4 RURAL SETTLEMENT, LIFESTYLES RURAL SETTLEMENT AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN THE LATER FIRST MILLENNIUM AD Anglo-Saxon Flixborough in its Wider Context RURAL SETTLEMENT, Between 1989 and 1991, excavations adjacent to the abandoned medieval settlement of North Conesby, in the parish of Flixborough, North Lincolnshire, unearthed remains of an Anglo-Saxon settlement LIFESTYLES AND SOCIAL associated with one of the largest collections of artefacts and animal bones yet found on such a site. The Anglo-Saxon settlement was situated on a belt of windblown sand, overlooking the floodplain of the River Trent, eight kilometres south of the Humber estuary. Analysis has demonstrated that the excavated CHANGE part of the settlement was occupied, or used for settlement-related activity, throughout what have been termed the ‘Mid’ and ‘Late’ Anglo-Saxon periods. In an unprecedented occupation sequence from an , LIFESTYLES AND SOCIAL CHANGE Anglo-Saxon rural settlement, six main periods of occupation have been identified, with additional sub- phases, dating from the seventh to the early eleventh centuries; with a further period of activity, between IN THE LATER FIRST MILLENNIUM AD the twelfth and fifteenth centuries AD. Anglo-Saxon Flixborough in its Wider Context The publication of the remains of the Anglo-Saxon settlement is achieved in four volumes, and will be supported by an extensive archive on the Archaeological Data Service (ADS) for the United Kingdom. The excavation, post-excavation analysis and publication phases of the project have been funded principally by English Heritage, and the project has been run through the Humberside Archaeology Unit and its successor, the Humber Archaeology Partnership. Volume 4 offers a series of thematic analyses which integrate all the forms of evidence from Flixborough to reconstruct the lifestyles of the inhabitants, looking at relations with the surrounding landscape and Christopher Loveluck region, trade and exchange, and specialist artisan activity. Some of the wider themes considered include approaches to the interpretation of settlement character, the social spectrum of its inhabitants, changing Christopher Loveluck relationships between rural and emerging urban centres, and the importance of the excavated remains within contemporary studies of early medieval settlement and society in western Europe. Humber Archaeology Partnership EXCAVATIONS AT FLIXBOROUGH VOLUME 4 Oxbow Books EXCAVATIONS AT FLIXBOROUGH VOL. 4 Rural Settlement, Lifestyles and Social Change in the Later First Millennium AD: Anglo-Saxon Flixborough in its wider context ii EXCAVATIONS AT FLIXBOROUGH Vol. 1 The Early Medieval Settlement Remains from Flixborough, Lincolnshire: The Occupation Sequence, c. AD 600–1000 by Christopher Loveluck and David Atkinson Vol. 2 Life and Economy at Early Medieval Flixborough, c. AD 600–1000: The Artefact Evidence edited by D. H. Evans and Christopher Loveluck Vol. 3 Farmers, Monks and Aristocrats: The Environmental Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Flixborough by Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques, James Barrett and Cluny Johnstone Vol. 4 Rural Settlement, Lifestyles and Social Change in the Later First Millennium AD: Anglo-Saxon Flixborough in its Wider Context by Christopher Loveluck iii EXCAVATIONS AT FLIXBOROUGH VOL. 4 Rural Settlement, Lifestyles and Social Change in the Later First Millennium AD: Anglo-Saxon Flixborough in its wider context by Christopher Loveluck with contributions by James Barrett, Kenneth Cameron†, John Carrott, Richard Darrah, Keith Dobney, Sarah Foot, Geoff Gaunt, Allan Hall, Jerry Herman, Deborah Jaques, Cluny Johnstone, David Roffe, David Slater and Penelope Walton Rogers Principal Illustrators Mike Frankland and Penny Copeland OXBOW BOOKS Published by Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK © Oxbow Books, Humber Archaeology Partnership and the authors 2007 ISBN 978-1-84217-256-8 A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library This book is published with the aid of a grant from English Heritage. English Heritage is now Historic England This book is available to download from https://books.casematepublishing.com/Rural settlements, Lifestyles and Social Change, Flixborough.pdf Front cover: Detail from an eleventh-century calendar illumination showing an aristocrat hunting cranes and wildfowl in a wetland habitat (British Library, BL, MS Cotton Tiberius BV, f. 7v) Rear cover: Detail from an eleventh-century manuscript depicting feasting in the hall (British Library, BL, MS Cotton Claudius BIV, f.63v) v Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................................ viii List of Contributors to the Flixborough Volumes ........................................................................................................... xi Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................................... xiii Zusammenfassung ...........................................................................................................................................................xvii Résumé ............................................................................................................................................................................xxi Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................................................... xxv 1 INTRODUCTION by Christopher Loveluck 1.1 Background ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Structure and inter-relationship of the Flixborough publications ........................................................................... 2 1.3 Topographical setting of the settlement and the circumstances of discovery ........................................................ 3 1.4 Approaches to the interpretation of the settlement remains .................................................................................... 5 2 THE EXCAVATED ANGLO-SAXON SETTLEMENT REMAINS AND THEIR POTENTIAL FOR WIDER INTERPRETATION by Christopher Loveluck 2.1 The excavated Anglo-Saxon occupation sequence – a summary ............................................................................ 8 2.2 To what extent are the excavated remains representative of the Anglo-Saxon settlement and its inhabitants? ............................................................................................................................................................... 21 2.2.1 The seventh century (Period 1) ........................................................................................................................................ 22 2.2.2 Late seventh to mid eighth century (Periods 2 to 3a) .................................................................................................... 23 2.2.3 Mid eighth to early ninth century (Period 3, Phase 3b) ................................................................................................ 25 2.2.4 Early to mid ninth century (Period 4) ............................................................................................................................. 26 2.2.5 Mid to late ninth to early tenth century (Period 5) ........................................................................................................ 28 2.2.6 The tenth century (Period 6) ............................................................................................................................................ 29 2.3 Summary: limits of inference for comparative analysis......................................................................................... 30 3 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: THE BUILDINGS, ASPECTS OF SETTLEMENT MORPHOLOGY AND THE USE OF SPACE by Christopher Loveluck and Richard Darrah 3.1 Introduction by Christopher Loveluck .................................................................................................................... 31 3.2 The buildings, their parallels and functions, based on foundations and associated deposits by Christopher Loveluck .......................................................................................................................................... 31 3.3 Identifying the architectural features of the Anglo-Saxon buildings at Flixborough, and understanding their structures by Richard Darrah ......................................................................................................................... 51 3.4 Aspects of settlement morphology and the use of space by Christopher Loveluck ............................................. 66 vi Contents 4 ENVIRONMENT AND LANDSCAPE IN THE ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD by Geoff Gaunt, Christopher Loveluck and Kenneth Cameron † 4.1 The Anglo-Saxon settlement and its contemporary topography by Geoff Gaunt ................................................ 75 4.1.1 Sea level............................................................................................................................................................................. 75 4.1.2 Drainage features – the Humber river systems and settlement location ...................................................................... 76 4.1.3 The nature of the low-lying ground around Flixborough ..............................................................................................