Northamptonshire

Finally, finally, I get to the Vikings. This is where it gets interesting. But first we have to deal with the Middle Saxon period (c. AD 650-850). Some would say that the period between the end of the ‘Pagan’ period and the arrival of Scandinavian raiders and settlers is under-appreciated, and there is indeed much to learn about the archaeology of this period, and much that metal-detected data can offer.

The Middle Saxon Period

Northamptonshire is, as those of you who live there know (or should do) pretty centrally placed within modern England. That meant that between the 6th and 9th centuries, it fell within the lands controlled by the Kings of Mercia, of whom Offa (ruled AD 757-796) is undoubtedly the most famous. It’s worth dwelling a little bit on this period, because it’s something we Midlanders can be a little proud of (certainly, for some of us, its our greatest moment pre-May 16th 1987).

By the time of Offa, Mercia had extended its dominion over much of southern England. Offa founded a number of market towns in the region, began minting coins, and involved himself in the administration of the church.  He  held considerable authority, discernible through his commissioning of Offa’s Dyke, and through his negotiations with Charlemagne.  Soon after the time of Offa, the pendelum of power swung in favour of Wessex, though the star of that county was also to be short-lived, given the imminent arrival of Scandinavian raiders, settlers, and mercenaries.

So much for the history.  As for the archaeology of settlement, by the Middle Saxon period, land was divided into major logistical units, within which centres developed. In Northants, Hamtun (Northampton) was a key example, and in AD 750 a great hall’was constructed there. Excavations on St Peter’s Street recovered what was at first thought to be a Saxon palace , but is perhaps more properly described as part of a minster complex.

So what can the PAS add to this picture? Well, a search of early medieval finds in the county brings up a number of 8th and 9th-century strapends and similar dress fittings.  The value of these finds is in their spatial analysis, both on a county and national scale, but that’s for another day.  In addition to these finds, there are a few more unusual objects, such as this decorative sword pommel (which might be indicative of an elite presence and/or military activity in the area), and this pin beater (a tool used for beating weft when weaving textiles).  Early medieval swords and associated objects are not common finds, while bone tools are reasonably well known from urban excavations, but less so as spotfinds.

Of course, the other thing we shouldn’t forget about are coins. We have 9 sceattas from the county, including this unusual (probably continental) variety. Their distribution remains to be analysed, but when we have a few more examples it may tell us a lot about settlement and market activity in Northamptonshire.

Here come the Vikings!

As I alluded to above, the Kingdom of Mercia collapsed in AD 873 with the invasion of the Danish Great Army, traditionally thought to have been led by Halfdan Ragnarsson, Ivar the Boneless, and Ubbe Ragnarsson. Later, following an eventual agreement between King Alfred the Great and Guthrum the Old, leader of the East Anglian vikings, it was agreed to divide ‘England’ (much of which was not Alfred’s to give) up into ‘Danish’ and ‘Saxon’ halves (along a line running roughly between London and Chester). In our part of the world, Watling Street (which runs right through the county, and is today marked by the line of the modern A5 road through Towcester and Daventry) was taken as a convenient and easily understood boundary, with the land to the south and west of this remaining under Alfred’s control, and that to the north and east of this becoming de facto Danish.

So, in theory Northamptonshire was cut in two, with the land west of the A5 being ‘English’, and the rest of the county being ‘Danish’. Now, it’s not as simple as that, and we know from archaeology, linguistics, and history that the two communities did not remain isolated from one another, and by the 10th century England can be said to have developed an Anglo-Scandinavian character.

