Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England

Last updated

The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England is the study of the archaeology of England from the 5th century AD to the 11th century, when it was ruled by Germanic tribes known collectively as the Anglo-Saxons.

Contents

History and overview

The Anglo-Saxon period is broadly defined as the period of time from roughly 410 AD to 1066 AD. The first modern, systemic excavations of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and settlements began in the 1920s. Since then, archaeological surveys of cemeteries and settlements have uncovered more information about the society and culture of Anglo-Saxon England. [1]

Reverend James Douglas was the first antiquarian to recognize Anglo-Saxon burials for what they were, and he described his findings in Nenia Britannica (1793). Interest in Anglo-Saxon materials increased in the 19th century, with scholars like the archaeologist Thomas Bateman and the architect Thomas Rickman producing some of the earliest authoritative texts on the subject. [2]

Architecture

Anglo-Saxon architecture is characterized by rectangular, timber buildings such as houses and halls. The construction of stone defenses and monuments became more common in the late 10th and 11th century AD, but urban buildings continued to be made of timber. [3]

Art and jewelry

Anglo-Saxon art is best known for its examples of sophisticated metalwork and jewelry, as well as carvings and illuminated manuscripts. Anglo-Saxon art was influenced by Germanic art and Celtic art. Interactions with cultures from regions like the Mediterranean and early Christian Ireland also influenced Anglo-Saxon arts. [4]

In December 2019, Roman and Anglo-Saxon artifacts, including pottery, jugs, and jewelry, were unearthed from burial grounds by archaeologists led by Nigel Page at Baginton. The team of researchers believed that two of the graves belonged to a "high-status" rank officer and a Roman girl aged 6–12 years old. Findings from the Roman cremation burial site of a young girl included four brooches, a ring with an image of a cicada and a hair pin. [5] [6] [7]

In August 2021, archaeologists headed by Gabor Thomas from the University of Reading announced the discovery of a monastery dated back to the reign of Queen Cynethryth in the grounds of Holy Trinity Church in the village of Cookham in Berkshire. They also found items including food remains, pottery vessels used for cooking and eating, a fine bronze bracelet and a dress pin. [8] [9] [10]

Burial

One of the most well-known aspects of early Anglo-Saxon society is their burial customs. Archaeological excavations at various sites include Sutton Hoo, Spong Hill, Prittlewell, Snape and Walkington Wold. Around 1200 Anglo-Saxon pagan cemeteries have been discovered. There was no set form of burial amongst the pagan Anglo-Saxons, with cremation being preferred amongst the Angles in the north and inhumation amongst the Saxons in the south, although both forms were found throughout England, sometimes in the same cemeteries. When cremation did take place, the ashes were usually placed within an urn and then buried, [11] sometimes along with grave goods. [12] Free Anglo-Saxon men were buried with at least one weapon in the pagan tradition, often a seax, but sometimes also with a spear, sword or shield, or a combination of these. Wealthy individuals were buried with rich grave goods. There are also various recorded cases of animal skulls, particularly oxen but also pig, being buried in human graves, a practice that was also found in earlier Roman Britain. [13]

One of the tumulus burial mounds at Sutton Hoo. Sutton Hoo Burial Mound.jpg
One of the tumulus burial mounds at Sutton Hoo.

Eventually, in the 6th and 7th centuries, burial mounds began to appear in Anglo-Saxon England, and in certain cases earlier burial mounds from the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Romano-British periods were simply reused by the Anglo-Saxons. It is not known why they adopted this practice, but it may be from the practices of the native Britons. [14] Burial mounds remained objects of veneration in early Anglo-Saxon Christianity, and numerous churches were built next to tumuli. Another form of burial was that of ship burials, which were practised by many of the Germanic peoples across northern Europe. In many cases it seems that the corpse was placed within a ship which was then either sent out to sea or left on land, but in both cases then set alight. In Suffolk however, ships were not burned, but buried, as is the case at Sutton Hoo, which is believed to have been the resting place of the king of the East Angles, Rædwald. [14] Both ship and tumulus burials were described in the Beowulf poem, through the funerals of Scyld Scefing and Beowulf respectively.

There are also many cases where corpses have been found decapitated, for instance, at a mass grave in Thetford, Norfolk, fifty beheaded individuals were discovered, their heads possibly having been taken as trophies of war. In other cases of decapitation it seems possible that it was evidence of human sacrifice or execution. [12]

In September 2020, archaeologists announced the discovery of a Sutton Hoo-era Anglo-Saxon cemetery with 17 cremations and 191 burials dating back to the 7th century in Oulton, near Lowestoft. The graves contained the remains of men, women and children, as well as artefacts including small iron knives and silver pennies, wrist clasps, strings of amber and glass beads. According to Andrew Peachey, who carried out the excavations, the skeletons had mostly vanished because of the highly acidic soil. They, fortunately, were preserved as brittle shapes and “sand silhouettes” in the sand. [15] [16]

In September 2021, archaeologists from LP-Archaeology led by Rachel Wood, have announced discovery of remains of St. Mary's Old Church which dates back to 1080 in Stoke Mandeville. They unearthed flint walls forming a square structure, enclosed by a circular borderline and burials while working on the route of the HS2 high-speed railway. [17] [18] [19]

Notable sites

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo</span> Archaeological site in Suffolk, England

Sutton Hoo is the site of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating from the 6th to 7th centuries near Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. Archaeologists have been excavating the area since 1938, when an undisturbed ship burial containing a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artifacts was discovered. The site is important in establishing the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia as well as illuminating the Anglo-Saxons during a period which lacks historical documentation.

