The Key to It All: Anglo-Saxon Female Identity

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Small Things Unforgotten" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Keys are made to open locks: they are practical and necessary, so why were they deposited in Anglo-Saxon female burials? Anglo-Saxon female identity has been tied to domesticity and family, which has been interpreted based on grave goods. Recent reevaluations of 10th c AD Scandinavian culture has revealed a more complicated gender role for women than previously imagined. The females of the early Anglo-Saxon period should be similarly reassessed. Female adult burials are found with keys deposited that pose a mystery as to their function and purpose. The interpretation generally consists of a symbolic association with the home and their role within it, thus explaining why keys are found only within adult female burials as keepers of the home and caretakers. The simple explanation of keys should be reassessed in light of their common association with amulet bundles and richer burials. This paper will challenge this traditional view with an new perspective tying the key burial phenomenon to the larger changes in female identity over two centuries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Small Things Unforgotten   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24470