Bede, a monk at the Northumbrian Brown and Rupert Bruce-Mitford – monastery of Jarrow/Wearmouth in the excavators at – failed to early eighth century, wrote A History of locate the cemetery or any other Anglo- the English Church & People. There he Where Saxon evidence. A scatter of early and noted that Swithelm, king of the East middle Anglo-Saxon pottery was found Saxons, was baptised at the royal in 1982, in fields west and north of the settlement of Rendlesham. This must East Anglian kings of the early church; small-scale excavation have happened between ad 655 and 664. kseivnentgh cesntu lryi AvD weerd e undertaken before a barn was built Swithelm, the son of Seaxbald, was nearby revealed a ditched trackway of successor to Sigeberht. He was baptised buried with splendour at the the same date, as well as later medieval by Cedd in East Anglia [ Orientalium famous Sutton Hoo cemetery. features. There was thus archaeological Anglorum ], in the royal village [ vicus evidence for an Anglo-Saxon settlement regius ] called Rendlesham But where did they, and their at Rendlesham – but nothing to indicate [RenRdlaeshame], thant is, thed residelncee of sham rediscohigh svtatus.e red Rendil. King Aethelwold of East Anglia, families and supporters, live? This changed in 2008. The the brother of King Anna, the previous Faye Minter, Jude Plouviez landowner, Sir Michael Bunbury, wrote king of the East Angles, was his sponsor. to a local historian, concerned about (Colgrave & Mynors’ translation from and Chris Scull think they have illegal metal detectorists looting his the Latin) found the answer to this fields at night. He wanted to know what Today Rendlesham is a modern could be done about it? His letter was village set apart from its isolated old question passed to the Conservation Team at medieval church close to the river County Council Archaeological Deben in Suffolk. Thanks to Bede’s Service ( sccas ), which put together a mention there has long been interest in pilot survey to see what was being taken. the site as a possible Anglo-Saxon royal Some of the looted finds were in fields settlement – interest which intensified not surveyed in 1982, expanding the area after 1939, with the discovery of the of archaeological interest. Sutton Hoo ship burial four miles The Archaeological Service looked (6.5km) down river to the south-west. for objects in the ploughsoil with Cremation burials were found there systematic metal-detecting, and for in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, deeper intact evidence with but fieldwork in the 1940s, by Basil Above: Rendlesham is in the Deben valley upriver from Sutton Hoo magnetometry. They also reviewed

50 British Archaeolog y July August 2014 | | ) 3 documents and aerial photographs. It (

L I soon became clear that there were C N U significant Anglo-Saxon artefacts over a O C

Y wide area. The survey team noticed that T N U footprints and holes appeared after O C

K ploughing in these same fields overnight L O F F

– people were stealing important U S archaeological and historical evidence even as the archaeologists worked. sccas therefore set up a full project to study the archaeology of Rendlesham, with two aims: to understand human settlement and activity in its landscape setting, and, through better knowledge of the archaeological resource, to develop ways of protecting it here and at other similar sites.

The first step was to establish the extent and density of the artefact scatter. Robert Atfield, Roy Damant, Terry TMoartsha aln fdi Aelland S smuithr –v tehey same four skilled metal detectorists who undertook the initial survey – worked voluntarily in an agreement with the landowner, systematically detecting all of the estate to give a full picture of finds of all periods. sccas provided project management and infrastructure, including identifying and recording all finds. The survey area of 160ha (400 acres) forms a transect 2.25km north-south along the east bank of the river Deben, and 1.25km east-west across the grain of the landscape from valley bottom to interfluve. This is enough to be sure that patterns of concentration, presence and Above: Robert absence of archaeological material are Atfield plotting a genuine, and to examine how past find with hand-held activity changed with terrain. The GPS during the detecting survey survey was mostly undertaken in autumn and winter, in fields free of stubble or crops. The metal-detecting team has spent about 170 man-days on the survey every year for the past five years. The project for complete coverage, with all fields being walked at least once – most have been walked in more than one direction and in different conditions to enhance recovery. The detectorists recorded date, transect direction and hours walked, and ground and weather conditions, so that rates of recovery and concentrations of material can be compared and calibrated between fields. As well as metalwork, they collected materials such as pottery Right: All Anglo- Saxon finds from the and worked flint, dropped in the soil or survey area, outlined ploughed up from buried archaeological in black

