and medieval archaeology, who specializes in the study of artifacts. [1] She formerly worked at the British Museum, and at the University of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. [1] She teaches at the University of Reading. [2] For the last 30 years she has taught archaeology to continuing education students at the university, with classes such as "The Ethics of Archaeology" and "The Legend and Archaeology of King Arthur." [1] She has given talks on subjects such as experimental archaeology, and Sutton Hoo. [3] [4]

Personal life

Foster is married to Martin Bell, [5] a professor of archaeological science at the University of Reading. [6]

Publications

In addition to a number of articles and chapters, Foster has written four monographs, including one on Iron Age and Roman boar figurines, one on the Lexden tumulus, [7] and one an introduction to European archaeology before the Roman conquest, based on the collection in the British Ashmolean Museum. [8]

Foster's first book, Bronze Boar Figurines in Iron Age and Roman Britain, [9] described and illustrated 22 examples of bronze boars from the Iron Age and Roman Britain, and described the animal's millennia-long role in European cultures; [10] a related article that came out the same year, "A Boar Figurine from Guilden Morden, Cambs.", detailed the Guilden Morden boar, a sixth- or seventh-century Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar that may have once served as the crest of a helmet. [11] In a 1995 article she argued that Iron Age smiths creating high quality metalwork in Britain might have travelled around stopping at different sites, rather than having a fixed abode, and would produce multiple pieces at each site, as at Gussage All Saints, Dorset. [12]

Books

Articles

  • Includes "Copper alloy objects (excluding brooches)" (pp. 143–147), "Iron and copper alloy needles" (p. 186), "Copper alloy bracelets" (p. 192), "Copper alloy pins" (pp. 192–194), "Copper alloy rings" (p. 194), "Composite rings" (pp. 194–196), "Copper alloy buttons and dress fasteners" (p. 196), "Copper alloy sheet" (pp. 196–197), "Possible mirror" (p. 197), "Metal containers and container fittings: copper alloy" (pp. 227–228), "Harness equipment" (pp. 233–235), "Violence" (pp. 235–242), "Stone, clay, and copper alloy weighing equipment" (pp. 247–248), "Coral" (p. 262)

Reviews

Related Research Articles

Brass Alloy of copper and zinc

Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve varying mechanical and electrical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other within the same crystal structure.

Bronze metal alloy consisting of copper and tin

Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals and sometimes non-metals or metalloids such as arsenic, phosphorus or silicon. These additions produce a range of alloys that may be harder than copper alone, or have other useful properties, such as strength, ductility, or machinability.

The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Bronze Age and the Stone Age. The concept has been mostly applied to Europe and the Ancient Near East, but also, by analogy, to other parts of the Old World.

Crucible Container in which substances are heated

A crucible is a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. While crucibles historically were usually made from clay, it can be made from any material that withstands temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents.

Bell Beaker culture Archaeological culture, 2800–1800 BC

The Bell Beaker culture is an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the European Bronze Age. Arising from around 2800 BC, it lasted in Britain until as late as 1800 BC but in continental Europe only until 2300 BC, when it was succeeded by the Unetice culture. The culture was widely dispersed throughout Western Europe, from various regions in Iberia and spots facing northern Africa to the Danubian plains, the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and also the islands of Sicily and Sardinia.

The Wilburton-Wallington Phase is the name given by archaeologists to a metalworking stage of the Bronze Age in Britain spanning the period between c. 1140 BC and c. 1020 BC.

Benty Grange helmet 7th-century boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet

The Benty Grange helmet is a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet from the 7th century AD. It was excavated by Thomas Bateman in 1848 from a tumulus at the Benty Grange farm in Monyash in western Derbyshire. The grave had probably been looted by the time of Bateman's excavation, but still contained other high-status objects suggestive of a richly furnished burial, such as the fragmentary remains of a hanging bowl. The helmet is displayed at Sheffield's Weston Park Museum, which purchased it from Bateman's estate in 1893.

Qijia culture

The Qijia culture was an early Bronze Age culture distributed around the upper Yellow River region of Gansu and eastern Qinghai, China. It is regarded as one of the earliest bronze cultures in China.

Prehistoric Wales

Prehistoric Wales in terms of human settlements covers the period from about 230,000 years ago, the date attributed to the earliest human remains found in what is now Wales, to the year AD 48 when the Roman army began a military campaign against one of the Welsh tribes. Traditionally, historians have believed that successive waves of immigrants brought different cultures into the area, largely replacing the previous inhabitants, with the last wave of immigrants being the Celts. However, studies of population genetics now suggest that this may not be true, and that immigration was on a smaller scale.

Arsenical bronze

Arsenical bronze is an alloy in which arsenic, as opposed to or in addition to tin or other constituent metals, is added to copper to make bronze. The use of arsenic with copper, either as the secondary constituent or with another component such as tin, results in a stronger final product and better casting behavior.

