Research Interests

My research is concerned with the issue of identity, which I have approached from literary, historical and archaeological perspectives. I focus mainly on the southern North Sea region during the period of Scandinavian raids and settlement, although my current involvement with the ‘Landscape and Identities’ project involves a significant widening of my temporal boundaries. Key themes of my research include:

• Material culture and identity
• Settlement development and the rise of urban identities
• Landscape archaeology
• Portrayal and self-portrayal in historical/literary sources
• Relationship between archaeology, history and literature.

Current Activities

• Postdoctoral Research Assistant (early medieval) on the ERC-funded project ‘Landscape and Identities: the case of the English landscape c. 1500 BC – 1986 AD’.
• Committee Member of Medieval Settlement Research Group.
• Tutor, Oxford University Department for Continuing Education.

Research projects

• Landscape and Identities: the case of the English landscape c. 1500 BC – 1986 AD.
• Landscape context of Viking-Age hoards
• Affiliated member of international network addressing state formation in early medieval Europe.

Selected publications

Books:

• Hadley, D. M. and L. Ten Harkel (forthcoming). Everyday Life in Viking ‘Towns’: Social Approaches to Viking Age Towns in Ireland and England c. 850-1100. Oxford: Oxbow (to be published in 2012).

Book chapters:

• Ten Harkel, L., in press. A Viking Age Landscape of Defence in the Netherlands? The Late Ninth- and Tenth-century Ringwalburgen in the Dutch Province of Zeeland. In: Baker, J., S. Brookes and A. Reynolds (eds), Landscapes of Defence in the Viking Age. Turnhout: Brepols (to be published in 2011).
• Ten Harkel, L., forthcoming. Of Towns and Trinkets: The Production and Consumption of Metalwork in Tenth-century Lincoln. In: D. Hadley and L. Ten Harkel (eds), Everyday Life in Viking ‘Towns’: Social Approaches to Viking Age Towns in Ireland and England c. 850-1100. Oxford: Oxbow.
• Ten Harkel, L. in prep. Chapter on the landscape context of Viking-Age hoards in G. Williams’s forthcoming book on the Vale of York hoard.

Journal articles:

• Ten Harkel, L., 2011. De Vikingen en de Zeeuwse ringwalburgen: enkele vraagstukken. Madoc: Tijdschrift over de Middeleeuwen 25 (3): 161-72.
• Ten Harkel, L., 2011. Land or Gold? Changing Perceptions of Landscape and Wealth in Viking-Age Lincolnshire (c. 800-1000 AD). Assemblage 11: 15-33.
• Evans, C. and L. Ten Harkel, 2010. Roman Cambridge’s Early Settlement and Via Devana: Excavations at Castle Street. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 99: 35-60.
• Ten Harkel, L., 2008. Lincoln en de Vikingen: Het Ontstaan van een Stad. Madoc: Tijdschrift over de Middeleeuwen 22: 3, 110-19.
• Ten Harkel, L., 2006. The Vikings and the Natives: Ethnic Identity in England and Normandy c. 1000. The Medieval Chronicle 4, 175-188.
• Ten Harkel, L., 2004. The Good, The Bad and The Fearless: De Vikingen en hun Vijanden in Oudnoorse en Oudengelse Oorlogspoëzie. Madoc: Tijdschrift over de Middeleeuwen 18:1, 2-10.