Issue 116

Jan / Feb 2011

Contents

news

All the latest archaeology news from around the country

features

Crosby Garrett Roman Helmet

The fullest report yet on its discovery, appearance and modern fate, plus its restoration

THE BIG DIG: Flixbrough

20 years of study at the Lincolnshire DMV

Fieldwalking in Bingham

The community story of a Nottinghamshire parish

Silbury Hill

What is it and how was it made?

The Varmints Show

In the Varmints' fourth exploration of music and archaeology, we look at Music and Place

on the web

Military sites of all periods and online teaching of GIS

CBA Correspondent

Our Casework team reviews another year of listed building saves

letters

Your views and responses

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

feature

THE BIG DIG: Flixborough

A Lincolnshire excavation might have yielded just another glimpse of Anglo-Saxon settlement. But the site's unusual nature meant huge quantities of artefacts and animal remains survived. It took 20 years to analyse them, and the result is an astonishing – and puzzling – story of an otherwise unrecorded early community. Chris Loveluck and David Evans explain.

Some 20 years ago, excavations on the edge of the abandoned medieval village of North Conesby, North Lincolnshire, unearthed 40 buildings and huge refuse dumps, part of an Anglo-Saxon settlement. There was much speculation about Flixborough, as the settlement became known after the parish, when its discovery was announced in the early 1990s. Encouraged by the styli – writing instruments – and two inscribed artefacts, archaeologists and historians imagined an early undocumented monastic centre.

Yet detailed analysis by a team of 67 researchers, between 1997 and 2007 (funded by English Heritage), has made it clear that dramatic changes occurred during the 350-year life of the settlement. Aided by many thousands of artefacts and hundreds of thousands of animal, bird and fish bones, the site offers the chance to see how wider social changes in later Anglo-Saxon England affected people locally. The exceptional preservation conditions and the deep deposits – reminiscent of an urban excavation – also force us to question how representative remains are from other contemporary settlements.

Anglo-Saxon Flixborough/Conesby stood on a belt of windblown sand, overlooking the floodplain of the river Trent, 5 miles (8km) south of the Humber estuary. Finds had been recorded in the area in the 1930s, but the first evidence to be accurately located was discovered during sand quarrying in 1988. Kevin Leahy (then curator of archaeology at Scunthorpe Museum) evaluated the site, finding badly preserved inhumation graves thought to date from the middle Saxon period (AD650–850). In 1989 the Humberside Archaeology Unit conducted trial excavations. These found substantial structural remains from a settlement, and a profusion of artefacts. With the permission of the Sheffield family and the financial support principally of English Heritage, but also local sponsors, the archaeology unit (now the Humber Archaeology Partnership) conducted a two-year excavation between 1989 and 1991.

Below up to 2m of sand lay the evidence of seven broad periods of activity, which could be further divided, dating from at least the early seventh century AD until the 15th century. There were six phases of Anglo-Saxon buildings and other structures (ovens, haylofts, paths and fences) with refuse variously dumped around them in middens and yards, or within a central zone in a shallow valley that ran up into the centre of the excavated area. Several of the main structural phases were also separated by demolition and levelling dumps.

Among the seventh to 11th century artefacts there were over 1,000 items of copper alloy, silver and gilded jewellery, 6,000 iron artefacts, 5,000 pottery sherds, fragments of 65 glass vessels, and over 50 coins, together with thousands of other fragmentary finds and craftworking debris. Over 200,000 hand-collected mammal, bird and fish bones were recovered, with thousands more retrieved from sieving. Exceptional preservation of the artefacts and bones was promoted by the high wood ash content of many of the refuse dumps, and the constant accretion of sand: the alkalinity of the ash and sand prevented acid leaching.

In 1993 English Heritage undertook geophysical surveys, using magnetometry, resistivity and magnetic susceptibility. These showed settlement probably continued east of the excavated area, towards the now abandoned All Saints' church, North Conesby, known to have stood from at least the 12th century. There were also further indications from the geophysics and cropmarks of undated activity north-west of the excavations.

Despite the unprecedented quantity of finds, the excavated area was not great, only 75m×55m. Thus an important question at the start of the analyses, was how much could the evidence from excavation be assumed to represent the entire Anglo-Saxon settlement?

The majority of finds from the seventh century phases were in the fills of postholes, and in some external yard deposits; compared to later periods, the quantities were small. For much of the eighth, ninth and 10th centuries, however, large amounts of refuse had been collected and dumped in the centre of the site, in the terminus of the shallow valley. Debris from activities for which there was no trace in the excavated area, showed material was brought in from elsewhere on a large scale. Along with the pristine and fragmented artefacts, this suggests use of a designated refuse zone for the settlement as a whole.

The deposits, therefore, provided evidence from which to explore later Anglo-Saxon lifestyles and society between AD700 and 1000. Before the early eighth century, we cannot be confident that the trends observable were shared by the community as a whole – although on any other rural site of this time in England, the dress accessories, continental imports, animal remains and craftworking evidence would be considered indicative of a wealthy and significant settlement.

