A Research
Framework For The Archaeology Of Wales
East and North
East Wales: - Early Medieval
5/2/2004
The early
medieval period in Wales (and North West Britain more generally) is perhaps one
of the least well-known eras of the British past. This partly reflects the
dearth of historical information within what has nonetheless been viewed as a
‘historical period’, and the fact that at the same time archaeological research
has failed to provide an alternative story or even to identify significant
quantities of evidence on which to base that story. The SMR record for East and North East Wales list only 311 early
medieval records of any kind (compared
with 979 and 4052 entries in the adjoining Roman and medieval periods
respectively), and the traditional term ‘Dark Ages’ is still all too meaningful
against this background. It is in some
ways ironic that while the early medieval period has silently bequeathed key
aspects of our modern lives – the languages we speak, national political
boundaries, and notions of religious belief and cultural tradition –
archaeological interpretation of the era too often rests on a single excavation
trench within a single site.
The history of
East and North East Wales has inevitably been influenced by a geographical
position straddling the English lowlands (Cheshire, Shropshire and
Herefordshire) and the uplands of Wales.
This natural divide is clearly relevant to early medieval activity in
the area, and must be part of the story not only of the initial transition from
Roman imperial control to British regional kingdoms but more obviously to the
evolving relationship of Anglo-Saxon and British political groups from the 7th
century onwards. That later phase of
change eventually offered up Wales itself as one of its ultimate legacies, and
created two of the most dramatic early medieval monuments in Europe - Wat’s and
Offa’s Dykes - along the way. Viking incursions also reflect the strategic
significance of the locality, and in a different way the same topographical and
cultural fault-line also structured the development of the early church. Although in same ways a marginal landscape,
early medieval East and North East Wales spawned changes with ramifications far
beyond the immediate locality. Yet we
know very little of the detail of that story.
·
Evidence
(though open to debate) for early medieval occupation at Dinorben
hillfort. Given extensive Roman
activity on the site, could imply continuity of early medieval settlement
similar to that which has also been claimed for Dinas Powys and other sites
elsewhere in Wales. Dating of artefacts
(glass) from New Pieces near the Breidden has led to claims for similar early
medieval continuity of settlement at that site.
·
Excavation
of the Llangors Crannog has revealed what may be a princely settlement of the
Late 9th / early 10th century which has been equated with
the Brecacnanmere whose destruction is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in
AD 916. Llangors gives an indication of
high status settlement within the Welsh Kingdoms, though in that sense is not
very representative (may be a response to exceptional circumstances)
·
Suggested
structures which could represent early medieval houses/domestic buildings
include the pair of boat shaped crop marks at Berriew (inconclusively excavated
in 1983) which have been interpreted as early medieval (Viking?)houses, and a 6
by 4 metre building at Hen Domen which could be shown stratigraphically to be
of early medieval date (function unknown)
·
A number of
structures mainly known from earthwork/air photo evidence could represent
incoming Saxon settlement from the 7th century onwards. These included an aisled structure at Forden
Gaer interpreted as a possible Anglo-Saxon hall on the basis of excavation in
the mid 80’s, and the Cwrt Llechryd enclosure where excavation produced early
medieval C14 dates (AD 750-1040), though the precise nature of the enclosure is
uncertain. The Cwrt Llechryd site may
be compared with a small group of similar moated enclosures elsewhere (Old
Mills, Welshpool; Nantcribba Gaer, Welshpool; Mathrafal, Meifod; Plas yn Dinas,
Llansantffraidd ym Mechain) which have traditionally been regarded as medieval,
but could similarly turn out to be of early medieval origin. These have been mooted as Mercian forts of
the later early medieval period, though this is entirely unconfirmed by
excavation evidence, and they could as well be high status sites of British
origin. Place-name evidence (eg surviving ‘Hop’ and ‘Tun’ names in the Walton
basin) does support relatively early Anglo-Saxon penetration and settlement in
certain localities.
·
Excavations
at Rhuddlan in the late 60s and late 70s produced extensive evidence of early
medieval settlement including probable grubenhauser, elements of a
defensive ditch circuit, diagnostic later Anglo-Saxon pottery types (St Neots
and Chester Ware), and a series of later early medieval radiocarbon dates. This
material has generally been identified with the late Saxon Burh of Cledemutha
established in AD 921, though it is possible and perhaps likely that Rhuddlan
was already an important early medieval centre before this date.
