Welbeck Hill is the site of Roman and early Saxon pottery finds, [1] and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, located around 1.75 miles from Laceby, and around 3 miles from Riby, in North East Lincolnshire, England. [2]
Welbeck Hill is the site of Roman and early Saxon pottery finds, [1] and an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, located around 1.75 miles from Laceby, and around 3 miles from Riby, in North East Lincolnshire, England. [2]
George Oliver visited the site during the 19th century and sent his report to The Gentleman's Magazine in October, 1832. [3] Oliver's interest was in what he believed were ancient defensive earthworks, ramparts and a ditch, around the hill, and its proximity to Barton Street, a prehistoric 'north–south route' in North East Lincolnshire, [4] and later Roman road. [3] Oliver suggested the hill may have been the site of a watchtower for an 'exploratory camp' that could have retreated behind the fortifications in times of danger. [3]
He also described the nearby Welbeck spring:
"...which was 'uniformly dry during the winter season, but in the month of February or March, a loud rumbling noise is heard in the ground for several days, and at length the water bursts forth in a hundred places as to fill in a few hours the whole area of the well or enclosure of earth where it is situated..."
The spring, with others, joins the Laceby Beck, before flowing into the River Freshney, and then into the sea at Grimsby. [3] The Beck is an 'internationally rare' spring-fed, chalk stream, which 'has experienced chronic low flows during the summer months', and is the focus of a conservation program that commenced in January, 2013. [5]
Excavations on the southern slope of Welbeck Hill led to finds of a Roman 'grey ware dish and lug handle, also heavy well-fired shards and a cooking pot with a flat topped rim'. [1] Anglo-Saxon pottery fragments were similar to those found near the cemetery. [1] There was also an associated area of dark soil with 'much animal bone'. [1]
Excavations of the Anglo-Saxon cemetery were begun by G. Taylor in 1962 after ploughing disturbed remains. [2] Three burial areas, dating from around the mid-5th and 6th centuries, have since been identified; north/south along the hill crest, east/west on the hill's western slope and a deposit of cremations on the eastern slope. [2] From 1962 to July 1976, 76 graves and 5 cremations were recorded. [2] In one grave the decapitated body of a woman was placed on top of that of an 'important old man'. [6]
The cemetery passed out of use in the late 6th or early 7th centuries, and its activity, in the early Anglo-Saxon period, when furnishing graves was still common, is credited with the reason most burials had associated artefacts. [7] The variety of well-preserved grave goods included iron knives, cruciform brooches, beads and a cooking pot. [2] Spiral designs featured on 'serpent rings' and a round brooch. [8] Textile remains show similar skills to those from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Sutton Hoo, in Suffolk, with seams on 'luxurious cushion or pillow covers' disguised with plaits or other forms of decorative sewing. [9]
A silver bracteate that was found in a woman's grave bore a runic inscription law but may have been a miscopy of lap, for the word lapu, a 'magical word', [10] commonly found on bracteates of the period. [11] The word's meaning is 'invitation' or 'summons' and 'might refer to an act of offering, or the initiation to a cult'. [11] Also found in the woman's grave were bronze objects, 'glass and amber pearls, an iron knife, an iron buckle, an iron ring, 4 iron keys and an ivory ring'. [11]
Taylor retained the archaeological archive, which was privately sold after his death in 2017. [12] It was subsequently acquired by North Lincolnshire Museum with funding support from the Art Fund, The Headley Trust and the Museums Association Beecroft Bequest. [13]
A brooch is a decorative jewelry item designed to be attached to garments, often to fasten them together. It is usually made of metal, often silver or gold or some other material. Brooches are frequently decorated with enamel or with gemstones and may be solely for ornament or serve a practical function as a clothes fastener. The earliest known brooches are from the Bronze Age. As fashions in brooches changed rather quickly, they are important chronological indicators. In archaeology, ancient European brooches are usually referred to by the Latin term fibula.
Badbury Rings is an Iron Age hill fort and Scheduled Monument in east Dorset, England. It was in the territory of the Durotriges. In the Roman era a temple was located immediately west of the fort, and there was a Romano-British town known as Vindocladia a short distance to the south-west.
Lincolnshire, England derived from the merging of the territory of the ancient Kingdom of Lindsey with that controlled by the Danelaw borough Stamford. For some time the entire county was called 'Lindsey', and it is recorded as such in the Domesday Book. Later, Lindsey was applied to only the northern core, around Lincoln; it was defined as one of the three 'Parts of Lincolnshire', along with Holland in the south-east and Kesteven in the south west.
