an archaeology of the east midlands. class 4, beeston winter 2015

An Archaeology of the East Midlands

Class 4: A Disputed Land: Angles, Saxon and Vikings in the East Midlands.

Tutor: Keith Challis

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

Recap: Last Week

east-midlands-archaeology.blogspot.co.uk

• Later Prehistory, Iron Age Landscape and Society

• The Roman Interlude

• Dark Age or Iron Age – A Return

Beeston, Winter 2015

Class Summary

• Viking Origins• Scandinavian Settlement in the East Midlands• Discussion – Repton and the Vikings

• Coffee Break

• Techniques of Archaeological Research: Seeing Beneath the Soil


Learning Outcomes

• Know a little about the origins and impact of the Viking incursions into and settlement of England.

• Understand the importance of Repton and Ingleby for our appreciation of Viking activity in all its variety.

• Have an appreciation of the main geophysical survey techniques used in British archaeology.


Section 1: Viking Origins

Viking OriginsThis year came dreadful fore-warnings over the land of the Northumbrians, terrifying the people most woefully: these were immense sheets of light rushing through the air, and whirlwinds, and fiery, dragons flying across the firmament. These tremendous tokens were soon followed by a great famine: and not long after, on the sixth day before the ides of January in the same year, the harrowing inroads of heathen men made lamentable havoc in the church of God in Holy-island, by rapine and slaughter.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle AD. 793.


The 9th-century grave marker found at Lindisfarne known as the Viking Domesday stone


June 793, Letter of Alcuin Archbishop of York to Ethelred King of Northumbria

Viking Origins


Viking Origins

• Where and How?• Old Norse víkingr – “to go on an

expedition overseas”• Norse raiders, settlers and traders

active from 8th to 11th centuries

• Advanced seafaring skills and technology – longships –

• Raids on coastal sites from late 8th century

• Revenge – opportunity – European weakness and lack of naval force


The Oseberg ship, a well-preserved 9th century Viking ship discovered in 1904 in a large burial

mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold county, Norway.


Viking Origins

• Vikings Campaigns• Raids in northern England and Scotland from

late 8th century.• Many monastic houses destroyed or

abandoned and with them written records of raids

• From the 850s Viking armies begin to overwinter in England. Bigger armies suggest campaigns of conquest

• 866 Capture York, 867 southern Northumbria, 873/4 annex Mercia

• 876 division of Northumbria lands (settlement)• 878 subjugation of Wessex • 886 establishment of Danelaw treaty of Alfred

and Guthrum


Viking Origins


• Where did they end up…

• By late 9th century large parts of Britain settled and ruled by Scandinavians

• In early 11th century kingdoms of Denmark and England united under one king (Cnut)

• Ultimately two Scandinavian houses vie for the English throne in 1066

• Scandinavia (Viking) raiding and settlement widespread throughout north-west Europe, the Mediterranean and inland in north central Europe

• Scandinavia trade links extend into the Middle East and Asia


Viking Origins

• Archaeological Evidence• Churchyard burials with grave

goods• Monuments and decorative

sculpture (hogbacks)• Hoards (local response)

• Distinctive buildings types in north and west (longhouses)

• The great trading sites (York, Dublin)


Section 2: Scandinavian Settlement in the East Midlands

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).


Scandinavian Settlement

• The Archaeological Record

• In EM earliest documented Viking raids on Lindsey on (841) and Nottingham (867) but no archaeological trace

• Vikings in archaeological record hard to spot

• Churchyard burial/finds• Hogbacks• Settlement form and agricultural practice

arbitrarily attributed to Vikings, but no sound basis of evidence



• Placename Evidence

• –by (Village) eg Ingleby: village of the English

• – thorpe (secondary settlement) eg Gunthorpe: Gunnas settlement

• - thwaite (clearing of meadow)• “Grimston Hybrids” ON personal

name with OE Tun – appropriation of an existing settlement?

• Language and naming elements eg Kirk, Beck, Gate, etc


www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/past_exhibitions/2014/vikings/vikings_live/old_norse_origins.aspx



• Warriors or Settlers?• Initial raiding gave way

to conquest and settlement

• A strong trading instinct based on seafaring – but building on existing Anglo-Saxon networks and places



• Viking Trade• Classic site Jorvik (York)

evidence for industry and extensive pan-European trade post 866 capture of York

• But extensive pre-Viking trading evidence at York and elsewhere – AS Emporia (York, London, Ipswich, Southampton)

• Increasing recognition of “productive sites” ad hoc and seasonal trading places


Section 3: Repton and the Vikings

Repton and the Vikings


This year went the army from Lindsey to Repton, and there took up their winter-quarters,drove the king, Burhred, over sea, when he had reigned about two and twenty winters, and subdued all that land. He then went to Rome, and there remained to the end of his life…. And the same year they gave Ceolwulf, an unwise king's thane, the Mercian kingdom to hold; and he swore oaths to them, and gave hostages, that it should be ready for them on whatever day they would have it; and he would be ready with himself, and with all those that would remain with him, at the service of the army.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 874



• Discussion




St Wystan’s Mausoleum (850s)




Grave 511 The warrior


Repton and the Vikings• The Mass Grave• A reused AS mortuary

chapel• Discovered and looted in

1686 – “a humane body 9ft long”

• Surrounded by a charnel deposit

• Closely dated by coin finds to 873/4

• The tomb of Ivar the Boneless?



• Heath Wood Ingleby• 59 barrows in four

groups• Associated with in-situ

cremation with grave goods

• Within site of Repton• The pagan part of the

Great Army?



• Typical barrow• Ring-ditch and

cleared land surface• Sand layer (ritual)• Cremation pyre with

grave goods (some removed?)


Mound 50



• .


Cremated Grave Goods

•Ritually broken swords

•Personal items

•Nails (ship boards)


Torksey


• It’s More Complex than you Think…

• Torksey, Lincs

• Another Great Army Winter Camp (872/3)

• University of York Investigations

Torksey

Dirhams were minted in the Middle East and carried to Torksey by the Great Army


• Viking items and evidence of trade/travel

• An existing Anglo-Saxon “productive site”

• Relationship with Littleborough? on opposite bank of Trent


Winter Camp at Cork, Ireland

Torksey


Repton

Dublin

Further Study

• Suggested Reading

• J.D. Richards (2004) Viking Age England. Tempus Books.

• Gater, J. and Gaffney, C. (2003) Revealing the Buried Past: Geophysics for Archaeologists. The History Press.


Assignment


• Take a look at Carenza Lewis’s lengthy but excellent account of the Middle Ages in the East Midlands.

• What are the key themes for the countryside? (Eg nucleation of settlement, open field origins, settlement desertion, etc)

• Identify one or two key sites that Carenza uses to illustrate one theme and find out as much as you can about those sites. Do you agree with her ideas and analysis? Why/why not?


an archaeology of the east midlands. class 4, beeston winter 2015

Education

century viking ship

viking incursions

viking originswhere

viking domesday stone

return beeston

s viking armies

settlement of england

england united