Cottam: An Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian settlement on the Yorkshire Wolds

Richards, Julian D.; Austin, Tony; Bateman, John A.; Bell, Samantha; Birchall, Kristine; Brothwell, Don; Campbell, Elaine; Carrott, John; Dobney, Keith; Garner-Lahire, Justin; Gaunt, G. D.; Hall, Anthony; Issitt, Michael; Jaques, Deborah; Kenward, Harry; Large, Frances; Milles, Annie; Ottaway, Patrick; Pirie, Elizabeth J. E.; Vyner, Blaise; Chaloner, Frances

doi:10.1080/00665983.1999.11078904

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Radiocarbon dates indicate the cranium was already old when it was deposited in the pit (AD 647 to 877 at the 95% confidence level), as the backfill of the pit contained a coin dating to AD 858 to 862. If the supposition that the weathered cranium had been displayed before burial is correct, then it is notable that this display occurred close to a contemporary settlement (Richards 1999, 34–7, 92–4), which is not a characteristic of other known late Anglo‐Saxon execution cemeteries.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…The absence of mandibulae may be the result of displaying the heads of the deceased on stakes, a practice inferred from references to head stakes ( heafod stoccan ), sometimes explicitly linked to the treatment of criminals, in Anglo‐Saxon written sources, including charter boundaries (S430 and S501; Rypins 1924, 161; Skeat 1881, 492; Meaney 1995, 30). Such a practice has tentatively been identified at Cottam (E Yorks), where a weathered cranium found in a pit may have been formerly displayed (Richards 1999, 34–7, 92–4; see also discussion below). At Walkington Wold, given that some crania were found ‘in the filled‐in tunnels of a badger sett’ (Bartlett and Mackey 1973, 25), along with at least six mandible fragments and vertebrae, it is possible that some bones, at least, were moved by badgers.…”

Section: Skeletal Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

Buckberry

Hadley

2007

Oxford J Archaeology

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This paper offers a new perspective on a previously insecurely dated Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Walkington Wold in east Yorkshire (Fig. 1). The results of excavations at the site were published in 1973, but more recent examination of the skeletal material, including the acquisition of radiocarbon dates, casts new light on the cemetery and its significance. Rather than being of late Roman or early post-Roman date, as has been previously suggested, it can now be demonstrated that the cemetery includes a series of burials of mid-and later Anglo-Saxon date. The cemetery consists of a number of decapitated individuals but, contrary to earlier speculation, it is unlikely to represent a massacre, and is more plausibly interpreted as an Anglo-Saxon execution cemetery, used periodically over perhaps as much as a couple of hundred years. the excavationsBetween 1967 and 1969 two Bronze Age barrows at Walkington Wold were excavated by J.E. Bartlett and R.W. Mackey on behalf of the East Riding Archaeological Society (Bartlett and Mackey 1973). During these excavations 12 burials were discovered cut into the southern part of Barrow 1 (Fig. 2), which was located 36 m to the south-west of Barrow 2. The orientation of the burials was apparently random, and the methods of disposal varied. There were eight extended supine burials and four flexed burials, at least two individuals were interred in shallow graves while three were buried together in the same grave (Bartlett and Mackey 1973, 25). Among these burials, there were two complete inhumations, and a further ten inhumations containing individuals without crania, interpreted as decapitations. Eleven disarticulated crania, OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 26(3) 309-329 2007

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Skeletal Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

Buckberry

Hadley

2007

Oxford J Archaeology

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“… 38 Metal-detected evidence has transformed our understanding of Viking Age England (Richards et al 2009), but has hitherto been largely discussed without reference to context (eg Kershaw 2013) or on a smaller scale (eg Richards et al 1999). …”

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confidence: 99%

THE WINTER CAMP OF THE VIKING GREAT ARMY, ad 872–3, TORKSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE

Hadley

Richards

2016

Antiq. J.

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This paper presents the results of a multidisciplinary project that has revealed the location, extent and character of the winter camp of the Viking Great Army at Torksey, Lincolnshire, of AD 872-3. The camp lay within a naturally defended area of higher ground, partially surrounded by marshes and bordered by the River Trent on its western side. It is considerably larger than the Viking camp of 873-4 previously excavated at Repton, Derbyshire, and lacks the earthwork defences identified there. Several thousand individuals overwintered in the camp, including warriors, craftworkers and merchants. An exceptionally large and rich metalwork assemblage was deposited during the Great Army's overwintering, and metal processing and trading was undertaken. There is no evidence for a pre-existing Anglo-Saxon trading site here; the site appears to have been chosen for its strategic location and its access to resources. In the wake of the overwintering, Torksey developed as an important Anglo-Saxon borough with a major wheel-thrown pottery industry and multiple churches and cemeteries. The Torksey evidence allows for a radical reappraisal of the character of Viking winter camps, and the legacy of the Viking Great Army for Anglo-Saxon England.

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“…The heterogeneous nature of the Asby assemblage, presenting an unusual combination of iron and copper alloy objects, is also suggestive. The latter component, embracing strap-ends and other common forms of dress accessory, is strongly reminiscent of a classic settlement assemblage of the eighth-tenth centuries as illustrated by Cottam, North Yorks (Richards 1999). The most economic explanation is that the non-ferrous component of the hoard was derived from occupation associated with the surviving vestiges of an early medieval upland settlement.…”

Section: Hoards As Ritual Deposits In Late Anglo-saxon Englandmentioning

confidence: 96%

The Symbolic Lives of Late Anglo-Saxon Settlements: A Cellared Structure and Iron Hoard from Bishopstone, East Sussex

Thomas

Ottaway²

2008

Archaeological Journal

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This paper examines the character and significance of a cellared structure discovered during recent excava tions on the site of a later Anglo-Saxon settlement at Bishopstone, East Sussex. The structure in question formed a focal element within an estate centre complex administered by the Bishops of Selsey from c. AD 800, otherwise surviving in the celebrated pre-Conquest fabric of St Andrew's parish church. The excavated footprint of this cellared structure is examined in detail and conjectural reconstructions are advanced on the basis of comparative evidence garnered from historical and archaeological sources. The collective weight of evidence points towards a tower, pos sibly free-standing, with integrated storage/cellarage accommodated within a substantial, 2 mdeep subterranean chamber. This could represent a timber counterpart to excavated and extant masonry towers with thegnly/episcopal associations. The afterlife of this structure is also considered in detail on the grounds that it provides one of the most compelling cases yet identified of an act of ritual closure on a Late Anglo-Saxon settlement. Alongside being dismantled and infil led in a single, short-lived episode, the abandonment of the tower was marked by the careful and deliberate placement of a closure deposit in the form of a smith's hoard containing iron tools, agri cultural equipment and lock furniture. One of the few such caches to be excavated under controlled scientific conditions, it is argued that the contents were deliberately selected to make a symbolic statement, perhaps evoking the functions of a well-run estate centre.

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Cottam: An Anglian and Anglo-Scandinavian settlement on the Yorkshire Wolds

Cited by 15 publications

References 21 publications

An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

An Anglo‐saxon Execution Cemetery at Walkington Wold, Yorkshire

THE WINTER CAMP OF THE VIKING GREAT ARMY, ad 872–3, TORKSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE

The Symbolic Lives of Late Anglo-Saxon Settlements: A Cellared Structure and Iron Hoard from Bishopstone, East Sussex

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