assemblage 11 (2011): 15-33

Land or Gold? Changing Perceptions of Landscape in Viking Age

by LETTY TEN HARKEL

This paper looks at the relationship between political conflict and changing perceptions of landscape in between the ninth and early eleventh centuries AD, focusing on the modern county of Lincolnshire. The period between the ninth and early eleventh centuries AD was a period of continuous conflict, characterised by the Viking raids and subsequent Scandinavian settlement, followed by the unification of England as a result of the West Saxon expansion, and its subsequent conquest by the kings of . Using different types of material culture, including settlements, metal dress-accessories and funerary sculpture, this paper addresses the relationship between foreign settlement and/or territorial expansion, and the commoditisation of land and its effect on landscape perception.

Keywords: Lincolnshire, Viking, conflict archaeology, landscape archaeology, material culture.

Introduction initial Viking raids that were documented by ecclesiastical chroniclers indeed fit this profile. The Anglo-Saxon period witnessed some major The first recorded Viking attacks on England, changes in the structure of the English which was then still divided into a number of landscape. Many boundaries that still exist in independent Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, occurred the landscape today can be traced back to at in the last two decades of the eighth century. least the late Anglo-Saxon period. Place-name The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (A: 787) records evidence can provide a historical context for that during the reign of King Beorhtric (786- the emergence of individual settlements, which 802), „there came for the first time three ships; in many cases can also be traced back to the and then the reeve rode there … and they killed late Anglo-Saxon period. This article argues him. Those were the first ships of the Danish that such developments in the structure of the men which sought out the land of the English 1 English landscape were inherently related to race‟ . More famously, in AD 793, a group of changing perceptions of land and landscape, Scandinavian raiders „miserably devastated‟ which, in turn, were related to contemporary the monastery at Lindisfarne in the Anglo- political conflict. After a brief outline of the Saxon kingdom of „by looting 2 main political events that occurred in and slaughter‟ (ASC D, E, F: 793) . This second Lincolnshire between the ninth and early attack prompted an outraged response from eleventh centuries, a working definition of the Alcuin, a resident scholar at the court of terms landscape and land will be provided. Charlemagne who was originally from The main body of the paper will be divided Northumbria himself, who considered the into four sections. The first section will discuss attack as God‟s punishment for the sins of the the evidence for the development of „towns‟ in Anglo-Saxons (Lapidge 2001: 24; Hadley Lincolnshire, whilst the second section will 2006: 16). Subsequent Viking attacks focused take a closer look at the process of rural on the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, in settlement development. The production of particular . The first recorded attack on metal dress-accessories will form the topic of Lincolnshire, which was part of the kingdom of another section, which will consider the Mercia, occurred in AD 841, when „in Lindsey transition from a gift-exchange based society … many men were killed by the raiding army‟ to one whose social organisation was grounded (ASC A: 838; Hadley 2006: 10). in the control of territory. A brief consideration of the production and use of The phase of hit-and-run tactics in England funerary sculpture in the tenth and early was, however, relatively short-lived. By the eleventh centuries will close this paper. middle of the ninth century, the Viking campaigns were becoming longer. In AD 850- The period between the ninth and early 51, a Viking army overwintered for the first eleventh centuries is often referred to as the time in Kent, then part of (ASC A: 851; Viking Age. In popular imagination, this term Kelly 2001: 270). In AD 865, an unusually conjures images of ruthless pagan pirates who large Viking army (the micel here or great employed hit-and-run tactics to steal portable army; ASC A: 866) arrived in and wealth from monasteries and towns, and those „made peace‟ with the locals, who provided them with horses3. Throughout the next

Letty Ten Harkel – [email protected] © Ten Harkel 2011 © assemblage 2011 TEN HARKEL

Lapidge 1983: 295 n. 6), and, amongst other things, proposed a large-scale educational reform to cure the problem once and for all (Keynes and Lapidge 1983: 124-27). The writings that originated under his patronage (and which supposedly included the now lost first version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) can be read as political propaganda that promoted the sense of an England that was united against a common enemy, the Vikings (Keynes and Lapidge 1983: 41). Whether Alfred believed in his own propaganda is impossible to say, but it did provide him with a legitimate excuse to expand his territory, and unite the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms under his own rule, a goal that was only achieved on a permanent basis under his grandson Eadred (946-55) in AD 954 (ASC D, E: 954).

The expansionist aspirations of the Anglo- Saxon kings were not a new phenomenon, but dated back to the conversion period of the late sixth and seventh centuries at least. In the pagan early Anglo-Saxon period (c. AD 410- Figure 1 Places mentioned in the text 650), kingship was supposedly peripatetic, and power relations were based on the personal decade continuous raids occurred across the relationship between a king and his followers, various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, eventually which were typically maintained through gift- culminating in the permanent settlement of exchange (Blair 2005: 8-9, 49-51; Webster the majority of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, 1998). The sources for this period are few and with the exception of Wessex and the difficult (Campbell 1982: 20; Stenton 1971: 1- southwest of Mercia. In AD 872-73, the micel 3; for Lindsey, see Foot 1993: 128; Yorke 1993: here overwintered at in Lincolnshire4, 141), though literary sources such as Beowulf, and „the Mercians made peace with the raiding which was written down in its present form army‟ (ASC A: 873). In AD 874, they drove the around AD 1000 but found its roots in the pre- king of Mercia, Burgred, into exile, and Christian period, retain a memory of this conquered his kingdom (ASC A: 874). In AD earlier time. Especially the use of words such 875, part of the army settled in the kingdom of as goldgyfa meaning „gold-giver‟ („lord‟: Northumbria, „and they were ploughing and Beowulf 2652) or goldwine meaning „gold- providing for themselves‟ (ASC A: 876), whilst friend‟ („prince‟: Beowulf 1171, 1602, 1476, in the harvest-season of the following year they 2419, 2584) serves to illustrate the importance „went into the land of Mercia, and some of it of portable wealth to maintain a social they divided up‟ (ASC A: 877). Finally, in AD hierarchy. How and why this changed is harder 879 „the raiding army went from Cirencester to say. Blair (2005: 49-50) has argued that the into East Anglia, and settled that land, and success of the conversion, which penetrated divided it up‟ (ASC A: 880). Whatever had society „from the top downwards‟, was the prompted the change in tactics on the part of result of the changing ambitions of the Anglo- the invaders, it is clear that these Saxon kings „as they moved towards a more developments represent a profound change in “political”, less “tribal” organization‟ and their perception of wealth, which now placed „reoriented themselves towards the Christian the conquest of land over the accumulation of world‟. In any case, it seems that by the portable wealth. seventh century, as Christianity spread across the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, power was The Vikings were not the only ones who were increasingly rooted in the possession of intent on the conquest of territory. The early territory5. This point is further confirmed by Scandinavian raids had invoked an intense the fact that the introduction of the concept of response from a number of contemporary bookland – land that was granted by a charter figures, including King Alfred „the Great‟ of – also dates from this period. Unlike folkland, Wessex (871-99). Like Alcuin, Alfred regarded which referred to land held by a kin group that the Viking invasions as God‟s punishment for could not be alienated from the kin group the sins of the Anglo-Saxons (Keynes and except under special circumstances, bookland

