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Home , Eyke, Icklingham, Unite (English coin)

The Sutton Hoo Society Newsletter Saxon No. 51 July 2010

Plate D (above): silver coins of Eadwald (top) and Coenwulf (bottom), 796-805 coins for Museum? A long sequence of small finds, in an unbroken chronology from the Roman through to the late medieval period, is still emerging from the fields around Naunton Hall at Rendlesham. Discussions are under way that could see the collection housed at Ipswich Museum. At last year’s AGM, JUDE PLOUVIEZ, Archaeological Officer with County Council Archaeological Service (SCCAS) described the results of mag- netometry survey and systematic metal detecting funded by the SHS on the land that Bede described as Raedwald’s hall. At this year’s AGM she summarised her interim conclusions from the latest investigations there.

Taking it chronologically, the earliest features a centimetre long, which judging from metal seem to be the D-shaped enclosure, one or analysis probably is bronze age. The parallel two ring ditches and parallel ditches in a field ditches might indicate an even older prehistoric south of the hall. At 18m. in diameter, the clear cursus – unless they are post medieval! Not ring ditch is small for the bronze age, but the even the specialists can always tell at a glance. area has yielded up one small gold item, only The comparison in Jude’s mind is the neolithic Plate A, top: Visigothic tremissis probably Plate C, top: gold Merovingian tremissis. copying a Byzantine tremissis of Justinian Bottom: silver copy of a tremissis, pierced for (c.527-565). Bottom: Merovingian tremissis, suspension, both 7th century broadly dated to first half of 7th century

cursus and causewayed enclosures at The Anglo-Saxon evidence continues , probably constructed to be exciting. One field yielded finds in the mid-4th millenium BC. consistent with Anglo-Saxon burials – if in Plate E, right: copper-alloy bird brooch, The D-shaped enclosure seems more fact that is what it contained. There was a 11th century similar to an iron age feature, like one late 6th century Visigothic gold tremissis, visible on air photos near . copying a Byzantine one of the emperor Another field produced fifteen Anglo- The northern part of it produced Roman Justinian (plate A) and a couple of Anglo- Saxon period coins. These include a silver pottery, perhaps ploughed out from the Saxon sceattas of the 8th century. There copy of a late 7th century tremissis, pierced upper fill of the surrounding ditch, but no was a silver fragment of a radiate-headed to be worn as an ornament (plate C) early Anglo-Saxon finds, “Or it could be a stock brooch, comparable to one from Beauvais 8th century and later pennies of enclosure – at least, almost nothing Anglo- in France now in the Ashmolean in Coenwulf (796-805) and Eadwald (796-8) Saxon was dropped in it.” (plate B, right) and the foot of another, (plate D). Other objects included part of a Finds are always nice, even Roman copper-alloy, brooch of the same type but hanging bowl, fragments of gold jewellery ones. Jude reported from nearby, a this one paralleled strangely enough in late and small bronze buckles. Crucially one of scattered hoard of thirteen 1st and 2nd 6th century Ukraine (plate B, left). the buckles was unfinished, so it constitutes century silver denarii apparently deposited Interestingly some items were grouped evidence of bronze working on the site. around 160 AD, a silver coin of Trajan spatially: the uncommon imported radiate- Four fragments of a silver finger ring and 1st century copper-alloy brooches, all headed brooches were found in one of 9th to 10th century, and a beautiful of which suggest the wealth building up corner of the field and a cruciform brooch 11th century bird brooch in copper alloy during the Roman period, not far from a fragment was very close to the Visigothic (plate E) take the finds in this field up to known Roman small town at , gold coin and a Roman coin. the Conquest. just north of . It is a Here the geophysics were ‘enigmatic’, A new area of finds included a salutary reminder of what was here before producing ‘a lot of spots’. But if you dig 7th century copy of a tremissis, an 8th the Wuffings – as is John Fairclough’s new out soil for burials and then replace it, century ansate (handle-shaped) brooch book (see p.3) it does not produce clear magnetometry and further buckles. It is worth results. So Jude’s report will conclude remembering that Anglo-Saxon finds that this could be an early Anglo-Saxon have also come from around Eyke Church burial site. to the south of Rendlesham. The features most likely to be Anglo- Saxon on the magnetometry are rather indistinct short lengths of ditch forming rectilinear patterns, which are quite comparable to the excavated plan of the contemporary settlement at Brandon. “So the Rendlesham geophysics is probably showing up the Anglo-Saxon features beautifully – it is just that it is very scrappy.” Listening to the lecture were the owners of Naunton Hall, Sir Michael and Lady Bunbury. Thanking Jude for her work and the SHS for its “generous grant”, Sir Michael confessed, “It is a world apart from anything I know and it has been an eye-opener to me.” Plate B, left: copper alloy brooch foot fragment from a radiate-headed brooch of Ukranian type. A radiate is a 3rd century Roman coin. All photos © Suffolk County Council Right: small gilded silver fragment from the top Archaeological Service of a radiate-headed brooch.

2 Saxon 51 What did the Romans ever do for Raedwald?

This year marks the 1600th anniversary of the notional end of Roman authority in Britain. Here JOHN FAIRCLOUGH, the author of a new book on ’s relations with Rome, considers how much of their presence remained to influence the world of the Wuffings.