The Prittlewell royal Anglo-Saxon burial or Prittlewell princely burial is a high-status Anglo-Saxon burial mound which was excavated at Prittlewell, north of Southend-on-Sea, in the English county of Essex.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglo-Saxon paganism</span>

Anglo-Saxon paganism, sometimes termed Anglo-Saxon heathenism, Anglo-Saxon pre-Christian religion, Anglo-Saxon traditional religion, or Anglo-Saxon polytheism refers to the religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centuries AD, during the initial period of Early Medieval England. A variant of Germanic paganism found across much of north-western Europe, it encompassed a heterogeneous variety of beliefs and cultic practices, with much regional variation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery</span> Anglo-Saxon burial site

The Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery is a place of burial dated to the 6th century AD located on Snape Common, near to the town of Aldeburgh in Suffolk, Eastern England. Dating to the early part of the Anglo-Saxon Era of English history, it contains a variety of different forms of burial, with inhumation and cremation burials being found in roughly equal proportions. The site is also known for the inclusion of a high status ship burial. A number of these burials were included within burial mounds.

Spong Hill is an Anglo-Saxon cemetery site located south of North Elmham in Norfolk, England. It is the largest known Early Anglo-Saxon cremation site. The site consists of a large cremation cemetery and a smaller, 6th-century burial cemetery of 57 inhumations. Several of the inhumation graves were covered by small barrows and others were marked by the use of coffins.

Basil John Wait Brown was an English archaeologist and astronomer. Self-taught, he discovered and excavated a 6th-century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo in 1939, which has come to be called "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time". Although Brown was described as an amateur archaeologist, his career as a paid excavation employee for a provincial museum spanned more than thirty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walkington Wold burials</span> Burial site

The Walkington Wold burials in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, comprise the skeletal remains of 13 individuals from the Anglo-Saxon period which were discovered in the late 1960s, during the excavation of a Bronze Age barrow. Subsequent examinations have concluded that they were decapitated Anglo-Saxon criminals, and that the site is the most northerly of its kind known in England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mucking (archaeological site)</span> Archaeological site in Essex, England

Mucking is an archaeological site near the village of Mucking in southern Essex. The site contains remains dating from the Neolithic to the Middle Ages—a period of some 3,000 years—and the Bronze Age and Anglo-Saxon features are particularly notable.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sutton Hoo purse-lid</span> Anglo-Saxon archaeological object found in Suffolk, England

The Sutton Hoo purse-lid is one of the major objects excavated from the Anglo-Saxon royal burial-ground at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, England. The site contains a collection of burial mounds, of which much the most significant is the undisturbed ship burial in Mound 1 containing very rich grave goods including the purse-lid. The person buried in Mound 1 is usually thought to have been Rædwald, King of East Anglia, who died around 624. The purse-lid is considered to be "one of the most remarkable creations of the early medieval period." About seven and a half inches long, it is decorated with beautiful ornament in gold and garnet cloisonné enamel, and was undoubtedly a symbol of great wealth and status. In 2017 the purse-lid was on display at the British Museum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taplow Barrow</span> Medieval barrow in England

The Taplow Barrow is an early medieval burial mound in Taplow Court, an estate in the south-eastern English county of Buckinghamshire. Constructed in the seventh century, when the region was part of an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, it contained the remains of a deceased individual and their grave goods, now mostly in the British Museum. It is often referred to in archaeology as the Taplow burial.

Burial in Anglo-Saxon England refers to the grave and burial customs followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the mid 5th and 11th centuries CE in Early Mediaeval England. The variation of the practice performed by the Anglo-Saxon peoples during this period, included the use of both cremation and inhumation. There is a commonality in the burial places between the rich and poor – their resting places sit alongside one another in shared cemeteries. Both of these forms of burial were typically accompanied by grave goods, which included food, jewelry, and weaponry. The actual burials themselves, whether of cremated or inhumed remains, were placed in a variety of sites, including in cemeteries, burial mounds or, more rarely, in ship burials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Street House Anglo-Saxon cemetery</span> Cemetery in North Yorkshire, England

The Street House Anglo-Saxon cemetery is an Anglo-Saxon burial ground, dating to the second half of the 7th century AD, that was discovered at Street House Farm near Loftus, in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland, England. Monuments dating back as far as 3300 BC are located in the vicinity of the cemetery, which was discovered after aerial photography revealed the existence of an Iron Age rectangular enclosure. The excavations, carried out between 2005 and 2007, revealed over a hundred graves dating from the 7th century AD and the remains of several buildings. An array of jewellery and other artefacts was found, including the jewels once worn by a young high-status Anglo-Saxon woman who had been buried on a bed and covered by an earth mound.

