Iron Age and Middle Saxon Settlements at West Fen Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire

Iron Age and Middle Saxon Settlements at West Fen Road, Ely, Cambridgeshire
Author: Andrew Mudd
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2011
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781407308258

Northamptonshire Archaeology Monograph 2 A programme of archaeological excavation was undertaken by Northamptonshire Archaeology in 1999-2000 on land to the north of West Fen Road, Ely, in response to conditions upon planning permission for housing development. The excavation, conducted in several stages, examined substantial parts of later Iron Age and Middle Saxon settlements. Both settlements formed part of wider complexes lying to the south of West Fen Road (The Ashwell Site) which have been published elsewhere. The Iron Age and Middle Saxon sites are described and discussed in detail. Both sites consisted mainly of ditched enclosures with sparser numbers of pits and other features. They yielded significant artefactual assemblages and palaeo-environmental and economic material, including some waterlogged and mineralised plant remains for the Middle Saxon period. Comparisons between the periods show a greater emphasis on sheep rearing in the Middle Saxon period than in the Iron Age, and a more varied diet for the inhabitants, including fish and hedgerow fruits. Both periods of occupation are in many respects typical of broader trends. The Iron Age enclosures formed part of an extensive permanent occupation of the Isle of Ely from 400-300 BC, with reorganisation in the 1st century AD. The beginning of Middle Saxon settlement around AD 700 and its contraction around AD 850 can be attributed to the wider fortunes of the monastic centre on the island. With contributions from Michael J Allen, Philip L Armitage, Paul Blinkhorn, Wendy J Carruthers, Sharon Clough, Mark Curteis, Val Fryer, Lorrain Higbee, Tora Hylton, Ivan Mack, Gerry McDonnell, Gwladys Monteil, Sarah Percival, Phil Piper and Alex Thompson Illustrations by Jacqueline Harding

Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Highflyer Farm, Ely, Cambridgeshire

Iron Age and Roman Settlement at Highflyer Farm, Ely, Cambridgeshire
Author: James Fairclough
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2021-09-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 178969843X

This volume presents the results of archaeological work carried out by MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) at Highflyer Farm in 2018. Remains dating from the Neolithic to the post-medieval period were recorded, with most of the activity occurring between the early Iron Age and late Roman periods

The Saxon and Medieval Settlement at West Fen Road, Ely

The Saxon and Medieval Settlement at West Fen Road, Ely
Author: Richard Mortimer
Publisher: East Anglian Archaeology
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780954482411

Excavations by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit in 1999 and 2000 on a housing development site off West Fen Road, to the west of Ely city centre, produced abundant evidence for Mid and Late Saxon and medieval settlement. Established in the early 8th century the site saw continuous occupation, often within the same ditched property boundaries, for almost 800 years, until its eventual desertion in the 15th century. A detailed reconstruction of the settlement history of the site indicates a very stable, but gradually evolving settlement which probably provided food and other services, originally to the monastic settlement, then to the abbey and subsequently to the bishops. This report deals with a selection of the excavations within the area, and includes some details on the pre-Saxon background. Discussions on the buildings, enclosures and settlement sequence, as well as on the artefacts and environmental evidence form the main basis of the report.

Middle Saxon' Settlement and Society: The Changing Rural Communities of Central and Eastern England

Middle Saxon' Settlement and Society: The Changing Rural Communities of Central and Eastern England
Author: Duncan Wright
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2015-05-31
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1784911267

This book explores the experiences of rural communities who lived between the seventh and ninth centuries in central and eastern England. Combining archaeology with documentary, place-name and topographic evidences, it provides unique insight into social, economic and political conditions in 'Middle Saxon' England.

Farming Transformed in Anglo-Saxon England

Farming Transformed in Anglo-Saxon England
Author: Mark McKerracher
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 165
Release: 2018-02-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1911188348

Anglo-Saxon farming has traditionally been seen as the wellspring of English agriculture, setting the pattern for 1000 years to come – but it was more important than that. A rich harvest of archaeological data is now revealing the untold story of agricultural innovation, the beginnings of a revolution, in the age of Bede. Armed with a powerful new dataset, Farming Transformed explores fundamental questions about the minutiae of early medieval farming and its wider relevance. How old were sheep left to grow, for example, and what pathologies did cattle sustain? What does wheat chaff have to do with lordship and the market economy? What connects ovens in Roman Germany with barley maltings in early medieval Northamptonshire? And just how interested were Saxon nuns in cultivating the opium poppy? Farming Transformed is the first book to draw together the variegated evidence of pollen, sediments, charred seeds, animal bones, watermills, corn-drying ovens, granaries and stockyards on an extensive, regional scale. The result is an inter-disciplinary dataset of unprecedented scope and size, which reveals how cereal cultivation boomed, and new watermills, granaries and ovens were erected to cope with – and flaunt – the fat of the land. As arable farming grew at the expense of pasture, sheep and cattle came under closer management and lived longer lives, yielding more wool, dairy goods, and traction power for plowing. These and other innovations are found to be concentrated at royal, aristocratic and monastic centers, placing lordship at the forefront of agricultural innovation, and farming as the force behind kingdom-formation and economic resurgence in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Building Anglo-Saxon England

