Late Saxon Research Articles

V. Contemporary Artefacts Illustrated in Late Saxon Manuscripts

How far do the pictures in early medieval manuscripts reflect contemporary life? Are the busy and attractive figures which populate many Carolingian or Late Saxon illuminations reflections of their painters and their patrons, or are they ghostly survivors of the Roman Empire, fossilized in a scribal convention? For some archaeologists, of course, the question of authenticity has never arisen, the contemporary relevance of pictures being cheerfully assumed; but it has to be stated at the outset that the odds are generally set against such optimism. That early painted books were usually copied from other painted books is clear from a continuity of image, picturecycle or design, all having roots in the Late Antique period. Thus drawing from life, or even abstract invention, where it occurred, will not be obvious and is probably only detectable at all by a process of elimination

Spellings of the waldend group – again

The bulk of Old English literature, both poetry and prose, has come down to us in manuscripts of the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. Most of the texts in these late manuscripts are written in a form of Old English called late West Saxon. This dialect was used not only by West Saxon scribes and authors of that period but also by their contemporaries from other dialect areas, and the scribes employed it even when they were copying much earlier Old English texts, such as the early West Saxon Alfredian prose texts or the early Anglian glosses in the Vespasian Psalter. Late West Saxon thus cannot be looked upon as a regionally restricted dialect but – with certain reservations – as a written standard current in all of late Anglo-Saxon England.

From ‘palace’ to ‘town’: Northampton and urban origins

In the second half of the twelfth century Northampton was one of the largest and wealthiest towns in all England. This represented, however, only a transient phase, since by the early part of the fourteenth century the town had assumed a more modest position. As a result of a series of disastrous fires in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, little now survives to remind us of Northampton's former medieval glories, and its earlier development has been until recently but dimly perceived. Over the last decade, however, archaeological and other research has facilitated the identification of elements of continuity in the upper Nene basin (in which Northampton lies) stretching back several thousand years. In particular it is now possible to demonstrate that the late Saxon borough emerged as the culmination of a gradual evolutionary process throughout the Anglo-Saxon period rather than as the result of a single dramatic act of foundation. This has important implications for ideas relating to the re-emergence of towns in the ninth and tenth centuries and is particularly significant in that Northampton has no obvious major Romano-British antecedent.

Late Saxon Textiles from the City of London

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS in the City of London have produced an important collection of late 9th- to early 12th-century textiles manufactured from wool, goat hair, silk and flax. The production processes associated with the different types of cloth are here described, together with details of weaving techniques and dyeing practices. Changes in the types of cloth used in the nth century are related to the introduction of new technology and the decline in use of the warp-weighted loom. Evidence is examined for the local manufacture of cloth and for the import of foreign silks. Lastly, attention is drawn to the similarity of the London textiles to those found in other regions of northern Europe.

Domesday Estates of the King and the Godwines: A Study in Late Saxon Politics

The stability of Anglo-Saxon monarchy in generation before Hastings has been subject of long and continuing debate. Frank Barlow, in his important biography of Edward Confessor, saw reign as a period in which many threads were firmly tied together, and in which England attained more organic unity than it had possessed before.' Conversely, Eric John viewed Confessor's realm as suffering from what he termed fundamental structural problems.2 The Norman Conquest, he writes, was not a sudden bolt from blue . . . [but] climax of crisis that had been going on for generations. Only when that crisis is thoroughly understood, John declares, will historians be in position undertake a real enquiry into what difference Conquest actually made.3 Barlow and John, like other historians of late Saxon England, based their investigations chiefly on careful analysis of narrative sources works such as Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Florence of Worcester, Vita Edwardi Regis, and Gesta Guillelmi Ducis. The difficulties posed by paucity of narrative information, however, are enormous. Barlow, for example, laments that to write history of Edward and his reign we have scrape barrel with care: every scrap of information is precious.4 Eric John writes in same vein: the difficulties of subject stem from nature of evidence, of which there is usually quite lot, but never quite enough.5 The narrative sources make it clear that any debate concerning late Saxon political stability must inevitably center on relationship between

A Late Saxon Hoard of Iron and Copper-alloy Artefacts from Nazeing, Essex

A HOARD of fifteen iron and two copper-alloy artefacts was discovered near Nazeing in Essex in 1972. The nature and condition of the arte facts suggest that the hoard, consisting mainly of scrap metal, was that of a metalworker. A date of deposition in the nth century is probable.