When I came to writing about Rome’s search of freedom and others departed for impact on East Anglia, I avoided stopping Brittany, but it is difficult to see most East at AD 410 because I am convinced that Anglians deserting their farms, or even year did not mark a clean break. In that that the new rulers would have wished it. year or close to, the Roman empire did When we divide up historical periods we indeed withdraw from Britain its paid are in danger of creating the impression soldiers and its administrative officials. that the population changed dramatically. Britain was no longer part of the empire The people we call the Iron Age British that still ruled a large part of the known became the inhabitants of , world. The Britons may have been told to and many of their descendants doubtless arrange their own defences, but in any case, became subjects of King Raedwald. The once the pay chests stopped arriving, any newcomers, be they Romans or Angles, soldiers who did stay behind would have to took control of the land, but they needed look for local funding. The people of East the native British to work it for them, Anglia had been part of the Roman Empire paying rents and taxes to sustain the army for almost four hundred years, so things and the ruling class. They created their cannot have changed totally overnight, and first settlements close to the British towns, I believe we can still see the remnants of as with beside Icklingham and Roman influence two hundred and more Rendlesham not far from Hacheston. Even years later. if they garrisoned the Roman fortress of Walton Castle, they presumably kept John Fairclough with a reproduction by Gilbert East Angles a substantial British population near Burroughes of a Samian ware bowl presented Considerable lengths of Roman road Felixstowe, if Walton is the settlement of to him last year by the Suffolk Institute of are still in use today, so they must have the Wealas, the Anglian term for British. Archaeology & History © SIAH (Bob Carr) remained open and usable through the so I believe they even restored two pre- called Dark Ages. Significantly we lost all Roman administrative units that had been Aethelbert, on which he uses the Roman traces of the crossings over the River Stour, independent sub-kingdoms: the area of the title REX as king, while the moneyer Lul because I believe the East Angles took Blyth valley, which became the medieval shows his own name in runic letters. This control more rapidly than the East Saxons Blything Hundred, and The Wicklaw, use of Roman and runic letters suggests a where the truly Roman inhabitants of the which became the five and a half hundreds real merging of cultures. veteran colony at Colchester probably kept centred on Woodbridge, but originally a stronger hold. There are signs that the included Ipswich. The Wicklaw became the Roman emperor Roman forts on the East Anglian coast had heart of their new kingdom centred The burial assemblage of Raedwald at garrisons who were ethnically German, on Rendlesham. Sutton Hoo suggests a Roman emperor but part of the Roman army well before in full military regalia but with northern 410. Probably little distinguished these Ancestry decoration. The Greek inscriptions on the Germans who were part of the Roman If we see the Wuffing family taking over silver spoons have to be Christian and empire from their neighbours, the Angles. from the Romans this already identifiable the crosses in other decorative features East Anglia was well placed for trade coastal unit of Blything and Wicklaw, with support this. We know from Bede that with the Rhine valley, so a communal link its population of British farmers, it is no Raedwald set up a Christian altar beside across the North Sea could explain the surprise they traced their ancestry from those to other gods in his temple. Ancient lack of any account of a specific Anglian Caesar, the Cassar who follows Woden in religions generally welcomed additional invasion. We have the reports from Kent of the royal genealogy. All Roman emperors gods, and Christians were exceptional in Vortigern inviting Hengist and Horsa with claimed descent by adoption from Julius demanding total dedication. Many British dramatic results later in the 5th century. Caesar and included his name in their title. had become Christians under the empire might have been a bit later, Julius himself was treated as a god after his after Constantine made it his official as Alcuin of York writing in 800 says ‘his death, so the chief god, in this case Woden, religion early in the 4th century, so it made people’ had arrived three hundred and was clearly his adoptive father. Perhaps sense to include Christ. I doubt if many fifty years earlier. When Gildas wrote his their name, Wuffing - suggesting an contemporaries were as concerned about account in good Latin, forty years after affinity with the wolf - encouraged them to the company he kept in that temple as Bede the battle of Badon fought in 500, the favour the legend of the wolf that suckled was in later years. whole of eastern was in the hands Romulus and Remus in Rome’s foundation of ‘the Saxons’, but the west remained myth. An important Anglian wore a 5th firmly British, although he disapproved century gold pendant found at Undley, Boudica to Raedwald, East Anglia’s relations of its rulers. showing the wolf suckling Romulus and with Rome is available to SHS members at the Remus below a Roman imperial bust special price of £25 (plus £5.50 p & p) from Malthouse Press, 17 Reade Road, Holbrook, with a text in runes. The wolf appears British towns Ipswich IP9 2QL. Some of the native British went west in again in the 8th century on a coin of King www.suttonhoo.org 3 A trip to the meadhall

Inside the meadhall. All photos © Nigel Maslin Kim Siddorn, our host

On the edge of Blean Woods, between Canterbury and Herne Bay, is a late Practicality allowed period styles of Saxon thegn’s estate or manorial burh - built in the last decade by the living construction, but modern means: local history society, REGIA ANGLORUM. It was the main destination for the SHS oak timbers sawn by chain saw and band summer outing on 12 June. saw, instead of pit sawn; the frame erected with a JCB and a forklift; a prefabricated The two-acre site is a clearing in a against their hit-and-run tactics was to roof lifted into position by crane, and daub commercial pine wood next to Wildwood build defended manor houses that could for the walls prepared in a cement mixer. Discovery Park, which contains species shelter the local people. Led by Swein How else could you do it with weekend familiar to Saxons and Normans, such as Forkbeard, the Danes attacked forts and volunteer labour? But the aim is to have an wild boar, wolves and red and roe deer. It is towns: London and Rochester in the 990s; authentic environment for recreating the an ideal environment for an experiment in Canterbury captured in 1012. In 1016 his turbulent life of the 10th century, and for pre-Conquest living. son took the throne of England: his name conducting experimental archaeology. The focus of the Wychurst site is the was Cnut. As a society of re-enactors, Regia great hall itself, sixty feet long, thirty feet Wychurst’s great hall is set in the Anglorum promise ‘the best historical wide and almost as high. It is the sort of middle of a defensive ditch-and-bank recreations that can be seen anywhere in hall that proclaimed a Saxon chieftain’s enclosure, or burh, (like Wallingford burh, the world’. So as we wandered through a power in the century before the Norman see Saxon 50) an earth rampart topped hive of pre-Conquest rural activity after invasion, power that was strictly limited with solid timber and entered through a our buffet lunch, the alarm sounded: by the Danish raids. During the reign gatehouse. Future plans foresee communal the Vikings were attacking! Penned of Æthelred the Unready from 994- and domestic buildings rising within the into an enclosure, we saw the Saxons 1016, armies that were thousands strong burh: cookhouse and bakehouse, stables running out of their hall and putting on harried Saxon territory. The best defence and forge, a chapel and a bower-house their equipment, like firemen from a fire dormitory for retainers station…The defence of the realm is in on the estate. Beyond safe hands. the ramparts there will be cottages for essential craftspeople, like potters and woodworkers. The possibilities for development are endless, so they say they may never finish. They have come a long way already. The site was purchased in 2000 and the meadhall is all but finished, In the thick of it: the battle for Wychurst the product of much fundraising and even Regia Anglorum www.regia.org more physical work Wychurst www.wychurst.com The meadhall behind its ditch and palisade by the re-enactors.