British Archaeolog y July August 2014 51 | | there are shifts in the concentrations of material over time, the overall pattern points to Rendlesham as a favoured location for settlement and farming from the late iron age (100 bc ) if not earlier, with finds clustering on the more fertile soils between 10m and 30m above sea level. Magnetometry over 46ha (110 acres), where the concentration of finds is most dense, confirms a complex palimpsest of archaeological features from the bronze age to post-medieval. Trial excavations in autumn 2013 confirmed that some of these are Anglo-Saxon sunken huts and other settlement elements.

The proportion of Anglo-Saxon finds is unusually high, indicating a rich and Above: Roy Damant important community. Though activity excavating an Anglo-Saxon sunken cAontginluoed- bSetawxeeonn th se feiftht laendm 11teh nt hut in 2013 centuries, most of these finds date to the sixth to eighth. At this time the settlement covered an area of up to 50ha (125 acres). Within this were varying concentrations, but the area is as large as the eighth century emporium at , and much larger than any other known contemporary rural settlement. There is direct evidence for a range of activities and a socially diverse Left: Metal detecting, looking population. Skilled craft workers were across the Deben making dress fittings, jewellery and valley other items at Rendlesham in the late features. Mostly they recovered broken on a Microsoft Access database, sixth and seventh centuries. The fragments discarded as rubbish – just as integrated with other survey data in a evidence for this comes from metal much a part of the story as rarer finds project gis for ease of handling and finds that represent different stages of such as coins. analysis. The density and distributions manufacture. These include scrap (gold, The precise location of every find of different find types, for example, can silver and copper alloy) from old items was recorded using a hand-held gps be mapped easily. due to be melted down; lead models device. All finds were then passed to To date 3,563 finds have been used in making moulds for casting sccas for identification, cataloguing recorded, representing activity from metal items; globules and other and visual recording. The data are held prehistory to the 21st century. Although fragments spilled during melting and casting; casting sprues cut from objects after they had been released from moulds; and items which had been discarded unfinished after casting – these can be recognised because they were thrown away before the casting flash was removed. Most metalworking finds came from a single area, perhaps indicating the location of one or more workshops. Completed items of the same type as unfinished pieces have been found, indicating that some at least of the material made at Rendlesham was made for and used by the people who lived there. Left: Screenshot of Both continental and Anglo-Saxon a catalogue entry gold coins and silver pennies have been

52 British Archaeolog y July August 2014 | | ) 5 found at Rendlesham. There are also with Europe are seen in continental are the everyday equivalents of (

L I weights, used to check gold coins and to brooch types as well as by imported aristocratic jewellery. C N U weigh bullion for currency. The coins of the sixth and seventh centuries. Accommodating the king and his O C

Y distribution of finds tells us that these The pattern of coin loss shows that household would have required a lot of T N U are not from hoards, but were lost when commercial activity at Rendlesham food and drink, gathered from the O C

K coins changed hands during payments. declined in the early eighth century, at Rendlesham estate and as rents in kind L O F

Below: Unfinished F

So we know that high-value currency exactly the time that the port at Ipswich from surrounding farms. The king U

copper-alloy Anglo- S transactions were taking place at Saxon buckle and expanded to become a major centre for probably travelled around his other Rendlesham from at least the beginning pin with finished manufacture and international trade. estates in a regular circuit, spreading the of the seventh century. examples beside and Rendlesham probably remained an load and making himself visible to the No coins were minted in Anglo- below, with a piece of important administrative centre and local population. He and his household bronzeworking debris (unfinished residence, but burgeoning trade was may have stayed at Rendlesham only at pin 24mm long) increasingly handled through Ipswich.