Redwick, Newport Human settlement in Wales

Redwick is a small village and community (parish) to the south east of the city of Newport, in Wales, United Kingdom. It lies within the Newport city boundaries, in the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent. in 2011 the population was 206.

Caldicot and Wentloog Levels

The Caldicot and Wentloog Levels are two areas of low-lying estuarine alluvial wetland and intertidal mudflats adjoining the north bank of the Severn Estuary, either side of the River Usk estuary near Newport in south east Wales. They are also known collectively as the Monmouthshire Levels or Gwent Levels, and the name Wentloog is sometimes spelled Wentlooge in official publications.

Bronze Age Europe Archeological age, 3200-600 BC. Succeeds Neolithic

The European Bronze Age is characterized by bronze artifacts and the use of bronze implements. The regional Bronze Age succeeds the Neolithic. It starts with the Aegean Bronze Age in 3200 BC (succeeded by the Beaker culture), and spans the entire 2nd millennium BC in Northern Europe, lasting until c. 600 BC.

Metals and metal working had been known to the people of modern Italy since the Bronze Age. By 53 BC, Rome had expanded to control an immense expanse of the Mediterranean. This included Italy and its islands, Spain, Macedonia, Africa, Asia Minor, Syria and Greece; by the end of the Emperor Trajan's reign, the Roman Empire had grown further to encompass parts of Britain, Egypt, all of modern Germany west of the Rhine, Dacia, Noricum, Judea, Armenia, Illyria, and Thrace. As the empire grew, so did its need for metals.

Pioneer Helmet Anglo-Saxon helmet from the late seventh century found in Wollaston, Northamptonshire

The Pioneer Helmet is a boar-crested Anglo-Saxon helmet from the late seventh century found in Wollaston, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. It was discovered during a March 1997 excavation before the land was to be mined for gravel and was part of the grave of a young man. Other objects in the grave, such as a hanging bowl and a pattern welded sword, suggest that it was the burial mound of a high-status warrior.

Nonferrous archaeometallurgy of the Southern Levant

Nonferrous Archaeometallurgy in the Southern Levant refers to the archaeological study of non-Iron-related metal technology in the region of the Southern Levant during the Chalcolithic period and Bronze Age from approximately 4500BC to 1000BC.

Prehistoric art in Scotland

Prehistoric art in Scotland is visual art created or found within the modern borders of Scotland, before the departure of the Romans from southern and central Britain in the early fifth century CE, which is usually seen as the beginning of the early historic or Medieval era. There is no clear definition of prehistoric art among scholars and objects that may involve creativity often lack a context that would allow them to be understood.

Guilden Morden boar Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar

The Guilden Morden boar is a sixth- or seventh-century Anglo-Saxon copper alloy figure of a boar that may have once served as the crest of a helmet. It was found around 1864 or 1865 in a grave in Guilden Morden, a village in the eastern English county of Cambridgeshire. There the boar attended a skeleton with other objects, including a small earthenware bead with an incised pattern, although the boar is all that now remains. Herbert George Fordham, whose father originally discovered the boar, donated it to the British Museum in 1904; as of 2018 it was on view in room 41.

Horncastle boars head 7th-century Anglo-Saxon ornament depicting a boar

The Horncastle boar's head is an early seventh-century Anglo-Saxon ornament depicting a boar that probably was once part of the crest of a helmet. It was discovered in 2002 by a metal detectorist searching in the town of Horncastle, Lincolnshire. It was reported as found treasure and acquired for £15,000 by the City and County Museum, where it is on permanent display.

Knaresborough hoard Romano-British metalwork hoard

The Knaresborough Hoard is a hoard of Romano-British metalwork from near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. It is the largest hoard of copper alloy vessels in Britain.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Jennifer Foster". Department for Continuing Education. University of Oxford. Retrieved 19 August 2019. Lock-green.svg
  2. ↑ Herring, John (16 July 2014). "Tiny trench yields rare finds in Newbury park". Newbury Weekly News . Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  3. ↑ Laker 2018.
  4. ↑ Howard 2019.
  5. ↑ Foster 2014, p. 67.
  6. ↑ Bell & Walker 2005, p. xi.
  7. ↑ Collis, John (1998). "The Lexden Tumulus: A Re-Appraisal of An Iron Age Burial from Colchester, Essex By Jennifer Foster". Archaeological Journal . 145 (1): 415–416. doi:10.1080/00665983.1988.11077878.
  8. ↑ "Actualités". Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française . 100 (3): 610–624. 2003. JSTOR   27923717.
  9. ↑ Foster 1977b.
  10. ↑ Raepsaet 1979.
  11. ↑ Foster 1977a.
  12. ↑ Durham, Emma (2014). "Style and Substance: Some Metal Figurines from South-West Britain" (PDF). Britannia . 45: 195–221. doi:10.1017/S0068113X14000270. JSTOR   24737450.

Bibliography

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