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assemblage could be alienated at will. It was therefore there is, but not what it is like‟, whereas „you more suitable for the purposes of the Church, can ask of a landscape what it is like, but not which did not have a place within existing how much of it there is‟ (Ingold 1993: 153-54). patterns of land tenure (Stenton 1971, 307- 309; John 1964), whilst it also facilitated the It is beyond the scope of this paper to attempt importance of land as a commodity that could to devise a conclusive definition of landscape be granted to one‟s followers as a means to and land, but it is nevertheless necessary to maintain power relations. In the course of the define the terms, as they will be used within following centuries, as Christian notions of the context of this article. Whereas Ingold‟s kingship gained a hold on Anglo-Saxon (1993) distinction between landscape and land society, a process of territorial consolidation may hold truth to an extent, the two concepts began to take place that was still ongoing when are also inherently related. For example, the Scandinavian invaders began to settle in during the period of Scandinavian settlement the ninth century. in the 870s, land became something that could be possessed and controlled. Those who The West Saxon expansion continued until the struggled for control over this commodity middle of the tenth century, in the face of would have travelled through the landscape continuous resistance from the inhabitants of assessing the quality of the land, thereby the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, in particular acknowledging its heterogeneity. Simply put, those of Northumbria, which was finally there was „good land‟ and „not so good land‟, conquered in AD 9546. During this period, the and this distinction affected the desirability of Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were spared any more a particular piece of land for settlement, and significant Viking attacks, but these resumed thus, eventually, the structure of the again in the 980s (Keynes 1997: 73-74). The landscape7. same process, whereby land gradually replaced wealth as the commodity the invaders tried to The driving force behind the commoditisation obtain, is visible in the chronology of events of land was a change in existing perceptions of that happened subsequently. In the 980s and wealth. Once commoditised, the landscape 990s, the various Viking armies campaigned itself became something that people actively across England and caused destruction tried to (re)structure and control. Land became wherever they went in order to demand ever- the cause of political conflict, and certain increasing amounts of tribute, which was landscape features – such as roads and rivers – presumably paid in gold and silver. In the became political boundaries. Ingold (1993: 152) eleventh century, however, their tactics has stated that the landscape is „an enduring changed. When Svein Forkbeard, King of record of – and testimony to – the lives and Denmark and a Christian himself, and his son works of past generations who have dwelt Cnut arrived in AD 1013 AD, their aim was within it, and in so doing, have left there apparently not to obtain tribute, but to something of themselves‟. Although this is true conquer England and to add it to their own to an extent, it regards landscape as a reflection territory (Keynes 1997: 75-76). or relic of human activity, rather than the cause of human activity. This paper regards landscape as an agent (for a definition of ‘Landscape’ and ‘land’ agency, see Gardner 2008; Gell 1998: 16). As Knappett (2002: 100, 115) has demonstrated, The introduction has summarised the ongoing agency can only exist and be perceived in the political conflicts of the ninth to early eleventh relationships that exist between agents, be they centuries, emphasising the increasing human or non-human. In other words, it is in importance of land rather than portable wealth the interaction between people and the as a medium for the negotiation of power. And landscape that the significance of the landscape as land became increasingly commoditised, to its past inhabitants becomes apparent. elite perceptions of landscape must have Likewise, it is in the active transformation of changed. But what is the difference between the landscape that changing perceptions of land and landscape? The terminology has been landscape can be discerned. the cause of much academic debate. For example, Ingold (1993: 154) has argued that the two concepts are diametrically opposed and that the difference between land and landscape lies in the fact that the former is „quantitative and homogenous‟, whilst the latter is „qualitative and heterogeneous‟. In other words, „you can ask of land … how much

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Settlement development in ninth- At the beginning of the ninth century, Lincoln to eleventh-century Lincolnshire: was a largely deserted Roman colonia with some evidence for a limited ecclesiastical the emergence of ‘towns‟ presence, but no significant domestic or economic activity. According to the The ninth to early eleventh centuries Ecclesiastical History of the English People witnessed a number of changes in existing (II: 16), written by Bede in the eighth century, settlement patterns in Lincolnshire, as the settlement was the location of an early elsewhere in England. These include the church, founded by Paulinus in the 620s, after development of towns as well as various the reeve of the city had become the first changes in rural settlement patterns, and the person in the region to convert to Christianity. transition of large incoherent minster church Although the location of this church was never territories into whose boundaries determined archaeologically, excavations have were to have a lasting effect on the landscape. confirmed the presence of two possible early To an extent, these changes were rooted in the church foundations, at St. Paul-in-the-Bail in social unrest that followed the Scandinavian the Upper City (Fig.2) and, in the shape of a raids and settlement. At the same time, they few possibly middle Anglo-Saxon skeletons, give a clear indication of the changes that the along Silver Street in the Lower City (Vince perception of the English landscape 2003: 154-56)10. No other structural remains underwent. The following two sections discuss of middle Anglo-Saxon date (c. AD 650-850) town formation and rural settlement have been found in Lincoln: in most cases the development in Lincolnshire in the context of late Anglo-Saxon layers are separated from the the Scandinavian settlement, and their Roman deposits only by a layer of „dark earth‟, relationship with the changing structure and a homogenous type of garden soil that was perception of the landscape. probably the result of agricultural activities and general build-up of plant material (Vince The distinction between urban and rural is 1990). problematic, and has given rise to significant and ongoing debate (Biddle 1976b: 99-100; Perring 2002: 9-11; Reynolds 1987: 296; Roskams 1996: 264; Wickham 2006: 591-96). This article will not return to this issue, but accepts the definition proposed by Susan Reynolds (1987: 296), which argues that a settlement could be classed as a town when it was perceived as such by its contemporaries. There is one late eleventh-century written source, , which provides an insight into how individual settlements were perceived. Domesday Book, which provides a list of landholdings across England, was put together for taxation purposes some two decades after the , but the origins of the situation it describes lie in the pre-Conquest period (Roffe 2000; 2007). It sets three Lincolnshire settlements apart from the long list of rural landholdings. These include the civitas of Lincoln, the burgum regis of Stamford, and the villa of Torksey8. The development of these three settlements differed greatly, although some common factors can be identified. They may all have fulfilled certain central-place functions during the middle Anglo-Saxon period, and Figure 2 Lincoln. Redrawn after Jones et experienced a period of growth contemporary al. 2003 (figure 1) with the Viking settlement, presumably as the result of elite intervention, when they obtained an increasing monopoly as regional production The nature of occupation in Lincoln changed centres, in particular of wheel-thrown pottery, in the middle of the ninth century AD, around and obtained mints9. the same time as the Vikings settled in England. First, the south-eastern quarter of