AD700–800: feasting

The predominant lifestyle at early Flixborough was conspicuous consumption of domestic and wild animal resources, aided by luxury objects primarily concerned with feasting. Rectangular buildings, most 13–15m long and 6–7.5m wide, were lined up along the summit of two sand promontories, overlooking the floodplain and delta of the river Trent. This axial plan has many similarities with the seventh century "royal vill" at Yeavering (Northumberland) and with the contemporary settlement at Wicken Bonhunt (Essex).

Five inhumation graves surrounded building 1a, constructed on a gravel sill and possibly a leading family's funerary chapel. The eldest burial was of an adult woman, who may have died in childbirth, and the others were adolescents or children; adult men may have been buried at more sacred spaces at the region's major monastic cult foci. The majority of men, women and children seem to have been buried at the cemetery discovered in 1988, southeast of the settlement.

During the later seventh and eighth centuries, the villagers – or at least the leading lineage – were consuming large quantities of cattle, most of them adult or subadult, with smaller quantities of pig and sheep. The age of the cattle suggests they were being brought to the settlement on the hoof, probably as taxation-in-kind from subordinate landholdings. A comparatively large range of wild species was also consumed, including dolphins, many cranes and other wildfowl. Dolphin and crane, a large bird occupying wetland fringes, are known to have been favoured by Anglo-Saxon aristocracy for hunting and feasting.

Ostentatious feasting also accounts for a large cauldron suspension chain, and the many glass drinking vessels imported from continental Europe. Glass vessel fragments were found inside most buildings from this period, and a principal building for feasting was not evident. This could reflect common dining practices among members of an extended lineage, with venues for eating and drinking divided by close family relationships, age or gender. Such evidence warns against the assumption that important settlements had a principal "hall", derived from Anglo-Saxon textual sources and later Anglo-Saxon manuscript imagery. Although possible principal buildings for residential and public feasting can be identified on a few seventh century sites, a principal building complex on rural sites does not become common until the later ninth to 10th centuries.

Contacts with Frisia, the Rhineland, Belgium and northern France are attested by coinage and pottery, as well as the glass vessels. Craftworking evidence was relatively limited during the eighth century, although iron and non-ferrous metalworking were undertaken, alongside woodworking and textile manufacture. Discarded iron tools, including a plough share, demonstrate agricultural activity.

Some disposal practices in relation to key household and farming activities remind us just how far away we are from our early medieval forebears. The fine iron cauldron chain and the plough Pin with silver animal head, whoseshare were buried together in the same pit, sometime between the late eighth and late ninth centuries. Some plough share burials seem to have been associated with church or chapel foundation between the eighth and 11th centuries, especially in northern France and the Netherlands. But the Flixborough example is almost a century later than the mortuary chapel.

AD800–880s: monastic

At the end of the eighth or early in the ninth century, the settlement at Flixborough was replanned, with smaller rectangular buildings in three lines. There was also a complete change in lifestyle, now characterised by specialist craft activities, including working in metal, leather, wood and, especially, textiles. Exchange contacts along the east coast of England and around the Humber are reflected in the largest collection of Ipswich ware pottery found in northern England, and in silver pennies from southern England and copper alloy styca coinage from Northumbria. A few window glass fragments were recovered. Styli suggest a level of literacy – probably in estate accounting.

The common dumping of fine iron tools, something that occurred throughout the history of the settlement, continues to surprise. This probably reflects wealth, and control of land and resources, that made recycling unnecessary. Profligate discard of fine objects, as both everyday and staged events (such as deliberate burial in pits), displayed wealth, power and local belief systems entangled within the fabric of Anglo-Saxon Christianity. Flixborough warns us that our assumptions of the need for recycling on all early medieval settlements may be quite wrong.

Early in the ninth century the conspicuous consumption of cattle and wild animals ended. Cattle fell to approximately 10% of animals eaten (from 40% in the eighth century), while sheep rose to account for around 50% of domesticated animals killed. All the sheep were old, suggesting that they were used primarily for their wool: this may reflect specialist and larger-scale textile manufacturing at this time.

The exploitation of wild resources, especially valued prey and feast species, declined very sharply, and it cannot be proven that any of the wild animals from this phase were actually hunted in the ninth century. This scarcity of wild species cannot be accounted for by the environment. The settlement was immediately above the wetlands of the river Trent delta and close to the Humber estuary. People seem to have chosen to avoid wild species procured through the secular elite pastimes of hunting and falconry, or perhaps through preferential access to beached dolphins and other whales. No appreciable increases in fish eating can be seen.

There was no evident church, chapel or cult focus at ninth century Flixborough, although it is conceivable that such a focus existed east of the excavated area. The community no longer exhibited its earlier conspicuous wealth and social display. These changes may reflect the transformation of the settlement into a monastery. It is more likely, however, that the settlement and its estate (or part of it) were either given to a large monastery, or that the estate centre, possibly tenanted previously to secular aristocrats, became directly managed by a monastic landowner. A major monastic candidate near Flixborough is the documented monastery of West Halton (north Lincolnshire).

