A Seventh-Century High-Status Settlement at Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
pp. 23-49
Author(s):  
Adam McBride ◽  
Helena Hamerow ◽  
Jane Harrison ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
High Status ◽  
Distinctive Type

This article reports the results of recent fieldwork carried out at Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire. The site at Long Wittenham had previously been identified from aerial photographs and LiDAR as a possible seventh-century great hall complex – a distinctive type of high-status settlement – but the site had never been ground-truthed. Fieldwork was therefore undertaken to confirm the nature and date of the Long Wittenham cropmarks, through geophysical survey, metal-detecting and three seasons of excavation. The results have confirmed the existence of high-status seventh-century buildings at Long Wittenham, but the largest building previously identified at Long Wittenham is now interpreted as a Roman enclosure, leaving the complex of buildings without an exceptionally large hall. This complicates the interpretation of the site, suggesting that Long Wittenham may have been a secondary high-status site, potentially subordinate to the great hall complex at Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire.

THE GOLD AND GARNET CHAIN FROM ISENBÜTTEL, GERMANY: A POSSIBLE PIN SUITE WITH ANGLO-SAXON PARALLELS

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Hilgner
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Lower Saxony ◽  
State Museum ◽  
History Of ◽  
Loop Chain ◽  
And Function

The ‘Isenbüttel gold necklace’, now in the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover, was found almost a century ago in Lower Saxony, an area with no history of early medieval gold finds or richly furnished burials. As no parallels are known for the object, scholars have long debated the dating, provenance and function of this unique loop-in-loop chain, with its animal-head terminals and garnet cloisonné. Recent excavations of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries dating to the seventh century have, however, added new finds to the small corpus of objects known as ‘pin suites’, consisting of comparatively short pins perhaps designed to fix a veil or a light shawl in the collar area, with ornate pinheads, linked by chains. This paper focuses on Anglo-Saxon pin suites from high-status burials of the second half of the seventh century and seeks to set the finds group in its wider social and historical context, revealing the far-reaching relationships that existed between early medieval elites.

The Burial of A Princess? The Later Seventh-Century Cemetery At Westfield Farm, Ely

2009 ◽  
Vol 89 ◽  
pp. 81-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Lucy ◽  
Richard Newman ◽  
Natasha Dodwell ◽  
Catherine Hills ◽  
Michiel Dekker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Isotopic Analysis ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Anglo Saxon

AbstractThis paper reports on the excavation of a small, but high-status, later seventh-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Ely. Of fifteen graves, two were particularly well furnished, one of which was buried with a gold and silver necklace that included a cross pendant, as well as two complete glass palm cups and a composite comb, placed within a wooden padlocked casket. The paper reports on the skeletal and artefactual material (including isotopic analysis of the burials), and seeks to set the site in its wider social and historical context, arguing that this cemetery may well have been associated with the first monastery in Ely, founded by Etheldreda in ad 673.

In the path of the Maize God: a royal tomb at Nakum, Petén, Guatemala

Antiquity ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 85 (329) ◽  
pp. 890-908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jarosław Źrałka ◽  
Wiesław Koszkul ◽  
Simon Martin ◽  
Bernard Hermes
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Dead Person ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Maya Site

The authors describe the excavation and interpretation of an intact seventh-century high status burial at the Maya site of Nakum. The dead person wore an incised pectoral with an eventful biography, having started out as an Olmec heirloom 1000 years before. No less impressive was the series of votive rituals found to have been enacted at the tomb for another 100 years or more. The beautiful objects, their architectural setting and the long story they recount, offer a heart-breaking indictment of the multiple losses due to looting.

scholarly journals Bulla Regia I: a new church and Christian cemetery

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 187-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moheddine Chaouali ◽  
Corisande Fenwick ◽  
Dirk Booms
Keyword(s):  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Complex Landscape ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis paper reports the preliminary results from two short seasons of fieldwork that the Tunisian–British Bulla Regia Archaeological Report was able to undertake in September 2016 and 2017. In 2016, the work focused on a geophysical survey of the western cemetery and revealed a complex landscape of funerary enclosures and mausolea outside the protected boundaries of the site, likely to be of Roman date. In 2017, photogrammetric techniques were used to record and plan a Late Antique church and cemetery that was discovered during a rescue excavation in 2010. The church consists of three naves and a series of funerary annexes, which contained burials covered by mosaic or stone epitaphs, including those marking the graves of two bishops and two priests. The church is surrounded by an extensive cemetery with a variety of different tomb types, such as mosaic caissons and simple stepped masonry tombs. The mosaics, inscriptions and finds (ceramics, glass, coins) support a fourth to sixth/seventh century date for the church and cemetery.

An Anatolian Greek Belt Handle

1966 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 193-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Boardman
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Distinctive Type

The bronze belt handle shown in Plate LXIV was acquired by the British Museum in 1962 and illustrated by Dr. Barnett in BMQ XXVII, Pl. 31g. I am indebted to him for the photographs used here and for permission to study the piece and present this account of it. It belongs to a class of objects which has been discussed by the writer in Anatolia VI (1961) 179 ff. They are fibula-like attachments to metal belts of a distinctive type which was apparently invented in Phrygia, but copied in Ionia where examples dating from the early seventh century to the sixth are known from Chios, Samos, Smyrna and Ephesus. Unfortunately the Phrygian series is not as yet as well known as the Greek.