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assemblage the walled settlement of the Lower City was re- been suggested that this location was chosen occupied. Evidence for manufacturing because Torksey had been a significant pre- activities can be identified, including wheel- existing middle Anglo-Saxon settlement thrown pottery based on Frankish prototypes, (Brown 2006: 13-17; Jones et al. 2003: 143). and non-ferrous metalwork with Scandinavian This would fit a pattern identified by Williams stylistic influences. One of the most significant (2008), that many Viking winter camps were excavations that has taken place in the Lower indeed located in or near pre-existing estate City, at Flaxengate, demonstrated that a centres. It is possible that its development number of dwellings in which metalworking should be placed in the context of the nearby activities took place were centrally controlled, settlement at Marton, less than 23 miles because several buildings were periodically further north, which has yielded evidence for levelled and re-built during single construction an early market and whose church has events (Perring 1981). In the tenth century, the produced a collection of tenth-century pottery and metalwork produced at Lincoln funerary sculpture (Everson and Stocker 2006: found a relatively widespread regional 218-20). In either case, Torksey‟s economic distribution across the surrounding growth resembled that of Lincoln and countryside (Symonds 2003; Ten Harkel 2010: Stamford. Excavations in the 1960s and 1990s ch. 6). Coin production also took place at revealed a number of ninth- to eleventh- Lincoln from the late ninth century onwards, century pottery kilns, which Sawyer (1998: and at the beginning of the eleventh century, 197) has directly attributed to the Viking Lincoln was one of the most prosperous towns settlement. A cemetery was also uncovered, of Anglo-Saxon England, its mint ranking which probably had tenth-century origins, and amongst the three most productive in England may have been associated with the now-lost (Blackburn et al. 1983). church of All Saints (Buckberry 2004: 405-06). However, very little evidence for The early history of Stamford is less well settlement activity has been excavated to date, understood. The settlement itself does not and the settlement does not seem to have had have Roman origins, but may have found its any defences, which has led to the suggestion roots as a middle Anglo-Saxon estate centre that Torksey was an undefended trading post with an associated church dedicated to St. (Barley 1981: 264; Brown 2006: 9-10). By the Peter, situated on the north bank of the river middle of the tenth century, it housed one of Welland (Hadley 2006: 158-59; Sawyer 1998: the most important pottery industries in the 194). The settlement was fortified in the late region, and production continued well into the ninth or tenth century, following the twelfth century (Barley 1964: 172; 1981; Brown Scandinavian settlement (Mahany 1982: 9; 2006: 10; Symonds 2003. For a brief period Sawyer 1998: 94-95). At roughly the same during the late tenth and early eleventh time, a pottery industry was established centuries, Torksey also possessed a mint. (Mahany 1977: 177; Sawyer 1998: 195; Whitwell 1967: 45), but it is unclear whether The development of the three Lincolnshire this pre-dated the construction of the defences towns was characterised by economic growth. (Mahany 1982: 10). Based on documentary In all three cases, the nature of the economic references, it is sometimes argued that the activity that took place was predominantly settlement was extended into a double burh, non-agricultural. This is in accordance with also encompassing a fortified settlement on the definition of towns as proposed by the south bank of the river, after the West Reynolds (1987: 296), who argues that Saxon conquest of the area in AD 918 (Mahany 1982: 3, 10; Sawyer 1998: 194-96). By the early When we talk of a place as a eleventh century, Stamford had a flourishing town, or as urban, we … pottery industry with a widespread regional assume without thinking and inter-regional distribution, as well as a about it that we are talking flourishing mint (Mahany 1982: 4; Symonds about a permanent human 2003). settlement in which a significant proportion of the The development of Torksey has remained population is engaged in non- even more of an enigma (Hadley 2006: 155-60, agricultural occupations … A 167). No structural remains of Roman or early town therefore normally lives to middle Anglo-Saxon date have been found off the food of the at Torksey (Barley 1964; 1981; Brown 2006: 1- surrounding countryside … 5; Sawyer 1998: 197). However, in the winter and supplies this countryside of 872-73, Torksey was the location for a with other goods and services Viking winter camp (see above), and it has in return.

