Farmers, Monks and Aristocrats: The Environmental Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Flixborough

346 Pages·2007·4.566 MB·English

by  Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques, James Barrett, Cluny Johnstone

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FARMERS, MONKS ARISTOCRATS
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The Environmental Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Flixborough R FARMERS, MONKS
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Between 1989 and 1991, excavations adjacent to the abandoned medieval settlement of North Conesby, in
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the parish of Flixborough, North Lincolnshire, unearthed remains of an Anglo-Saxon settlement associated AND
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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 M
kilometres south of the Humber estuary. Analysis has demonstrated that the excavated part of the settlement O
The Environmental Archaeology of
was occupied, or used for settlement-related activity, throughout what have been termed the ‘Mid’ and
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‘Late’ Anglo-Saxon periods. In an unprecedented occupation sequence from an Anglo-Saxon rural settlement,
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six main periods of occupation have been identified, with additional sub-phases, dating from the seventh to
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the early eleventh centuries; with a further period of activity, between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries
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AD.
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The publication of the remains of the Anglo-Saxon settlement is achieved in four volumes, and will be a D
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supported by an extensive archive on the Archaeological Data Service (ADS) for the United Kingdom. The r o
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excavation, post-excavation analysis and publication phases of the project have been funded principally by t
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English Heritage, and the project has been run through the Humberside Archaeology Unit and its successor, e
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the Humber Archaeology Partnership. n y
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Volume 3 details the environmental archaeological record from Flixborough which is, without doubt, one D Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques,
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of the most important datasets of the early medieval period. It reveals detailed evidence for the local and e
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regional environment, many aspects of the agricultural economy, changes in resource exploitation strategies u
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and the extent of possible trade and exchange networks. n r James Barrett and Cluny Johnstone
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Humber Archaeology Partnership
EXCAVATIONS AT FLIXBOROUGH VOLUME 3
Oxbow Books