·
Ridge and
furrow sealed beneath the ramparts at Hen Domen can be interpreted as early
medieval in date, presumably correlating with the emergence of open field
farming elsewhere in England in the late Saxon landscape.
·
For all the
impact of post-war archaeology (air photography etc.) on other periods of study
(especially prehistoric), there has been negligible new identification of early
medieval sites
·
The current
picture relies on a tiny sample of inconclusively dated sites which may turn
out to be entirely misrepresentative of the ‘real’ pattern – especially slewed
towards higher status sites
·
Hardly any
evidence at all for the 5th, 6th and 7th
centuries. The claims for continuity of
settlement at Dinorben are at best controversial, and there is no comparable
evidence for continuing occupation of Roman military or other sites with the
possible exception of Forden Gaer (though worth pointing out that this is
scarce even in parts of Roman Britain which were much more explicitly Romanised
than East and North-East Wales ever was)
·
Generally
no sense of the organisation of the early medieval human landscape, subsistence
field-system patterns, economy etc. – even the settlement evidence we have is
therefore entirely isolated from its immediate and broader context and hard to
extract meaningful conclusions from
·
Further exploration/excavation of known early medieval sites
Although
only a small number of sites are known, these are mostly themselves very
incompletely examined, and little is known of their function and context.
Additional examination of sites such as Cwrt Llechryd might be a means of
enlightening not just understanding of that site, but would generally help to
refine models of wider early medieval site identification.
·
Explore possibility that significant elements of the early
medieval settlement landscape are ‘hidden’ within sites traditionally allocated
to the Prehistoric/Romano-British periods.
Crop
mark field system and settlement complexes generally classified as prehistoric
may well have, at the very least, continued in use in the early medieval period
(c.f. re-dating of Forden Gaer Neolithic post setting as likely Anglo Saxon
Hall following excavation). Further
exploration of such sites – such as multivallate enclosures similar to those
which have recently been suggested by James as wholly or partly early medieval
in South Wales - may therefore throw up early medieval evidence. In research
priority terms, there is an evident synergy here with probable sites of late
prehistoric interest.
Early
medieval re-use of hillfort sites has been well demonstrated elsewhere in
western Britain and it must be likely that at least some of the 355 recognised
hillforts in East and North East Wales preserve early medieval material. Only a
tiny fraction of these sites have been explored at all, and only a small part
of the internal area of even most of those.
As above, the early medieval research opportunity which exists here
closely coincides with the prehistoric one.
·
Use early medieval ecclesiastical site locations to target
identification of secular settlement
Although
the identification of early medieval religious sites poses its own problems
(see below), it does seem a reasonable assertion that early medieval
church/burial sites will be spatially associated with nearby contemporary
secular settlement. The detailed
exploration of areas around such sites seems an obvious approach to identifying
early medieval domestic settlement features, and would directly overlap with
research into the religious sites themselves.
·
Exploration/excavation of medieval domestic sites with possible early
medieval origins
There has been little work on identifying
Royal Llysoedd and Maerdrefi sites in North and North East Wales, though the
medieval crystallisation of such sites may well derive from early medieval
origins. Further work on identifying
these sites in their developed medieval context (c.f. Gwynedd Archaeological
Trust project) may therefore generate an important avenue of future early
medieval research.
Similar early medieval research potential
may apply to other categories of lower status medieval settlement sites
·
Target diagnostic Saxon settlement features
It is easy to forget that the archaeology
of much of the area for the latter half of the early-medieval period is the
archaeology of Anglo-Saxon settlement.
With the exception of Offa’s and Wat’s Dykes (see below) and Rhuddlan,
there has been little systematic investigation of specifically Anglo-Saxon
settlement patterns. Analogy with
somewhat better researched material elsewhere in Mercia and beyond might
provide a key to develop identification and exploration of sites belonging to
this critical aspect of local development.
ECCLESIASTICAL AND CEMETERY SITES
Strengths
·
The Cadw sponsored Ecclesiastical Sites Project
conducted in East and North East Wales by CPAT (interim report April 2002) has
provided an important base line of knowledge for early medieval sites in the
area
·
On the basis of a range of documentary and
archaeological evidence, the current study has certainly identified 40 early
medieval ecclesiastical sites within the area (out of a total of 288 churches,
chapels and allied sites assessed), including 9 Clas churches.