4 Saxon 51 A haunch for Hrothgar Our president, Lord Cranbrook spotted the following article in Deer, the journal of the British Deer Society, last De- cember. We reprint it here, without seasonal adjustment, by kind permission of the editor and of course the author, DR NAOMI SYKES, who lectures in zooarchaeology at the University of Nottingham. With funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Dr Sykes directs the Fallow Deer Project. Its aim is to study the who, when and why of the spread across the continent of the so-called European fallow deer (Dama dama dama) from its ice age home in Anatolia, by combining zooarchaeological, stable isotope and DNA analysis. Here the focus is on what archaeological assemblages of butchered bones can tell us about social élites in middle Saxon times.

With winter upon us, the idea of sitting Figure 1: Graph showing how down to a family meal of venison is the representation of wild becoming an increasingly attractive mammals varies by site type and prospect, and the appeal of a game supper date, shown as a percentage of was not lost on our Anglo-Saxon ancestors. total number of bones recovered from archaeological sites. Wild Whilst hunting was rare in Anglo-Saxon animals are never very abundant England, as I mentioned in the last issue of but their frequency increases Deer, it was probably the very infrequency through time, particularly on of the activity that gave it a considerable élite sites. I have included data social importance. Think of our Christmas for the Late Anglo-Saxon period turkey: it is not something we eat very for reference, but these are not often but this is part of the reason it is discussed in this issue. such an iconic festive food. Unfortunately, our ability to understand the meaning of hunting and game consumption in Anglo- Saxon England is restricted by a general lack of evidence, as there are few historical settlements (the green bars), it would documents to shed light on the period, different social groups is reflected in the seem that this method of field butchery hence the term ‘Dark Ages’. This is where animal bone record; for instance, Figure 1 was adopted by all sections of society. archaeological investigations, especially shows that the occupants of different sites It suggests a logical, functional attitude the evidence from animal bones, become (rural, urban, élite and religious houses) to hunting and this, together with the particularly important, because they can ate varying levels of game, the social élite general lack of evidence for wild animal provide real insights into the methods by seemingly consuming the most. exploitation, indicates that hunting may which game was procured, distributed and Interestingly, when we look in more have been a simple, occasional subsistence eaten. detail at the animal bone evidence it activity, undertaken only in times of need. Studies of archaeological animal bones becomes apparent that not only were Certainly this idea finds support from demonstrate that in the very early Anglo- the various social groups eating different the one documentary source that we do Saxon period (5th to mid-7th centuries quantities of venison, they were also eating have for the period: Bede the Venerable’s AD) game contributed little to the diet, different types of venison (Figure 3). For History of the English People, which was which is unsurprising at a time when most instance, assemblages from élite sites are probably completed around AD 731. In people were too preoccupied with farming dominated by heads (represented by the this text, Bede suggested that the departure to engage in hunting. Archaeological jaw bone, or ‘mandible’) but meat-bearing of the Romans resulted in social and excavations of settlements of this date tend elements, particularly those from the hind- economic collapse, with people resorting to produce large quantities of cattle, sheep limb, are noticeably under-represented, as to hunting in order to avoid starvation. and pig bones but the remains of deer and are foot bones (the metacarpal, metatarsal The scarcity of wild animal remains in the other wild animals are noticeably absent. and phalanges). With this in mind, it is archaeological records suggest that Bede Figure 1 shows that, on average, wild interesting to note that assemblages from must have been exaggerating somewhat mammal bones make up just 0.4 percent religious sites show an abundance of meat- but even if deer were viewed as a famine of the total animal remains recovered from bearing bones from the fore-limb, a large food in this period, over the course of the archaeological excavations. Because of number of foot bones but very few heads. following centuries the situation changed as their scarcity, it is difficult to be certain Again, however, the haunches are poorly hunting became more common and socially how these wild animals were captured represented. Absence of bones from the significant. or subsequently butchered. There is, upper hind limb (the pelvis and the femur) The Middle Anglo-Saxon period (the however, just sufficient evidence for deer can be attributed to factors of preservation mid-7th to mid-9th centuries) saw broad to demonstrate that, once caught, their – these skeletal elements do not survive shifts in the structure of society. No longer carcasses were dressed in the field, with well archaeologically. Nevertheless, the was everyone a farmer, although most still ‘low utility’ portions (heads and feet) lower hind limb bones (e.g. the tibia) are were, but some people were beginning to being left at the kill-site and only the meat- very robust and are normally present in live in early versions of towns, known as bearing portions being brought back to the high frequencies (eg. see Figure 2). Clues wics or emporia. Others were creeping up settlement (see Figure 2). to the whereabouts of the haunches are the social ladder to form the new élite who Given that the body part pattern provided by the skeletal evidence for rural began to take control of large estates. In for the high status, palatial complex at settlements, which highlight the lower addition, Christianity had come to Britain, Wroxeter (shown by the purple bars hind-limb as being the best represented bringing with it a host of ecclesiastics in Figure 2) is almost identical to the parts of the body. Bones of the lower who occupied the many newly-built patterns for standard Early Anglo-Saxon fore-limbs (notably the radius) are also monasteries. The appearance of these www.suttonhoo.org 5 for consumption. These anthropological studies also highlight that feast-time meat redistribution represents far more than the simple allocation of nutrition; the breaking of an animal’s carcass and the sharing of its meat are acts laden with meaning. Communal consumption is an expression of group ideology and identity; however, because an animal’s carcass comprises portions of varying (perceived) value, cuts of different (perceived) quality are frequently given to individuals as a meaty symbol of their social status. If, as it seems, heads were deemed to represent the élite, the lower limb bones recovered from rural sites may reflect the lower social position of these settlements and their occupants. Nevertheless, it is important to recognise that the inhabitants of these rural sites had a position within a community, something that was of fundamental This figure shows which parts of the deer skeleton have been identified on early Anglo- Figure 2: importance in Anglo-Saxon society: Old Saxon settlements. The graph provides a more detailed breakdown of the evidence so you can see how well represented the different anatomical elements are on rural settlements (the green bars) English literature is preoccupied with the compared to the recently studied assemblage from the Palatial Complex of Wroxeter. My thanks concept of community and frequently uses go to Dr Andy Hammon of English Heritage for providing the data for the Wroxeter deer – this the imagery of the feast hall to express evidence is so new it has not yet been published. ideas about the maintenance of social order and rule. The coming together in a comparatively abundant. distribution for religious houses suggests hall to collectively consume the body of a These site-specific skeletal patterns that ecclesiastics were taking receipt of single deer would have been an important are very unusual, quite different to pre-butchered joints of venison and it is occasion, binding the participants together those seen for the earlier period. One feasible that these were gifted by the king whilst simultaneously defining their social compelling explanation is that they reflect or local nobles in return for pastoral care. position through the allotment of specific meat redistribution, a practice whereby The over-representation of heads on élite portions. It may be for this reason that slaughtered animals are butchered and sites may seem bizarre as heads carry little in the story of Beowulf, king Hrothgar specific parts of their body are given to meat and we might expect individuals of names his great feast hall ‘Heorot’, the particular individuals or groups. Such high status to demand the best cuts of hart. Few commentators have seized upon traditions are common in modern pastoral meat; however, the archaeological evidence the significance of this name but the name societies, especially where the concept of finds resonance with the practices of Heorot would have carried real meaning, meat retail is absent and so the easiest modern hunting and pastoral societies, demarcating the hall as an arena for the way to utilise the considerable amount where skulls are frequently conferred with cutting up and sharing of venison – rituals of meat produced by a single carcass special significance. Amongst the Ngarigo that would have been the food-based is to share it out, most often during a of Australia and NgTurkana of Kenya, for equivalent of the gift-giving that took place communal feasting event. The possibility instance, crania are seen as representing the within the hall, whereby men pledged that a similar tradition was established animal in its entirety, and are either claimed service to their lord or king in return in Middle Anglo-Saxon England should by the head of the community or returned for weapons and treasure. Generosity in come as no surprise given that the period’s to the individual who ‘donated’ the animal gift-giving was deemed to be the mark economy was based on the accumulation and redistribution food renders through different forms of ‘hospitality’. The fine details of how the system operated are unclear but we know that landholders were paid in food for the use of their land, the concept of money having left Britain with the Romans. Portions of these food renders were then given over to kings and their court who toured their kingdoms eating up supplies. Kings could, in turn, transfer accrued provisions to religious institutions that, unlike the itinerant royal court, were stationary and depended on supplies gravitating towards them. Lower down the social scale, estate workers could expect to receive food payments in return for their services. A set-up of this kind would certainly account for the deer body part patterns shown in Figure 3. The skeletal Figure 3