Living on the lake in the Iron Age: new results from aerial photographs, geophysical survey and dendrochronology on sites of Biskupin type

Antiquity ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 84 (324) ◽  
pp. 386-404 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Harding ◽  
Włodzimierz Rączkowski
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
High Impact ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Open Area ◽  
New Type ◽  
Prison Camp

The island site of Biskupin with its densely planned interior bears an uncanny resemblance to a prison camp. Is it typical of the Iron Age in Northern Europe? The authors here explore neighbouring sites around Poznań using aerial photographs, geophysical survey and dendrochronology – to stunning effect. These low impact methods have given high impact results: dated street plans, some similar and others different from Biskupin, but within the same time frame: almost a repertoire of early urbanism. The authors must also be congratulated on the identification of a new type of Iron Age feature, the ‘open area for spouse avoidance’ defined at Sobiejuchy.

scholarly journals MONUMENTS AND LANDSCAPE: INVESTIGATING A PREHISTORIC MONUMENT COMPLEX AT LOCHBROW, DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY

2017 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 27-47
Author(s):  
Kirsty Millican ◽  
Helen Goodchild ◽  
Dorothy Graves McEwan
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Landscape Context ◽  
Aerial Photographs ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
Survey Techniques ◽  
Simple Step ◽  
Non Destructive

This paper presents the results of a survey project investigating a complex of prehistoric archaeological sites at Lochbrow, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. An Early Neolithic timber cursus, Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age timber circles and Bronze Age round barrows were first recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs in the 1980s and 1990s. The Lochbrow Landscape Project set out to investigate and understand this lesser-known complex of prehistoric sites and their layout in the landscape using non-destructive survey techniques, including geophysical survey, experiential survey and re-assessment of aerial photographs. A pilot survey was undertaken in 2010 followed by a series of short field seasons from 2011 to 2015. Interpretation of the results from geophysical survey has proved challenging because of strong geological and geomorphological signals, but has been successful in detecting both the features known from aerial photographs and additional archaeological features. The simple step of marking out the known archaeology on the ground has provided additional insights into the landscape context of the known monuments and elements of their morphology. This indicates that the monuments were closely tied to their landscape context and that the monument boundaries were used to influence the experience of being within the monuments. Overall, the research has been successful in enriching our understanding of the complex of prehistoric sites known at Lochbrow.

EARLY BYZANTINE MOLIVDOVUL OF BYZANTINE KHERSON WITH A RARE IMAGE TYPE

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (72) (3) ◽  
pp. 25-29
Author(s):  
N. A. Alekseyenko
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
Image Type ◽  
Early Byzantine

The article is devoted to a rare sphragistic type − an image of Christ presented on one of the molivduls, originating from the Byzantine Kherson. The rare image of the Saviour, usually found on the seals of emperors and rare high-ranking dignitaries, most likely suggests the high status of the owner of molivdovul from Kherson. Given the rather rare name of the sigillant, it is possible that the owner of the Kherson seal could be one of the eparchs of the Byzantine capital of the seventh century, also named Irenaeus.

A HIGH-STATUS SEVENTH-CENTURY FEMALE BURIAL FROM WEST HANNEY, OXFORDSHIRE

2015 ◽  
Vol 95 ◽  
pp. 91-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Hamerow ◽  
Anni Byard ◽  
Esther Cameron ◽  
Andreas Düring ◽  
Paula Levick ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Dominant Group ◽  
Metal Detector ◽  
Grave Goods

In 2009, a metal-detector find of a rare garnet-inlaid composite disc brooch at West Hanney, Oxfordshire, led to the excavation of an apparently isolated female burial sited in a prominent position overlooking the Ock valley. The burial dates to the middle decades of the seventh century, a period of rapid socio-political development in the region, which formed the early heartland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The de luxe brooch links the wearer to two other burials furnished with very similar brooches at Milton, some 10km to the east and onlyc1km from the Anglo-Saxon great hall complex at Sutton Courtenay / Drayton, just south of Abingdon. All three women must have been members of the region’s politically dominant group, known as theGewisse. The burial’s grave goods and setting add a new dimension to our understanding of the richly furnished female burials that are such a prominent feature of the funerary record of seventh-century England.

scholarly journals The Trumpington Cross in context

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 7-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Lucy
Keyword(s):  
Seventh Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Contextual Associations

AbstractAn Anglo-Saxon gold and garnet cloisonné pectoral cross from a seventh-century bed burial at Trumpington, Cambridgeshire is the fifth such example to be found. Details of the contextual associations of the five crosses are used to argue that these artifacts, and other high status cross-shaped pendants, were overt Christian symbols, strongly associated with high status female burials of the later seventh century. That one of the five examples was associated with the burial of St Cuthbert is highlighted as an anomaly, and could indicate that the Cuthbert Cross may have been a gift, rather than a personal possession of the saint.

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