On the other hand, how true was this in the 9th century? It would be interesting to see if there is much evidence of factionalism and division when this area was first divided up. Was the boundary really always more political than real, or was there a period when settlers really were forced to live on one side or another of the boundary according to their perceived ethnicity of allegiances? If so, at what date (and why?) did this begin to change? The reality of the Danish presence in north Northamptonshire is shown by the concentration of place names ending by and thorpe, and the way in which the historic parishes tend to butt up against the line of Watling Street is suggestive of its longheld significance as a boundary, as well as a medium of communication. However, it is through archaeology, and through everyday finds such as dress accessories in particular, that we might be able to find out more about Norse-native contact and cultural identity in the early Viking Age. So, it would be useful to know whether detectorists and members of the public are finding many 9th and 10th century objects of true Scandinavian character, of true ‘Anglo-Saxon’ design, or cheap imitations of either. So let us know about your Jellinge brooches, cloissonne brooches, Winchester style strap ends and nasty bits of early medieval lead.

‘But what do we have so far?’, I hear you ask. Well, there’s not an awful lot of late Saxon/Viking Age data for Northants at the moment, but what there is I hope to publish in the near future.  For the time being, here’s a taster of some of the bits and pieces that have come up.

As I mentioned above, there are a number (c.30 at the time of writing) of ‘Saxon-looking’ strapends (see this one, for example ) though in many cases it is difficult to say whether these date to the 9th century or earlier. More definitively Viking-Age is this distinctive Jellinge style disc brooch which perhaps represents the presence of someone who had travelled over from southern Scandinavia, or a local attempt to look as such (a lug on the reverse suggest that it may have been used as a pendant, which is perhaps indicative of a true Scanbdinavian origin). Further research is required in this area (and I intend to do as such!).

In 10th and 11th-century  England, we see the copying of Scandinavian styles of jewellery and dress accessory in cheaper materials,  From South Northants, we have this lovely (and naff) lead strapend. The period also sees the development of distinctive ‘hybrid’ forms of material culture, known as the Anglo-Scandinavian and Hiberno-Norse schools.  The latter is represented by distinctive ‘Norse bells’, which seem to come originally from the Irish Sea area, and may have been dress accessories, or could perhaps have had a role in falconry.  There is a good example from South Northants, which is all the more interesting as its decoration is not typical of the type.

More research to come!

Hello! Yes, it’s me, Barry Scott. Rapidly following on from last week’s Roman extravaganza, I thought I’d give you a brief introduction to what we’re finding out about what archaeologists refer to as the sub-Roman and Early Saxon periods.

The conventional wisdom is that following departure of the Roman legions (historically dated to AD 410), the infrastructure of Roman Britain rapidly disintegrated coins fell out of regular use, roads became potholed, overgrown, and eventually unused, and the effort required to maintain many villas was seen as unworthwhile. Don’t say that to my colleague, Rob Collins though. The long and short of it is that something (or nothing) happens in the immediate post-Roman period, and at the moment, we don’t know what that something or nothing was. Answers on a postcard. Before we get onto the PAS data, I’ll very quickly review some of what we know about settlement, agriculture, industry, and religion in the period of interest. Then we can get on to thinking about how PAS data can help to answer these questions.

Settlement and Agriculture

In Northants, extensive survey work carried out by Northamptonshire Archaeology in the east of the county shows evidence for population decline following Roman withdrawal, with a decrease in the density of settlement, an apparent dereliction of previously cultivated land, and the regeneration of woodland. Nonetheless, there is still much to learn about the rreasons for this trend, the means by which it happened, and the importance of egional variability. Together with traditional archaeological excavation and environmental research, PAS data can help clarify the important issues associated with this time period. Because our data is dominated by metalwork, we may miss some of the finds recovered by archaeological excavation, but our rural focus also means that we are working in areas many other archaeologists are not. It is only through bringing together these diverse sources of data that we can hope to understand what was going on in this poorly understood and understudied period.

