An Archaeology of the East Midlands. Class 3, Beeston, Winter 2015

An Archaeology of the East Midlands

Class 3: Iron Age to Dark Age, Cultural Transitions in the Archaeological Record.

Tutor: Keith Challis

east-midlands-archaeology.blogspot.co.uk Beeston, Winter 2015

Recap: Last Week

• The early prehistory of the Midlands

• How far back can we go in the Midlands?• The Bytham River and the colonisation of England• The end of the last glaciation

• Doggerland and the changing face of the land• The Late Upper Palaeolithic of the Midlands

• The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (transitions)• Settlement• Death and Burial• Ceremonial and Ritual Monuments

• Techniques of Archaeological Research: Finding things from the air

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Class Summary

• Later Prehistory, Iron Age Landscape and Society

• The Roman Interlude

• Dark Age or Iron Age – A Return

• Coffee Break

• Techniques of Archaeological Research: Seeing Beneath the Soil


Learning Outcomes

• Appreciate some of the aspects of late prehistoric society in the Midlands

• Think about the impact of Romanisation and the decline of Rome on the Midlands

• Appreciate the origins of Anglo-Saxon society in England

• Give thought to the cultural, material and social similarities between late prehistoric and dark age Britain

• Have a broad appreciation of the types and uses of geophysical survey in British archaeology


Section 1: Later Prehistory, Iron Age Landscape and Society

Iron Age Landscape and Society

• When• In Britain c.800BC to AD43• Late IA from 100BC• Adoption of Iron as a

predominant metal, new techniques, smithing not casting

• More complex settlement• Defended sites• Complex social groups (tribes)• Coinage• Urbanism• Druidism• More European contacts



• Landscape and Environment

east-midlands-archaeology.blogspot.co.uk

• Generally continuity from earlier settlements

• Landscape “filled in” suggests growing population and competition for resources

• EG. extensive co-axial field systems of Trent Valley known from cropmarks

• Common settlement form is farmstead within enclosure

• Mixed farming economy, variation in dominance of arable and pastoral depending on location

• Some larger aggregated settlements, eg Naveby, Lincs Gamston, Notts

Beeston, Winter 2015


• Large Defended Sites

• Large defended sites include hillforts, marsh forts and lowland defended enclosures

• Hillforts some record of reuse

• High status finds at Burrow Hill – rare chariot remains



• The End…• Generally continuity of settlement from LIA to Roman• Roman reorganisation of landscape• New rural settlement forms (Villa estates)• Intensification of agriculture• LIA culture was sophisticated

– Included use of money– Some urbanisation– Complex social organisation (adopted by Roman

administration)– Advanced metal working and other technologies

• But a tribal society lacking central organisation


Section 2. The Roman Interlude

The Roman Interlude

• The Beginning…• Roman military activity in Midlands

relatively brief (1st century only) • In general not a contested zone, but

marks boundary between civilianised south and militarised north (Trent / Fosse Way boundary)

• Largely within the Civitas Corieltauvorum • Extensive and abundant archaeological

record in East Midlands• Extensive rural settlement hierarchy

building on LIA roots• Systematic organisation of agricultural

landscape evident (Brickwork Plan field System in North Notts/South Yorks)


The Roman Interlude

• Towns and Romanisation


• Two major urban centres Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) founded c AD96 and Ratae Corieltauvorum (Leicester) set up as Civitas capital c AD 96 on IA precursor

• Hierarchy of smaller towns and roadside settlements

• Religious centres eg Red Hill, Ratcliffe on Soar


The Roman Interlude

• Another end…• Roman withdrawal in AD410 isolated Britain from a

centralise European network• Social and economic collapse, but not invasion or

military conquest• Wroxeter Baths Basilica – continuity of occupation,

but on a different social and economic scale• Anglo-Saxon settlers occupy vacuum of Roman

absence?• Problematic areas

– Hiatus in rural settlement– Technological decline– Population– Gross changes in material culture and social

organisation• Dark Age or second Iron Age?


Section 3. Dark Age or Iron Age?

Dark Age or Iron Age

Origins• Post Roman

settlement from Denmark and north Germany

• Co-existence with native Romanised British populations

• Complex social and racial mixing


Migration period settlement routes



• Discussion – Anglo Saxon Midlands



Material Culture• Highly distinctive

material culture, largely evidenced in grave goods

• Architectural innovation

• Language



Death and Burial• Large cremation

cemeteries imply substantial immigrant population

• How much is a processes of acculturation of collapsing Romanised British population?




Death and Burial

•Predominance of inhumation with grave goods

•Some cultural distinction between Saxon and Angle?


Dark Age or Iron AgeSettlements

• Not villages!• Small clusters of simple

dwellings (Hall House/Grubenhaus)

• Local clearance or adoption of existing agricultural lands

• Revealed by later 20th century archaeology (West Stow, Mucking, etc)




Architecture•Post-built hall houses•Probable continuation of Romano-British vernacular tradition




Architecture•Sunken feature buildings (grubenhaus) •Continental parallels•Pit provides cellar space with suspended floor or damp working space for craft activities – often associated with loom weights



Settlements are complex, multi-periodBeeston, Winter 2015


West Stow, Suffolk, Phasing


Mucking



Catholme• A large settlement of Grubenhauser and

wall-post buildings was occupied from at least the seventh to the ninth centuries.

• The settlement was set in a framework of enclosures and trackways defined by shallow ditches

• Evidence from excavation, cropmarks and fieldwalking suggests that the excavated features may represent the final phase of a single settlement, located at the Tame/Trent confluence in the mid-Romano-British period, and migrating along the river terrace through the early Saxon period, and into the middle/late Anglo-Saxon period

• The population of Catholme may have been substantially, even wholly, native


Middle Saxon England

Middle Saxon England• By mid 7th century

emergence of larger polities

• Kingdoms documented in Tribal Hidage

• Increasing social complexity

• Towns and trade



Christianity and the State

• Promotion of ideal of kingship

• Innovation in land holding (and influence on organisation of land?)

• Role in cementing emerging polities



Mercia• The predominant kingdom

of the early Heptarchy.• Centred on the Trent with

Tamworth, fortified by Creoda in 584, as capital.

• Peada converted to Christianity in 656, first bishopric at Repton, later Lichfield.

• Mercia dominated England between AD 600 and 900, achieving its height of power under Offa (757-796).


Further Study

Assignment

•Viking impact on the East Midlands

•Read Biddle’s account of his seminal excavations at Repton in Antiquity

•What does his excavation tell us about the Vikings in our region and how generally applicable is any insight from this excavation?


Coffee Break

An Archaeology of the East Midlands. Class 3, Beeston, Winter 2015

Education

societyiron age landscape

dark age britainhave

bcadoption of iron

early prehistory

archaeological record

social similarities

tribal society

class summarylater prehistory