Polhill Anglo-Saxon cemetery is a place of burial that was used in the seventh and eighth centuries CE. It is located close to the hamlet of Polhill, near Sevenoaks in Kent, South-East England. Belonging to the Middle Anglo-Saxon period, it was part of the much wider tradition of burial in Early Anglo-Saxon England.

Buckland Anglo-Saxon cemetery was a place of burial. It is located on Long Hill in the town of Dover in Kent, South East England. Belonging to the Anglo-Saxon period, it was part of the much wider tradition of burial in Early Anglo-Saxon England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fordcroft Anglo-Saxon cemetery</span> Historic cemetery

Fordcroft Anglo-Saxon cemetery was a place of burial. It is located in the town of Orpington in South East London, South-East England. Belonging to the Middle Anglo-Saxon period, it was part of the much wider tradition of burial in Early Anglo-Saxon England. Fordcroft was a mixed inhumation and cremation ceremony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Welbeck Hill</span>

Welbeck Hill is the site of Roman and early Saxon pottery finds, and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, located around 1.75 miles from Laceby, and around 3 miles from Riby, in North East Lincolnshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Green (archaeologist)</span> English archaeologist

Charles Green (1901–1972) was an English archaeologist noted for his excavations in East Anglia, and his work on the Sutton Hoo ship-burial. His "signal achievements" were his East Anglian excavations, including four years spent by Caister-on-Sea and Burgh Castle, and several weeks in 1961 as Director of excavations at Walsingham Priory. Green additionally brought his "long experience of boat-handling" to bear in writing his 1963 book, Sutton Hoo: The Excavation of a Royal Ship-Burial, a major work that combined a popular account of the Anglo-Saxon burial with Green's contributions about ship-construction and seafaring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oulton, Suffolk</span> Human settlement in England

Oulton is a civil parish on the western edge of the town of Lowestoft in the north of the English county of Suffolk. It is in the East Suffolk district. The eastern part of the parish forms part of the suburbs of Lowestoft, whilst the western section extends into The Broads national park, reaching the River Waveney and Oulton Dyke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tranmer House</span> Country house in Suffolk, United Kingdom

Tranmer House is a country house in Sutton Hoo, Woodbridge, Suffolk, England, dating from 1910. The house is located on the Sutton Hoo Anglo-Saxon burial site, and in 1938 was the home of Edith Pretty. In June 1938, Pretty employed Basil Brown to undertake the excavation of a range of burial mounds on the estate, leading to Brown's discovery in May 1939 of a ship burial, "one of the most important archaeological discoveries of all time". The house is now owned by the National Trust.

References

  1. ↑ Hamerow, Helena; Hinton, David A.; Crawford, Sally (2011-03-31). The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology. OUP Oxford. p. 21. ISBN   978-0-19-921214-9.
  2. ↑ Karkov, Catherine E. (2013-10-28). The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England: Basic Readings. Routledge. pp. 2–3. ISBN   978-1-136-52707-4.
  3. ↑ Hinton, David A.; Crawford, Sally; Hamerow, Helena, eds. (2011-03-31). The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology. pp. 71–72. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199212149.001.0001. ISBN   9780199212149.
  4. ↑ Karkov, Catherine E. (2011). The Art of Anglo-Saxon England. Boydell Press. ISBN   978-1-84383-628-5.
  5. ↑ "'Breathtaking' Roman artefacts found near airport". BBC News. 2019-12-25. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
  6. ↑ Joel Day (2019-12-29). "Archaeology shock: Ancient Roman and Anglo-Saxon artefacts found near UK airport". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
  7. ↑ "Roman and Anglo-Saxon Graves Uncovered in England - Archaeology Magazine". www.archaeology.org. Retrieved 2020-08-16.
  8. ↑ Gershon, Livia. "Lost Monastery Run by Early Medieval Queen Discovered in England". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
  9. ↑ "'Lost' Anglo-Saxon monastery discovered next to Cookham church". The Independent. 2021-08-19. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
  10. ↑ "University of Reading". www.reading.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
  11. ↑ See, for example, the Wold Newton urns - http://www.woldnewton.net/files/urns Archived 2013-07-06 at the Wayback Machine
  12. 1 2 Hutton, Ronald (1991). The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 275. ISBN   0631189467.
  13. ↑ Hutton, Ronald (1991). The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 274. ISBN   0631189467.
  14. 1 2 Hutton, Ronald (1991). The Pagan Religions of the Ancient British Isles: Their Nature and Legacy. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 277. ISBN   0631189467.
  15. ↑ "Oulton burial site: Sutton Hoo-era Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered". BBC News. 2020-09-16. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  16. ↑ Fox, Alex. "This Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Is Filled With Corpses' Ghostly Silhouettes". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
  17. ↑ "Walls of Possible Anglo-Saxon Church Unearthed in England - Archaeology Magazine". www.archaeology.org. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  18. ↑ "Archaeologists discover evidence of Anglo-Saxon church". HeritageDaily - Archaeology News. 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  19. ↑ "HS2: Anglo-Saxon church found at Stoke Mandeville excavation site". BBC News. 2021-09-08. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.