6 Saxon 51 owner possesses both resources and the power and generosity to divide and redistribute them. It may be no coincidence, therefore, that at the point we see the appearance of deer body part patterns indicative of venison Figure 4: Examples of the Anglo-Saxon Seax (after Gale 1989) redistribution, we also of a good leader and it seems likely that see the emergence of open-handedness was desirable in terms of a fashion for wearing particularly long food as well as material goods. Indeed, the knives: knives with a blade length in excess importance of the leader as a supplier of of 130mm are rare for much of the Early sustenance is indicated by the etymology of Anglo Saxon period but are found regularly the word ‘lord’, which has been traced to in the seventh and eighth centuries. Links ‘hlafweard’, meaning ‘loaf-keeper’. between large knives and hunting are In a situation where the control and provided by the seax – a single-edged knife redistribution of foodstuffs were equated or short sword, some of which exhibit References with power and authority, it stands highly decorated blades more suggestive of to reason that the knives physically ceremonial than functional use (Figure 4). See particularly LOKURUKA, M. N. I. 2006. responsible for cutting up and sharing It has been argued that, rather than being ‘Meat is the meal and status is by meat: may have become iconic in their own a weapon of war, the seax was principally recognition of rank, wealth and respect right, symbolising the distribution process. a hunting tool, employed for the ritual through meat in Turkana culture’, Food Studies of Anglo-Saxon grave goods have dispatch and unmaking of deer. Evidence and Foodways 14, 201-229. For discussion shown that knives are the most common from both anthropology and later medieval relating to medieval and early modern Ireland object found in 5th to 8th century burials. texts suggest that these ceremonial hunting see MCCORMICK, F. 2002. ‘The distribution To some extent their ubiquity is to be tasks would have fallen to the highest- of meat in a hierarchical society: the Irish expected since knives are utility tools and ranking individuals among the party; it evidence’, 25-32 in P. Miracle and N. Milner (eds) Consuming Passions and Patterns of were presumably owned by all members is fitting therefore that, as grave goods, Consumption. Cambridge: McDonald institute of society, employed to assist with daily seaxes are found almost exclusively with for Archaeological Research. tasks and for use in dining. That said, élite males. there are age- and sex-based variation Taken together, the evidence suggests A comprehensive review of Anglo-Saxon food in knife size (only the burials of adult that although hunting was perhaps the is provided in HAGEN, A. 1995. A Second men were accompanied by knives with ‘last resort’ in Early Anglo-Saxon England, Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink: a blade in excess of 128mm) suggesting by the Middle Anglo-Saxon period the Production and Distribution, Frithgarth: that these implements had more than a cutting up and redistribution of venison Anglo-Saxon Books. utilitarian function, perhaps playing a had become exceptionally important. The role in social display: this is corroborated communal consumption of deer served SYMONS, M. 2002. ‘Cutting up cultures’, Journal of Historical Sociology 15(4), 431- by the prominent position in which they not only to unite communities but also to 450. were worn, located on the belt where other define an individual’s social position. Think display items were suspended. about that the next time you are at a dinner MAGENNIS, H. 1996. Images of Community The ownership and display of a large party and you are offered a shoulder cut – in Old English Poetry, Cambridge: Cambridge knife can be seen as a statement that the what is your host trying to tell you? University Press.