However, the issue of the importance of the arrival of settlers from Anglia, Saxony, and Jutland is in many ways as contentious as that of the Roman withdrawal, and one in which metal-detected data may be able to play a more central role. How much of ‘Anglo-Saxon’ culture actually owes its existence to these settlers, and how important were the remaining native Britons? We can’t agree on the numbers of settlers, even in vague terms, and this is an issue that detecting may once again be able to help with; let us know when you’re finding Late Roman buckles or Anglo-Saxon brooches, and we will be better equipped to answer these questions. Even pay attention to grotty bits of pottery; there are some of us that love late Roman and early medieval ceramics (yes, honestly).

Industry

Taking a lead from their Roman forebears (and this is one of the hints at continuity following the AD410 military withdrawal) the inhabitants of Anglo-Saxon Northants developed a significant iron smelting industry, which was to last well into the Late Saxon (Viking) and medieval periods. Now, this is perhaps an area best left to the archaeologists, as the identification and dating of iron waste is a tricky (nigh impossible) task when context data is not available, and the constant pinging of iron slag is not a sound coveted by many detectorists. Base metal and ceramic industries were also important, and the recognition of local variation in these crafts is only identifiable through the collection of large numbers of artefacts with good findspot data. So we’d really like to know about any objects you do find. Some examples of the sorts of things that have already been recorded with us are given below.

Religion

To put it simply, paganism (for wont of a better term) seems to have ruled in Northamptonshire between the 5th and late 7th centuries, with over 50 pre-Christian cemeteries known. The artefacts found in these burials, including the ceramic urns used in cremations, and brooches and dress accessories deposited as grave goods in inhumation burials, seem to indicate that the settlers of Northamptonshire had diverse origins within Germanic Europe. The move to Christianity is a complex one, and one we’ll save for a future blog entry.

Summary

All of this evidence comes from a mixture of historical sources, excavation, geophysics, fieldwalking, conjecture and educated guesswork. What can metal detected data actually add to the picture?

Well, one area in which it shows great potential is in understanding the importance of tribal identities and regionality in post-Roman Britain. Recent work by Stuart Laycock on the distribution of late Roman and early Saxon metalwork has led him to suggest that Britain after the Romans was a complex, ununified system of tribes and enclaves; a picture perhaps analagous to the Balkans in the late 20th century. Such a scenario would be easily exploited by invading Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. This idea is not yet proven, but metal-detected data has played a fundamental role in its development, and will continue to be important in discussion and debate around the subject. What was the situation in Northants, part of the region dominated by( prior to the Roman arrivals, and perhaps after their withdrawal) a tribe known as the Corieltauvi, for example? We need more research to find out, so please keep recording your finds with us, with as precise findspot data as possible.

The first evidence of migrants comes from a couple of very early, continental-style brooches. This supporting arm brooch dates to around the late 5th-century, and clearly still wears its Roman influence on its sleeve. Importantly, it is a rare type in Britain, but is more well-known in the Germanic homelands of Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. Tantalisingly then, it might therefore have arrived in Britain on the clothes of one of the first Anglo-Saxon settlers.

Radiate-headed Brooch

Slightly later in date is this radiate-headed brooch, which dates to around the 6th-century, and has its closest parallels in continental Europe. It may betray a Frankish influence in the area. Though it is difficult to prove as much on the basis of a single find, it does raise the question. As such, the archaeological importance of recording these metal-detected artefacts and their findspots is clear. When we have enough data to map it, distribution analyses may considerably chnge our understanding of life and death in Northamptonshire in the wake of the Roman withdrawal and the first years of Germanic settlement.

From the main period of the Early Anglo-Saxon period, we have a number of suggestions of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries, and others which are probably related to previously known (and now sadly largely lost) gravefields. That is, if we can take these brooches as evidence of cemeteries; perhaps some are chance losses related to settlement activity and travelling? This suggestion has been made by the Anglo-Saxon brooch project, run by our former Kent FLO, Andrew Richardson and Laura MacLean (Essex FLO).

Similar research is being undertaken by a number of archaeologists, not least our own Drs Kevin Leahy and Helen Geake. I’m sure details will appear here as various projects progress.