SSNS Seminar – How to Read a Hogback – Rebekah Day-Wood MSc

The SSNS Seminar Series continues on Thursday 28 August 2025 with a talk by Rebekah Day-Wood with her talk titled ‘How to Read a Hogback: A beginners guide to the unique carved stones of Viking age Britain

This is a free, ticketed event; please register below.

Abstract:

In this seminar Rebekah will share a broad history of the stone monuments known as ‘hogbacks’; followed by a short case-study presented by Sheila Munro of the Ancrum & District Heritage Society about the recent restoration efforts of the hogback stone in Ancrum Old Church graveyard.

This seminar will engage with recent reconsiderations of stone hogback monuments as evidence of Norse / Viking activity in Britain. Interrogating past interpretations of the stones reveals a narrative that has at times risked forcing the definition of hogbacks into strictly defined categories – for example scholars have argued whether they symbolised Christian or Norse beliefs, or whether they were markers of trade or funerary sites, and arguments have also abounded around whether they originated from English or Scottish sites of production.

Rather than attributing hogbacks with any one purpose or belonging to any one community; this seminar instead consults research that acknowledges a more fluid understanding of how medieval communities perceived cultural, geographical and spiritual boundaries at the height of hogback stone production in the 10th and 11th centuries.

Bio:

Originally from Australia, Rebekah has lived in the UK for the past ten years, working in marketing for a time before deciding to make history her full time pursuit. Rebekah graduated from the University of Cardiff in 2022 with a BA in English Literature and History. In November 2024 she graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an MSc in Medieval History and is the Events Officer for the Scottish Society for Northern Studies. Rebekah is a PhD candidate at Flinders University in Australia, having recently been awarded a scholarship to contribute to the Contesting Conquests project led by Dr Matthew Firth.

Registration below. Details for the Zoom meeting will be emailed in advance of the seminar.