SCHUMAN, A. 1981. ‘The rhetoric of portions’, Western Folklore 41(1): 72-80.

HÄRKE H. 1989. ‘Knives in early Saxon burials: blade lengths and age at death’, Medieval Archaeology 33, 144-8.

GALE, D. A. 1989. ‘The seax’, 71-84 in S. C. Hawes (ed.) Weapons and Warfare in Anglo- Saxon England, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[email protected] www.nottingham.ac.uk/Archaeology/ Research/projects/current/fallow-deer.aspx

The Spring 2010 issue of Deer contains Dr Sykes’s next article on the changes in hunting and venison distribution in the later Saxon period, following the rise of the thegns. Deer can be ordered from the BDS website www.bds.org.uk www.suttonhoo.org 7 A friend to everyone and everyone’s friend Peter Berry 17 July 1928 – 30 May 2009 vertical plan photographs of cleaned surfaces. The solution was to attach the camera to an A frame which was hoisted up using ropes. Pete knew where we could fabricate the components for a successful construction. Although the device worked well, it proved far too cumbersome to use on sensitive archaeological surfaces. I am sure Pete had a wry smile to himself as he watched us stagger around the site, trying not to drop my expensive camera. When Martin asked Jenny and me to get the ‘flat packed’ CEGB building set up on site, ready for the next season, Pete was there to give us help and support for an endeavour we both thought was mission impossible. We could not have done it without Pete’s know-how and unfailing support. After the excavations ended, Jenny & I used to see him socially, usually at his cosy home or at a suitable watering hole. When at his home, he would invite us to join him in his favourite lunch of roast chicken with all the trimmings, serving up extra large Peter mowing. All photos © Nigel Macbeth portions that only archaeologists know It is more than a year since Peter Berry died, but old friends are keen to how to put away. memorialise the man who seemed to build and maintain everything at Sutton Towards the end of his life, Jenny & Hoo for so many years, during Martin Carver’s excavations and beyond. Here, I would go over to have a cup of tea with site supervisor JENNY GLAZEBROOK, official photographer NIGEL him, sitting around the coal fire chatting MACBETH, finds manager LINDA PEACOCK and our past chairman about old times and looking at his photo LINDSAY LEE, explain why his friendship was such a joy to them. albums. He was a remarkably kind and able man, who always thought of helping Three or four years ago, Pete came to mend On the back page, a list of the Society’s others less fortunate than himself; his a troublesome leak in my gutter, remembers donations to the project that year includes volunteer work for St Mary’s attests to Jenny. We had been out to lunch at one of a roof for the excavation of a mound this. He is sorely missed: I think his his favourite watering holes - the Buttery (known on site as the Berry shelter), a epitaph says it all – A friend to everyone Bar at Seckford Hall perhaps - and I had ‘suspension cradle’ for the excavator (the and everyone’s friend. sought his advice. “Soon fix that” he Berry suspender), and a third site irrigator said, and he did. He turned up next day (Berry rainer). Peter not only engineered in his cap and blue overalls, bearing some these devices but no doubt organised the bitumen in an old Fray Bentos pie tin, to funding as well. which he had nailed a makeshift handle. I cannot think of Sutton Hoo without He shinned up the ladder and had the seeing Pete’s cheery smile. Peter spoke of gutter fixed by the time the kettle had his time there as ‘some of the best years’, boiled for tea. This was a minor episode in and his unique contribution helped to a long history of help and advice, problems make the place special for so many people - to be solved, engineering challenges and excavators, visitors, Society members, small baling people out. children and professors alike. Peter’s supportive role in the Sutton Hoo site team, his practical skills and Photographic frame inventive genius, are well illustrated in I got to know Peter well when I moved Nigel and Peter Saxon 15, which opens with ‘Eight years down to live in Suffolk in 1986, writes in service’, a retrospective piece about his Nigel. The core team at Sutton Hoo - Andy Desert rat showers archaeological career. A few pages further Copp, Cathy Royle, Jenny Glazebrook Linda recalls, I have many fond memories on, Martin Carver’s report on the final and myself - relied heavily on Pete’s ability of Pete from my three years as finds season of fieldwork, thanks ‘the selfless to solve just about any problem. The two manager at Sutton Hoo. He was the kind and tireless Peter Berry, long the friend and projects that come to mind, and there were of person you were lucky to have in your often the inspiration of the project team’. many others, were the construction of a team. Pete could make anything from Under ‘Society Events’, we find that Peter photographic ‘A’ frame and the erection of anything. I have never met anyone as Berry and Rosemary Halliday ‘provided a the CEGB site building. inventive or as resourceful as Pete. From mouth-watering array of food’ for a joint Early on in the excavations, Martin ‘desert rat’ showers (a great source of Society/Project Team bonfire and barbecue. Carver asked me how we could produce entertainment in the shower queue), to

