37. Of Ships and Men in Argyll and Beyond: Military Levies in the First Millennium

by Alex Woolf

Synopsis

One of the major problems faced by historians of Dark Age societies is the question of demography – how big were the societies and the units of societies we study? Starting with the military levy surviving from seventh-century Dál Riata, this lecture will explore various ways of estimating population using material from Ireland, Norway, and England.

Image caption: A map showing the kingdom of Dal Riata

About the speaker

Alex Woolf was born in Hertfordshire in 1963 but spent most of his childhood in Bexhill-on-Sea, on the coast of East Sussex. After a false start studying Scandinavian Studies (UCL, 1982-3), he graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in Medieval English and Medieval History (1989), and an M.Phil. in Archaeology (1992). Since 1995 he has taught in the Archaeology Department of University of Wales Lampeter, the Celtic and Scottish History Departments at the University of Edinburgh (1997-2001), and (since 2001) in the School of History at the University of St Andrews.

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