An Early Saxon Settlement within the Romano-British Small Town at Heybridge, Essex

FIVE GRUBENHAUSER and a probable ground level building sited within the Romano-British small town at Heybridge are described. The associated Saxon pottery suggests that the settlement belongs to the first half of the 5th century, and there is evidence that late Romano-British pottery was in contemporary use. It is suggested that the Saxon settlers were involved either economically or militarily in the life of the late Roman town. The significance of a nearby cemetery containing both late Roman and Saxon burials, one dated c. A.D. 500, is also considered.

Aspects of the Origins and Development of Colchester Castle

The building history of Colchester Castle is reconsidered in the light of previously unpublished evidence from excavations, 1931 to 1977. The Norman castle is seen as a development from a late Saxon villa regalis, constructed in two phases, the first beginning c. 1074 × 1076 (by the crown) and the second c. 1101 (by Eudo Dapifer). It was strengthened in the mid-thirteenth century and maintained into the early fourteenth but thereafter declined, its main function being as a prison. The upper storey of the keep and the southern bailey defences were demolished late in the seventeenth century.

Excavations at Upper Borough Walls, Bath, 1980

EXCAVATIONS took place on the northern city walls of Bath adjacent to the site of the North Gate. A 2nd-century rampart was later cut back to receive a perimeter wall, fronted by a newly-metalled berm. A wide ditch beyond this was probably of 4th-century date. The Roman wall survived into the late Saxon period when outworks were constructed on the revetted lip of the re-cut ditch. These outworks were rebuilt, probably in stone, at some time during the late Saxon or Norman periods. Of approximately the same period was a massive ditch re-cut, in which the stagnant water deposits of late medieval ‘Frogmere’ were to accumulate. The outworks were demolished in the 13th century but their alignment survived in the positions of boundary ditches.A chronology is argued from stratigraphic, ceramic and documentary evidence. Reconstructions of the defences are attempted in plan and profile leading to a general discussion of the boundary and defensive aspects of the walled circuit.

Late Saxon Leather Sheaths from Gloucester and York

Late Saxon Leather Sheaths from Gloucester and York

Three Saxo-Norman Tenements in Durham City

A WELL-PRESERVED SEQUENCE of craftsmen's premises and their associated refuse was found in three tenements off Saddler Street in Durham City. The earliest occupation took place in the second half of the 10th century and a tenement area had been defined within a few decades. The destruction of the occupied tenement by fire took place sometime in the second half of the 11th century and was contemporary with the collapse of the local late Saxon pottery trade. This was followed by the development of the two adjacent properties and the fencing of the boundaries between them. The tenements were occupied by shoemakers and cobblers from their earliest days and their economic interdependence with the community is shown to be high. There was no special evidence for Scandinavian influence in a culture that otherwise resembled in many respects that of Anglo-Scandinavian York. The recorded sequence ended in the early 13th century.

The petrography and archaeology of English honestones

Some major English sharpening stones well established by the 19th century are outlined and their use in earlier times is discussed where appropriate. Stratigraphically, Roman hones would appear to differ from the hones used from late Saxon times onward, and from late Saxon times until the Industrial Revolution hone types changed very little. English honestones and touchstone artifacts are arranged into six petrographic types, and the archaeological stratigraphy of these types at 14 recent excavations is outlined. One hone type, the Norwegian Ragstone, would appear to have been in use for upward of a thousand years.

Excavations at Gloucester: Third Interim Report: Kingsholm 1966–75

The results of excavations carried out in 1972 and 1974 and the records of builders' and service trenches over nine years, combined with reports of past discoveries, make up a body of evidence for Kingsholm's use first as a pre-Flavian military site (or sites) of more than one phase covering c. 50 acres, then as a late or sub-Roman cemetery and later as the site of the late Saxon and later aula regis. The archaeological evidence for the palace is supported by an account of the documentary evidence for its history and topography. Specialist studies are offered of the classification and iconography of the decorated bronze cheekpiece of pre-Flavian cavalry helmet and of a furnished inhumation probably of the early fifth century A.D.

