The Anglian monastery and medieval priory of Coldingham: Urbs Coludi revisited (original) (raw)
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Monasteries and places of power in pre-Viking England: trajectories, relationships and interactions
2017
Recent archaeological studies conducted at different scales, from the level of site through to landscapes and regions, have focused critical attention on the connections and interactions existing between secular and religious realms of life in Anglo-Saxon England. Settlement archaeology has made an important contribution to this re-evaluation by drawing attention to a series of high-status residences of the seventh-ninth centuries AD whose trajectories and lifestyle blur the boundaries between monastic and secular aristocratic culture in pre-Viking England. Recent excavations in the Kentish village of Lyminge extend an appreciation of this theme into a region which has hitherto suffered from a deficit of Anglo-Saxon settlement archaeology. Originally conceived to improve archaeological understanding of a documented pre-Viking monastery, the Lyminge Project has subsequently gone on to uncover the remains of a separate and spatially distinct royal focus – a rare example of a seventh-c...
Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 20, 2017
This volume is based upon a conference convened at the University of Kent in April 2015 to celebrate the conclusion of a major programme of archaeological excavation targeting the Anglo-Saxon royal centre and monastery of Lyminge, Kent. The aim of the conference was to contextualize the principal findings of the Lyminge Project by drawing upon a range of historical and archaeological perspectives on early medieval monasticism in northwest Europe, with a geographical emphasis (though not exclusive focus) on Kent and neighbouring regions of the continental North Sea basin. In planning the conference, the organisers were conscious of following close on the heels of a number of high-profile academic networks and initiatives examining the Christianization of the ‘Insular’ British Isles with the spread of monastic culture forming one of its pivotal themes and institutional contexts.1 On the other hand, it was felt that the initiative had something genuinely distinctive to offer by shifting the spotlight of attention from Northumbria and the Celtic-speaking regions of the British Isles to Kent, a geographical zone which has been somewhat neglected in recent evaluations of Insular monasticism.2 This refocusing, it was hoped, would offer an opportunity for scholars to come together to look afresh at Kent as an early medieval monastic province, to re-evaluate the external (in particular) Frankish influences that shaped it and its own shaping influence on the expansion of monastic culture in the Insular British Isles. One of the key objectives of the current volume is to provide a fresh and current overview of the Lyminge Project and its contribution to early medieval studies at the end of the data-gathering phase and before the initiation of a large and complex programme of post-excavation analysis which lies ahead. For this reason, with the exception of Broadley’s contribution on the Anglo-Saxon glass, the editors decided against soliciting additional ‒ or, in the case of the three speakers who were unable to offer their papers for publication, replacement – contributions on the grounds that it would have resulted in an undue prolongation in the publication process. If the end product falls some way short of a comprehensive state-of-the-art review of recent historical and archaeological scholarship on early medieval monasticism in north-west Europe, then it is hoped that it provides a useful entry-point into some of the key debates and research agendas shaping the field as outlined in the rest of this introduction.
2017
This volume publishes the proceedings of an international conference held at the University of Kent in April 2015 to celebrate the conclusion of the excavation phase of the Lyminge Archaeological Project. It brings together 11 contributions from historians and archaeologists which together provide a comprehensive evaluation of the results of the Lyminge excavations and their contribution to scholarship on early medieval monasticism in north-west Europe. The proceedings will be published as a special edition (Vol. 20) of the series 'Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History'.