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The development of towns can thus be seen as the pagan invaders (Keynes and Lapidge 1983: a process whereby people‟s daily activities 24-25; also see Astill 1991; Biddle 1976a; were increasingly restricted to the production 1976b; Hodges 1982; 1988). A passage from of an industrial surplus in an urban Asser‟s Life of Alfred (ch. 91), lamenting the environment, in some cases separated from tribulations that befell Alfred‟s life, views the the rest of the landscape by a visible boundary burhs constructed during Alfred‟s reign as in the shape of town defences. As a result, towns, as he exclaims: „And what of the cities people‟s daily experiences became increasingly (civitatibus) and towns (urbibus) to be rebuilt divorced from the rural landscape, and from and others to be constructed where previously the people who inhabited that landscape. Or, there were none?‟ Town construction, to quote Reynolds (1987: 296) once more, however, is a literary motif associated with great kings in the Classical and Christian Because of the distinctive tradition (see, for example, Procopius‟ account functions of towns their of the deeds of the sixth-century Byzantine inhabitants normally regard emperor Justinian) and archaeological themselves, and are regarded investigations have revealed that these burhs by outsiders, as a different were essentially military foundations that did sort of people. However not obtain urban characteristics (in terms of deeply they are divided economic activity) or sizable populations until among themselves they tend the later tenth or eleventh centuries (Astill to be united at least in 2006: 236, 243, 254). In fact, recent research regarding themselves as in the region that formerly was the Kingdom of united in their urbanity Wessex suggests that burhs like Wallingford, against the country bumpkins Lydford and Cricklade remained mostly empty around. spaces until after the Norman Conquest (Astill 2006). It is interesting to note that this process took place at the same time that an unknown In Denmark, some of the earliest settlements number of people with no previous that could arguably be classed as towns, the relationship to the Anglo-Saxon landscape, i.e. emporia at Hedeby and Ribe and possibly the Scandinavian invaders, settled in some of Århus, were fortified during the later tenth the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. In the case of century. This is usually attributed to King Lincoln, the presence of Scandinavian-style Harald Bluetooth (c. 958-86), who was dress-accessories – such as ringed pins and so- responsible for the erection of the famous called „Norse‟ bells (Ten Harkel forthcoming) – Jelling-stone that proclaimed himself as the and the use of Norwegian soapstone for king who „Christianized the Danes‟ (Lund metalworking moulds (Bayley 2008: 20) 1997: 160). In addition to a defensive purpose, furthermore suggest that at least a proportion these fortifications facilitated control (and of its population was of Scandinavian descent. therefore taxation) over goods entering and In Torksey, which is documented as a Viking exiting the emporia. It is interesting to note, encampment in the 870s, the ninth- and tenth- however, that many of these goods attested to century metalwork that has been retrieved is of overseas trade, and that it is likely, therefore, even more explicit Scandinavian character that the populations of these emporia included (Brown 2006). The pottery produced in both a foreign element. settlements was inspired by Frankish prototypes, leading to the suggestion that Although the economic success of towns seems Frankish potters accompanied the to have been more rapid in areas where a Scandinavian settlement (Vince 2005). The sizable part of the population had no existing same has been argued for the pottery produced relationship with the rural landscape, the in Stamford, which displayed links with intention to build towns seems to have been a contemporary northern French wares shared characteristic of rulers who were intent (Kilmurry 1980). on establishing their reputation as defenders of the Christian Church. This also holds true But was the increased alienation of people for two of the Lincolnshire towns. As discussed from the rural landscape merely the result of above, the earliest post-Roman archaeological the settlement by a foreign people? In evidence from Lincoln was indicative of an contemporary Wessex, situated outside the ecclesiastical presence, and the earliest area of Scandinavian settlement, a number of settlement core at Stamford may have found burhs were constructed under the patronage of its origin as an estate centre with associated the West-Saxon king Alfred and his successors church. Blair (2005: 246-90) has argued that as part of their policy to protect England from the most important forerunners of the tenth-

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assemblage and eleventh-century towns were not middle eleventh centuries (Reynolds 1999: 135-36; Anglo-Saxon wics, but middle Anglo-Saxon also see Everson et al. 1991: 13). More recent minster sites. Although the evidence from investigations have revealed that many of Lincolnshire does not support a these organised late Anglo-Saxon settlements straightforward linear development from overlay earlier, middle Anglo-Saxon minster to town, there is evidence that two of settlements, which led Reynolds (2003: 131; the three Lincolnshire towns, as they were also see Jones and Page 2006) to state that perceived at the time of the Domesday survey, instead, „village origins (with regard to were associated with, or grew out of, a pre- individual settlements) can be found across a existing settlement core with an ecclesiastical period of at least 400 years‟. element, be it a possible monastic foundation or a manorial church. The economic impetus The process of village formation was not for their growth in the late ninth century, restricted to a specific period in Lincolnshire however, was the arrival of foreign immigrants either. Many late Anglo-Saxon settlements in who had no previous connection to the Lincoln had early to middle Anglo-Saxon Lincolnshire landscape, and members of rural origins. One example of this is the settlement communities who had been uprooted by the at (Grenville and Parker Pearson social disruption caused by the Scandinavian 1983; Hadley et al. 2003; 2004; 2005; 2006; settlement. It was these two groups who Hadley and Willmott forthcoming), which has constituted the first inhabitants of developing been identified as a possible seventh- to ninth- towns like Lincoln, Stamford and Torksey, the century minster church site (Blair 1988: 1-2; latter of which may have had an entirely Hadley et al. 2003: 2). Excavations by the foreign population during its initial economic University of Sheffield have revealed two growth. separate early to middle Anglo-Saxon settlement cores, which gradually grew into one settlement in the late Anglo-Saxon period Rural settlement development (Hadley et al. 2004: 24; Hadley and Willmott and parish formation in ninth- to forthcoming). Likewise, the settlement at Barton-upon- in , eleventh-century Lincolnshire which has been postulated as the site of a monastery founded æt baruwe (Bede, HE IV: This section investigates the relationship 3) in the seventh century (Leahy 1998: 16), between rural settlement development and also had middle Anglo-Saxon origins (Bradley changing perceptions of landscape in 2002; Rodwell and Rodwell 1982; Tibbles and Lincolnshire. The number of rural excavations Steedman 1990). During excavations at the in Lincolnshire is limited, and even where church of St. Peter in the centre of the present Anglo-Saxon settlement remains have been village, it became apparent that the site had uncovered the scale of the (mostly developer- originally been occupied by a number of sixth- 11 funded) excavations is often small . to seventh-century buildings with gravel Nevertheless, in recent years a picture of rural footings, which may represent a settlement settlement development has begun to emerge. that was associated with the nearby early Traditionally, it was held that during the early Anglo-Saxon cremation cemetery at and middle Anglo-Saxon periods, rural Castledyke, Barton-upon-Humber (Drinkall settlement was mostly (if not exclusively) and Foreman 1998; Gardner and Bunn 2006: dispersed. The formation of villages, in 4-5; Rodwell and Rodwell 1982). A substantial particular of the type of settlement that eighth- to ninth-century boundary ditch with a combined a high-status dwelling with a small timber palisade and earthen bank was church and cemetery, often associated with a identified as the enclosure ditch of a middle number of regular house plots for peasants, Anglo-Saxon manorial centre (Bradley 2000: would have occurred primarily from the later 28; 2002: 24; Rodwell 2007). It was originally ninth and tenth centuries onwards, held that an inhumation cemetery just outside contemporary with the development of towns the enclosure dated to the ninth century, but and the Scandinavian settlement in the region recent dendrochronological and radiocarbon (Hadley 2006: 115; Reynolds 1999: 111, 130, dating of several coffins and skeletons pointed 134). In this context, Reynolds (1999: 135) has to a date for the earliest cemetery phase argued that the development of the Anglo- between 950 and 1150 (Waldron 2007: 29). Saxon kingdoms is directly reflected in the The present church of St. Peter, whose tenth- development of rural settlements, which century fabric still partially survives, is evolved from the loosely grouped farmsteads stratigraphically later than this graveyard as of the fifth and sixth centuries, to the several graves that would have been cut by the organised communities of the tenth and foundations were excavated and reburied