Saxon before then. Instead, The discovery of high-quality certain times of the year or for gold and silver valued by weight were metalwork and jewellery indicates that particular occasions, such as assemblies used as currency, and gold coins from Rendlesham was an elite residence. to transact justice or to review the the continent acquired as raw material LIteinmsk ssuc hto as Sa suwottrdo pnyr aHmoido mount kingdom’s fighting men. for smiths and for their bullion value. and a bead made in gold-and-garnet, and Many people would have come to The first Anglo-Saxon coins were gold a gold pin, were owned, worn and lost by Rendlesham at such times and when shillings. Towards the end of the members of the highest aristocracy or fairs or markets were held. We should seventh century these were replaced by royal kindred. Such ostentatious imagine the open spaces of the silver pennies (also known as sceattas). jewellery in precious materials was a settlement, and the paddocks and Minted in England and on the statement of rank and wealth. We see pastures around it, being used for continent, these were an international here evidence of the use in life of the gatherings and booths, and with trading currency. sort of possessions that were buried temporary accommodation in huts and Coin may have changed hands at with the dead at Sutton Hoo. tents. In some ways it would have been Rendlesham in the payment of taxes or This social elite would have been like a modern music festival such as fines, or as gifts by a lord or king to his supported by a large population of slaves Glastonbury! The coins and many of followers for services rendered and to Below: Gold and and servants, farmers, craft specialists, the other items found by metal garnet sword-handle secure future loyalty; this may explain fitting (width at base administrators and retainers. The detecting may have been lost or much of the earlier gold coinage. Silver 21mm), and cut diversity of skills, roles and social dropped at such events. coinage is more likely to have been used fragments suggesting positions among this permanent Our evidence shows that the seventh in commercial transactions, and it a goldsmith’s population at Rendlesham is reflected century settlement at Rendlesham was workshop (to scale, seems likely that Rendlesham was a site decorated piece in the range of personal items. Simple particularly rich and extensive. We for markets or fairs. Foreign traders 12mm long) pins and buckles made of copper alloy believe that it was an important central in expensive and luxury goods would have been attracted to a high-level settlement when the king and his retainers were in residence, and where the important folk of the kingdom might gather for councils and assemblies. Further evidence for trade and exchange at Rendlesham includes mounts from hanging bowls, which were acquired from north and west Britain, and two fragments from the foot-rings of Coptic bowls made in the eastern Mediterranean. Contacts

British Archaeolog y July August 2014 53 | | Coddenham and Barham in the Gipping valley north of Ipswich. It is likely that there were equivalents in each of the main river valleys of south-east Suffolk. Further afield, there is evidence for such sites more widely in East Anglia. Just as Ipswich became the place where international trade was channelled and profits taxed, so central places like Rendlesham were the infrastructure of the early kingdom through which the land’s wealth and the kingdom’s manpower were mobilised, and the king’s rule exercised. While we believe royal kindred were buried at Sutton Hoo, the permanent population are likely to be have been buried in one of at least two cemeteries indicated by surface finds at Rendlesham. Cremations, where the body was burned on a pyre and the ashes buried in a pot, are signified by sherds from decorated cremation urns and metal grave goods melted in the flames. place at the time of Sutton Hoo: a local sponsored the baptism of King Above: Coins and For inhumations, the body was buried administrative centre, the focus of a Swithelm of the East Saxons. two copper-alloy fully clothed with a range of grave farming hinterland where livestock and If the vicus regius at Rendlesham was weights (latter goods. These are indicated by metal 8mm/13mm across) agricultural surplus were gathered, and the main central place in the seventh dress-fittings of types known from a royal residence where assemblies century Deben valley, it was not unique. Below: Men detect a excavations elsewhere to have been might be convened and markets held. There may have been an important field at Rendlesham commonly placed in graves. At some in August 2012, It was at one such gathering, as Bede settlement closer to Sutton Hoo at leaving tracks and time cultivation has disturbed some of records, that King Aethelwold , and others are known at pits in the ploughsoil the burials, pulling pottery and goods 6 3 9 2

T H G I L F

2 5 0 _ 5 8 5 7 2

R M N / Y D A R G

N A I M A D

54 British Archaeolog y July August 2014 | | into the ploughsoil. ) 4 (

L So the settlement at Rendlesham I C N puts Sutton Hoo in context. U O C

Rendlesham is everyday life, while Y T N

Sutton Hoo is extraordinary death. It is U O C

as if we can now study London by K L O F

looking at the whole city, instead of just F U Highgate cemetery, or the crypt of St S Paul’s Cathedral.