Building Anglo-Saxon England
Author: John Blair
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 496
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 0691228426

Shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize A radical rethinking of the Anglo-Saxon world that draws on the latest archaeological discoveries This beautifully illustrated book draws on the latest archaeological discoveries to present a radical reappraisal of the Anglo-Saxon built environment and its inhabitants. John Blair, one of the world's leading experts on this transformative era in England's early history, explains the origins of towns, manor houses, and castles in a completely new way, and sheds new light on the important functions of buildings and settlements in shaping people's lives during the age of the Venerable Bede and King Alfred. Building Anglo-Saxon England demonstrates how hundreds of recent excavations enable us to grasp for the first time how regionally diverse the built environment of the Anglo-Saxons truly was. Blair identifies a zone of eastern England with access to the North Sea whose economy, prosperity, and timber buildings had more in common with the Low Countries and Scandinavia than the rest of England. The origins of villages and their field systems emerge with a new clarity, as does the royal administrative organization of the kingdom of Mercia, which dominated central England for two centuries. Featuring a wealth of color illustrations throughout, Building Anglo-Saxon England explores how the natural landscape was modified to accommodate human activity, and how many settlements--secular and religious—were laid out with geometrical precision by specialist surveyors. The book also shows how the Anglo-Saxon love of elegant and intricate decoration is reflected in the construction of the living environment, which in some ways was more sophisticated than it would become after the Norman Conquest.

Territoriality and the Early Medieval Landscape

Territoriality and the Early Medieval Landscape
Author: Stephen Rippon
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 407
Release: 2022-04-05
Genre: Anglo-Saxons
ISBN: 1783276800

All communities have a strong sense of identity with the area in which they live, which for England in the early medieval period manifested itself in a series of territorial entities, ranging from large kingdoms down to small districts known as pagi or regiones. This book investigates these small early folk territories, and the way that they evolved into the administrative units recorded in Domesday, across an entire kingdom - that of the East Saxons (broadly speaking, what is now Essex, Middlesex, most of Hertfordshire, and south Suffolk). A wide range of evidence is drawn upon, including archaeology, written documents, place-names and the early cartographic sources. The book looks in particular at the relationship between Saxon immigrants and the native British population, and argues that initially these ethnic groups occupied different parts of the landscape, until a dynasty which assumed an Anglo-Saxon identity achieved political ascendency (its members included the so-called "Prittlewell Prince", buried with spectacular grave-good in Prittlewell, near Southend-on- Sea in southern Essex). Other significant places discussed include London, the seat of the first East Saxon bishopric, the possible royal vills at Wicken Bonhunt near Saffron Walden and Maldon, and St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell-on-Sea, one of the most important surviving churches from the early Christian period.

The Fields of Britannia

The Fields of Britannia
Author: Stephen Rippon
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2015
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0199645825

It has long been recognized that the landscape of Britain is one of the 'richest historical records we possess', but just how old is it? The Fields of Britannia is the first book to explore how far the countryside of Roman Britain has survived in use through to the present day, shaping the character of our modern countryside. Commencing with a discussion of the differing views of what happened to the landscape at the end of Roman Britain, the volume then brings together the results from hundreds of archaeological excavations and palaeoenvironmental investigations in order to map patterns of land-use across Roman and early medieval Britain. In compiling such extensive data, the volume is able to reconstruct regional variations in Romano-British and early medieval land-use using pollen, animal bones, and charred cereal grains to demonstrate that agricultural regimes varied considerably and were heavily influenced by underlying geology. We are shown that, in the fifth and sixth centuries, there was a shift away from intensive farming but very few areas of the landscape were abandoned completely. What is revealed is a surprising degree of continuity: the Roman Empire may have collapsed, but British farmers carried on regardless, and the result is that now, across large parts of Britain, many of these Roman field systems are still in use.

Anglo-Saxon Crops and Weeds: A Case Study in Quantitative Archaeobotany

Anglo-Saxon Crops and Weeds: A Case Study in Quantitative Archaeobotany
Author: Mark McKerracher
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2019-03-28
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789691931

Farming practices underwent momentous transformations in the Mid Saxon period, between the 7th and 9th centuries AD. This study applies a standardised set of repeatable quantitative analyses to the charred remains of Anglo-Saxon crops and weeds, to shed light on crucial developments in crop husbandry between the 7th and 9th centuries.

The Anarchy

The Anarchy
Author: Oliver Hamilton Creighton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2016
Genre: History
ISBN: 1781382425

The first ever archaeologically based study of the turbulent period of English history often known as the 'Anarchy' of King Stephen's reign in the mid-twelfth century, covering battlefields and conflict landscapes, arms, armour and material culture, fortifications and the church.