8 Saxon 51 trailer extensions to steak and kidney pies, he could do anything and all of it was extremely good. It was always a pleasure to see his smiling, friendly face at the door and take a welcome break to chat with him, because he knew everyone for miles around and could tell some great stories. I think Pete really loved people and found them endlessly fascinating. He could make a friend from anyone: you did not even need to speak English. I remember one of our many international visitors helping him for a week, an Italian with not a word of English; you would have thought they had known each other all their lives, they worked so well together. It’s been a long time since I left Sutton Hoo and my memory is a little faded, though not of Pete. His boundless energy, kindness and incredible generosity stand out clearly. Peter with Jenny Glazebrook I count myself a lucky person to have worked with and known him. grass cutting, he continued to maintain (usually Andy Copp) galloping across the the old finds and exhibition huts, regularly site to refill the generator, accompanied by Guardian emptied the portaloo and for a number of (unprintable) exclamations. Lindsay Lee remembers: After the end years magically maintained the water and Another lasting memory of Peter of the 1983-92 excavations, Peter was electricity supplies. was when he drove to the site in a just one of a band of Society ‘guardians’ who I say ‘magically’ because those who purchased brand new car. He got out for a kept vigil at the site in the interim before were at Sutton Hoo during the excavation chat and whilst admiring the car there was the National Trust arrived. He continued years will remember when both water and a loud ‘clunk’. The central locking device to mow the grass and fix anything that electricity supplies regularly broke down: had automatically locked the car - with the needed fixing, as he always had done. Peter would drop everything to ‘fix it’. A keys still in the ignition. One might have Nobody was surprised, because Peter loved petrol generator was eventually donated expected cries of dismay, ringing of hands Sutton Hoo and felt possessive towards to ensure electricity at all times – in theory and gnashing of teeth, but not Peter: he the place that had been so much a part at least. I have an everlasting memory of quietly said “Mmm, we seem to have a of his life. He would often show people inputting data on the computer when the fault here, don’t we?” around the site if anyone turned up during tell-tale ‘phut-phut’ sound would resonate That was Peter – a kind, generous, the week when it was officially closed through the air as the generator ran out dependable man and someone good to be (the public had to walk nearly a mile to of juice, rapidly followed by a desperate with in a crisis. He is remembered with get to the site in those days). As well as cry of “SAVE!”, followed by someone great affection. Tapping the archive

Earlier this year, the BBC announced in 1965, it is now a classic period piece, archaeology is definitely a subject which we a major project called BBC Archive, with the voices of the sixties sounding would like to revisit in the future. We have, which makes important, classic television as outmoded as those of pre-war Suffolk however, found that these programmes can programmes available online. Included in describing the 1939 dig. There are be very difficult and expensive to clear. the first experimental batch is Chronicle, interviews with Rupert Bruce-Mitford, who We put forward around forty Chronicles the series which for twenty-five years from directed the re-excavation of the ship grave which were then whittled down by rights the mid-1960s covered major British and from 1965-7, and who fronted a revised to the ones we have been able to publish on international archaeological stories. The version of the programme in 1985, when the site. Therefore, although I can definitely Maya, the Incas and the Minoans are the monochrome footage of all the finds say that we will put this programme there, with Constantinople, Stonehenge was replaced by new colour film. forward if we return to archaeology I can’t and Brunel’s SS . So too is Two or three years ago, the society be sure that we will be able to clear it for the Silbury Hill dig from 1968 and one of asked the BBC what a licence to publish the online use.” Martin Carver’s programmes about Sutton 1985 version as a DVD would cost. The Hoo. First shown on BBC2 on 16 August answer ran to four figures, so we left it. 1989, it was the first of four explaining the The problem is always copyright clearance: techniques of his excavations, and includes the cost of tracing those contributors (or Chronicle: Sutton Hoo (August 1989) earlier footage of Basil Brown and the their estates) with rights in the programme, 48 mins. original discovery. and agreeing fees. We have suggested the www.bbc.co.uk/archive/chronicle/8622.shtml Unfortunately missing from the list programme to the BBC Archive project, of available programmes is the very first but the editorial lead, Kate Wheeler, tells There is also a link on the home page of our programme about Sutton Hoo, The Million Saxon, “The Chronicle collection has website Pound Grave. Made by Paul Johnstone certainly been very well received and www.suttonhoo.org 9 AROUND THE CONFERENCES