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(Bradley 2002: 6; Everson and Stocker 1999; site. Tibbles and Steedman 1990: 3; Rodwell 2007). The late Anglo-Saxon period also witnessed Whereas West Halton and Barton-upon- the development of new rural settlements. One Humber showed little sign of decline in the example is Waterton on the Isle of Axeholme, later Anglo-Saxon period, other Lincolnshire whose pottery profile suggests an eleventh- villages that found their origins in the early to century origin (Foreman 1996: 23)12. The Isle middle Anglo-Saxon period were abandoned in of Axeholme, as well as the lower-lying regions the late Anglo-Saxon period, demonstrating of Holland, remained largely unoccupied until that not only village origins, but also village the eleventh century in general, and it has decline occurred throughout the entire Anglo- been suggested that their re-occupation may Saxon period. The 2001 developer-funded be the direct result of the second wave of excavations at Belton revealed a few sunken- Scandinavian colonisation following England‟s featured buildings and, interestingly, one of political conquest in the 1010s (Fenwick et al. the few assemblages of production evidence of 1998: 168; Head et al. 1998: 277; Young et al. Maxey-type ware – in the form of wasters – 2001: 3). from Lincolnshire (Young 2001). The absence of late Anglo-Saxon pottery from Belton, Elsewhere in Lincolnshire, new settlements however, suggests that the site was abandoned also developed as late as the tenth century. in the early ninth century (Young 2001). One such example is the settlement known as „‟, although there has been considerable Investigations at in the late 1980s debate over its precise dating (Beresford and 1990s revealed a settlement sequence that 1975a; 1975b; 1981; 1987; Stocker 1989)13. A began in the late seventh century AD and number of farmsteads were constructed in the continued into the tenth century (Loveluck early tenth century (Beresford 1987: 24; 1998; 2001; 2007). Part of the earliest phase Stocker 1989: 628; Symonds 2003: 51). Some was a building that has been interpreted as a fifty years later, the site was cleared for the chapel, associated with a high-status construction of a fortified high-status dwelling aristocratic centre (Loveluck 2001: 115-16). (Beresford 1981: 16; 1987: 3, 12-14, 23), whilst The discovery of a number of styli in the early a planned lower-status settlement was also ninth-century layers, as well as an inscribed laid out, arranged along a central track-way lead plaque and numerous fragments of leading to the fortified manor (Beresford 1987: window glass, which at that time was usually 23)14. The manor was situated just to the restricted to high-status minster churches, southwest of the sixteenth-century church of suggest that the site continued to have St. George (Beresford 1975b: 1; Whitwell 1967: ecclesiastical significance, and Loveluck (2001: 50), and although the site of the church was 100, 116; 2007) has even suggested that for a not investigated, it is possible that the original period the site may have functioned as a church was of similar date as the construction minster. In the later ninth and tenth centuries, of the manor. In that case, the village at contemporary with the emergence of the urban „Goltho‟ fits in with a type of nucleated sites at Lincoln, Stamford and Torksey, and settlement that combined a high-status the Viking settlement in the region, the dwelling with a small church and a number of evidence for craft production decreased regular house plots for peasants (Hadley 2006: significantly, until the site was abandoned and 115; Reynolds 1999: 111, 130, 134). This type of the settlement shifted eastwards onto the settlement is typically associated with the limestone escarpment of the Lincoln Edge in beginnings of parish formation, as it has the course of the tenth century (Loveluck become clear that the boundaries of secular 2001: 100; Loveluck and Atkinson 2007: 97- and ecclesiastical jurisdiction often coincided 104). Loveluck (2001: 90; also see Loveluck (Bassett 2006: 117; Reynolds 1999: 134). The and Atkinson 2007: ch. 7) argues that the later phases of the settlement at Barton-upon- driving force behind this shift was the desire to Humber, which likewise combined a high- construct a stone church (possibly a postulated status dwelling with a church, may also have precursor to the church of all saints in the belonged to this type. deserted medieval village of Conesby), which required a harder ground (i.e. limestone) than It may be clear from the preceding discussion the windblown sands underlying the that rural settlement development was often settlement remains at Flixborough. Based on inherently related to the presence of the place-name evidence (Conesby meaning ecclesiastical foundations – be they minster „the King‟s manor‟), Loveluck (2001: 117; churches, monastic foundations or parish 2007) furthermore views this phase as the churches – in the Lincolnshire landscape. In emergence of an Anglo-Scandinavian manor some cases, as at „Goltho‟, the process of parish

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assemblage formation may have had an effect on the the north of Lincoln, most of which indeed nature of rural settlement development, find their origins in the period between the whereby the occupant of the high-status later ninth and early eleventh centuries, are dwelling may have been the founder of the arranged in a ladder form, situated on both parish. Blair (2005: 369) and Hadley (2006) sides of the old Roman road known as Ermine have argued that the majority of medieval Street, which ran along the top of the Lincoln parish boundaries found their origins in the Edge, and stretched down the slope on either late ninth and tenth centuries as the result of side towards the more fertile low-lying ground. the subdivision of larger territories, which had Their arrangement ensured that each parish been associated with minster churches, into had equal access to different resources and smaller units. As the average size of the new communication routes (Everson and Stocker parishes in the areas of Scandinavian pers. comm.; for an earlier discussion of parish settlement were generally speaking smaller formation, see for example Fox 1989). The than in the south, Hadley (2006) has relatively small size of these units, each of furthermore proposed that these which was more or less self-sufficient, developments represent a process of furthermore rendered the experience of the consolidation between the Church and the new landscape increasingly static. It is worth noting Scandinavian landowners, many of whom had that this process of landscape fragmentation recently converted to Christianity. The on economic grounds, itself a symptom of the cooperation between Scandinavian settlers and increased commoditisation of land, was the Church was mutually beneficial. The contemporary with the economic growth of Church provided the necessary legitimisation towns, which, likewise, required a degree of for the invaders‟ newly obtained power, whilst separation from the rural landscape in order to the new landholding elite assisted the Church take place. in the collection of taxes and dues in return.

