A Multi-Proxy Contextualisation of the Vill and Minster at Lyminge, Kent (original) (raw)
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2017
This thesis presents the first detailed and systematic examination of Anglo-Saxon ‘great hall complexes’. Characterised by their architectural grandeur and spatial formality, these rare and impressive sites represent a distinct class of high-status settlement that were primarily occupied during the later sixth and seventh centuries AD. Though their existence has been known to archaeologists since the mid-twentieth century, a series of recent and high-profile excavations has reignited the debate about these sites and necessitated the provision of a comprehensive study. Following an introductory account, the thesis begins with an archaeological review. This considers sixteen great hall complexes that are known from across the Anglo-Saxon realm. From this, a definition and broader characterisation of the great hall phenomenon is advanced. A series of four regional case studies represent the analytical core of the thesis. Focused on specific great hall complexes, and underpinned by comprehensive regional gazetteers, these investigations utilise a wide-ranging and multiscalar programme of spatial and chronological analysis in order to model the data. Particular emphasis is placed on the landscape context of sites, as is their interaction with wider hinterlands. The results are contextualised within a broader archaeo-historical framework, with original interpretations offered for each of the great hall complexes under consideration. It is concluded that great hall complexes likely operated as administrative centres and nodes of governance within broader socio-economic and politico-religious networks. It is also maintained that they fulfilled a range of social and symbolic functions – as emblematic displays of political authority that were emplaced within landscapes of power designed to legitimise and institutionalise emergent political hegemonies. Ultimately, it is argued, great hall complexes are to be understood as archaeological manifestations of the more overtly hierarchical society that was emerging in the sixth century.
2020
The aim of this thesis is to explain why the early Anglo-Saxon great hall complexes were built, why and how they developed over time and why they were abandoned. This is accomplished through two complementary studies. First, Part I of the thesis (Chapters 2-3) presents a broad comparative study of all known great hall complexes, exploring their characteristics, functions and development over time. Then, Part II (Chapters 4-8) explores the regional context of great hall complexes in the Upper Thames Valley, analysing the development of socio-economic power in the burials and settlements of the Upper Thames Valley and exploring the role of great hall complexes in this development. Chapters 8-9 bring together the conclusions from Part I and II of the thesis, building a comprehensive chronological narrative of the emergence, development and obsolescence of great hall complexes. In the course of these two studies, this thesis finds substantial and wide-ranging evidence for a chronologica...
Early Medieval Great Hall Complexes in England: Temporality and Site Biographies
Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 22, 2020
This paper offers a critical reconsideration of the social, spatial and temporal dynamics of sixth- to eighth-century great hall complexes in England. The major interpretative issues and constraints imposed by the data are considered, and the sites are then subject to comparative analysis across long-term and short-term temporal scales. The former highlights persistence of antecedent activity and centrality, the latter the ways in which the built environment was perceived in the past, structured social action, and was a medium for the construction and consolidation of elite identity and authority. Within the broad similarity that defines the site-type there is evidence for considerable diversity and complexity of site history and afterlife.
Medieval Archaeology, 2018
THE GREAT HALL complex represents one of the most distinctive and evocative expressions of the Anglo-Saxon settlement record, and is widely cited as a metaphor for the emergence of kingship in early medieval England. Yet interpretation of these sites remains underdeveloped and heavily weighted towards the excavated findings from the well-known site of Yeavering in Northumberland. Inspired by the results of recent excavations at Lyminge, Kent, this paper undertakes a detailed comparative interrogation of three great hall complexes in Kent, and exploits this new regional perspective to advance our understanding of the agency and embodied meanings of these settlements as 'theatres of power'. Explored through the thematic prisms of place, social memory and monumental hybridity, this examination leads to a new appreciation of the involvement of great hall sites in the genealogical strategies of 7th-century royal dynasties and a fresh perspective on how this remarkable, yet short-lived, monumental idiom was adapted to harness the symbolic capital of Romanitas.
2015
Households, Settlements, and Landscapes in Iron Age, Roman, and Early Medieval Northumbria: A Spatial Analysis of NorthEast England, c. 100 BC-AD 800 This thesis argues that the spatial organisation of the built environment in northeastern England between c. 100 BC-AD 800 reflects the complexities of culture contact, the transmission of ideas, and social change. It is suggested here that the examination of space and place in Britain between the late Iron Age (c. 100 BC-AD 43), Roman (c. AD 43-410) and Early Medieval (c. AD 410 to 800) periods can be used to analyse the changes and/or continuities in socio-cultural ideas and traditions. Two study regions to the north and south of Hadrian's Wall within the boundaries of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria are analysed using established and innovative computational techniques to understand what affect, if any, the inhabitants of Iron Age and Roman Britain had on the shape of the Early Medieval built environment. Settlement data was compiled into a Geographical Information System and established spatial analysis techniques that focus on site placement were combined with an innovative use of Visibility Graph Analysis to quantitatively analyse the spatial organisation of households and communities between c. 100 BC and AD 800. Visibility Graph Analysis is used to statistically measure the visual arrangement of built space in order to examine continuities or disruptions to the organisation of structures and settlements. The results alter our understanding of this period by revealing broad continuities in the spatial organisation of the built environment across the analysed time periods. This suggests that regional identity was influential in the formation and use of the built environment in the two study regions between c. 100 BC and AD 800. This has significant implications for understanding how Britain was transformed over the longue durée between the Iron Age and Early Medieval periods. These findings suggest that continuities in the spatial arrangement and organisation of the built environment are indicative of gradual change rather than abrupt disruption, and adds to current debates on how regions of Britain were transformed between late prehistory and the early historic era. "The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged."
Sites of Power and Assembly in the Thames Valley in the Middle Ages
Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 2020
This article examines three sites of elite and royal power in the early second millennium AD in the Thames valley: Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, Westminster in the City of London, and Runnymede in Surrey. Using a backdrop of comparative material from medieval Scandinavia, these sites are examined in terms of their landscape qualities, particularly their liminal nature. On this basis, it is shown that they demonstrate attributes and features that are frequently connected to assembly sites. It is therefore argued that these sites may well, earlier in time, have been assembly locations that were consciously adopted and developed as royal ritual sites as part of the legitimising process of power.
Norwegian Archaeological Review 54 (1), 2021
This paper develops enriched understandings of rulership over the fifth to the ninth centuries AD, drawing upon the archaeology of great hall complexes, a southern British expression of the rich repertoire of rulers’ residences in post-Roman northern Europe. Guided by a practice-based conceptual framework, we connect great hall complexes with aspects of the embodied regimens, rituals, habits, and activities through which rulership was constituted in the early medieval world. Harnessing recently expanded datasets, we conduct a thematic interrogation of these sites to generate new insights in three key areas. First, by documenting the significant and sustained antecedent occupation attested at great hall sites, we unlock new temporal perspectives on how and why these places were constituted as centres of rulership. Second, we reframe understanding of hall construction as an iconic strategy of elite legitimation by focusing attention on the agency of the skilled practitioners who created these technically innovative architectural statements and, in doing so, recognise these hitherto neglected specialists as ‘crafters’ of rulership equal in significance to contemporary goldsmiths. Third, we use archaeological and biological data from recently investigated great hall complexes to examine the networks of dependency and interaction which enmeshed these centres. A concluding comparative discussion of southern Britain and Scandinavia contributes to a wider understanding of the central significance of rulers’ residences in these early medieval worlds.