merely symbolise the transcendental, but imitates it. As the day conference expanded further into Anglo-Saxon art and architecture, Society members would have recognised many of the venues discussed by the doyen of Saxon church archaeology, Professor Warwick Rodwell of the University of © Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery Reading, who dealt authoritatively with the original appearance of the churches of Barnack, Earls Barton and Barton-upon- Humber, which we visited last summer (see Saxon 50). New light in dark places The SHS held a special public lecture on Saturday 29 May, when Dr Kevin Leahy, the only man to have handled The discovery of the Staffordshire hoard in a field near Lichfield one year ago is all of the Staffordshire hoard (while still dominating the Anglo-Saxon agenda. The purchase price of £3.3m has been cataloguing it) entertained an audience raised, so the collection will go to the Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery and of almost two hundred at the Riverside the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, but fund-raising continues Theatre in Woodbridge with the thrilling in order to meet the £1.7m cost of conservation. With the total count of pieces story of its discovery. “We were scared now standing at 3,490 (though half of them weigh less than a gram) the stiff,” he admitted, by a sense of awe and Courtauld Institute of Art held its first conference on Anglo-Saxon art for responsibility. Dr Leahy sees the collection twenty-five years. as some sort of trophy hoard: “take a man’s pommel and you’ve robbed him New Light in Dark Places: Recent were more often worn than used. of his manhood”. Nevertheless, he Discoveries & New Directions in Anglo- No metalwork style has yet been confirmed that “Sutton Hoo still stands Saxon Studies took place at Somerset established for 7th century , so alone”, for “there is nothing as good in House in London on Saturday 8 May. comparative analysis of the jewellery and the Staffordshire hoard as the best from Professor Leslie Webster, formerly of the metalwork might help the search for such Sutton Hoo.” , gave us ‘a preliminary regional styles and workshops. Dr Tom view’ of the hoard, in which all the big Plunkett reminded us that the age of the questions remain: why was it assembled, English conversion was also the age of Medieval why buried and why there? Was it a whole the 7th century transition from the art collection or just a part and was it meant to of metalworking to that of illumination, Seminars be recovered? Observation and deduction and that pre-Christian paganism was also The Medieval Seminar run jointly by is still the best way to reveal clues. Most of religious. He suggested how perception can the British Museum and the Institute of the weapon fittings are missing, there are penetrate the surface of a material object Archaeology, and to which SHS members no shields or spears, and mere fragments – especially the cloisonné work of a Sutton are now invited, continued its autumn and from a helmet. Burials like Taplow, Hoo shoulder clasp, for instance - and spring programme, held once a month Broomfield and Prittlewell produced take us beyond, so that the object does not on a Tuesday at the BM. The speaker on swords with no pommels, but if their pommels had been removed for re-use, that cannot apply to the Staffordshire hoard, whose pommels were cut off roughly. Their styles are elongated or ‘tea cosy’, ranging in age from the mid 6th to the second half of the 7th century. The earlier ones show no more wear than the later, so they were in use for no longer, but the wear is on the top of the pommels, showing that the swords

A worn and soil- encrusted sword pommel from the Staffordshire hoard © Portable Dr Kevin Leahy and his wife at lunch at Sutton Hoo with SHS chairman Mike Argent (left) after Dr Antiquities Scheme Leahy’s lecture on the Staffordshire hoard © Nigel Maslin

10 Saxon 51 1 December was Dr Naomi Sykes of the edition of An Historical Atlas of Suffolk University of Nottingham talking about (ed. David Dymond and Edward Martin, Blacknall Field ‘Hunting and poaching in the English 3rd edn., Ipswich 1999) six hundred new landscape: the evidence from animal find spots have been recorded. On the bones’. What those bones tell us about the other hand, the data set for the period published early Saxon period you can read on pages remains poor, and only Ipswich has been 5-7 of this issue. fully researched. So thin is the evidence Dr John Ljungkvist of the University that a single find might indicate a site: deep of Uppsala spoke on 19 January about ploughing has been very damaging and few ‘Sutton Hoo, Scandinavia and the boat sites are investigated. graves of Middle Sweden’. Once again, Keith Wade, archaeological services most of the sites he considered would manager for SCCAS, reminded us how have been familiar to any Society members recent is our knowledge of Anglo-Saxon who joined our Scandinavian trip last towns. SHS members who heard former September. His main thrust was to ask county archaeologist Dr Stanley West’s why the southern Swedish material from lecture last autumn will know that there Gotland – such as the Broa helmet – had was no excavation even in Ipswich until the not been explicitly considered by Rupert 1950s, when West himself, working with Bruce-Mitford in his ’70s publication of the John Hurst, identified the two main pottery Sutton Hoo ship burial. Since the Society is types for the period, the plain Ipswich ware organising a conference with a Scandinavian of about 650-850, and the ringed theme for September 2011, we might hope ware of the following three centuries. to hear more from John then. Apart from Ipswich, the other two known Dr Jacqui McKinley of Anglo-Saxon emporia were Southampton archaeology has been analysing the and London, with York later famed for its available data from Anglo-Saxon leather working and pottery. cremations and cremation burials. Otherwise, even defining a Saxon Borrowing a quote from Beowulf, her title town is difficult. Keith Wade took us on 11 May was, ‘‘Heaven swallowed the on a brief tour of the candidates: Bury, The late Ken Annable excavated the early smoke’: similarities and variations in the of course, where Sigeberht founded a pre-Christian Saxon cemetery of Blacknall Anglo-Saxon mortuary rite of cremation’. monastery sometime after 630; , Field in the Vale of Pewsey between 1969 The mechanics have not changed since the Sudbury, possibly Eye, and Clare, and 1976. Now Bruce Eagles, with twenty- bronze age: it is a matter of dehydration , , possibly others. two specialists, has published the 104 rich and oxidation. Dr McKinley has been able Dr David Parsons, Director of the graves with their human remains, swords, to use the results from modern crematoria Institute for Place Name Studies at the spears and shields, brooches and pins, to reconstruct how and how much bone University of Nottingham, showed us knives and pottery, putting the community could be recovered from an Anglo-Saxon what place-name evidence can provide: a and its social structure in a European cremation, and go on to discern variations pre-Celtic river name, a Romano-British context. in practices in southern England, compared settlement perhaps, or the ham names of with East Anglia and northern England. early Anglo-Saxon homesteads. Negative F.K.Annable and B.N. Eagles, The Anglo- evidence is indicative too: pagan shrine Saxon Cemetery at Blacknall Field, Pewsey, names seem to stop at the border. Wiltshire (Wiltshire Archaeological Society, Archaeology Also important are the –ingas place 2010) 400pp., £40 names, indicating ‘the followers of’, which in Suffolk spread evenly across Suffolk and were www.oxbowbooks.com Closer to home, the Suffolk Institute of the subject of much debate in the 1960s Archaeology and History (SIAH) organised and ’70s. Now once again they are seen a major two-day conference to mark sixty as 6th century colonisers, but they are years of publishing Suffolk archaeology. archaeologically invisible: why do they not It was held during the weekend of 27-28 have accompanied burials? March in the impressive new Waterfront Edward Martin, chairman of the SIAH SHS Publications Building of University Campus Suffolk on and one of the Archaeological Officers Neptune Quay in Ipswich. It covered all for Suffolk, showed us how different The Society is discontinuing its periods, from the first millennium BC to things can be north of the Gipping Valley publications and discounting its stock. the second millennium AD, though its heart compared to the south. Cemeteries and Members can now buy Bob Markham’s was medieval. settlements are found north of the Gipping, Through the Rear-View Mirror (his Dr Jess Tipper of Suffolk County while the Stour Valley, South Suffolk and account of the 1939 dig) at £5 + p&p; Council Archaeological Service (SCCAS) Essex look more like each other in their Edwin Gifford’s Anglo-Saxon Sailing dealt with early Anglo-Saxon Suffolk. He comparative lack of such features. There Ships for £1 + p&p; the CD of Peppy concentrated on the cemetery, settlement are certainly people there, including the Barlow’s Gold under the Bed at £5 + and industrial site of Bloodmoor Hill at Roman period, but why do they not show p&p.; and copies of Professor Charles , a possible early estate up archaeologically? Why is there no West Phillips’s autobiography My Life in foundation that was published last year Stow in South Suffolk? “Go out and find Archaeology very inexpensively. Details in the series East Anglian Archaeology it!” urged he. We can look forward to the from Pauline Moore (publications): see (see Saxon 49). His introduction eventual publication of the conference’s back page for contacts. contained good news and bad news for the lectures and abstracts in the Proceedings of archaeology of the period. Since the last the Suffolk Institute.