The process of parish formation can be seen as a process of secularisation of the Church. The significance of gold in Viking Looking at it from this perspective, Carver Age Lincolnshire (2001: 17) has explained the involvement of the new Scandinavian elite in the The previous sections have discussed the establishment of new parishes in the following evidence for settlement development in Anglo- terms: Saxon Lincolnshire, with attention on the increased commoditisation of land. The Perhaps the Scandinavian following sections look deeper into the hostility was not to Christianity possible reasons behind this change through but towards state control, an analysis of two types of material culture taxation and the alienation of that were produced and used in Lincolnshire, land to non-wealth creators. metal dress-accessories and monumental The Vikings, by dissolving the funerary sculpture. These types of material monastic system and culture will be analysed using the theoretical substituting a secular concept of materiality, or „[the] style of alternative, had succeeded in enquiry that engages with the unavoidable effecting a conversion of their qualities of a material‟ (Taylor 2008: 297). own. As stated previously, early Anglo-Saxon society Although Carver‟s observations are correct in was essentially a gift-based society. The terms of the effects of the settlers‟ involvement abovementioned terminology from Beowulf, in parish foundation, the driving force behind which highlights the importance of rulers as their actions was undoubtedly their distributors of wealth, serves well to illustrate commoditised view of the landscape that they this point, as do the majority of high-status were restructuring. Blair (2005: 370) has grave goods from the pre-Christian period, identified the period between the middle of the which, like the dress-accessories found at ninth and the eleventh centuries AD as a Sutton Hoo (Carver 1998), were often period of „more systematic apportionment of produced of solid gold. The nature of the peasant settlements and field-systems‟ that Viking raids of the ninth century as well as was related to the growing power of local those of the later tenth century, which were landholders. This apportionment was driven intent on the accumulation of portable wealth by economic concerns, and provides evidence in the form of loot or tribute, suggests that that the landscape was becoming increasingly gold and other precious materials played an quantitative and objectified. The parishes to important role within ninth- and tenth-century

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Scandinavian society. This is further kingship was instead grounded in the confirmed by the composition of Viking hoards possession of territory, metal dress-accessories from this period, which were often composed were no longer used to create a social of objects of solid gold and/or silver, either in hierarchy, and therefore gold and silver were the shape of coinage or hack-metal (Blackburn no longer appropriate materials for their 1986; Gunstone 1981; Kilger 2006; Walker production. Interestingly, tenth-century 1945; Williams 2007). written sources now increasingly express the value of land in gold (Blackburn 2007). It is By contrast, there is little evidence that unlikely that gold ever actually changed hands precious metals were as important to the during those transactions. Instead, it was Scandinavians who settled in the Anglo-Saxon probably used as a measure of value, a kingdoms in the second half of the ninth figurative translation of the value of the new century. Metal dress-accessories and related commodity (land) into a known quantity artefacts, some of which displayed (gold). Scandinavian stylistic influences, as well as production evidence for non-ferrous metalworking activities, were found in the earliest post-Roman occupation layers in Lincoln. The artefacts were entirely made of base metals, including copper- and lead-alloys (Ten Harkel forthcoming) (Fig.3). The exclusive use of base metals for these dress- accessories has alternatively been regarded as a decline in workmanship, evidence that the lower classes could now also afford to wear dress-accessories (Leahy 2007: 148; Owen- Crocker 1986: 206), or the result of a lack of available gold (Blackburn 1993; Williams 2007). The first explanation does not provide an answer to the question why the elite would also be wearing sub-standard jewellery, and although there may indeed be reason to assume that the gold supplies in western Europe had dried up (Williams pers. comm.), there is no indication that a similar fate had befallen the silver, which was still used in large quantities for the production of coinage, but not for dress-accessories. The only regions where dress-accessories made of precious Figure 3 Typical examples of late ninth- to metals still occurred were the Scandinavian- tenth-century metalwork produced and controlled , most noticeably used in Lincoln. Copyright photographs: on sites with a Scandinavian character, such as the author, with thanks to M. Jones and J. Torksey. This suggests that high-status dress- Mann. (a) Copper-alloy ‘Norse’ bell from accessories were still used for the maintenance Flaxengate, Lower City (iron clapper in and establishment of a social hierarchy situ); b) unfinished copper-alloy finger amongst part of the population, although here, ring from Holmes Grainwarehouse, too, base-metal dress-accessories, which did Wigford; c) lead-alloy pendant from St not fulfil such functions, were increasingly Mark’s Station, Wigford (similar to common. miscasts from Viking-Age layers at Coppergate, , and to silver pendants A different explanation may be suggested by from Birka, Sweden); d) copper-alloy reference to the theoretical concept of hooked tag with ratchet-decoration from materiality, which allows for the possibility Flaxengate, Lower City; e) copper-alloy that different types of metal were perceived to ring with twisted ends from Flaxengate, have different qualities, and thus a different Lower City; f) copper-alloy and enamel social function. In the early Anglo-Saxon mount with raised inner part and period, when kingship was peripatetic, and moulded rope-like border from power relations were maintained through gift- Flaxengate, Lower City.) giving, dress-accessories, if they wanted to fulfill this role, had to be made of precious materials. By the tenth century, however, when