Anglo-Saxon runes are runes used by the early Anglo-Saxons as an alphabet in their writing system. The characters are known collectively as the futhorc from the Old English sound values of the first six runes. The futhorc was a development from the 24-character Elder Futhark. Since the futhorc runes are thought to have first been used in Frisia before the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, they have also been called Anglo-Frisian runes. They were likely to have been used from the 5th century onward, recording Old English and Old Frisian.
The quoit brooch is a type of Anglo-Saxon brooch found from the 5th century and later during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain that has given its name to the Quoit Brooch Style to embrace all types of Anglo-Saxon metalwork in the decorative style typical of the finest brooches. The brooches take their modern name from the rings thrown in the game of quoits, and have the form of a broad ring, or circle with an empty centre, usually in bronze or silver, and often highly decorated. The forms are in a very low relief, so contrasting with other early Anglo-Saxon styles, with detail added by shallow engraving or punching within the main shapes. Dots or dashes are often used to represent fur on the animal forms, as well as lines emphasizing parts of the body. They are fixed with a single, straight hinged pin like those of other Anglo-Saxon ring or Celtic brooches and are further defined by the presence of a slot and pin-stops on the ring.
Laceby is a village and civil parish in North East Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A46 road, just outside the western boundary of Grimsby. Laceby's population at the 2001 Census was 2,886, increasing to 3,259 at the 2011 Census. The village is noted for its parish church, parts of which date to the 12th century.
A runic inscription is an inscription made in one of the various runic alphabets. They generally contained practical information or memorials instead of magic or mythic stories. The body of runic inscriptions falls into the three categories of Elder Futhark, Anglo-Frisian Futhorc and Younger Futhark.
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.
Anglo-Saxon dress refers to the clothing and accessories worn by the Anglo-Saxons from the middle of the fifth century to the eleventh century. Archaeological finds in Anglo-Saxon cemeteries have provided the best source of information on Anglo-Saxon costume. It is possible to reconstruct Anglo-Saxon dress using archaeological evidence combined with Anglo-Saxon and European art, writing and literature of the period. Archaeological finds have both supported and contradicted the characteristic Anglo-Saxon costume as illustrated and described by these contemporary sources.
Early medieval European dress, from about 400 AD to 1100 AD, changed very gradually. The main feature of the period was the meeting of late Roman costume with that of the invading peoples who moved into Europe over this period. For a period of several centuries, people in many countries dressed differently depending on whether they identified with the old Romanised population, or the new populations such as Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Visigoths. The most easily recognisable difference between the two groups was in male costume, where the invading peoples generally wore short tunics, with belts, and visible trousers, hose or leggings. The Romanised populations, and the Church, remained faithful to the longer tunics of Roman formal costume, coming below the knee, and often to the ankles. By the end of the period, these distinctions had finally disappeared, and Roman dress forms remained mainly as special styles of clothing for the clergy – the vestments that have changed relatively little up to the present day.
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.
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the language and culture of most of what became England from Romano-British to Germanic. The Germanic-speakers in Britain, themselves of diverse origins, eventually developed a common cultural identity as Anglo-Saxons. This process principally occurred from the mid-fifth to early seventh centuries, following the end of Roman rule in Britain around the year 410. The settlement was followed by the establishment of the Heptarchy, Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the south and east of Britain, later followed by the rest of modern England, and the south-east of modern Scotland. The exact nature of this change is a topic of on-going research. Questions remain about the scale, timing and nature of the settlements, and also about what happened to the previous residents of what is now England.
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.
Blewburton Hill is the site of an Iron Age hillfort located in Oxfordshire, in the southeast of England. It was a univallate hillfort. The area is mostly farmland with some small areas of wooded copse to the south and the northeast. The hill fort may have been occupied from the 4th century BC to the 1st century BC, and replaced a small settlement surrounded by a stockade, which is estimated to have been built in the 5th or 6th century BC.
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.
Anglo-Saxon Amulets and Curing Stones is an archaeological study of amulets, talismans and curing stones in the burial record of Anglo-Saxon England. Written by the Australian archaeologist Audrey Meaney, it was published by the company British Archaeological Reports as the 96th monograph in their BAR British Series. Prior to writing the work, Meaney had published several books dealing with Anglo-Saxon burials.
A bed burial is a type of burial in which the deceased person is buried in the ground, lying upon a bed. It is a burial custom that is particularly associated with high-status women during the early Anglo-Saxon period, although excavated examples of bed burials are comparatively rare.
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.
Anglo-Saxon brooches are a large group of decorative brooches found in England from the fifth to the eleventh centuries. In the early Anglo-Saxon era, there were two main categories of brooch: the long (bow) brooch and the circular (disc) brooch. The long brooch category includes cruciform, square-headed, radiate-headed, and small-long brooch brooches. The long brooches went out of fashion by the end of the sixth century.