An important feature of the settlement Above: A gold and the archaeology at Rendlesham, there is is that it endured. Until now it had been garnet bead (15mm tremendous potential to examine not thought that Anglo-Saxon royal or high- long) and a gold bead only how settlement (11mm long) Cstaotums siptelse wteerel syh onrte-liwved, but that and activity here was not so here: Rendlesham remained changed across the a significant central place for at least period that saw the three centuries. This in turn tells us that emergence of the there was a greater continuity and documented East stability of administration and power Anglian kingdom, but than we had thought. also to put this into a As a long-lived central place complex, much longer sequence Rendlesham is also something of development. completely new in the archaeology of Illegal metal- the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. Such Right: Gilt-bronze detecting is theft. But sites are known in Sweden and decorative mount responsible detecting, Denmark, for example at Gudme and from a harness, very especially when similar to one from Uppåkra, but have not yet been Mound 17 at Sutton undertaken recognised elsewhere in England. The Hoo (53mm across) systematically as one of archaeology at Rendlesham therefore is several complementary of international importance: it pulls our survey techniques, can understanding of seventh century be enormously valuable. At England forcibly into the broader Rendlesham the partnership of expert European picture. detectorists with professional and The Rendlesham Survey Project is managed In the past we have perhaps under- academic support, managed through by Suffolk County Council Archaeological estimated the economic and with support from the Portable Service with the co-operation of the administrative sophistication (if not the Antiquities Scheme, has identified a site landowners, Sir Michael and Lady Caroline artistic abilities) of the society that of international significance and Bunbury, and Colchester and Ipswich created the burials at Sutton Hoo – the secured the academic and public benefit Museums. It is funded and supported by the earliest English kingdoms. Now we are of the ploughsoil assemblage. The Sutton Hoo Society, English Heritage, the seeing at Rendlesham the ways in which support of landowner and farmer and Portable Antiquities Scheme, the Suffolk a kingdom, a complex political entity, the local museums service have also Institute of Archaeology & History, the could flourish and be ruled without the been critical in creating an effective Society of Antiquaries of London, and the urban infrastructure – towns – that are partnership. In a time of austerity this Royal Archaeological Institute. the hallmark of government and may be an exemplar for how to Faye Minter manages the project’s finds commerce in the classical, medieval and approach other sites. identification, recording, cataloguing and modern worlds. The project also displays a new analysis; she is senior finds recording officer Finally, because all periods from Below: St Gregory’s attitude to dealing with damage caused with the Conservation Team of sccas . Jude prehistory to modern are represented in church, Rendlesham by illegal metal-detecting and theft. Plouviez is project manager and a co- Instead of seeking to sterilise a site by director; she is a senior archaeological officer pre-emptive detecting, as has been with sccas . Chris Scull is a project co- suggested in the past (an impossible director, and an honorary visiting professor task), the Rendlesham project seeks to at the Department of Archaeology & protect the site’s significance by Conservation, Cardiff University, and ucl establishing a baseline of understanding. Institute of Archaeology. Local knowledge and informal Rendlesham Rediscovered, a small stewardship, and an approved presence, exhibition of recent finds, is at the National also afford protection: since the survey Trust Sutton Hoo visitor centre until the S D R

began, illegal activity has greatly beginning of November 2014. On August 8 A W

reduced. In this case, the result has been 11am–3pm, visitors can meet the detectorists D E

T

a very significant addition to our and bring archaeological finds for Faye R E B O

understanding of early England. Minter to identify R

British Archaeolog y July August 2014 55 | |