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Again, the instigator behind these changes AD c. 800. The smith was buried on the seems to have been the Church. In a boundary between two territories, suggesting publication discussing the development of that he was a travelling craftsman who did not Lindsey, Leahy (2007: 148) has commented on form part of the local community (Hinton the gradual disappearance of the use of gold 2000; 2003). He was accompanied by a large and gilding for dress-accessories in the course number of grave goods, including of the eighth and ninth centuries. Analysis of metalworking tools and a box of scrap metal the metalwork finds from Lincolnshire as a containing iron, copper and lead alloys and whole as listed on the Portable Antiquities small quantities of precious metals (Hinton Scheme by the current author added further 2000; 2003). Hinton has suggested that the detail to Leahy‟s conclusion. It revealed that careful manner in which he was buried is there was a marked decrease of the use of solid indicative of the respect and the fear that his gold in the course of the seventh century, craft inspired in the members of the following the conversion of the area by community where he had accidentally died, Paulinus in the 620s, whilst the use of gilding and serves as a reminder of the period when disappeared in the course of the eighth kingship was still based on gift-exchange. century. Solid silver was used only very occasionally for dress-accessories after the As there is evidence that metalworking seventh century. Although silvering, in activities frequently occurred on Church lands, particular of strap-ends, was still used in the Hinton (2000: 115; 2003: 273) has suggested eighth and ninth centuries, this came to an end that the Church was directly responsible for in the tenth century. the decrease in the importance of gift- exchange to maintain power relations, and the In an article on the use of gold in late Anglo- changing status of the smith in Anglo-Saxon Saxon England, Blackburn (2007) has drawn society, from a travelling craftsman with attention to the fact that the use of gold in this magical powers who existed outside normal period was increasingly restricted to the communities, to a socially accepted craftsman Church and to kings. The monopoly of the in the service of the Church. In Lincoln, the Church on gold may partially be related to the two only fully excavated church sites, at St. act that gold was one of the three gifts that the Paul-in-the-Bail in the Upper City and St. three kings from the east presented to the baby Mark‟s in Wigford, have indeed yielded Jesus as he lay in his crib, together with evidence for metalworking activities (Ten incense and myrrh, whose use was also largely Harkel forthcoming). The different position of restricted to the Church. The continued the smith within Anglo-Saxon society did not prerogative of kings to wear and use gold may necessarily involve a decrease in status15. The be related to their position as God‟s anointed. use of Weland- and Sigurd-imagery on late At the same time, the increased monopoly of ninth- and tenth-century sculpture the Church on the use of gold may be seen as a (Lang 1976; 1991; 2001), and the fact that the shift in existing power relations, with the only profession explicitly mentioned on the Church replacing the king‟s secular retainers Viking Age stone crosses from the Isle of Man as his most important ally. was that of a smith (Kermode 1907) suggest that the profession was still held in high The changing role of metal dress-accessories esteem16. Several references to Weland also during the middle and late Anglo-Saxon occur in Beowulf, and he is the subject matter periods was also reflected in the changing role of the first two stanzas of the Anglo-Saxon of the smith within Anglo-Saxon society. The poem Deor, written down in the Book, ninth and tenth centuries saw an increasing which has been dated on palaeographical monopoly of the emerging urban centres, in grounds to the second half of the tenth century particular Lincoln, Norwich and York, on the (Bradley 1982: 201). Yet the changing role of production of non-ferrous metalwork. In the smith reflects the same process that has Lincoln, the metalworking workshops were been identified in the context of settlement centrally organised, and situated in the heart development in Lincolnshire: under the of the settlement in the Lower City. The influence of the Church, society was becoming circumstances of metalwork production in increasingly static, and in some cases divorced Lincoln contrast sharply with the organisation from the rural landscape. of the trade in the preceding, middle Anglo- Saxon period. The discovery of a seventh- or eighth-century smith‟s grave in Thorpe in Lincolnshire has provided an important insight into the different organisation of metalwork production prior to

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Scandinavian-controlled regions of England, suggesting that a greater need was felt in these areas to express the relationship between the new secular landowners and their newly acquired source of wealth. The relationship between the Church and the new landowners was mutually beneficial, but the Church had another vested interest in the promotion of land as an alternative to gold and silver. The Viking raids in the first half of the ninth century were aimed at the accumulation of portable wealth, which meant that the Vikings posed a particular threat to the Church, where often significant quantities of silver or gold were stored. The most practical solution to the Figure 4 Examples of tenth-century problem was to convince the invaders, like the sculpture produced at Lincoln. Church had previously convinced the native Photographs by P. Everson and D. Stocker; Anglo-Saxons, that land was a much better reproduced with permission of D. Craig, alternative to gold. The fact that this resulted Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture. in the Scandinavian settlement of large parts (a) Lincoln St. Mark 16: Lindsey-type grave of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms was not an issue, marker from St. Mark’s church, Lincoln;(b) as it did not endanger the position of the 1: Lindsey-type grave cover Church, but strengthened it through the from Miningsby, Lindsey. formation of numerous new alliances. At the

same time, the West-Saxon kings took advantage of the situation by treating it as a The erection of stone sculpture in legitimate excuse to conquer the north. Viking Age Lincolnshire The suggestion that the commoditisation of The increasingly sedentary experience of the land was inherently related to a Christian landscape also found expression in the worldview is confirmed by the changing nature erection of stone sculpture in Lincolnshire, of the Viking incursions of the later tenth and which occurred from the tenth century eleventh centuries. Harald Bluetooth‟s self- onwards. There was no local tradition of proclaimed reputation as the king who marking burials with stone sculpture in converted the Danes was somewhat optimistic, Lincolnshire prior to the tenth century, nor as it seems that the conversion of the was stone generally used in a monumental Scandinavian homelands was still underway. sense at all. From the mid-tenth century The late tenth-century poem The Battle of onwards, however, funerary sculpture was Maldon, which gives an account of the defeat produced at Lincoln on a significant scale of the English by the Vikings in AD 991, which (Fig.4). Everson and Stocker (1999) have resulted in the payment of a large sum of suggested that their production took place tribute, refers to them as hæthene („heathens‟; under the patronage of the , line 55). However, the Danish king Svein who was reinstated in the mid-tenth century Forkbeard, who arrived in England in 1003, after his last predecessor had supposedly fled was a Christian, and interestingly, his objective the area because of the Scandinavian raids. was the conquest of territory rather than the The products of the Lincoln workshops were accumulation of portable wealth. distributed all across Lindsey. The question how and why the conversion of As there is usually only one funerary the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavian settlers monument per parish, Everson and Stocker and eventually the Scandinavians at home was (1999) have argued that the majority of these successful must, for the moment, remains funerary monuments were created for the unanswered. Yet the influence that it had on founder‟s graves of the parishes. As mentioned the structure and perception of the Anglo- above, the process of parish formation, which Saxon landscape was far-reaching. The occurred at the same time as the Scandinavian erection of sculpture made of stone – a very settlement, can be seen as a process of durable material – can be seen as an attempt consolidation between the Church and the new to lay a permanent claim to that part of the Scandinavian landowners. The erection of landscape, significantly enough through one‟s funerary sculpture to mark the founders‟ ancestors, which would make perfect sense in graves of the parishes occurs only in the the context of the Viking settlement. The fact

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assemblage that practically all recognised sculpture particular , John Moreland, fragments in Lincolnshire have been found in Gareth Williams and Andrew Reynolds. the centre of villages, often incorporated into Thanks must go as well to the two anonymous the fabric of the village church, suggests that peer reviewers who commented on an earlier these graves became focal points in the draft of this paper. Responsibility for the development of rural settlements. opinions expressed in this paper, however, remains with the author.