www.suttonhoo.org 11 The Events Diary Sutton

*Medieval Seminar *Tuesday 9 November, 17.30 Hoo Convened jointly by Dr Andrew Reynolds of the Of towns and trinkets: metalwork in Society Institute of Archaeology and Dr Sonja Marzinzik Viking-Age Lincoln of the British Museum, SHS members are invited Letty Ten Harkel to attend. Lectures begin at 17.30 at the Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, London †Saturday 13 November, 10.30-16.30 WC1H 0PY, Room 612 (except for October 20, Dream-ships of the Wuffings: Sutton Registered Charity No 293097 which is in Lecture Theatre G6). smarzinzik@ Hoo and Snape thebritishmuseum.ac.uk Dr Sam Newton

†Wuffing Education †Saturday 20 November, 10.30-16.30 Sutton Hoo Society These events are study days held at Tranmer St Edmund and the last of the Wuffings www.suttonhoo.org House, National Trust Sutton Hoo. They cost Dr Sam Newton President £38 and booking is essential on 01394 386498. The Earl of Cranbrook For more information visit †Saturday 27 November, 10.30-16.30 www.WuffingEducation.co.uk Late Roman and early Anglo-Saxon Essex Research Director Howard Brooks & Sam Newton Professor Martin Carver

NTSH Summer Exhibition, *Tuesday 30 November, 17.30 Chairman now until 31 October How typical is Lyminge? Defining Mike Argent Pictures of the Past, featuring the work of monastic settlements in the Anglo- Treasurer Victor Ambrus, illustrator for Channel 4’s Time Saxon Jonathan Abson Team, and Basil Brown’s Sutton Hoo excavation Dr Gabor Thomas notebook, on loan from the British Museum Membership Secretary †Saturday 4 December, 10.30-16.30 Jane Wright †Saturday July 10, 10.30-16.30 First steps in Old English 32 Mariners Way Sutton Hoo and the Staffordshire Hoard Steve Pollington IP15 5QH Dr Angela Care Evans & Dr Noël Adams Guiding Co-ordinator †Saturday 11 December, 10.30-16.30 Robert Allen The archaeology of the White Gables, Thornley Drive Monday 13 – Friday 17 September East Anglian conversion Northumbrian journey: Rik Hoggett Ipswich IP4 3LR Sutton Hoo Society autumn excursion by 01473 728018 coach to Durham, Bede’s World at Jarrow, Alnwick and Hadrian’s Wall, including NEXT YEAR Minutes Secretary Corbridge and Housesteads. Sunday 11 September 2011 Brenda Brown Further details from Robert Allen SHS Conference Publications (01473 728018) Sutton Hoo: a Scandinavian Perspective Pauline Moore A one-day conference supported by the Swedish 69 Barton Road, Woodbridge Academy and convened with the co-operation †Saturday 25 September, 10.30-16.30 Suffolk IP12 1JH of Prof. Neil Price of the University of Aberdeen. 01394 382617 Battle of Stamford Bridge 1066 Ipswich venue to be confirmed with all Dr Sam Newton other details. Website & Publicity Robert Anderson †Saturday 2 October, 10.30-16.30 [email protected] Livestock, power and territory in Sutton Hoo Opening Times & Events Anglo-Saxon England Guides’ Training Go to our website, www.suttonhoo.org and click Dr Ros Faith and Dr Debby Banham Lindsay Lee on ‘Online Resources’ for links to the NTSH site Committee Members †Saturday 9 October, 10.30-16.30 Sue Banyard Anglo-Saxon cemeteries at Ipswich: Veronica Bennett Boss Hall and Buttermarket Chris Scull National Trust Regional Archaeologist †Saturday 16 October, 10.30-16.30 Angus Wainwright The Decline and Fall of the Roman  Empire: an appraisal of the view Saxon Editor from Rome Nigel Maslin [email protected] John Fairclough Design & Layout *Wednesday 20 October, 17.30 Elsey Adcock Associates The archaeology of Telephone 01473 893966 Æthelred the Unready www.elseyadcock.co.uk Prof. Simon Keynes(the third Sir David Wilson Lecture in Medieval Studies) Printing Henry Ling Ltd, The Dorset Press 1 November 23 High East Street, Dorchester Main copy deadline for Victor Ambrus’s paints in the summer exhibition Dorset DT1 1HB the January issue of Saxon at Sutton Hoo © Nigel Maslin

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