·
Recent excavation work at Pennant Melangell and Capel
Maelog has shed significant insight on the development of early ecclesiastical
sites. At Capel Maelog a sequence of
burial ground, curvilinear enclosure of the burial site, and late construction
of the church seems to support a long process of development at the site. This
process is echoed at Penant Melangell, where early burials apparently clustered
around a central cist grave which was subsequently incorporated within the
church
·
Overall, 15 early-medieval cemetery sites are
positively identified, and these range from developed cemeteries such as Capel
Maelog to cist burials such as Llanasa, and the square ditch cemetery at
Tandderwen (Denbigh). Many other sites
lack certain dating evidence, although several of these, such as the Trelystan
Round Burials at Trewern (Powys), are almost certainly early Christian.
·
27 freestanding crosses and inscribed stones are
known in the area, mostly clustered in the south of the region. The inscription (now destroyed) on the 9th
century freestanding cross shaft near Valle Crucis (‘The pillar of Eliseg’)
provides a unique (if brief) documentary source for the contemporary Kingdom of
Powys.
Weaknesses
·
The 90 curvilinear churchyards alone may be taken to
roughly imply that many more known ecclesiastical sites probably have an early
medieval origin than can certainly be shown. That is further emphasised by the
204 Holy wells recorded in the area, of which only 8 can now be shown to have
early medieval associations.
·
Some key sites known from documentary sources (such
as the monastery at Bangor-on-Dee) have not been identified on the ground, and
many more suggested sites (e.g. of Clas churches at Corwen and Llanafan Fawr)
remain unproven.
·
No early medieval church fabric survives in the area
(with the single exception of Presteigne where late Saxon work remains) and the
precise nature of early medieval ecclesiastical buildings is largely unknown.
·
The archaeological
significance of the inscribed stones (as distinct from their evident historical
importance as a major source of linguistic, social and religious information)
is little explored. Most are not in situ, and the degree of association they
may have originally had with the graves of those commemorated is
uncertain. The number of known stones
in the area is also small compared to Western Wales.
·
Little light has yet been shed on the early
development of the church in the area.
Models which have been suggested elsewhere – such as the association
between Early Christian sites and re-used prehistoric enclosures and/or Roman
sites and buildings – remain unsubstantiated in East and North East Wales.
Opportunities
·
Area excavation of greater range of cemetery sites
across the full range of identified site categories
·
Further work to identify and, where possible,
archaeologically explore Clas church sites
·
Excavation around in situ inscribed stones to provide
better contextual information for these monuments
·
Where possible, archaeologically explore a sample of
suggested early ecclesiastical sites to increase base knowledge and help refine
site identification models
·
Use recommendations of current Cadw sponsored CPAT
project to target future research effort
OFFA’S, WAT’S AND SHORT DYKES
Strengths
·
Half of Offa’s Dyke (40 of 80 miles), two-thirds of
Wat’s Dyke (30 of 40 miles) are within North and North East Wales. The two great dykes are among the most
significant monuments of the early medieval period in Britain, potentially
providing key evidence of the evolving relationship of the Anglo-Saxon and
British/Welsh peoples.
·
Offa’s Dyke can be firmly dated to the later 8th
century AD via a range of archaeological and historical evidence, and
excavations on Wat’s Dyke at Oswestry (Shropshire) recently produced a
radiocarbon date centred on the mid 5th century AD.
·
21 possibly related ‘Short Dykes’ (traditionally
allocated to the early medieval period) can be identified in the area. These have recently been the subject of a
Cadw sponsored research project undertaken by CPAT.
·
Significant sections of the dykes are well preserved,
potentially preserving high quality archaeological information
·
A significant programme of excavation and other
research has been undertaken on Wat’s and Offa’s Dykes since the 1970’s by the
‘Offa’s Dyke Project’ under the auspices of Dr David Hill and students from the
Extra Mural Department of Manchester University. This work has helped to
clarify the extent of some sections of the monuments, and to suggest the
original form of the earthworks.
·
The dykes potentially preserve significant buried
environmental deposits.