Conclusions 1 All translations from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The theme of this paper has been the follow Swanton 2000. Where possible this article relationship between conflict and the only uses the A-version, also known as the Winchester-manuscript, because this is the oldest of transformation of landscape in middle to late the surviving manuscripts, which was copied from Anglo-Saxon England. It has argued that the the now-lost original at some point in the late ninth restructuring of the landscape was the result of century, and continued until the eleventh century the active interference of the Church, which (Swanton 2000: xxi-xxii). promoted land as a viable alternative to gold as 2 This passage does not occur in the Winchester- the medium through which social hierarchies manuscript, which had a strong southern focus. were constructed and maintained. The Manuscripts D-F were three closely related versions influence of the Church was most directly of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that were all copied visible in the development of rural settlement, from the same example, which is known as the now- lost „Northern Version‟. Manuscript D, also known which bears witness to the increased blending as the Worcester-manuscript, was started in the of ecclesiastical and secular power on one middle of the eleventh century, probably at level, and, on another level, resulted in a more Worcester, whose diocese was closely connected to static experience of the landscape to those who York during the period 972-1016 (Swanton 2000: inhabited it. This permanence was reinforced xxv-xxvi). Manuscript E, also known as the by the erection of stone sculpture (and the -manuscript, is the latest of the subsequent transition to stone architecture surviving Chronicle manuscripts, and was copied following the Norman Conquest). from a Kentish original in the early twelfth century (Swanton 2000: xxvi-xxvii). Finally, manuscript F or the Canterbury Bi-Lingual Epitome was a bi- The transformation of the early Anglo-Saxon lingual (Latin and Old English) version started landscape, where the concept of territory was around AD 1100, which drew from the lost fluid, into the late Anglo-Saxon landscape, „Northern Version‟ as well as from the Winchester- with its rigid and organised division, was, of manuscript (Swanton 2000: xxvii-xxviii). course, the result of an ongoing conflict itself. 3 Hadley (2006: 10) has questioned whether there The term conflict, in this context, refers to the was any intention on the part of the invaders gradual replacement of the old pre-Christian already at this stage to settle permanently, although worldview with the new Christian order. In the she does acknowledge that „the involvement of the context of this paper, the conflict that stood raiders in the internal politics of three Anglo-Saxon kingdoms marked a change in tactics from the hit- central to the arguments was the conflict and-run raids of earlier periods and paved the way between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons, for subsequent Scandinavian rule and settlement in but this can be placed entirely in the same parts of northern and eastern England‟. light, as a conflict between pagan and 4 In recent decades, the presence of the raiding Christian. The transformation of the landscape army at Torksey has been confirmed through that took place in its wake was the outcome of numerous discoveries by metal-detectorists, which a change in the way the landscape was this article will return to at a later stage. 5 perceived within this new Christian order. Blair (2005: 49) has drawn attention to the fact that „our archaeological data are consistent, to put it no more strongly, with the proposition that some radical changes occurred in social hierarchies, and Acknowledgements in means of controlling resources, at the end of the sixth century‟. Nevertheless, the causal relationship This article is loosely based on two different between the spread of Christianity and the versions of a twenty-minute paper presented increased importance of landed wealth is unclear. at the Department of Archaeology, University This is largely due to the fact that the practice of of Sheffield, in January 2009, and at the third writing did not arrive in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until their conversion in the very late sixth and Early Medieval Archaeology Student seventh centuries. Prior to the spread of Symposium (EMASS), held in Sheffield in May Christianity, Anglo-Saxon literature had been 2009. Many thanks must go to the audiences entirely oral. The first surviving written source that on these two occasions for their feedback, in provides an insight into the structure of Anglo-

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Saxon society was the Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis excavation of a limited number of features (Carlyle Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English et al. 2003; Morris and Holmes 2002; Tibbles People) written by Bede in the 730s, but as the title 2001). Likewise, the Middle Anglo-Saxon suggests this was written from a thoroughly settlement remains at Belton (see below) were Christian perspective, and it is debatable to what limited to the size of a pipe trench (source: North extent his perception of Early Anglo-Saxon society Lincolnshire SMR records), whilst the excavations was accurate. at Waterton (see below) were limited to the 6 The inhabitants of these other kingdoms are often construction trenches for a number of new pylons characterised as „Anglo-Scandinavian‟ as they now (Foreman 1996: 3, 12). The general lack of rural included the Anglo-Saxon „natives‟ as well as the excavations in the area is a result of the largely Scandinavian settlers, and their offspring. agricultural nature of the region, with little or no 7 This qualitative assessment of land is also reflected building development to create a need for in the varying size of hides (a unit for land archaeological excavations. measurement used in the Anglo-Saxon period), 12 Unfortunately the area of excavation was limited which seem to have differed depending on the to the size of the construction trenches for pylons, productivity of the land (Stenton 1971: 279). which meant that the spatial and chronological 8 The different status of these three settlements is development of the settlement could not be further reinforced by a tenth-century entry in the determined (Foreman 1996: 3, 12). Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (A: 942), which refers to 13 „Goltho‟ is referred to in quotation marks Lincoln and Stamford as two of the „five ‟ throughout the text because the excavated remains in the Danish territories, also including Derby, that have entered the published record as „Goltho‟ Nottingham and . Torksey is sometimes should probably be identified with the Anglo-Saxon added to this list, together with York, on the basis of settlement of Bullington as recorded in the a single reference from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles Domesday Book (Everson 1988; 1990). The dating (E: 1015) to the „seven boroughs‟ (Hadley 2006: 159; presented here differs from that proposed by the Stenton 1971: 388 n. 2). excavator (Beresford 1987), and is instead based on 9 The evidence for elite involvement in the a re-assessment of the site chronology based on the development of these settlements is evident from pottery data (Stocker 1989; Symonds 2003). the construction of defences in Stamford, the 14 Hadley (2006: 116-17) has drawn attention to the periodic rebuilding of the metalworking workshops fact that a similar process seems to have occurred at in Lincoln as a centralised event, and the presence the Anglo-Saxon settlement at , also in of a mint. Lincolnshire. 10 The Upper City is the walled area of the former 15 The absence of identifiable high-status smith‟s first-century Roman fortress, situated on top of a graves from the late Anglo-Saxon period (which, steep slope on the highest point in the surrounding incidentally, contrasts to only one definite middle landscape, and the Lower City refers to the walled Anglo-Saxon smith‟s grave from Lincolnshire) area of the second-century Roman town that was reflects a general change in burial practice that did constructed to the immediate south of the fortress, not generally include grave goods in the same way on the slope leading town into the valley of the river as during the preceding period (Buckberry 2004), Witham. rather than a lowering in the status of smiths. 11 To name a couple of examples, at the Anglo-Saxon 16 Weland was a mythical smith who played an settlement at Bottesford in Lindsey, which amongst important role in Scandinavian and pre-Christian other things yielded a significant Middle Anglo- Anglo-Saxon mythology, whilst Sigurd was the Saxon ditch, time constraints only allowed for the foster-son of a smith.

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