Settlement and Monasticism at Ripon, North Yorkshire, From the 7th to 11th Centuries A.D
Medieval Archaeology, 1996
Ripon, Nonh Yorkshire; location ofsites discussed in the loti SETTLEMENT AND MONASTICISM AT RIPON example is itself accepted as a survival of Wilfrid's church. tl Nineteenth-and early 20th-century antiquarian research, and more recent architectural and archaeological investigations, have for the most part attempted the identification ofstructures and features kno"m or thought to have been associated with this early monastic presence. 9 The dating of these episodes is uncertain. Traditionally, the donation to Eata has bcen placed shortly before 660, the reallocation to Wilfrid c. 660, and the building of Wilfrid's church c. 67 I-78. These dates rcflect the relative positioning ofevenls by Bede and Stephen, with the 'Synod of Whitby' in 664 providing a fixed poinl. It could be, however, that it was the decision taken at Whitby which forced Eata's withdrawal and left the site for Wilfrid, and that Wilfrid began building his monastic buildings, including the church, before 671-78. The keen interest of 19th-century antiquarians (notably the local wine merchant J. R. Waibran IO) in Ripon's origins and early history has nOt been translated into a concened programme of archaeological research in the modem era. In '955 A. Paget-Baggs, on behalf of the Ministry of Works, excavated on a site NE. of the former Old Deanery Hotel and uncovered the foundations of a twocelled church and associated cemetery. In 1974, on the other side ofSt Marygate, what appears to be more of this same cemetery was revealed in an excavation by P. Mayes on behalf of the Department of the Environment (DoE). At the same time, Mayes recorded a sequence oflate medieval structures on Low Sl Agnesgate. 1977 saw further DoE investigation, directed by D. Greenhaugh, this time in the Deanery Gardens, immediately S. of Paget-Baggs's site. The archives from these unpublished excavations were made available to York Archaeological Trust in '992. The present authors carried out the excavation of the Ailey Hill cemetery in 'g86 and Ig87 (Fig. I). AlLCYHILL Ailey Hill is an isolated, tree-covered mound standing c. 200 m E. of Ripon Cathedral (Fig. I), relatively inconspicuous when viewed from the W. (i.e. from the cathedral and the town), but highly visible from the east, especially near the confluence of the rivers Ure and Skell. As it survives today, the hill rises c. I I m above the surrounding land surface, with a maximum diameter at its base of c. 60 m. Although these measurcmenls probably reflect its original height and extent fairly accurately, its western, southern and eastcrn flanks have been largely destroyed by 18th-century quarrying. If any stretches of the lower slopes on these sides survived this, they were subsequently truncated by the levelling of the surrounding area for the construction of housing in the course of this century. Only on the nonhern flank of the hill is it likely that the original ground surface survives to any great extent, and there too there are indications of quarrying, albeit less extensive (Fig. 2). Its current, asymmetrical, profile is almost cenainly nOt, therefore, a true reflection of its original form. The earliest surviving record of the hill is from 1228, when it was called Elueshov,-howe. II
Recent excavations at Dunfermline Abbey, Fife
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1982
, which lies towards the SW of the town, was founded by Queen Margaret c 1070 as a daughter house of Christ Church, Canterbury. The nave of the 12th-century church erected by her son David I survives complete, adjoining to the W the 19th-century church presently in use. To the S lay the claustral ranges. The church, dorter and frater were built around three sides of a cloister in the normal fashion, but the arrangement of the W side of the cloister is obscure. There is a southwestern range built at an angle to the rest of the buildings and joined to the frater by a vaulted gatehouse. These buildings, their masonry dating from the 13th or, perhaps more likely, 14th century, were later used as a palace and continued as a principal residence of the Scottish kings until the 17th century. The peculiarities of plan are dictated in part at least by the fact that the Abbey is built on sloping ground at the edge of a steep ravine.
Early Scottish Monasteries and Prehistory: A Preliminary Dialogue
Scottish Historical Review, 2009
Reflecting on the diversity of monastic attributes found in the east and west of Britain, the author proposes that pre-existing ritual practice was influential, even determinant. An argument is advanced that this was not based solely on inspiration from the landscape, nor on conservative tradition, but on real intellectual reconciliation of Christian and non-Christian ideas, with disparate results that account for the differences in monumentality. Among more general matters tentatively credited with a prehistoric root are the cult of relics, the tonsure and the date of Easter.
Life before the minster: the social dynamics of monastic foundation at Anglo-Saxon Lyminge, Kent
Anglo-Saxon monastic archaeology has been constrained by the limited scale of past investigations and their overriding emphasis on core buildings. This paper draws upon the results of an ongoing campaign of archaeological research that is redressing the balance through an ambitious programme of open-area excavation at Lyminge, Kent, the site of a royal double monastery founded in the seventh century AD. The results of five completed fieldwork seasons are assessed and contextualised in a narrative sequence emphasising the dynamic character of Lyminge as an Anglo-Saxon monastic settlement. In so doing, the study brings into sharp focus how early medieval monasteries were emplaced in the landscape, with specific reference to Anglo-Saxon Kent, a regional context offering key insights into how the process of monastic foundation redefined antecedent central places of long-standing politico-religious significance and social action.