EXCAVATIONS AT FLIXBOROUGH VOL. 3
Farmers, Monks and Aristocrats:
the Environmental Archaeology of
Anglo-Saxon Flixborough
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
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EXCAVATIONS AT FLIXBOROUGH VOL. 3
Farmers, Monks and Aristocrats:
the Environmental Archaeology of
Anglo-Saxon Flixborough
by
Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques, James Barrett
and Cluny Johnstone
with contributions by
Christopher Loveluck, Allan Hall, John Carrott,
Jerry Herman, David Slater, Courtney Nichols,
Susan Haynes, Amanda Bretman, Beverley La Ferla,
Gundula Muldner and Vaughan Grimes
OXBOW BOOKS
Published by
Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK
© Oxbow Books, Humber Archaeology Partnership and the authors 2007
ISBN 978-1-84217-290-2
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/Farmers. Monks and Aristocrats.pdf
Front cover: Agricultural scenes taken from a ninth-century illuminated manuscript
(Historiche, chronologische astronomische Schriften, Salzburg vor 821.
Copyright Austrian National Library, picture archive, Vienne Cod. 387, fol. 9v)
Back cover: Section of central ditch showing dark soil ash fill with concentrations of
bone (courtesy of Terry O’Connor)
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This book is dedicated to those whom Anton Ervynck has fondly called…
“…. The Former Inhabitants of Flixborough…”!
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Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................................................xiii
List of Tables...................................................................................................................................................................xvi
List of Plates................................................................................................................................................................. xviii
Appendices – List of Tables............................................................................................................................................xix
List of Contributors to the Flixborough Volumes..........................................................................................................xx
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................................... xxii
Zusammenfassung..........................................................................................................................................................xxiv
Résumé ..........................................................................................................................................................................xxvi
Preface and Acknowledgements by Keith Dobney...................................................................................................xxviii
1 INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
by Keith Dobney and Christopher Loveluck
1.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Research objectives.....................................................................................................................................................1
Rural settlements............................................................................................................................................................................3
The emporia and urban development............................................................................................................................................3
2 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL BACKGROUND
by Christopher Loveluck
2.1 Topographical setting and circumstances of discovery............................................................................................5
2.2 The Anglo-Saxon occupation sequence ....................................................................................................................6
3 CHRONOLOGY, RESIDUALITY, TAPHONOMY AND PRESERVATION
by Christopher Loveluck, Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques, James Barrett, Cluny Johnstone, John Carrott,
Allan Hall, Amanda Bretman and Susan Haynes
3.1 Introduction by Keith Dobney and Christopher Loveluck.....................................................................................19
3.2 Parameters of interpretation: a chronological framework for analysing the bioarchaeological remains
by Christopher Loveluck and Keith Dobney ..........................................................................................................19
3.3 Aspects of site formation processes and residuality
by Christopher Loveluck and Keith Dobney ..........................................................................................................20
What was recorded?.....................................................................................................................................................................20
Phase 2–3a (late 7th to mid 8th century)...................................................................................................................................20
Phase 3b (mid 8th to early 9th century).....................................................................................................................................22
Phase 4–5b (9th century).............................................................................................................................................................23
Phase 6 (10th century).................................................................................................................................................................27
Phase 6iii (late 10th–early 11th century)...................................................................................................................................28
Summary .......................................................................................................................................................................................29
viii Contents
3.4 Aspects of taphonomy and preservation by James Barrett, Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques,
John Carrott, Allan Hall, Amanda Bretman and Susan Haynes ..........................................................................29
Taphonomic pathways and the wet-sieved fish bone assemblage............................................................................................29
Histological studies of geese bones from Flixborough: an attempt to predict aDNA preservation .......................................31
Screening methods for DNA........................................................................................................................................................35
DNA survival................................................................................................................................................................................35
Preservation of the archaeobotanical remains............................................................................................................................35
Recent taphonomic pathways of the hand-collected molluscan assemblage...........................................................................35
4 THE NATURE OF THE BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSEMBLAGES
by Deborah Jaques, Keith Dobney, James Barrett, Cluny Johnstone, John Carrott and Allan Hall
4.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................................................36
4.2 Recovery....................................................................................................................................................................36
4.3 Vertebrates ................................................................................................................................................................36
4.4 Molluscs ....................................................................................................................................................................36
4.5 Plant remains............................................................................................................................................................40
4.6 The chronological framework (see also Chapter 3)...............................................................................................42
4.7 The hand-collected and dry-sieved assemblages....................................................................................................42
Phase 1 – mid-late 7th century....................................................................................................................................................42
Phase 2–3a – late 7th–mid 8th century......................................................................................................................................47
Phase 3b – mid 8th–early 9th century........................................................................................................................................48
Phase 4–5b – 9th century .............................................................................................................................................................49
Phase 6 – 10th century.................................................................................................................................................................50
Phase 6iii – late 10th–early 11th................................................................................................................................................52
4.8 The wet-sieved assemblages.....................................................................................................................................52
The fish bone assemblage............................................................................................................................................................52
Small mammal and amphibian remains .....................................................................................................................................53
5 LANDSCAPE AND ENVIRONMENT
by David Slater, Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques, James Barrett, Cluny Johnstone, John Carrott
and Allan Hall
5.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................................................59
5.2 Palaeohabitats of the Lower Trent: a modern ecological perspective...................................................................59
Wetlands around the Lower Trent..............................................................................................................................................59
Local woodland.............................................................................................................................................................................62
Periglacial sands, heathland and the Wolds...............................................................................................................................63
5.3 Evidence from the bioarchaeological remains........................................................................................................63
Birds as palaeoecological indicators...........................................................................................................................................64
Mammals as palaeoecological indicators ...................................................................................................................................67
Wild mammals .......................................................................................................................................................................67
Domestic mammals................................................................................................................................................................68
Fish as indicators of pollution.....................................................................................................................................................68
Plants as palaeoecological indicators..........................................................................................................................................68
Evidence for site environment and living conditions................................................................................................................68
5.4 Conclusions...............................................................................................................................................................69
6 PATTERNS OF DISPOSAL AND PROCESSING
by Keith Dobney, Deborah Jaques, James Barrett, Cluny Johnstone, John Carrott and Allan Hall
6.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................................................................70
6.2 The disposal of vertebrate remains..........................................................................................................................70
Relative bone frequency by context type....................................................................................................................................72
Comparison of the frequency of birds and mammals between context types..........................................................................72