Technology, ritual and Anglo-Saxon agriculture: the biography of a plough coulter from Lyminge, Kent

Gabor Thomas,John Merkel,Gerry Mcdonnell,Peter Marshall

doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.73

Abstract

Highlights

The transition from the ard to the heavy plough dominates narratives of post-Roman agricultural intensification in medieval Europe
This paper evaluates the significance of a vital new find: an early medieval plough coulter from Lyminge, Kent—the only example of its type from a well-dated Anglo-Saxon settlement context
The Lyminge coulter has attracted widespread comment in recent literature as a potentially paradigm-changing find that calls into question the conventional dating of the introduction of the heavy plough in Anglo-Saxon England (Hamerow 2012: 148; Higham & Ryan 2013: 325–26; Oosthuizen 2013: 65; Williamson 2013: 17–18; Banham & Faith 2014: 46)

Summary

Introduction

The excavation of areas surrounding the churchyard has produced the first high-resolution settlement sequence for a royal centre in early medieval Kent, with high-status occupation spanning the later fifth– later ninth centuries AD, represented by monumental timber architecture and exceptionally rich cultural and bioarchaeological assemblages This detailed site narrative provides a new platform for investigating how the earliest generation of such sites of royal residence evolved in relation to wider socio-political processes, including the conversion to Christianity (Thomas & Knox 2012; Thomas 2013). The final forming of the coulter probably required three smiths and a bellows operator: one smith to hold the separate bars, another to wield the heavy hammer, both under the direction of a master smith This is far beyond the capacity of a typical early medieval smithy with a single artisan, but it is otherwise consistent with archaeological and historical evidence demonstrating Lyminge’s role as an important Anglo-Saxon centre of iron production (McDonnell et al 2012; Thomas 2013: 131). The weight of evidence suggests that, when deposited, the coulter was no longer capable of fulfilling its original purpose

Discussion

Conclusion