|
The fact that the site is sloping from the south-east to the north-west has resulted in a great deal of colluvial build up after the site went out of use. The depth ranges from 0.4m in the South to almost 2m in the North. This active colluvium is responsible for the mixing of artefacts from numerous features, and also transporting pottery from the top the valley down. Thus unless an artefact is from a primary deposit it has limited dating value. The active colluvium also makes it impossible to see features such as gullies until they are exposed in plan at the level of the natural sand, although some features are undoubtedly cut through early colluvial layers.
There is a large amount of bioturbation and deep ploughing on the site. Deep ploughing has severely truncated the archaeology to the south of the site. Because of the sandy matrix the field is also very heavily burrowed by rabbits. Despite these problems, it has been possible to identify a number of phases on the site. These are discussed below.
Iron Age
The earliest phase identified is represented by large quantities of residual late Iron Age pottery (Belgic-type wares) and by one or two datable features. As yet this phase remains enigmatic, it is intended that it will become a focus of SHARP research at some time in the future. After this phase of land use, the site seems to be abandoned for some time.
The Middle Saxon Cemetery
The earliest phase of the Anglo-Saxon site consists of 161 in situ inhumation burials of varying degrees of preservation. These burials are on an east-west orientation and appear without grave goods, strongly suggesting that they were Christian burials. This phase is still under excavation, but currently represents over 170 individuals.
The arm positions of the burials often suggest close shrouding; to the east of the excavation there are also some coffin burials, some with iron coffin brackets/hinges still in situ. It is not clear whether these burials were also shrouded.
The most concentrated area of burial is in the North of the site, near the river and into a fairly flat ground surface. From a 5 x 10m trench area 61 burials have been excavated, with at least four intercutting phases. Although the extent of the cemetery has not yet been defined, this would appear to be the most densely occupied burial area: certainly this area was reused, whereas burials further up the slope rarely intercut. All of these burials are artefactually undatable. However, an initial radiocarbon date from a burial early in the sequence has provided a calibrated date of AD 662-881. It would appear therefore that this phase is Middle Saxon, and significantly earlier than suggested by the 1950's excavations. This date range can probably only be further clarified by a systematic programme of radiocarbon dating.
A Middle Saxon start date for the cemetery, possibly as early as the 8th century, is well supported by the artefactual evidence from the later settlement phases. The majority of the small finds date to the 8th and 9th centuries, providing a useful terminus ante quem for the burials, but with the proviso that there is considerable post-depositional disturbance.
Middle-Saxon settlement
The two phases immediately post-dating the cemetery appear to represent the margins of an area of residential or light industrial occupation. The lighter shaded features form the earlier phase, while the darker ones truncate them, but artifactually they are of very similar character. Jewell also observed two main phases of cut features in the
1950's. What we appear to have in our initial (light gray) phase are elements of severely truncated structures and north-south drainage gullies. The structural evidence has been highly disturbed but clearly falls into two hotspots.
Firstly, at the south of the site there is a relatively flat, possibly terraced area. Here are two east-west gullies, the northern most of which has four post-depressions within it. This is associated with 22 small postholes. The features to the south appear to have been truncated by erosion or deep ploughing. We may be looking here at part of a timber hall structure, or at surviving elements of different rebuilds of the same smaller structure. The 22 postholes seem too small to represent structural timbers, and may represent the remains of an internal division, the gullies themselves being the beam slots. It is interesting to note that the surface within this 'structure' seemed to be devoid of flint, as if it has been cleared, whereas other areas contain dense flint concentrations. This structure, although severely truncated, fits well into the 'timber hall' type and is closely paralleled at other sites in
Norfolk.
The second structural hotspot consists of a shallow pit like feature and a number of scattered postholes. It is possible that this shallow pit represents a structural element like those associated with SFB's, but in this case inside a larger hall structure. It is tempting to see alignments in the postholes here, but although dense this structural area remains enigmatic. It is certainly Middle Saxon however, as the 'pit' contains only Ipswich ware.
The features from these phases are artefactually very similar, they are dated by quantities of both Ipswich ware (produced from the early 8th to mid-9th centuries) and Thetford-type wares (produced from the late 9th to late eleventh centuries). Associated post-cemetery layers have produced artefacts also predominantly of the 8th and 9th centuries. For example 8th-9th century bone comb fragments, 8th-9th century dress pins and an Anglian silver penny of King Eadwald (AD 769-798). We also have 2 styli and fragments of decorated vessel glass from these post cemetery layers, which may be indicative of higher status use.
However, some features in the supposed later (i.e. dark gray) phase contain only the earlier Ipswich ware, which in isolation would lead the excavator to a Middle Saxon date. Yet, because these features are stratigraphically later than gullies which contain both styles of pottery, our dating cannot be any tighter. In all these fills the proportions of the types of pottery is 1:4, in favour of the later Thetford ware (within largely homogenous fills) which possibly suggests a date for some of the fills later in the Saxon period. However, our Ipswich Ware assemblage is unusually large (around 2000 sherds) which would suggest an earlier date. Further excavation to the South of our site may show that much of the Thetford wares are derived from a later settlement nucleus there. Until and unless we demonstrate that the Thetford ware derives from elsewhere, it is not possible to date these phases more closely than 'middle-late Saxon'.
Late Saxon settlement
After the Middle-late Saxon phase there is a small amount of colluvial build-up and the site seems to have once again changed character and function, possibly becoming a marginal area within a Late Saxon set-up. Deposits associated with this phase contain vast quantities of animal bone (mostly butchered), and mixed late Saxon pottery: an archetypal midden. The most extensive feature here consists of layers of cobbling (possibly to consolidate an area that was becoming increasingly waterlogged) and pits containing large amounts of burnt clay which may be oven linings or rake-out. It is possible to see these pits representing an informal industrial process and it is interesting to note that our only samples of bread wheat come from this phase. It appears that the nucleus of activity has shifted in this last settlement phase, to somewhere out of our current excavation. One tantalising glimpse of the scale of the settlement activity is a ditch terminal, which is about 1.5m wide and the same in depth. The ditch has fourteen re-cuts and clearly relates to a much-used well-kept part of the later Saxon settlement.
Saxo-Norman/Medieval drainage
Finally, there are a number of Saxo-Norman or Medieval features. A large North South ditch truncates all other features, but may still in theory be late Saxon (stratigraphically it is very late). The east-west cut and recut at the N extent of the trench represents the boundary of the marshy area that was used to cultivate reeds after the 13th century and truncates burials. The line to the South of it represents a large natural 'cut' that occurred due to marsh/flood action after the Saxon period. This cut may well truncate negative features that might otherwise have given more detail to the 'middle-late' Saxon structural features.
So, in summary we can observe three main phases:
1. Middle Saxon Christian burial,
2. Two main phases of Middle-Late Saxon structural and drainage features,
2. A late Saxon midden, and area possibly relating to an informal industrial process.
|
CLICK ON EACH PHASE PLAN TO
SEE A LARGER VERSION
The Middle-Saxon Cemetery
Middle-Saxon Settlement
Late Saxon Settlement
Saxo-Norman Features
|
