RING-GIVERS AND ROMANS: THE CULTURAL ROOTS OF ANGLO-SAXON CHURCH ARCHITECTURE

For at least two hundred years, scholars have debated the architectural influences affecting Anglo-Saxon churches. By recognizing the presence of continental building elements, critics often dismissed pre-Conquest churches as inferior imitations of Roman or Carolingian design. Architectural historians seldom acknowledged potential insular influences on minster architecture, while the integrated culture of Germanic British Christians has never been adequately tied to the architecture of the Anglo-Saxon church. Yet, it is this syncretistic culture that enabled the distinctive design of pre-Conquest churches. This thesis will place Anglo-Saxon church architecture within its broader cultural context. Evidence for this synthesis was gleaned through site visits to selected Anglo-Saxon churches in southern England, in concert with analysis of surviving decorative arts, literature, and primary source texts. Where appropriate, select secondary sources are also included. The nine churches profiled in this thesis display a variety of floor plans, building materials, and decorative arts, yet they share the cultural aesthetic of localize