Excavations at Rivenhall Church, Essex: An Interim Report

SummaryExcavation near and adjacent to Rivenhall church in 1971–2 revealed a sequence of occupation beginning in the Iron Age. The present church, thought to be a nineteenth-century rebuild, was shown to be largely a late Saxon structure, with medieval additions. It seems to have been preceded by a small wooden church constructed of upright timbers set in wall-trenches. The whole overlies the remains of a large Roman villa. Finds of pagan period and later Saxon pottery suggest continuous occupation from Roman to medieval times.

Excavations at Gloucester, 1968–1971: First Interim Report

SummaryThe 1968–71 excavations have produced a large body of information bearing on Roman Gloucester's development from legionary fortress to chartered city. It has proved possible to correlate Roman building sequences in different parts of the city. A building period which may be associated with the foundation of the colonia has been extensively excavated. The Roman forum has been discovered in a position equivalent to that of the principia of a fortress. Knowledge of the city's defences in both Roman and later periods has been amplified by work on three sides of the Roman circuit. Late Saxon use of the Roman wall is suggested and late Saxon buildings fronting Southgate Street have been discovered. At 13–17 Berkeley Street the first extensive excavation of medieval levels in the city has revealed a length of street fronted by late eleventh–fourteenth-century buildings.

Excavations at Portchester Castle, Hants, 1969–1971: Fourth Interim Report

SummaryThe three seasons of excavation 1969–71 have provided details of occupation lasting continuously from the third century until the nineteenth century. In the Roman period cobbled streets and timber buildings, pits and wells have been excavated but they show little sign of rigid planning. The streets continued to be used in the fifth and sixth century when huts of post-built and grubenhaus type were constructed. Some parts of the interior were now ploughed.In the eighth and ninth centuries timber buildings, storage pits, and cess pits were concentrated in one area close to the south wall of the Roman fort. Near by a well, constantly used from the Roman period and subsequently relined with timber, was abandoned and used as a rubbish tip. Some additional buildings and pits belonging to the ‘hall complex’ of late Saxon date were found. Medieval features included boundary ditches, a lime kiln and slaking pit, and a timber building. Some areas of the interior were cultivated throughout this time.In the early sixteenth century a large store building was erected in masonry: it was demolished late in the sixteenth century. Thereafter the fort was used as a prison camp until the early nineteenth century. Various features of this period were found.The Landgate was further excavated bringing to light structural details of Roman, Saxon, and medieval date. Limited excavation in the priory exposed details of the claustral buildings.

Late Saxon Planned Towns

SummaryDocumentary, topographical, and archaeological evidence suggests that the rectilinear street plan of modern Winchester was laid out as a planned system not later than the mid tenth century and probably before c. 904. Among the places listed in the Burghal Hidage there are seven which show clear evidence of rectilinear planning which is not of Roman origin. Four are on the sites of Roman towns—Winchester, Chichester, Exeter, and Bath—and three on non-Roman sites—Wareham, Wallingford, and Cricklade. These plans are seen as the result of a deliberate policy of urban formation in response to the military situation during Alfred's reign (871–99). These places are not so much fortresses as fortified towns in which the rectilinear street plan is a deliberate expression of the organization and apportionment of the land for permanent settlement. Rectilinear street systems appear to be characteristic of the larger places founded or re-organized by Edward the Elder or Athelstan, but rectilinear planning does not thereafter appear until the plantation of new towns in the Norman and later period.

Excavations on Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, 1964–6

SUMMARYApart from a scatter of prehistoric and Roman finds, the first occupation of the Tor was in the 6th century A.D. There were traces of timber buildings of this date, with evidence of metal-working and considerable meat-eating. In the late Saxon or early medieval period there was a small monastic settlement, with cells cut in the rock, and possibly a timber church. Finally, in the late Saxon or early medieval period a stone church dedicated to St Michael was built on the summit: this was rebuilt at least once, and there was a priest's house lower down the slope. Notable finds include sherds of imported Dark Age amphorae, a small bronze head of similar date, and a wheel-headed cross of the 10th or 11th century.

The Date of the Late Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury

The Date of the Late Saxon Cathedral at Canterbury

Descriptive Analysis of Discourse in Late West Saxon Texts

Descriptive Analysis of Discourse in Late West Saxon Texts