AD880s–1000: Conesby

The area of excavated settlement at Flixborough was demolished during the mid to late ninth century. Large ash-rich dumps covered the site, and new, smaller buildings rose, with a large communal midden crossed by gravel paths, and a group of clay ovens. No reference was made to earlier long-used building plots.

There is no evidence of any Viking attack, but the levelling and replanning of the settlement coincided with the onset of Scandinavian hegemony and settlement in the area. In the winters of 872/3 and 873/4, the Viking "great army" was based in the Trent valley, at Torksey (Lincolnshire) and Repton (Derbyshire) respectively; and soon an Anglo-Saxon puppet king, Ceolwulf II, was chosen to administer Danishcontrolled Mercia for the Danes.

Early in the 10th century the settlement was again totally replanned, with the largest buildings in its history – up to 20m long. During the 10th century the settlement moved very shortly eastwards, to a limestone escarpment east of the sand promontories. It is possible that the name Conesby (Kuningrs-by, meaning king's settlement in Old Danish), could have been given to the place then: the masonry remains of the 12th century stone church still stand there, with some earthworks of the deserted medieval village of North Conesby.

However, in 1086 Domesday Book noted that 20 years before, North Conesby was an estate centre or "manor" of a thegn called Fulcric. In the reign of William I, it was Norman d'Arcy's principal manorial centre in Lincolnshire.

The conspicuous consumption of cattle and wild species (including cranes and dolphins) returned during the 10th century, with the diversity of wild species reaching a peak in this later period. However, glass vessels for luxury feasting did not arrive at Flixborough/Conesby, nor did continental imported pottery, nor coinage. Specialist craftworking was also much less diverse, limited to ironworking, domestic textile manufacture and perhaps boat-building.

The continued integration of the settlement within regional exchange networks is reflected only by small quantities of wheel-thrown pottery made at Lincoln, and Torksey Ware from Torksey and other parts of the Trent valley. Lead weights and a silver "finger ingot", typical of Scandinavian-influenced areas, would have been used for exchange before the return of coinage in the 970s. The black rat may have reached Conesby via the Trent and Humber river systems. This rat was possibly re-introduced by the Scandinavians via their trade with central Asia and the Byzantine empire; in Britain at this time outside Flixborough/Conesby, its bones have been found only in Scandinavian Jorvik (York).

A secular aristocratic lifestyle seems to have returned to Conesby, but one exploiting only the estate's territory. Either side of the Humber estuary in the 10th–11th centuries, imported luxury commodities seem to have been consumed mostly in the emerging Anglo-Scandinavian towns. Territories were governed from there, and principal Anglo-Scandinavian elites were based there: towns were where exotic luxuries were displayed, where merchants provided for elite tastes, and where specialist artisans sought patronage. By contrast, at Conesby we can see the emergence of the secular elite lifestyle of the "countryside". Very close parallels can be seen at other 10th and 11th century "manorial" settlements in England, such as Goltho (Lincolnshire), Thwing (East Yorkshire), Wharram Percy (North Yorkshire), Faccombe Netherton and Portchester Castle (Hampshire), Trowbridge (Wiltshire), Raunds-West Cotton (Northamptonshire) and Bishopstone (East Sussex).

A caution

How representative is Flixborough's dynamic history of a rural centre of its time, or have the unusual ways in which remains were discarded and survived skewed understanding? It could be said that different interpretations might result if other areas were excavated. Yet the massive dumping of refuse in an apparently communal central zone within the excavations, could have revealed the most complete picture of life on an Anglo-Saxon settlement yet discovered in England.

In recent years archaeologists have highlighted the potential of unstratified metalwork to provide insights into settlement and trade (eg see Viking feature, Nov/Dec 2010). Flixborough shows that it cannot be assumed that metal-detected finds present a complete view of early medieval settlement. During the 10th century, when the largest buildings were raised and the most animal resources were consumed at Flixborough/Conesby, the quantities of contemporary metalwork and pottery were the smallest. Considered on its own, the metalwork would have suggested decline or even abandonment in the 10th century. Only the clear stratigraphic relationships and full range of excavated remains prove such an impression to be false. Unstratified metalwork scatters on their own should be used with great care.

Chris Loveluck is associate professor and reader in the Department of Archaeology, University of Nottingham; David Evans is manager of the Humber Archaeology Partnership. The following are sincerely thanked for helping to bring research on this scale to fruition: English Heritage, the British Academy, the project team, Hull City Council, North Lincolnshire council, Kevin Leahy, Rose Nicholson, the Sheffield family, Jewitts Aggregates, and the universities of Southampton, Tours, the Free University of Brussels, VUB, Harvard and Nottingham. Chris Loveluck is the series editor for the four monographs detailing the Flixborough excavations, published by Oxbow 2007–09 (see Books May/Jun 2008 and Sep/Oct 2010).

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