Weaknesses
·
Much of the recent excavation work on Offa’s and
Wat’s Dykes is not fully published, and most of that work has been small scale
and focused on less well preserved sections of the earthworks
·
The dating of Wat’s Dyke and all of the Short Dykes
remains uncertain – the latter may range from the prehistoric to the medieval
period. There are only three
radiocarbon dates for the entire group of monuments including Offa’s and Wat’s
Dykes
·
The dykes straddle the modern England/Wales border,
and research into them must be an integrated exercise between the two
countries; for example, the presence or absence of Offa’s Dyke across Herefordshire
is crucial to understanding its significance in Powys
·
Basic questions regarding the original extent of the
monuments, whether or not they were surmounted by a palisade, whether they were
originally cut by entrances etc. remain to be satisfactorily answered
·
The character and nature of the dykes is still to be
adequately explained. The complexity of
Offa’s Dyke – with its gaps, variations in form etc. – has as yet evaded a
completely satisfactory explanation of its purpose (though its general context
as a boundary between Mercia and the Welsh kingdoms seems clear), and supports
conflicting interpretations ranging from defence to treaty marker
·
The analysis of the dykes have not been rigorously
set within the context of the other similar monuments across Britain with which
they can be compared archaeologically
·
Scant work has been done on the landscape context of
the dykes since the pioneering pre-war analyses of Sir Cyril Fox, and we have
little idea of the environments they passed through or how they related to
established settlement patterns
Opportunities
·
Systematic examination by modern archaeological
methods to resolve issues such as the reality of the apparent ‘gaps’ in the
dykes
·
Targeted use of full scale archaeological excavation
on well preserved sections of the dykes to finally answer basic problems such
as the presence or absence of a palisade, and where appropriate, to establish
key stratigraphical relationships with other datable features
·
Considered analysis of the dykes at a landscape level
(incorporating the mass of data now available through air photography etc.) to
better understand their original relationship to the surrounding human
environment, and the topographical positioning of the earthworks
·
Considered re-analysis of the monuments (and Offa’s
Dyke in particular) to recapture its significance as a major piece of evidence
in understanding ancient Mercia and the impact of Offa on the subsequent
development of early medieval Britain.
·
Sampling of the palaeo-environmental potential of the
dykes
·
Pursue recommendations of CPAT ‘Short Dykes’ project
VIKING SETTLEMENT
Strengths
·
Documentary evidence for Viking activity in the area,
notably the battle of Buttington (generally assumed to be the Buttington near
Welshpool) recorded by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 893 AD
·
Human bones recovered from a communal interment in
Buttington Churchyard in the 19th century have been claimed as
Viking (although this is highly questionable)
·
The Maen Achwyfan cross near Whitford may be linked
stylistically with Viking practice
·
The end of the Llangors crannog may be associated
with Viking activity, and the crannog was apparently occupied and fortified at
the time of the 893 incursion
Weaknesses
·
Very scant archaeological evidence for Viking
presence in the area
Opportunities
·
It is possible that Viking evidence will come to
light as the wider early medieval settlement context is discovered/examined
(e.g. at a known early medieval site such as Rhuddlan)
·
Detailed archaeological examination of the Buttington
area may produce evidence of the 893 encampment
ARTEFACTS
Strengths
·
Early medieval artefact finds range from The Llangors
dug out boat, imported (?) glass from New Pieces, late Saxon pottery from
Rhuddlan, and the iron javelin and spearhead associated with a 6th/7th
century secondary burial in a Bronze Age barrow at Four Crosses
Weaknesses
·
Very few artefacts of any kind have been recovered
from early medieval sites in the area, and this overlaps with the general
paucity of known settlement sites in the area
·
The sample of artefacts so far recovered is too
slight to undertake any meaningful analysis or distribution studies
Opportunities
·
Liaison with the metal detecting community via the
Portable Antiquities scheme might increase metal artefact recovery and aid site
identification (see above)
·
In tandem with increased identification and
exploration of settlement sites (see above), there is evident potential for
recovery of a more extensive sample of early medieval artefacts
INDUSTRY
·
There is currently no recorded evidence for early
medieval industrial sites in the area.
Opportunities
·
Plainly, such sites much exist, and their
identification will surely come through discovery and investigation of a wider
range of settlement sites as a whole.
ENVIRONMENTAL
·
Beyond site based work (Llangors Crannog), little
environmental work has so far been undertaken.
Opportunities
·
The potential provided by the dyke systems has already been alluded to,
and systematic environmental investigation of the period will be an important
complimentary aspect to more intensive analysis of the settlement context as a
whole.
Paper prepared by Mr Ian Bapty (CPAT)
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Research Framework for the Archaeology of Wales.